As simple as possible to summarize the best way you can, first, please. Feel free to expand after, or just say whatever you want lol. Honest question.
No.
Fistly, there’s no evidence of superhumanity in the sense of the Greco-Roman pantheon, Pagan religions or other similar pantheons.
Secondly, there are way too many arguments against a deity of the Judeo-Christo-Islamic kind.
Thirdly, there is no proof of the singularity as appears in Buddhism (unfortunately I’m not that knowledgeable in “eastern” religions to refute this one in more detail, but this probably covers another entire dimension of religions, not just Buddhism).
Others surely fail in a similar way.
As one dishonourable man said, “Facts don’t care about your feelings”.
And I believe only in cold, hard facts.
And one of the first ones is that you can’t prove a negative the same way you can a positive.
So since the criteria arent’t the same, just one “step back” takes care of most “pro-deity/suoernaturality” arguments - they’re mere non-sequiturs.
Earthseed
I believe in God because I don’t believe knowledge is possible without a transcendent being. (e.g. the impossibility of the contrary) Otherwise you are dealing with infinite regress or axiomatic circularity. Materialism breaks down with origin theories. Metaphysics aren’t substantial yet exist. Math and logic aren’t descriptors of the world but integral to how the world is structured. The Orthodox view is that these principles are a reflection of the divine mind.
Sort of, but it’s more a comforting theory rather then a true belief. I came up with it when I was younger, doing a lot of psychedelics, and meditating often on the nature of existence and reality.
My theory is that God is everything. The earth, the stars, our fellow beings. All of reality makes up a complex web that I loosely refer to as a “consciousness” for lack of a better word. The nature of this “consciousness” is incomprehensible to us. It does not activly intervene in our daily lives, and operates on a scale beyond our comprehension. Mostly, it simply is. It is the oblivion from which our consciousness was once plucked, and it is where we will one day return.
In essence, each of us is a tiny fragment of reality experiencing itself. The meaning of life is to experience it. All of it. Joy, pleasure, and suffering. It is all a part of the whole of existence. When we die and return to the infinite our individuality is lost, but maybe God learns something about itself.
Consciousness exists. This implies that either consciousness is some emergent property of sufficiently complex interconnected systems, or it’s some universal force that complex interconnected systems “channel”.
If it’s emergent, it seems less presumptuous to assume that the most complex interconnected system of all, the universe itself, would develop consciousness. That universal consciousness might as well be called “God”. If it’s a universal force, it might as well be called “God”. Anyway you slice it, a universal consciousness seems inevitable from a sober metaphysical analysis.
Lots of people have ascribed lots of culturally specific attributes to the universal consciousness which are obviously quite silly. The core statement that “I am that ‘I am’” is really the only meaningful attribute we can identify.
If it’s emergent, it seems less presumptuous to assume that the most complex interconnected system of all, the universe itself, wouldn’t develop consciousness.
I was, no shit, just thinking about this on my break about an hour ago. God or whatever you wanna call them. If there was a way to develop more consciousness by adding more information to the universe. If consciousness emerges to solve complex problems then maybe if we populate/terraform planets then we will have a deeper understanding.
Upvoting the actual answers here, as some who were not the target audience and haven’t read the question have answered.
Agree.
OP wants to hear opinions from people agreeing with statement X, not those who disagree.
I disagree with the notion of the universe being a probability game, but that’s not asked.
I saw something fitting a common description for God (in meditation). Yes, a total mystic vision.
(The creator of reality. A star (that also looks like a jewel) that emits poetry energy. And then I react to that energy by dreaming this dream that I call reality. Like contriving lyrics for an instrumental song.)
No intelligence or personhood as far as I can tell. Just a vast brainless mystico-cosmological gusher of energy.
In some sort of greater being yes, in any kind of church or following no.
I find I have my own belief in some unknown cosmic entitys, something along the lines of energy is always in a state of flow, life and death, rocks to dust, consciousness to the sprawling reaches of the universe a bit of new age spirituality stuff,
Makes me feel more assured and will reduce my suffering until I die. After my death, regardless of if I am right or wrong, the net positive of having had the soothing idea of a larger meaning can’t and won’t be retroactively undone. So why the hell not?
Why not? Because truth matters. Look at the current united states to see what lies cause.
Why do you think truth matters so much? Don’t disagree, but why is it humans will forego a more beneficial situation if it’s proven to be “untrue” or “not real” etc?
It provides hope and comfort. Christianity and Romanian culture are deeply intertwined, and I’m a fan of our traditions.
TLDR; I’m vehemently agnostic.
I believe that if there is a “God” entity, that it is incomprehensible and not worth attempting to understand.
I also don’t believe in an anthropocentric “God”, in that “God” doesn’t inherently value nor not value humans as somehow special nor damned. I also don’t believe “God” cares nor doesn’t care about humans or existence.
I also don’t believe in inherent meaning, nor that there is some form of divine justice. Those are human lenses through which we interpret the world, and are unlikely to apply (at least in the same way as a human) to the supposed viewpoint of an eternal omniscient omnipotent entity that created the universe and will supposedly one day close the door on time and its own existence.
In short, I’m one bleak motherfucker and it doesn’t matter if “God” exists or not. Either way, I don’t get to survive death. What is eternal about me is inherently not a part of me. It is mortality, true mortality, mortality of the consciousness and the ego and the individual that defines the individual. When that dies, "God” or not, either way there is no individual to somehow surpass death.
Leave me be, I’m agnostic. Bother me with religious nonsense and see the atheist come out and ruin your day.
Cos I’ve done drugs, and experienced heightened states of love, being, appreciation for nature and humanity, states that feel magical yet real, even if only temporarily.
The very fact those states of mind are achievable at all gives me a certain emotional grounding and inner certainty that reality has purpose, or at least meaning. As opposed to just being a happy accident of atoms and energy arranging themselves in this miraculous way to create life. That’s just a logical explanation of how, not why.
We’re almost all driven to look for meaning in life. Even if it’s just to “find your own purpose”, that journey presupposes you have one to begin with.
I guess I feel a belief in god without having much idea of what god is, or even what they want. But I don’t believe at all that logic, science, reason etc. are things you have to choose instead of religious belief. They’re things you have as well. You can’t square the two - the Rubik’s cube of logic doesn’t twist that way.
OK, our reality might have a purpose or meaning given by a god - but then what about that god’s purpose/meaning? Was it given by yet another one higher up? You can keep going up layers like this and finding meaning on each one, but eventually there has to be a final one, a reality that was not designed by anyone. But why does it exist?
Some people may say that there’s no proof that we actually exist. And maybe we don’t, but the fact that we can think and experience things means that even if our reality is somehow fake, there has to be one that isn’t. Because if nothing existed, there would be nothing at all. Not a void, just nothing, not even the possibility of existence. So something, at some level, must exist. But why?
“Because God created us” is not good enough for me, because it doesn’t answer anything. If we exist because a god created us, that still means that a god existed before us. Why does this god exists then?
We’ll never find out. Any answer we find will only open things up for new questions. And just like a child that is just starting to experience things, we’ll never run out of questions.
I dont know. I am conflicted about it. If god exists why would he create all the suffering and pain? If he doesnt, all the world is just a probability game.
How is it possible to answer the question until you define what “God” you’re referring to? Christian God?
In my case yes 😁
The spirit of the question is to provide an answer if you believe in any god. Could be Allah, Yahweh, Zeus, Loki, etc.
Thanks, it wasn’t clear, I thought it was more meta than that.
What does it matter ?
I think it matters because God can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Are we talking about Plotinus’ “το Ἕν” or are we talking about Allah? This is the problem with these kinds of questions. It’s difficult to discuss the nature of what God even could be, before we get on to whether or not you “believe” in it. As other posters have pointed out, even the language of “belief” is generally inadequate as a starting place.
You’re trying to answer a question that wasn’t even asked.
When you think about it belief is a childs word. Adults either know or dont know. When an adult uses the word it is to signal ambiguity. “Hey man is there still that arbys on 5th street?”…" I BELIEVE so, but I havent been to town for a while"
This is the only appropriate adult usage of the word. People who say they believe in god, santa, tooth fairy, bigfoot, chthulu, are showing you they never mentally evolved beyond childhood.
“adults either know or don’t know” then you immediately acknowledge there is room for ambiguity. Revealing that you worked backwards from the premise of “belief in God is childish”.
Why else would your example of a reasonable “adult” usage of believe be valid but not
“Hey man is there a god” “I believe so but I haven’t seen him personally”
In both examples there is a being/place beyond our current reach which we believe to be there, for whatever reasons, but are unable to confirm at the moment.
Ironically in your rush to call others childish you posted the most childish response here by assuming your understanding is the only valid one.
Hurt dog barks loudest
Do you believe that to be true?
