To be more specific, I'm talking about a omnipotent, omniscient, creator-of-all. I know you're all going to have your variation on what you think god is, but let's at least try to keep it simple at first. We can move on to the more complicated stuff later if it's necessary.

EDIT: At the request of HomerJay, I want to clarify that I did not by any means try to imply that I was talking about a christian god specifically. That's why I specified an omniscient, omnipotent, creator-of-all. This applies to all religions and states of thought which have their own version of an OOCOA.

And if you've got some xtra time on your hands (you know you do, or you wouldn't be here in the 1st place ) I'm also interested to hear whether you accept your beliefs in blind faith or whether you have come to your decision through logical deduction or otherwise.

 

Just on the basis that everything we know had to come from somewhere, and i'm thinking, there is a something that must've created it, or started a cycle somewhere. So yeah, there is a creation force out there... There is also the force of nature.

-Gagan

 

I believe in dog.

 

I believe that God is a woman.... only a woman can make my life this miserable.

 

Yes I do believe in GOD!

 

Interesting... I made it 50/50.

The problem with this question is half the people think there is no god. Half the people think is a God. And half of the people who think there is a God constantly confuse their own likes and dislikes and personality with God's.

jason

 

Thus answering the argument of "Just on the basis that everything we know had to come from somewhere, and i'm thinking, there is a something that must've created it, or started a cycle somewhere."

Anyone else?

 

Since you put it as "God", I am assuming you are referring to the Christian God. Please rephrase your question if your are just asking whether one believes in an entity that created the known universe as we know and understand it, as Chris was referring to. Also, I think the bigger question of why do you believe. Just blind faith or did "you" come to a logical conclusion about whether a God, Allah, Jesus, etc. existed. I find most people who believe in a god do so by blind faith.

I personally can not willingly believe in a god as most religions have described him/her/it or if at all. Right now I lean towards not.

 

Since the benefits of believing in God (whether there is or is not) far outweigh the benefits of not believing (whether there is or not), there is only one logical choice...of course since when did logic take precedence in human behavior? I choose to believe in God but DO NOT believe in ANY of the man made churches. They may have started out good but have been sooooo corrupted over the years that God must be quite sad...and in closing, since God is All, that would include these carbon based lifeforms we travel in, so, We are God

 

Also the conventions people use to describe a God seem to be very weak. You cannot define something like this in terms of human logic... it transcends easy description, sound bites and catch phrases.

Like an pigmy dung beetletrying to explain quantum physics.

 

The funny thing about science is, its not static. You quoted some laws. Before the invention of these laws (and I say "invention" and not "discovery" because) humanity did not understand the universe well enough to compile them. Now, we know enough. Well, it keeps happening that we learn more about the universe... and our laws start changing. If they change, and hence were previously wrong, we have actually invented something, not discovered a Truth.

Did you know there is a quickly growing push to recognize the theory that light doesn't travel at one, constant speed. It is a very, very valid study that is going on and letting light be variable will solve many of the issues cosmologists have trouble with regarding the beginnings of the Universe... while not creating many ripples elsewhere. This is one of the foundations of large and small scale physics. And this is what some people put their faith in? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying its good and valid stuff and is certainly worth persuing (I am a scientist myself... heck I work for a nat'l laboratory). But it seems as unsolid from the outside looking in as it would to consider God.

My point is, the laws within which you find a hard time including a God who can break them perhaps is not breaking them... he's only breaking our understanding

Call this convenient if you like, but the truth is, humanity does not know everything.

And so, faith is universal for everyone. Its a matter of what we have faith in. It is just undeniable that science is as flowing and changing as God is intangible to science. This problem of trying to investigate God with a scientific probe is not a theological one but a scientific one. In (judeo-christian) theology/christology no where does God claim to provide a working description of the Universe. Genesis is a model of life more than it is a model of creation process. It doesn't even contain a description that eludes to a scientific method. So then how can humanity compare the two?

My point here is that Science and Theology are pretty much mutually exclusive. They only intersect when finger-rapped scientists or rabid christians feel the need to justify themselves by way of discrediting everyone else.

jason

 

You lost me on that one. Care to elaborate?

 

I really do not think we are incapable of that, and that the gap between human frailty and understanding intended purpose is so wide.

For the judeo-christian traditions, God is very, very clear about his nature in ways that make a lot of sense to us... ooops... there's problem here. We live in a world that is pretty much against God. What we find in the judeo-christian scriptures (and less corrupt traditions) is that what God describes as what he wants for us is not what we want. I'm not talking about abortions and homosexuality and the right to spank your children. I'm talking about the freedom to submit to one another, to love one another, to not seek wealth but each others' well-being. Now, don't delude yourselves. Those latter ideas are not what this world strives for. I don't care what you say. Look around. There is no or hardly any evidence that those are things which this world is willing to lay down its desires and passions for.

So if God isnt about hating abortions and homosexuals, then what is he about?

There's this guy called Hosea who lived about 800 BCE. God told him to marry a *****. God said it was an example of his relationship with Israel. This ***** had children who were of questionable parentage while married to Hosea. She neglected her family. She sold herself. In then end Hosea brings this back to God and Israel and says that all the while Israel was doing things which it thought was feeding and providing for itself. When it was really coming from God. Hosea was married to her for most of his life. God spent about 1500 years (Abraham to the Babylon exile) being continually rejected by Israel for whom he cared.

Whether you believe this story or not, the point is, this is the image of God that the judeo-christian scripture portrays. If its hard to understand, it is so because we have almost no other reference for such deep longing andlong lasting committment to something by anything on earth throughout history. Now, don't get me wrong, but such an image of patience and longing and love and unfailing committment is something we can at least understand enough we'd want such a thing for ourselves, yes?

I'm not saying this is proof for you that there is a God. I'm saying that's the best description (for the judeo-christian tradition) that you can get... and it ain't so lofty that we can't get it.

jason