Do you Believe in God?

[jq]

Okay, this doesn't have to be a thread speaking about your religious convictions. This can be whatever you want it to be. I just want to know. What is your take on God? Do you think there is one? Do you think it is a great ball of energy, or an actual entity with a personality like a man, or what? I am very curious to know what people believe.

I myself don't really know what I believe at this point. I think Jesus was divine. Having said that, I don't buy into any of the old testament of the Bible. None of it. It has been continually discredited (it seems,) by historians and archaelogists. I wanted to believe in the ark for example, but to my great disapointment, watched an hour show presentation which basically said, in no way, shape, or form, scientifially, historically, etc, is there any chance this happened. And then they really crushed it for me when they showed that there was a summarian story about a flood which came about 1,000 years before the story of the ark. It was a bummer, but I got over it.

So anyway, having said all I have, I don't believe God is at all how he has been portrayed in the old testament, but I think Jesus was one heck of a being. I feel, based on the things he said, and his vastly liberal and progressive elements, to potentially actually be divine.

But I also believe that evolution is very possible, (maybe even perpetuated by a force, like God,) I 100% believe in the possibility of aliens, and I think that there are probably thousands of other planets like earth, with creatures on them, throughout the galaxies, which may or may not be all creations of one God or "entity,".

So yeah, I am sure everything I said could be picked apart pretty easily. But, that isn't what I am hoping for with this thread. I am hoping we can stand back, and not judge our ideas, but rather, just voice our potential beliefs openly without fear of this being turned into something ugly.

[Kizzume]

The simplest way to explain my belief is that God is a giant living organism that we are simply a sub-sub-sub-microscopic part of. Things seem happen for a reason because of it. Prayer can work because of it. Things are connected because of it. We're all part of the same thing.

[jq]

The thing that gets me the most, is thinking about time in a linear form. Like, how did it all start out? And I am not talking about the earth. I am talking about God. ANd the Universe. According to the Bible, it God has always existed. But I can't seem to wrap my head around how something could always exist. And how something like planets and rocks could be created from nothing.....

[Kizzume]

I had an out-of-body experience when I was 12 where I almost died. I saw infinity. It forever changed my life. When you see this existence as we know it as a tangible thing you can just look at from afar, it definitely changes your perspective on things. I will never forget just being able to look at anyone's life's perspective as easily as flipping through channels on a television. I came back to THIS life because I just wanted to see it to the end.

Infinity is a hard concept to grasp. I think you have to experience it to understand it.

[Hackfest]

jq, what you mention is, in my belief, an example of how finite we really are. The Bible says that God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and that is one example of that. Time as we understand it, again, according to my belief system, was created for us. God has no need for time. When we transcend this fleshly state, time will no longer exist for us as well. You will never, so long as you are alive, understand the things you've mentioned. None of us will.

[debateman]

Yes, I believe in God. My specific belief system is kinda lengthy so I'll only get into those if asked.

[jq]

Oh come on, what kind of meager response is that? I've seen some of your debates concerning religion before on OTL, but there was a lot still unclear to me. Wanna get a little more specific?

[debateman]

Okay Okay... lol

I grew up in a strict Southern Baptist home. Today, I consider myself to be a Quaker. Here's the thought process.

1) I believe in a single God. God is all powerful and all encompassing. Greater than anything I could ever imagine so trying to fathom the depths of God is a daunting concept.

2) I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and thus the incarnate of God on Earth.

3) I DO NOT believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God. I believe that it is divinely inspired but not divinely executed. Because humans are fallible and absolute power corrupts absolutely, I think that the Bible has been mistranslated and manipulated over the years into a document that is not exactly what God intended. The Bible is a 'should' do list in my opinion, not a 'must' do. It's just a guide to better living, not salvation.

4) I believe in universal salvation. Most people HATE this, but it's just how I feel. I think that God communicates to different cultures in manners that they find culturally relevant. I think this led to the development of other 'religions'. I base this idea all on my theory that a personal relationship with God is key to salvation and that personal relationship is where one gains the most understanding of God. Quakers at times refer to this as the Inner Light. As I believe in universal salvation, I don't believe in Hell, and thus don't believe in Satan. I think that the real hell is the hell we create for ourselves here on Earth.

5) The best way, in my opinion to describe God, is as Perfect Love. This is why humans crave love. They crave God and through service and 'good living', he allows you the gift of both Earthly and Heavenly love.

That's just me.

[Kizzume]

What a beautiful description.

It's hard for me to be eloquent about my beliefs. I always feel like I sound like a commercial or something when I try....

[Kizzume]

I was raised Christian, several different denominations, as we tried several churches. Non-denominational, Lutheran, Baptist, and "Christian". I had the fear of God instilled into me from an early age, and it certainly was taught to me in that sort of manner--to FEAR God. I'm biased because of that and memories of being molested by a pastor. It has taken people who actually follow the words and wisdom of Jesus for me to realize that the way I was raised does not have to reflect in the people who follow all Bible-based beliefs.

I was never able to fully call myself an Atheist--I'll say it if there's only a multiple choice selection, but I certainly don't believe that there's no connection between things. I think there are connections to everything in existence on levels beyond any of our possible comprehension/s. (that wasn't grammatically correct, but I can't be bothered to fix it right now)

I like to call this connection between everything (because I think it is a giant living thing we are a part of) God, but I reserve using it because of the connotations behind using it. It's sad that things are that way to where someone can't say God without people automatically making an assumption that it means some sort of person looking down on us judging everything were doing, but it's so true that people will make that assumption immediately. I don't want to have to make an explanation of my beliefs every time I want to mention something related to spirituality, so I usually keep it quiet and say that I'm "almost atheist", and then in my past I used to end up saying something that ended up bashing Christianity--I hope I'm getting better at that. I think I've gotten better at it, but maybe not.

After I saw some very strange things out of trying to get involved in paganism with my ex, I learned that just about any religion can be taken too far, and any of them can be completely irrational. I really couldn't stand the whole "praise goddess" thing. "oh wonderful goddess" I just couldn't really handle it--at all. But I pretended for quite a while--almost two years I pretended.

I definitely believe in something--it's just difficult to explain in a single sentence.

[Coyote]

debateman said:

3) I DO NOT believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God. I believe that it is divinely inspired but not divinely executed. Because humans are fallible and absolute power corrupts absolutely, I think that the Bible has been mistranslated and manipulated over the years into a document that is not exactly what God intended. The Bible is a 'should' do list in my opinion, not a 'must' do. It's just a guide to better living, not salvation.

Very well put.



I believe in a lot of things. Sometimes I call it God, sometimes I call it something or someone else. Sometimes I don't believe in it at all.


To me, if there is a personified God, He's probably quite busy running the Universe and all, and is aware of us like we're aware of our toenails. We wouldn't do anything to hurt our toenails, but we don't especially worry about them most times, either. They go on doing what toenails are designed to do and the Universe proceeds along smoothly.

On the other hand, if God does exist and is more or less omnipresent, there's an awful lot of God to go around. Why wouldn't he at times take the form of a woman, and sometimes the form of a man, and sometimes the form of an animal? Why couldn't God have multiple personalities, of sorts? There's absolutely no reason why God couldn't be several animals or people all at once and all over, with different bits of His attention and awareness waxing and waning and collecting in places to take the form of some weird event or creature. if that makes sense. So in my Universe, sometimes God is the God of the Bible who resides in Heaven (though not often, and sometimes I imagine him that way just to amuse myself), sometimes God is more like Alannis Morissette or...er...Cate Blanchett in LOTR, or maybe sometimes God is that hawk I saw in my backyard today. I dunno, it all jumbles together sometimes and I'm never quite sure what, or if, S/He is.

Plus I've had some rather odd experiences. Nothing like near death or anything like that, but. Experiences. For what they're worth.

I think the whole monotheistic idea was originally invented to halt the practice of human sacrifice. If there's only one God, and He is Good, there is no reason to sacrifice people to appease Him. Or Her. Whatever. Anyway, a long time ago some wise women or men decided that sacrifices were stupid, so they invented monotheism.


My brain is skeptical, but my heart and gut say there's more to our existence and reality than we can perceive.


So that was just a really long and rambling way to say that I'm a superstitious agnostic.


Oh yeah, the hawk. I have a weiner dog and a hawk tried to eat him today. It came swooping down out of the trees at him, but I ran toward it on an intercept course and it flew away. It was weird. Never seen a hawk do that before. I was standing sort of close. It must have been really hungry. God wanted to eat my dog but I wouldn't let Him.

[Kizzume]

Great post.

"My brain is skeptical, but my heart and gut say there's more to our existence and reality than we can perceive. "

That was very well said.

[Kizzume]

There have been 2 1/2 points in my life where a powerful spiritual phenomenon has changed my life dramatically. Today was one of those days.

I have no idea how to describe fully what it was like, but what I can say is—to word it as simply as possible—it was as if God put his hand on my shoulder and without saying a word told me exactly what I need to do with my life. I’ve known what I need to do—but this---this—I just don’t know how to describe it, and it happened during the forming of this song. I could barely stand--tears streaming down my face--all I could think was, "what do you expect me to do?"

This song for me is absolutely that of spiritual awakening, cleansing, and a confirmation of who I am. I knew this was coming. I knew it—I’ve felt it since a week before my grandmother died—I’ve known. I thought it would hit in a dream, I thought it would come to me in a different manner, but things have proven again that I can’t guess that kind of thing—all I can guess is that it’s going to happen at some point.

This happened to me this morning. I didn’t talk about this earlier because it was just so heavy for me.

www.infraxes.com/kizzume/enlightenment.mp3

[jq]

Wow. Just started it, but so far, very haunting! (And I like haunting.) ANyway, when you say you feel like God has given you a calling-- well, what is that calling? Music?

[jq]

Maybe the best song I have heard from you yet. Sounds very professional. (I can definitely imagine hearing this in a movie!) Very cool.