Do you believe in "GOD" ,and the "Great" beyond ?

And that was still no proof, but it was a more than valid reason to why you shouldn't follow the Christian God.

Isn't that the "God" we're talking about? Either way, all the other gods can probably be disproven using the same method.

Not disproved, it is still just your personal opinion on why people shouldn't follow God, or any higher being. It is not proof. There is no right or wrong in a discussion about this, since neither side will never be able to lay forth any kind of proof to support them. Ergo; This discussion is pointless. [size=5]Yet I keep coming back to it. D:[/h]

If what "God" does doesn't make sense, how is he benevolent? He isn't omnipotent either, so that makes him just as man as any of us. He isn't "God". There is no "God". So at the very least, I've disproven the "God" of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I don't just think Christianity, Judaism, or Islam isn't worth following, their whole faith is incorrect.

Sense and logic has nothing to do with benevolence. But I'll play ball somehow. How do we describe benevolence? Especially when most religion claims that if you break the commands of God, god will punish you somehow. No one CAN live by the codes of all gods at the same time. And since we can't prove or disproof any gods existence we're screwed in this entire area. Especially when talking about the God of abrahamitic religions, since he is know to be "vengeful" when you disobey him.

And now, omnipotence, we have no way to know this either. If we go with Epicurus Statment as a starting point with "Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent." This is true, but "Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. is not true, as God is not benevolent against those that defy him, and since it is impossible to please God he has no need to be benevolent.

Personally I'd say that the interesting paradox that C.S Lewis once put forth is a better argument for the impossibility of omnipotence: "Can God create a stone so heavy he can't lift it?"

Or the much better, "Can god create a dick so big his ass couldn't take it?"

If you ask me, benevolence and jealousy are mutually exclusive. Or perhaps to rephrase that, you cannot be purely benevolent while acting upon your jealous desires. Thus the god, as depicted by traditional religions, who punishes you for lack of faith becomes a tyrant. I agree that a benevolent god can still punish you and remain benevolent, but not in the name of jealousy.

Now I obviously don't believe in god (if you have been reading this thread), but for the sake of argument lets say that we know with 100% certainty that god exists. We have two possibilities:

God is a jealous god:
Since this god acts on selfish desires, it becomes hard to trust anything we are told about him in whatever religious book. Anything written about him, or anything anyone claims to know about him becomes unreliable. Following the tenants in whatever holy book of your choice would be similar to taking advice from someone who bitterly hates you and wants to watch you crawl around on your knees. So now we have to wonder if there is any point to worship such an entity. Since he no longer has our trust, promised rewards of heaven and threats of eternal damnation are also completely hollow. For all we know neither ever existed in the first place.

God is a benevolent god:
This god genuinely cares about all of his people. He is not concerned with how many people pray to him or have faith in his existence, he is much more concerned that everyone is playing nice and doing their best to live a moral life. Similar to our first scenario, there is still not much reason to worship this entity, he does not particularly desire your worship, because to be purely good is to be beyond such base desires. So again, there is no reason to follow any particular religion.

So what is left? Only that which is tangible, the world we already live in with the things that we can see for our selves. In either case, it is still best to lead a moral life, because honestly any other life is one where you gamble your reputation, respect, and wellbeing against the laws of society. The only true threat of punishment and the only true promises of reward that we can trust are the ones set in place by our own society.

I'm Buddhist but I still believe in god somewhat. That's not a problem in Buddhism because to them fallowing the Darma most impotent. but all said and done I believe are actions will be judged by a high thing.

I Believe in a god and an afterlife but I'm glad to say It's not the evil vindictive son of bitch that some worship, My god is not the christian, hindu, jewish or any of those he Is just my god.

I dont believe in a god (meaning a being so omnipotent, forgiving, kind, father figure, created everything, etc etc).

And yea, when we die i believe we become fertilizers to fertilize the soil for plant to grow on ;o we reset back to level 0 in the food chain.

How about learn to respect mother nature more than the invisible person who probably doesn't care about us anymore >>;

This quote requires the assumption that evil is a force, like the devil on one's shoulder. I believe it's more of a symptom: the symptom of rebellion against God. And yes, God could remove mankind's rebellious tendencies, but by doing so he would also remove our free will, which he doesn't want to do. How does that make him malevolent?

Because science tells us that humans are born with predispositions. If we are predisposed to do certain things and think in a certain way, and say you believe god is the creator, then he decided your fate for you and you have no free will. Free will is an illusion to begin with, but that's neither here nor there.



Keep in mind that god created us to be able to do this. God is still at fault for "evil", our "symptoms of rebellion", or whatever other stupid bullshit you can make up that is synonymous with BAD.

Even better, the big guy upstairs is responsible for all suffering disease, tragedy, etc. that befalls everyone. Oh, you benevolent god you.

I believe that there may be something out there much more powerful than us that can influence the universe, but I don't see it in the same way as most organized religions do; I don't think that any "God" is a perfect being, rather, a being which while technically better than us and so much more powerful, still has a capacity to be an utter and uncaring asshole as well as benevolent protector.

Ultimately, we won't find out the truth until the day we die.

A little P.S:I used to be a Roman Catholic, but ultimately I had too many questions which Catholicisms explained in a very convenient 'God said so' bullshit. And for organization that preaches about "good of man", they did surprising amount of evil. More so, than most other organizations or people in entire human history.

Atheists, winning since 33 A.D xD

Short: Not Really

Long: Not really, there might be something, but I really don't care. I doubt that the something that can influence the universe cares that if we worship it or not. What are we but microscopic dust when scaled to the vast universe? To me it seems that "God" and the "Great beyond" are nothing more but a human's attempt to not be overwhelmed by the fear of the unknown.

on a side note: We are alive, we are going to die, deal with it.

no i want to learn all i can find all logicl possibilitys but i geuss all no wen i die

There is a higher force in the universe, always acting on every single action that has ever taken place, is taking place right now, and will take place until either the "Big Crunch" or the universe expands to such size that gravity becomes irrelevant.

That force is probability.