The True God

I believe in no God, higher deity, or any type of overseer. I believe that humans and the rest of the organisms that exist in the universe are the only things that exist in the universe.

Probably the biggest thing to draw me away from Catholicism way back when I did was the ignorance that many observers of the Catholic tradition carry about their own religion. For example, they read the Bible and attend Church. Devout, correct? However, have the majority of them even begun to wonder or question the Bible? Have they realized that (the following statement is pointed at literalists) the Gospels are not written by God, that they were written over a span of time by different authors in different locations with different social agendas? Has the thought even occured to them that the Church, when compiling the set of books to be incorporated into the modern Christian Bible, left out many of the other written books because they did not fulfill the message the Church wished to preach?

Another matter that drew me away from the Catholic Church was the moral stance that it held on many matters of debate. For example: from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, there exists a passage that reads similar to "Sex should be celebrated with an open mind to procreation, and thus artificial barriers should not be used." Now, this wouldn't irritate me so much if they didn't hold up the belief that condoms should never be used, even in the risk of STD's(this may have been changed recently). They go on to say that abortion should not occur as the spark of life begins as soon as the egg is fertilized. As they previously stated, there should be an open mind to procreation. Can't support the baby financially? Tough luck. Was raped? Still a sin.

Of course, logic and reason play a part, but I assume that rbz already got to this thread earlier [I have only read the opening post].


If anything, I would believe in the deist god, one that made/helped make the world, and said "Fuck you," and left.



TL;DR?
YOU GUYS ARE TERRIBLE PEOPLE FOR NOT BELIEVING IN GOD, AND YOU WILL ALL GO TO HELL. GOD FOR THE WIN.

I grew up as a "Catholic", and my parents are still mildly religious (probably influenced now by myself). I can't really remember a time where I identified as being religious though. Maybe once when I was really little... I remember asking my parents about one of my friends who was not religious at all (and being somewhat shocked by it).

Up until 5th grade I went to nothing but Catholic schools. During the summer after 4th grade I asked my parents if I could switch to public school, although not for religious reasons. I just felt like religious schools coddle you too much.

I don't think I really ever believed in religion though. It was just one of those things my parents told me that I was, and something that I did for an hour on Sundays. While I wouldn't say I had an epiphany exactly (as I can't say I ever really believed), over the course of several summers during high school with not enough to do I became very interested in philosophy. One summer in particular I recall deciding that I was atheist and its stuck since then, though I think I am perhaps closer to pragmatic atheism now as I don't necessarily deny that god could exist (I acknowledge that there is no way to know).

If there is one thing I can't stand though, its an atheist who thinks hes enlightened and has to tell the world about it. Its ok to be an atheist, and its great to be happy knowing you have a belief structure that makes sense to you, but I feel that unsolicited preaching is one of the greatest pitfalls of religion. When atheists start telling other people how to think and what to believe atheism becomes a religion of its own.

Used to be a Christian since I was brought up as such.

Deconverted a long time ago and I'm now a simple non-religious or atheist person. I don't know if a God exists. If one does I can't possibly imagine that the God of the Universe favors a particular type of person or believer here on Earth to be saved for all eternity. Furthermore I can't imagine that this incredible being would have the intelligence and power to create the whole universe and then sit back and care that we little creatures worship him and love him or we burn for all eternity. The whole thing sounds like a very childish and controlling belief system propagated by the church to keep control of it's members. Anyways I don't believe in a God. If there is one then so be it, but I won't waste my life worrying about it.



All religion stems from the worship of the sun. Later there was paganism, polytheism, and monotheism as brought about by the 3 main Abrahamic religions of today (Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). It is not really the same story. Remember that the beginnings of religion started when the human population was much smaller. It was smaller during the beginning of monotheism as well. It's not hard to imagine that once a believe system got in place, it's still being believed a couple thousand years later. For much of that time we had no science at all, nothing to explain the phenomenon that religions attempted to explain and were used for back then.

Yeah, good Christians know that men wrote the various chapters of the Bible, not God Himself.



That is a very good point that is often ignored. The Bible we have now is fucking huge. Imagine if it had even more books. Some stuff had to be cut out, regardless of quality. Though I'm sure some books were prime candidates for omission, due to their subject matter.

Thank you kindly, Messrs.


Why, yes it does.



They do not believe they were written by a god, they believe they were written by people divinely inspired by a god. Written by a god by proxy, ghostwriting god, call it what you may, it remains the same.



Then either way the church and all who read the bible are apostates and idolators who will go to the lowest level of hell, and suffer and plead and cry and gnash their teeth for ever, because

SCRIPTURE SAYS:

Rev 22:19 and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I believe in God. I believe we are made in a scientific process designed by God. I believe in Reincarnation. I believe that God came to earth and manifested himself in various ways, possibly in the form of Buddha, Jesus, Vishnu, Balder, Hercules, etc. for reasons He himself know. I believe that fighting for and against other people in sake of religion is stupid. I believe that God is the manifestation of ultimate humanity, human yet beyond human. When people are hurt by his action, he is the Devil, but when miracles happen, he is Divine.

I personally believe we are not direct descendants of monkeys, but either way, it is possible. When people say that is I believe that, then God is a monkey, I reply yes. God can be a monkey, a dolphin, a dragon, a human, anything, for He himself is the manifestation of everything and to limit God as a monkey is clearly stupid. I believe in evolution, that it is the way God helps species adapt to its environs. It may be cruel, the Survival of the Fittest, but it is the sole reason why you, dear human, is alive.

Pretty much sums up my faith.

GOD...hmmm i always think about the god exist,but i realize something if the GOD exist, why people all over the world worship different kind a Religion or GOD even the native people have their own kinda realigion or god to worship.what i mean is if there is a god,why all people all over the world don't worship the same kinda Religion ?? consider this if there is a planet same like earth and have intelligence beings like us what Religion or GOD do you think their worship?? do you think the same like us religion muslim,Christian,atheist and other religion in this world so.............think.


[I AM A Christian]

Oh, oh OH! I know this one! May I?

Because they're heathens who haven't yet heard of The Glad Tidings.
Because they're heathens who are stubbornly refusing to accept The Good News.
Because Satan has led them astray from The Happy Message onto the path of heresy.
Because they are wicked sinners who do not accept His all-encompassing dispatch of love.
Because they are not part of The Chosen People.

I follow the religion of Humanity and believe in no God.
Science and logic rule my way of life, way of thinking...

If i were to believe in god it would be Google :P
proof? http://www.thechurchofgoogle.org/Scripture/Proof_Google_Is_God.html

But, I'm not that sort of an atheist that goes around picking arguments with believers. I keep my thoughts and beliefs to myself and respect the belief of others.

.... Well I can't quite think up a good response. But a lot of shit has been done 'In the name of God' by lots of assholes, not just Catholics. Even if their God existed at all, let alone the way they preach, would you want a God who'd condone such terrible acts?

Would you want a God who wouldn't allow you to criticize them when they're in the wrong. Would you want a God that would let certain people die and burn in hell forever just because of a relatively harmless life choice? Would you condone a God who'd allow millions of preventable deaths simply because they don't protection to be used?

Even if God exists, I wouldn't worship them because it's not in my way to worship anyone. Okay I might run the risk of 'going to hell', but that's something I'll face when the time comes

The first part I agree with.
The second I do not. I don't respect anyone else's beliefs. I tolerate them.
STORY TIME:

Judaeo–Christian God, really. But that's splitting hairs. You know, I'm genuinely glad that you are still around and active and all. The last time I recall someone actually engaging, regularly, in religious debates from the pro-Christian side on these forums, he left in a huff, basically yelling, "FUCK YOU GUYS, YOU'LL ALL BURN IN HELL ANYWAY AND JESUS DOESN'T LOVE YOU!" or some such a thing. Then again, he was a bit of an...extremist. I don't believe most Christians are honestly insane or dumb people. I was raised in the Church, and these are average people, and average people don't put their religion on their foreheads in the rest of their life (save one day a year). However it still effects the rest of their life. It effects how they see the world in general. So they have crazy thoughts, while not actually being crazy people. I didn't realize this until recent years, necessarily, because, again, being raised in the Church, I simply didn't notice. Even after I stopped believing in God and all that, it took me a couple years to realize that there are things people do in Church that if they did in another environment, or simply not as part of an accepted organization that had been around forever, they would seem batshit insane. Speaking in tongues in a good example of this. If you just did that at the supermarket one day, someone would probably call the cops.

Eh, anyway, I don't believe in any entity of God, so no true God. However, the word God can be used to describe the underlying unknowns of the universe, simply because we don't have another word for it. A lot of people have done that, and it doesn't actually refer to anything supernatural.



Silly nihilist.

There are too many things in the bible etc that are in contrast to each other to think that god would exist as an individual. True, one might wonder what caused the big bang and how matter first came to be in the universe but let's be honest.
Saying there is a loving god out there, that likes us, is all powerful, knows how to judge people, will protect us, but on the other hand can't fix humanity, so he has to drown them except for a few people that he likes (plain favoritism to be honest), is a bit odd. Not to mention the fact that he pretty much is a racist (cursing the Egyptians with the plagues etc), pretty morbid (wanting the apocalypse) and last but not least isn't even smart enough to predict how his own creations will turn out (humanity).
To simplify what I just said in gamer-jargon:
I bet god is a cheater, that tried to cheat in an mmo and got busted and banned from the server [world] when his crap; (he went childish using /kill all when people didn't listen and was trying to turn on undying mod for his own char (Jesus)); was noticed amongst all the other things he pulled.

Judging from the Old Testament, if God did exist, he should be brought up in front of a war crimes tribunal.

The one true GOD is the one that created everything. Since many things can be false in history manipulated by people. So I believe the one that created "EVERYTHING" from the begging is the "TRUE GOD". God of our fathers, fore fathers and men before them.

This "true god", is he/she/it one followed by the established religions, or something/someone else?

Lol, one of the main problems I have with religion - their disagreement of science. We are the descendants of other animals long extinct. Humans are animals. We are not descendant of monkeys per-se, but of ancestors related to, and part of, the animal kingdom. Currently we are cousins of monkeys (bonobos) and closer cousins of chimpanzees.

Lastly, on matters of historical religious figures. It is widely speculated that many have not existed. Jesus himself leaves little to no verifiable evidence of his existence, and much of the dogmatism surrounding him was straight up stolen from Paganism and Mithraism. Indeed Christianity itself was sort of a patchwork of stolen ideas from other ancient religions beforehand.