nah, religion seems like a scam that usually results in unhinged beliefs and abuse.
Not a fan generally speaking.
if you dig into any religions beliefs, it goes into some wild fairy tail stuff that just...doesnt happen.
Not to mention that folks tend to base their morals on religion, and religions have very flawed morals.
the difference between god and myself is that if I could, I would prevent a child from getting bone cancer.
I'm an agnostic theist, I believe in the possibility of god(s) or god-like entities.
There is a quote I resonate with by Marcus Aurelius:
Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. I am not afraid.
No.
Imo the more you think about it the more you realize that "god" is just a very human way to cope with feeling lonely or powerless, and life having no ultimate direction or purpose. People imagine a friend or guardian who has a plan and will set things right, and some use this shared fantasy to make others do what they want.
Apatheist here. Whether there is or isn't a god, I don't give a shit. Just stop trying to shove your shit down my throat and leave me the fuck alone.
No, not at all. I went to a christian high school and that experience removed pretty much any doubts I might have had.
I'm a happy atheist, don't really care about all this religious stuff. I don't mind that others believe, just as long as they don't impose their views on others.Nope. At best, religion is a fairytale created for those who are uncomfortable with ignorance, and at worst, it's a tool to control gullible people.
No, and I have peace in my life because I do not have that abusive relationship.
No.
Nope, if I’m wrong and there is a god I plan to kick their dick instead out for all the anguish and suffering that could have been avoided. god cannot be both omnipotent and all loving. Only one or the other.
Also, in the loosely remembered words of Ricky Gervais, “if all recorded history of religion, and of science were suddenly erased from the earth; in a thousand years you’d have all the science back exactly the same, but the religions would be totally different.” Which I find very compelling.
There have been over 18,000 different gods, goddesses, and various animals or objects worshipped by humanity since we started writing our history, and likely countless more that have been lost to time. The majority of these worshipped deities are no longer believed in, and the fact we as a species have been unable to move beyond the fairytales of omnipotent gods told during the bronze age will never cease to amaze me.
Religion in all its various current forms is a tool of manipulation used against the masses to keep them complacent and scared. That being said, even though I tend to lean towards an atheististic view, I will concede that the possibility exists of a higher life form we may consider as a god. If such a life form does exist, it would be so far beyond our ability to comprehend that any claim to know what it expects of us is pure human foolishness or intended maliciously to control the ignorant.
I live my life by the simple principle that if a god exists and is a just god then I'll be judged by my actions in this life, whether I caused harm to others or lived well doing what I'm able to make the world better, and not on whether or not I believed in and worshipped them. If a god exists that would punish me for all eternity for not worshipping them, then they are not a just god, and as such would be unworthy of such devotion. Bottomline is we will never know as long as we live, and with as short as our lives are, why waste them worrying about what we can never know. Just live your life well, be kind to others, and be the best you that you can be.
Edit: fixed a typo
Which?
No.
Of course not, that's silly.
I've been raised as a Christian, but always found it weird that there was zero proof and all based on a book. It seems like the longest running book club ever. I'm still going to church regularly, mainly because I enjoy the company and the church we're going to promotes a good lifestyle: Take care of each other, respect other's people's choices, and be kind.
I really despise the news where people are banning e.g. aborting / LGBTQ /queer in the name of Christianity. Just respect what other people do!
And I think there are things we can't explain. I recently read "After" written by a doctor who has spent decades to research NDE's and there are many things he can't explain, and scientists still don't know what exactly the conscience is.
No
Nope. Can't understand the reasoning behind "some dude has always existed, you can't see him though or touch him or anything, but he created everything! Also only we few know about this and only recently! All the other beliefs are wrong." Where would a giant fairy come from? No idea.
Spent a good while searching for evidence as a doubting kid. Didn't find anything. I realized the absurdity later on of believing in ghosts and psychics and magic when one of the defining qualities is how they can't be recorded or even reproduced scientifically.
God loves you, watches you, judges you and can do anything, but he won't move a leaf on the floor to tell a crying bullied kid to hold on to hope, that he exists. God is such a human-centric thing anyway. Humans are specks of nothingness, a million years in a tiny planet in a sea of infinite time and space. But yeah some dude created us specifically and we look like him!
I just realized I'm on the God account. 🙏😐 (God wants people to doubt him so he can send them to hell without feeling bad about it?!?!)
No
No. And while I will treat those who do with the same level of dignity and respect I grant to everyone, I secretly do think less of them for it (especially when I see them perpetuating the indoctrination with their children).
Yes
Nope. Never have that I remember.
I did go to Catholic school though
All people are atheists towards most of the "gods" humans came up with. I just go a step further and refuse to believe in one more.
No. There hasn't been any evidence to convince me of the existence of such an entity.
No
I was almost 14 years old when I lost my faith. I grew up in severe poverty, was severely depressed due to bullying and my weight, and I am LGBT. I found a website listing the inconsistencies in the Bible. I attempted to show my grandmother, who proceeded to laugh in my face. So I kept reading, then I came to a conclusion on my own.
The moment it finally "clicked" it honestly felt like a weight off my shoulders. Like I'd finally was free. My lack of faith hasn't waivered since then.
Who cares?
If God exists in the Judeo Christian sense, they seemingly fucked off and stopped caring a while back and creation hit perpetual motion status a while back for better or worse
If I was created in their image they totally get why I'm skeptical given the rest of their fan club and also gestures around
If you want to believe in that stuff: do you. I legit hope you get something positive or if it, BUT... Just like crossfit, veganism or astrology; I can hang in a casual conversation, but don't recruit me. I did my research. Not for me, thank you.
Fuck no.
I don't know, and no one has any good arguments.
A god is not required to explain anything in the universe, so I just assume a god does not exist.
In the Cristian sense of god, god has no direct effect on the world, making the question meaningless.
It would be the same as believing there is an teapot in orbit between Uranus and Neptune, too small and dark to see with any telescope. I could say it exists, and no one would be able to disprove me, but that doesn't make it real.
Strangely enough, if instead of a teapot (which at least would be possible, if hugly impractical to find) you use an entity that is invisible, intangible, does not do anything else that could allow it to be detected (most omni-gods), then billions believe it.
No.
Also this isn't an open-ended question.
It doesn't matter what I believe; what matters is that God believes in itself. Gotta keep that spirit up!
I can't imagine a world with god in it.
Nope.
Yes
No. I have no use for that hypothesis.
I have not since I was 14. I don't completely dismiss the possibility of one but I think it is incredibly unlikely.
But if you believe in one, have at it. As long as you are not forcing me or others to be involved, I don't care.
No. I can't prove he doesn't exist but I've seen no proof he does, and it seems extremely unlikely.
Nope
I'm an atheist, I don't believe in the existence of any god or divine figure, nor in ghosts, spirits, etc.
Absolutely not
I dont believe in anything like gods, ghosts, magic etc
The more I think about it, the more I wonder if the answer is not important but how we respond to the answer (or lack of an answer) is what matters most. Different believers of the same god(s) and religion can either feed and clothe the less fortunate or genocide nations.
If there is one or more god(s) out there and their fundamental core value is love, I would think they would not care if we get the answer right or even care about acknowledgement with prayer and rituals, but they would be more interested in how we treat each other and the world that we live in by keeping love as a core value in our lives.
You'll have to be more precise on the definition of God. There are quite a lot of them.
The existence of an abstract concept is provable by thinking of it. If there exists an idea that you call God, then a God exists. However, that proves nothing about its properties beyond its mere existence as an idea, including whether it pertains to any real thing. Likewise, all attributes you ascribe to that idea become part of the idea, but do not automatically prove anything about reality.
Thus, the question whether there is an idea called God is trivially answered by asking it at all, but has little bearing on anything at all.
What makes ideas useful is that they group properties, and what makes them real is that there exists an actual thing having all those properties.
Thus, the question whether a real thing exists depends on the properties of that thing, so let's tackle one:
Do I believe that there can be an omnipotent entity? No. The typical argument here is "Can God create a rock so heavy, They cannot lift it anymore?" Either answer contradicts the premise of omnipotence, unless that entity can create logical contradictions, in which case all argument and reasoning is moot anyway.
In particular, do I believe that some variation of the Abrahamic God exists? No, or at least none of those I'm aware of. That doesn't mean I'm not open to being shown otherwise.
However, the idea of an omnipotent, omniscient and all-loving God runs decidedly counter to the existence of suffering, even if we ignore (or exclude) the contradiction about omnipotence.
No, all religion is dumb.
I usually understand God as meaning "Nature". Some of my religious friends also throw in there the notions of "events", " happenstance", "chance", etc. basically a mishmash of everything we cannot explain either because of its complexity, or because we don't have fitting models. On days I feel low, I like to think of the universe as having a purpose, a presence, and talk to it as if my voice reached the furthest stars, penetrated the densest nebulæ. It's obvious anthropomorphism, but it makes me feel a bit better. I can only suppose it is the same for religious people.
No. The universe just is a thing that exists.
No
Nope, not at all, nor in anything supernatural. They tried to indoctrinate me into catholicism, but I realized at age 8 or 9 that it was all a crock of shit.
I have a more complicated answer these days than I used to... the short answer is "no," but the caveats make it longer.
I don't believe in a god in the sense of an all knowing human type being that has thoughts and wishes and passes down commandments -- basically, not the religious kind of God.
At the same time, I appreciate a lot of the Jewish traditions I grew up with, and Judaism has a lot more lassitude around what "God" means to you. To me, it's Baruch Spinoza's conception of God ... basically, just "the universe," of which each person is an integral part.
So in a "college freshman on acid feeling one with the universe," kind of way, sure I believe in God. In a, "He got upset I masturbated way," then no, not at all.
I was a gnostic atheist but became agnostic atheist. I am very much against organised religions, but I believe anyone should be able to believe in anything they want. At the conditions that they do not try to shove it down the throat of others or hurt anyone with their beliefs.
On God, the thing that made me change my mind is that you cannot clearly define what God is (the definition varies from person to person), so you can't be certain that it does or doesn't exist. Is God a bearded dude in the sky? Nature ? The Universe ?
As far as I'm concerned, if God exists, it would be very pretentious to think that it gives a crap about us, and even then, it would probably not be benevolent. Especially when you consider the amount of suffering happening on earth everyday.I believe in a power above all else which gave rise to the universe. You could technically call it "God," but I prefer to think of it just as a primordial force of nature, like gravity and such, but far more ancient.
Basically I believe that in the beginning, there was nothing, and that includes the rule that something can't come from nothing. That didn't exist either, so the void just kinda imploded on itself and now stuff exists.
With no rules or restrictions on what could happen yet, literally anything could happen. In a sense, that would make the void omnipotent, but also probably mindless. In my eyes, less like a god, more like the most powerful force of nature to ever exist. Or I guess not exist.
I don't, and I find it hard to understand how people truly believe it. I guess it's a search for meaning. I don't get why people feel they need a make believe creator to set their moral compass. Having said that, as long as people don't push their beliefs on others my general philosophy is live and let live.
I don’t believe in God, although it’s very nice to have somebody to pray to when you are in a bad situation with no control. Like there is still a way for things to go right because even if you don’t have control, somebody has.
Not in a religious way.
All evidence points to religion being about control of the poor. For example, the Christian old testament was originally written in a language the poor could not read, and translating it was illegal. And almost all have a group at the top profiting off the many that have much less.
No.
Yes*
No, I haven’t had an imaginary friend since I was four.
No and I'm glad I don't, seeing all the ignorance of the world caused by religion. But I still respect people's beliefs (to a degree) like I do with my best friend. He's like a brother to me and he's devout. As long as people don't shove their beliefs into me or talk religious nonsense to me, I'm chill.
No, the concept never really made any sense to me. The idea of god doesn't actually answer any questions about the world, and I find it fundamentally offensive. The idea that our world is created by some higher power that just fucks with humanity for its own amusement and that gets to judge us effectively denigrates humans to sims in some sick and perverted game.
The idea of god introduces lots of questions as well, such as where does god itself come from. Given that we can explain the whole universe through natural phenomena, seems weird to introduce something there's no evidence for that needs whole lot of explaining itself.
The explanation for tendency towards religion due to a quirk of natural selection makes the most sense to me. Basically, the theory is that there is selection pressure to err on the side of seeing agency where there is none. If the grass rustles then maybe there's a tiger hiding there or maybe it's just the wind. If you think it's a tiger and run away then you survive, but if you think it's the wind and it is a tiger than you die. Thus the trait of erring on the side of agency was selected for over many generations, and hence why people tend to look for agency behind our world and the universe itself.
Furthermore, the notion is laughably anthropocentric. we now know there's a vast universe out there with countless billions of galaxies each having countless billions of stars. We are like a dust mote in vast ocean, and to think that we are somehow special and that there is some deity that cares about what we do individually seems absurd.
Religion made sense when humans didn't understand how natural phenomena occur, and it provided useful traditions that helped groups of humans survive. The rule against eating pork in Islam is a great example of this. People noticed that those who eat pork are more likely to get sick. They had no idea what bacteria and parasites were, but they saw a pattern and attributed it to some higher power not wanting people to eat pork. This improved people's chances of staying healthy. The mindset of memorizing a bunch of rules and following them blindly helped keep society going.
Today, we understand how natural phenomena work, and more importantly we have a tool for expanding this knowledge in an effective way that lets us discover and understand phenomena that we currently don't have good understanding of. This tool is science and it works reliably and repeatably. The mindset of following blind rules that religion promotes has long stopped being beneficial to society and has now become a hindrance.
Yes I do, but I prefer to not be a part of a cult of fanatics (so-called "religion) who only pretend to live their life by some ancient book. Don't get me wrong, the religious books, such as the Bible and Quran do contain a lot of knowledge and some pieces should be followed, but going to church on Sunday just to show everyone how "good of a Christian" I am is unbelievably dumb.
I see God as an entity that helps me, and I do believe in the afterlife. It just seems so bizzare to me, that I should follow some rules that people made, saying that God actually did... The church is a company like any other and I'm not going to support it, ever.
No
If by "God" you mean an intelligence and power that created everything, including us, no I do not. I don't think any intelligence or wisdom is enough to create this thing called universe or these bunch of universes. To me "intelligence" is a tool developed by some live beings in order to succeed and prosper in the world, not a tool to create and maintain universes.
No
Yes, I believe in the Christian God.
No
I believe in some form if God, but the entity is beyond my comprehension. I don't have a religion though and don't worship anything.
Yep!
Absolutely not. Though the best question would be: Which one? There's hundreds, if not thousands in history.
No. I have no need of that hypothesis.
No
No.
no
Of a sort.
I strongly believe that the universe we are in is one created and run by an intelligent 3rd party.
But unlike 99.9% of the people who share that belief, I happen to also believe that this 3rd party was itself created from evolutionary processes in a world that was not created.
It's a belief that seems to go back at least to the 3rd century CE, but centers around the notion that a chaotic universe where life evolved without design (an idea at least as old as Leucretius in 50 BCE) would eventually create life sophisticated enough to be able to create worlds itself, and that we are in the re-creation of such a universe at an earlier point in time.
One of the wildest aspects of that belief in antiquity was its focus on the notions of Greek atomism and matter being made up of indivisible parts as an indicator of its claim of being in a copy of a higher fidelity original. Especially given that a central component of my own belief in this topic relates to the similarity between quantum behaviors (indivisible parts of matter) and hacks we have started using in building procedurally generated voxel based virtual worlds.
Yes. (lds)
Unless the question specifies which God it is referring to ( Ancient Greek gods like Zeus or Poseidon, Roman Gods like Apollo or Mars, Judeo-Christian God, Hindu Gods etc - or referring to the concept of a "Creator" in general ) - it can not be answered.
Assuming it refers to a "Creator" - then no, I do not see any evidence supporting that Creator.
God is supposed to be All Powerful AND All Good. The current fucked up state of the Humankind clearly suggests that he (or it) is not both of those at the same time.
No.
Yes, even if not really in an established denomination (despite going to church).
Yes, but almost certainly not the same one you're thinking of.
It is impossible to know whether there is a higher power. I believe that the existence of the universe fundamentally violates causality to begin with, since everything must have a beginning. Thus anything is on the table.
All human conceptions of religion and spirituality are almost certainly wrong though.
We can't know. And that's fine.
Whatever started the physical process that created us is pretty fucking crazy. I bet it's a simulation.
So many people in this thread were traumatized from church lol. God isn't inherently a bad or stupid idea... just depends on how you define God.
Don't know, don't care.
It's worth noting I do consider belief in the simulation theory a form of theism.
God? What a preposterous idea! I believe in aliens, Lister!
I would say I lean towards not believing, but I am open to other ideas. And if god did exist it really wouldn't change anything for me. I would just live as I normaly do
If you mean the Judeo-Christian god Yahweh, no. If you mean any sort of higher power, I don't know for sure.
Yes, and I have peace in my life because I have this relationship.
Not at all, nor anything supernatural. I was raised evangelical and it really soured me on religion period, and I'm still trying to unlearn many of the harmful teachings. Luckily my SO was of the same mind so I'm eternally grateful for it; that kind of thing can destroy a relationship.
Well, I understand most religions as populous weapon systems to use as a tool for moral manipulation.
USA loves this shit but even uses these tactics outside of the confines of religion, it's why (some) gun owners feel the need for more fire arms to use agenst thier government, they are convinced it will help them fight back! When in reality the USA government won't use fire arms to stop you lol.
And if you just spend some time learning about geology and how solar systems are made, you will quickly find that ya all of these things work just fine independently on their own and don't need and guidence, most humans will say "hWo dO yoO tHinK maDe tHoSe eLemEnTs???"
Imo that answer might be beyond the short time frame humans will exist.
No, and as far as I can remember I never have.
I should add that my parents consciously decided not to make me grow up with adult santa claus as part of my life. The idea was that once I'm old enough to decide (somewher 14-18) I can decide for myself. They haggled out a deal with my school where I was free to sit in with varying religious education classes to compare. Eventually having a chat, I was by then big time disillusioned by how little sense everything made, and while at the time I could not understand how my friends could take this nonsense as anything even remotely true, I also knew I could not takei t serious.
So, here I am. Still no adult easter bunnies for me. 😅 I mean, I get why some people find it a useful thing to cling on to in times of desperation, but then I would also say that that is no different than the grifts Theranos or homeopathy or so were/are running. You just milk money out of people's grief, desperation and loneliness. Because of how low the barrier of entry is to most of our religions (after all, our parents make us start with it by default 😢), the buy-in is so low that most people never actively notice this part. Maybe I had it easy, since I would have had to climb that barrier first.
Do I believe in any higher power in general? Well, no. A bit of a shame, I know. But I doubt the Twelve from Final Fantasy are all that real; cool as it would be to meet Nald'Thal or Menphina because of their kickass fight-themes in FFXIV.
No. I usually call myself an agnostic atheist and follow it up with this thought: say humanity some day, somehow sends a man or a robot to explore a black hole and at the very bottom of that black hole there is an old door with a doorbell. We ring the doorbell and soon after an old man opens the door and says: "oh, there you are. I'm God, come on in". I think it would be kind of arrogant to just dismiss him immediately and say "no you're not! God doesn't exist!" That's why I'm not just a hardcore atheist.
Only if he is a DJ!
No, but I don't want to rule it out completely. I there is, it's probably nothing like anyone has every thought about. There's a lot about the universe we don't know. I think it's a bit foolish to claim for certain things when we know so little about the universe. One day, it might be possible to measure the soul with scientific equipment, and future people may look back on us and think, "Wow, they actually believed they were only organic, not even realizing they have a quantum soul," the same way we look back at people who thought the earth was the center of the universe.
The world is a complicated place, and what we say now may look foolish or ahead of its time 100 years from now.
Yes, kind of. I believe there has to be more than can be scientifically proven because otherwise there really isnt much point in this world. I also think there has to be some kind of soul, how else could you be aware of your own mind? Though I wonder if its internal or external and just connected to your body in some nebulous way.
But what I definitely dont believe is that church or anyone who gains material benefit from religion has any connection to god. And what comes to bible, its good starting point and has many good core ideas. Its also a bit corrupted by greedy and powerhungry people so it shouldnt be relied upon if you can't filter it. Other religions likely also have good ideas in their holy texts though they are likely harder to understand and relate to due to cultural differences.
Ones relationship with god is extremely personal and no one can't order you about with it.
I don't think so in the cure of god as a single being.
I think there's possibly some phenomenon maybe linked to quantum entanglement where everything in the universe is more linked than we realise and there's some sort of awareness in that.
The pagan belief of nature as a God is probably the closest to something I'd agree with rather than modern depictions of god.
No.
I think what "god" does mean for me, you and others are different. Also same goes for "believe" and "you". I believe, these kinds of topics are way out of our minds' league and even we could comprehend and discuss those things(god, reality, logic etc.) we still would be using wrong tools like language and our current logic system. So both the tools we use, and our intelligence is not enough to answer this question.
But still, if you want a yes or no answer; I would say no without hesitation.
Yes
In any specific god? no. What I believe is that we don't know and will never know anything beyond our own existence. We don't know what we are, in the grand scheme of things (or if there's a grand scheme at all). We don't even know if we actually exist.
I just live my life to the best of my abilities and shrug off all that "beyond my existence" stuff as pointless. If I tried to think about it, I don't believe I would ever come anywhere close to a real answer anyway.
I used to be a pretty devout catholic but went through the whole crisis of faith. So these days, no.
I still wonder a lot about before the big bang, or wherever the actual "start" of everything was and what sparked it or made the energy exist in the first place, but I don't want to just hand wave it and say God because we don't have an explanation. But its definitly something I ponder
I absolutely do not.
Yes. I think. It's becoming more difficult.
OP, have you seen a sunset?
I believe we don't want to face the adversity of judging the world in front of us so we ponder "god/no god" to not think about the fact that insurance literally began as a scam or that hospitals can legally extort you for all your worth and it isn't a fair fight or that mental healthcare is least attainable to those who need it most.
No. There isn't a decisive being weighing our souls. We weigh our own conscience, or we don't. Shit is unfair, but you do your best. That way when you feel like shit you know you're really trying. You can role play a big source of approval if you want, just don't be a predator about it.
Believing in the existence of God and believing God is a being that deserves our worship are 2 different things.
Also depends on which god and which denomination. If there are gods, it's more likely than not that there are more than one. In Christianity, God makes a big deal of "not worshipping other gods before me" so I'm just saying. What's considered a God anyway? Do extraterrestrial intelligent life with better technology than us count?
Nope. And I won't ask you which one, cuz still nope.
Yeah sorta. She's torturing me because she's just a hottie bad bitch like that 🥵
That's a complicated question it depends on what do you mean by god?
No
No
Yeah. Even if it intellectually makes no sense, I still do. I never discuss it and would never attempt to convert someone or anything, I really have better things to do. But despite the fact it isn't logical I still always do.
"Omnism" is the closest definition to what I'm trying to define. Debates will never end, but I'm happy with my own path
I try to separate “believing” things — ie, concluding that I will accept something as true (helpful) — from “believing in” things, which edges more into hoping and convincing myself (problematic).
I don't see any evidence for evolution creating new species. None
I believe in me. You are all being perceived by me. And anything I cannot perceive is not in the realm of existence.
Nope.
Yup I sure do
I used to as my parent taught me that but now as a grown up , I dont believe in god. I mean I am not sure if god exists so I dont believe in god. Just like ghosts, aliens etc.
I believe that God is man's creation, but that it has escaped control by man and morphed into a phenomenon that has an existence and an impact on the world regardless of the literal truth of any one religion. An inversion of the Christian creation story, where God created man and then man got out of pocket. The realm of belief where gods could potentially exist is a place where empirical truth is sort of irrelevant, and what is useful holds more sway.
There's a scene in the Illuminatus trilogy that pretty well summarizes my beliefs regarding the supernatural. Spoilers ahoy, you've been warned. It's a rather ridiculous scene, the presumed protagonists Simon Moon and Hagbard Celine have just summoned the goddess Eris to help them do battle with a lake full of Nazi zombies. She emerges as a 50 foot tall bucket of whoop ass and just starts cleaning house. Simon looks at Hagbard and says something like "I could swear you told me that she was just a metaphor for the creative force in all of us" and Hagbard replies "That's what she is when that's what we need her to be. Today we need her to be a Nazi-punting giant."
God? No... Gods? Yea sure, i believe in nature, i believe in the balance of everything, and for a lack of giving my faith a focus, i have turned to the norse gods multiple times.
They arent omnipotent, they arent all knowing, but they are beings bumbling around the universe like us, doing dumb ass shit... like all of us... and you can ask for favors, but dont expect to get it granted, because if you arent willing to make a sacrafice, and do the groundwork, why on earth would they help you?
No. Raised in the faith but never truly believed.
