Does God exist?

[L Gilbert]

Does god exist?
Which god?
Absolutely. Gods exist. Even Mother Goose exists.............in books and imaginations.
This "spirit" that people find hard to pin down is simply life itself. No spooks, no fantastic entities, etc. But, given that a lot of people are always looking for the complex, profound, and stupornatural, they won't be happy with such a simple answer as life. And that fact gives a few people cause for great hilarity.

 

[lone wolf]

In the sense that the evidence is compelling enough that it would be unreasonable to withhold assent to those propositions, yes. That's all we can mean when we say we believe something to be true. New or different evidence may lead to different conclusions in the future, but that's certainly how it looks now. Truth and reality are not the same thing.

Though every religion proclaims theirs to be the Real God, does any one of them claim their God to be real? The reality may be the peace of mind one feels in being a part of something bigger in which God is the spiritual centre.

 

[quandary121]

Does god exist?
Which god?
Absolutely. Gods exist. Even Mother Goose exists.............in books and imaginations.
This "spirit" that people find hard to pin down is simply life itself. No spooks, no fantastic entities, etc. But, given that a lot of people are always looking for the complex, profound, and stupornatural, they won't be happy with such a simple answer as life. And that fact gives a few people cause for great hilarity.

stupornatural i been looking for that for ages lol :lol:

 

[karrie]

... your interpretation may not be correct. There's no way to verify whether it is or not, but there are simpler explanations for the feeling than postulating a deity, ....

Ah, now, where in this thread have you heard me say that I know what it is exactly that I can sense, or that a 'deity' exists in any way that we tend to attribute given modern religion?

 

[scratch]

Ah, now, where in this thread have you heard me say that I know what it is exactly that I can sense, or that a 'deity' exists in any way that we tend to attribute given modern religion?

I prefer to go with db's take on this personal subject.

 

[In Between Man]

When trying to answer these questions. Listen to your logic, reason, hmmmmmmmmm
I wonder where those things come from?:lol::lol::lol::lol:

 

[Scott Free]

To respond to the OP.

If god does exist it is so completely different than anything we could comprehend; it really might as well not exist at all. It could not be a part of this reality but would have to be apart from it. There would have to be a super reality that we could never fathom. I have reason to think such a reality exists but the question of god is irrelevant - he is not a part of the equation. At best we are an enumerable sub-set of a larger infinity. Our symmetry is so different from that infinity that we can neither comprehend it or, in all probability, be comprehended by it, should it so happen that it's sentient like anything we could comprehend. Any symmetry similar enough to us for our comprehension is still only a sub-set not the actual infinity - a thing we could never touch.

The big question is would such a consciousness be god, that is, the thing that created everything? Watches us when we go pee? I doubt it very much.

 

[Spocq]

I don't believe God exists! I think the most powerful proof of this is;

Does Violence generate Violence? I think its obvious that in most cases if not all it does in one way or another.

God's commandment states thou shalt not kill but God killed many times. Would God really kill breaking one of the 10 commandments and by doing so create violence for thousands of years to come.

One of the scriptures states that "God is good". I don't believe it is good to kill for any reason, especially since it angers others and then they want to kill in revenge or to protect others from being killed or both.

I believe throughout time man created Gods to strike fear into others so they could control them, God of the sun, God of the moon, God of the wind, God of the stars, etc. Did man create the God of good to combat these other Gods that often allowed for much wrong. And since the God of good was the less violent of all, it survived to this day.

The truth will set us free!

 

[ottawabill]

of course he exists!!! way to many times I have encountered his present to ever think otherwise.

But if you don't know him you can mistake him. It's as silly to talk about everythig in the universe "just happening" as it seems to talk about God creating it..just think about it. Just because we don't pay mind to creation (it's just there, the trees the flowers the air) but how could this all just work so well..

 

[talloola]

of course he exists!!! way to many times I have encountered his present to ever think otherwise.

But if you don't know him you can mistake him. It's as silly to talk about everythig in the universe "just happening" as it seems to talk about God creating it..just think about it. Just because we don't pay mind to creation (it's just there, the trees the flowers the air) but how could this all just work so well..

Show some substantiated proof, other than what you 'feel' inside of your head and body,
that proves 'nothing', except 'how' you feel as an individual.

 

[ottawabill]

The proof is all around you! The proof is that you and everything else is alive. To try and "prove it" is like telling a baby in the womb about the world outside, they would never believe you even though they are so close to it.

 

[lone wolf]

Show some substantiated proof, other than what you 'feel' inside of your head and body,
that proves 'nothing', except 'how' you feel as an individual.

Isn't what you "feel as an individual" what God is supposed to be all about? Fancy buildings and choirs and living by rules imposed a couple of thousand years have nothing to do with the true freedom that is peace of mind. It is impossible to reveal one's own Nirvana to another. To me anyhow, that's Heaven....

 

[Spocq]

Maybe these feelings you talk about comes from just believing that your sins are forgiven. Believing that you will live for ever in heaven. Believing that God or Jesus will come back and fix our world for us. etc. The feeling you get from connecting with good, becoming more good in your heart (which is one of the reactions of accepting God/Jesus into your heart) is very powerful. The more good we become the more good feelings we get. Next time you read the bible replace the word God with the word good or good people of the day. I think you will find it fits very well. I also believe you can even increase that wonderful feeling when you understand and attain a greater degree of goodness.

The truth will set us free!

 

[Scott Free]

The proof is all around you! The proof is that you and everything else is alive. To try and "prove it" is like telling a baby in the womb about the world outside, they would never believe you even though they are so close to it.

Sorry but that's silly.

The proof all around us is only that we are alive not that we were "created." If what your arguing were true then who made god? By the logic of your argument someone must have. It is an eternal regress.

It is just as probable that no one made us, as it is probable no one made god, except for one glaring reality: we're here! Where is this god you speak of?

Your argument demonstrates only that life began somewhere because look! It is all around us! However by including a god and an eternal regress your making your argument too complicated to be probable.

Entia non multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.

No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

The proof is all around you! The proof is that you and everything else is alive.

That proves nothing except that life exists on this planet. Sounds like you're edging over toward the logical fallacies of the design argument and the god of the gaps argument. Nature offers no proof that god exists, all it offers is a superficial appearance of design that people choose to interpret as meaning there's a designer. On closer inspection, the superficial appearance of design disappears. If it doesn't, and you're intellectually honest with yourself, you'd then have to conclude that the designer is an incompetent moron.

 

[s_lone]

On closer inspection, the superficial appearance of design disappears. If it doesn't, and you're intellectually honest with yourself, you'd then have to conclude that the designer is an incompetent moron.

You won't be surprised to know I disagree with you... If we are to emit the hypothesis that there is a designer, what you think of that designer is entirely subjective...

Yeah, it's true that our world is filled with horrible stuff like parasites and illness, fear and despair, but it's still incredibly rich and elegant.

Everything has its shadow... Dualism of life and death is part of our world... And while we all have this longing for a perfect Eden, adversity is what makes life interesting.

We don't make (create) movies where everything goes absolutely right and everyone is always perfectly happy... That would be incredibly boring.... There has to be some form of adversity so happiness can have meaning...

 

[talloola]

Isn't what you "feel as an individual" what God is supposed to be all about? Fancy buildings and choirs and living by rules imposed a couple of thousand years have nothing to do with the true freedom that is peace of mind. It is impossible to reveal one's own Nirvana to another. To me anyhow, that's Heaven....

No. What I feel has nothing to do with any god, I have no connection to any god, my
feelings do not connect to any god, but I have a great connection to all of the other
living things on our earth, and our earth, those are real, I have lots of feeling for them,
and connection to them, but never to something I manufacture in my mind, and make
up, I'm too much of a realist to ever do that, and I would feel silly pretending I do.
Whatever you decide, by 'what you feel', is what you decide, and that is 'only' in your own
mind, has nothing to do with my mind.

 

[cortex]

....No

 

[Dexter Sinister]

You won't be surprised to know I disagree with you...

Yeah, it's true that our world is filled with horrible stuff like parasites and illness, fear and despair, but it's still incredibly rich and elegant.

No, I'm not surprised, and I completely agree that there is much about the world that's rich and elegant (nice turn of phrase, BTW), but parasites and illness and so on aren't the bad designs I was thinking of. I had in mind things that in their normal operation are very bad designs from an engineering perspective: the knee joint, the temporo-mandibular joint, the eyeball, the vermiform appendix, the prostate's location, upright posture, food and air sharing the same tube... that's just a short list for humans, and it's definitely not subjective. Not to mention our reproductive system: any engineer who runs an open sewer through a recreational area deserves to be summarily fired.

 

[darkbeaver]

You won't be surprised to know I disagree with you... If we are to emit the hypothesis that there is a designer, what you think of that designer is entirely subjective...

Yeah, it's true that our world is filled with horrible stuff like parasites and illness, fear and despair, but it's still incredibly rich and elegant.

Everything has its shadow... Dualism of life and death is part of our world... And while we all have this longing for a perfect Eden, adversity is what makes life interesting.

We don't make (create) movies where everything goes absolutely right and everyone is always perfectly happy... That would be incredibly boring.... There has to be some form of adversity so happiness can have meaning...

Why would you single out parasites? Parasites are green. Parasites are obeying the will of god and there are no horrible works of god. I wonder what parasites think of you? Stunning specism, I'm reporting you.