donno, from what i have managed to see and experience in this world, there is no god.
god was just made up by humans to help them mentally during hard times.

what do you think ?

am agnostic

Ive personally exprienced profound evidence that God exist... i am taking this quote from where ever i read it from...

If your a bird do u ever know how to appreicate the sun, the stars, the beautiful sunset... the rain. No u dont your mind is too small to even fathom such things. You go about what u only know what to do and thats make a nest, gather food, and procreate....if u get what im sayin.. We dont understand something that is totally out of our league ...We as a species have this profound nitch to always find an answer to something and when we cant prove it through visible evidence its very difficult to believe. Now im not personally go into detail as to why i say what i said when i started my reply but when u see things or have things shown to you ...u understand things on a totally different level and that to me lets me know that...ya the man is up there

A steadfast atheist.

I totally agree.

I would have to personally say that I do believe there is a God. I am not sure which religion he belongs to, but I have passed through personal things in my life which have lead me to believe that God exist. I was however, an atheist before, until something happened which opened my eyes. I am 100% against religion however, I believe that religion just creates walls around us and divides us even more.

I believe we all believe in something. Some of you may not call it god, some may call it buddaha, whatever, that is your god

I believe there is something up there... I'm not sure what it is though. I've always been against following certain religions and certain sets of rules.
I do believe in God, but I am not one who conforms with one certain religion or goes to church every weekend.

I dont neccessarily believe in god, but there are things in this universe that cannot be explained.

As far as looking to a higher power for guidance, I dont believe in that at all. Every person should look to themselves for guidance. The belief in a higher power is due to an instinctive insecurity present in many people. The lack of belief in themselves and the feeling that they always need someone to help them breeds what we call religion today. I dont pray to god for the things I have or the things I want, I do what I have to do between work and school to put myself in a better position to achieve my goals.

God wont give you strength, only you can. Whether there is a God or not is irrelevent.

I believe God "Human the Actor" doesn't exists.

I believe in God that keeps balance and organization in the whole body of things and universe exists... "something that vast can't be put in a black book"

The question should be "Do you believe in the Bible?"

I think that beliving in god is a form of mental retardation. I mean beliving in someone that lives up in the heavens and you must be good in life and belive whatever crap that people belive to get to heaven. BUT if your bad or dont belive then he will send you to hell with all the other "siners". But god loves you. Doesnt make much sense to me. Plus teh fact that you have to be good for someone else and not on your own acord is bull. I think that god was created so that the kings of the time would have leverage over there slaves, telling them that if you do such and such then the gods will be happy with you and it just stuck.

I think that modest mouse said it best in the song Bukowski when he called god a control freak and an indian giver.

i think its a big topic to touch.... even to much to describe in word....

I think God exists but some times i doubt it and for that, i have sinned

Im catholic

Theoretically, Im Catholic, but I dont do anything involving religion... I think God exists, but beyond any way for any human mind to ever comprehend..

Exactly - alot of the bible makes no sense, im not depicting the bible but it has it flaws considering man wrote it....

My family is catholic so therefore I am catholic. I'm just unlike them in the fact that I do not embrace the religion by following the traditions and rules. I prefer just believing in God and living my life to the fullest.

Matt... nice new avatar

Wow man - that's how I say to live.... but I do re-think alot of my actions sometimes to ensure I have a place in God's Heaven

Oh and about the avart, I happen to change them alot - So it might change sometime soon...

'Nuff said.

No I don't believe in God.

God, in whatever form, is the expression of man's alienation from the forces of nature. Having said that I recognise that the idea of God gives many people comfort in times of distress.

People have a right to believe in whatever religion they wish on an individual level. I take grave exception, however, when the religious try to impose their beliefs on others.

I believe in myself and God, nuff said.

I do firmly believe in God but sometime there are things that I cannot explain like incidents where thousands of people die.
Still, more than one religion believe in the same exact god ( christianity, islam, jews ) and three religions can't be wrong, so God must exist.

thats jus nature man, cant really blame thousands who die in a tidal wave or someone that gets in a car accident as God's fault...i see alot of people always saying that ...might be possible to think that God doesnt always step in when we want to and we might not understand the reasons for his actions..

i believe god exists. I also believe that he is not a part of any religion. all of the different religions have a different way of worshipping (sp?) god. I dont assign myself to any religion, but I still pray to him daily. Ive had personal experiences which led me to believe in God's existance.

I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me".

For me religion is a very personal thing. I believe in God but not in the same way that the bible does. Although if there really is an all mighty God then one day it won't matter what religion one follows.

Anyway I think as long as one leads a good life and practises what one preaches then thats all one has to do.

its more than that. theres buddhism as well

but yea. there are many religions which believe in just one God. three of those religions seem to use the exact same events to prove his existance (islam and Jesus, for example) so indeed, God must exist.

I am an atheist for many reasons.
Here are some bible quotes why I don't.

"If a man shall strike his slave or maidservant with the rod and he shall die under his hand, he shall surely be avenged. But if he will survive for a day or two, he shall not be avenged, for he is his property." - Exodus 21:20-21

"Six days may work be done; but in the seventh [is] the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth [any] work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death." - Exodus 31:15 (try inforcing that one)

"And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do."- Exodus-21:7 (disturbing)

"Doth not even nature it self teach you, that if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?"- Cor-11:14. (what about jesus?)

If god does exsist, I seriously doubt he would agree with these things that humans said he said and wants. With all the destruction across the world it is inevitable to believe it is the fault of religion. First off I know of about 12 million people who would have lived their life continuously it is wasn't for religion and the conflicts of them, e.g, Adolf Hitler a devoted christian.

*Hitler wrote: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord.." As a boy, Hitler attended to the Catholic church and experienced the anti-Semitic attitude of his culture. In his book, Mein Kampf, Hitler reveals himself as a fanatical believer in God and country.
(http://www.nobeliefs.com/images/hitler%26bishop.gif)
(http://www.nobeliefs.com/images/Bishops-salute-Hitler.jpg)



I just love these quotes right here...

"It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." -Albert Einstein.

"Thus I came...to a deep religiosity, which, however, reached an abrupt end at the age of 12. Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached a conviction that much in the stories of the Bible could not be true....Suspicion against every kind of authority grew out of this experience...an attitude which has never left me." -Albert Einstein.

"I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." - - Stephen Roberts

"God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom."

"Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet." --Napoleon Bonaparte

To ask the question - do you beleive in god - will end up with a yes or no
answer in so many ways that the true question is do you beleive that we
were created out of nothing or do you beleive we were created by a
force of some description that cannot be explained by the realm that
our minds live in.
Some early civilisations beleived that the sun was god, & could you
blame them, the earth & everything within it exists because of the sun
so technically you could say the sun was god,but what created the sun.?
I beleive there are energies & forces that exist that will not/cannot be
explained by the way our minds work.
I also beleive that a lot of events that are written in the old testament
can be explained rationally, the problem with religions & the books that
contain the messages/scriptures were all written in a time when science
was only a word.
There have been events in my life that have led me to beleive that
things that happen are more than just by chance.
How/why I am still alive today coming from where I am in life just
baffles me when I think back on my life.
To say we were created by chance/evolution is absurd in my opinion.

some can't find evidence others have. i have (that he does exist).

in response to Default's comment:

1 cor 11:14 speaks of the customs of the time, their common sense tells them that having long hair makes them look like a woman and is shameful. So Jesus had long hair and people of the time thought it was shameful to him, but Jesus didn't care.

Exodus 21:20-21; Exodus 31:15; Exodus-21:7 is the old law of moses.

Gal 3:13 AMP Christ purchased our freedom [redeeming us] from the curse (doom) of the Law [and its condemnation] by [Himself] becoming a curse for us, for it is written [in the Scriptures], Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified); [Deut. 21:23.]

Gal 3:19 AMP What then was the purpose of the Law? It was added [later on, after the promise, to disclose and expose to men their guilt] because of transgressions and [to make men more conscious of the sinfulness] of sin; and it was intended to be in effect until the Seed (the Descendant, the Heir) should come, to and concerning Whom the promise had been made. And it [the Law] was arranged and ordained and appointed through the instrumentality of angels [and was given] by the hand (in the person) of a go-between [Moses, an intermediary person between God and man].


so all you have to do is read the rest not just one verse.

I believe there is something out there. A creator. There's way too much that co-exists, too much of a natural, chemical and ultimate balance for it to be completely a coincidence of science.
Now you ask me about heaven and hell and that's a whole other story.
Where do myths come from? How do stories about fairies, werewolves, vampires, greek gods, titans, witches etc. come from?
Made up?
Stories?
Kid Pacifiers?
People Pacifiers?
I don't think so.
When you see smoke, no matter what, you generally know there's been a fire. I think some kind of truth lies in many myths.
Our existence is a very complex one. Why don't 'people' live on mars? Why can't there be organics which depend on what mars or what the other planets offer to live?
It's just too much for me to be Atheistic.
I'm Semi-Agnostic because I also don't live by accounts or rules made by the bible. Every year you hear another story about 'how to read' or 'how to understand' the bible. But I do believe in Revelations (that's some scary sh*t), but that's more prophetic than an actual 'account' or 'journal' that is the rest of the bible. I too have seen and experienced a bit more than the normal to not believe there is something out there. Something, good .... and something bad.

I live by my own self guiding rules, which are pretty easy and generally universal.
1. Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you
2. Do to others what you would want done to you

Yes I do believe that God exists
I go to church every sunday
I'll be viewing Flexbeta in heaven...

Why do you go to church..every sunday?
What make's one think that going to church
makes you go to heaven?

from what i understand here, you think (i dont know, please correct me, i dont want to sound mean or anything) that going to church every sunday = heaven?

Going to church isnt going to make you go to heaven.

exactly... i just want to know if one believes that and if so where did one hear it?

I think church is a place where some hypocrites go to make themself feel better about what they do.

thats not true at all, im catholic and i probably am not the most active church goer but i believe that worshiping at mass is at least dedicating time to God and praising him...besides sleepin in bed all day

I apologise now If I offend any religious people here..this is not what I mean to do. If believing it makes you happy, then that is all that matters.
I don't believe in a god and I believe the bible was just a story written with extras added to it as the years have gone by. It's a bit like, if you say something enough times you wil start believing it. This is what has happened with the bible. What proof is there that there is a god?
Personally, I have never seen any proof. According to the bible, he performed certain tasks. Mankind knew he had perfomed these tasks. What tasks has he done in the last 500 years to show he exists? None.
If he really exists, and he can see what we have done to this planet, why hasn't he punished us, or helped us to fix the problems. If he is all powerful, why is there poverty, war, pain & suffering. If he really exists, then he knows what I am typing, then I call for him to prove that he exists. Just imagine for a second, that he does exist, and he proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he existed. This world would be a much better place, because if he exists then heaven and hell exists, and nobody, however evil they are, wants to go to hell. There would finally be peace and unity, becuase however powerful our weapons are, they would be no match to his power

Blue im not sayin that all people that go to church are hypocrites, its just alot around here are, even the pastors. I go to church for communion and other stuff. But I dont go every sunday/wednesday.

And God will not put through a hardship that we can not handle.

Seeing is believing. And I believe and thats all I am going to say.

We could simply be here as a test to prove who is worthy and who isn't to move on to another existence. Or we could be here to live out our existence and then die.
There are many things we do not know. I respect those who have steadfast faith, but I worry for those who are religious zealots. Likewise, I worry for those who have absolutely no belief in any possibility of a creator, as this is the other end of the spectrum completely and can prove to be just as dangerous. I think both sides of the fence should try to have an open mind. New ideas and beliefs challenge us daily. There are people who've experienced so as to cause them to not believe or to stop believing, and then there are those who have experiences who cause them to start believing, or continue to.

we all have a right to express what we believe.

No going to church doesn't make you go to heaven, but who here has really read what the bible is about? Not the historical references and what not, but i'm talking about the Message behind the text especially in the new testament!

The context is LOVE, that's what it is based on. Why would a loving god let so many people die? Well i can explain that to you if you email me, i can tell you what the bible says and what our purpose is and why things happen the way they do. Anyway, it's the love behind the message. And i know most of you can not see that, but the reason you can not see it is because you have no experienced it. THIS is where God proves himself. I don't wish every one of you would cultishly turn christian and create a Christian forum instead of flexbeta.net, that's not my intent. I'm not going to impose my beliefs on you, that's not what being Christian is about. It's about LOVE. Not the superficial love we have connotations for today. And it's not about "religion" as in following strict guidelines or we go to hell, it's not about going to church every sunday (although it's best we do). We're all hypocrites, every single one of us. in church AND out of church. Church is NOT a place where hypocrites gather, but rather people seeking to change their lives. And if this isn't true for that person that goes to church, then that is their problem not ours.

Your reading of the Bible's "context" may be Love. But the trouble with the Bible is that you can read into it whatever "context" you want. As I have said before, everyone has the right to believe whatever religious theory you want as an individual, just don't try ramming it and it's "philosophy" down my throat and dictating how I and my family should or shouldn't live.

Good old Karl Marx said that "Religion was the opium of the masses". Unfortunately it's still true. Even in the US, where the secular nature of the state is enshrined in the Constitution, the Christian zealots on the right are steadily attempting to roll back the rights and freedoms that american working people have fought long and hard to obtain. And, because the President and many of his closest advisors are "God fearing" people using the language of religion, large numbers of good Christian folk in the US lap it up.
This is what Marx meant by religion being the opium of the masses. Organised religion is used for political purposes, to prevent people from seeing solutions to their daily problems of life that the ruling elites and big business do not like.

Also, I can't go along with the "there might not be a God but there must be some kind of force or creative energy" mysticism. In my opinion this is just a means of introducing God via the backdoor. It's exactly the argument that is now being put forward in the US (Kansas in particular at the moment, I think) and in some privately sponsored state schools in Britain to remove the theory of evolution from the classrooms and introduce "creationism" under another name. In the US, because it is probably unconstitutional to teach creationism as such - because of its biblical origins - the theory of "guided development" has been conjured up to argue the same thing. Of course now it's not God - its some "Guiding" intelligence or creative force that's responsible for creating the world and universe. If this idea takes off then humanity risks heading towards another "medieval" dark age. Then, you never know, they may even burn witches again in Salem and Arthur Miller will turn in his grave.

Except where Jesus says that anyone who doesn't believe will be damned to hell.

You have to understand that even if parts of the Bible are true, the tome taken as a whole is a contradictory mess of primitive mythology and constant revision and bureaucracy. There's no truth left in it. Even if it was "true," why do people think that? The Bible is true because the Bible says the Bible is true?

Having said that, what is the motivation for believing in a supreme being? Just because you feel all warm inside when you perceive nature, or your brother's mom's cousin prayed one night and her cancer disappeared? None of these things are cogent reasons for believing that there's a Grand High Poobah lording over the earth.

I agree with Oof!
I don't go to church and haven't been part of one since '96. I get annoyed with "legalistic" christians and those that are narrow minded, judgemental etc. But I do believe in God and have experienced his reality in my life, despite not being part of a church or even agreeing with half of what they think / say etc!!

I don't think for me its a matter of "needing to believe in something when i struggle" because to be honest my faith has made it MUCH harder when I have struggled, and I have at times hated God with a similar strength of passion that I have loved him. So no, its not all easy, it can be harder when things go "wrong" or you're not happy with stuff.
I don't understand everything in the bible, or the strange laws in Moses days!! But I am learning to find God's heart rather than his "rules" (however people interpret them!) And I have questioned, doubted etc etc.
I'm not one of these Christians that preaches at people or forces it on people, or judges people etc. as I have - like I said - questioned and even hated God!! (Sorry if that offends any christians reading this!!)
An ex boyfriend of mine said he didn't used to believe in God until he met me, because he saw how real God was because he saw how angry I was with God!!! It caused him to go from being an athiest to believing there is a God.
Haha!

Legalism can kill (who and what we are - become dry and stagnant). Can also see it as "the letter killeth." The more we base our lives on strict laws and structure that we must "religiously" follow... the further we get from what the meaning of Christianity is.

We base our lives on patterns and habits and we can get stuck in "ruts" and addictions.

Christianity is not about strict ceremonial crap it's about the people. it's about God's love for His people. That's what i think we need to focus on...

James 1: 27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

i think anybody christian or not should change their focus from a self-centered, biased and extreme/closed-minded attitude to one where we can all progress rather than selfishly regress into a hopeless life.

@salsaqueen - also be careful. Along with our habits and patterns, the less we "renew our minds daily" and the less we "assemble together" with those we can help strengthen and in the same manner be encouraged and strengthened, the further we can drift from what we should be as Christians.

@heliologue - bring your contradictions i can show you otherwise.