Asklemmy

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."

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.

Yes. (lds)

No. But I am open to the possibility that we are all fractions of a superbeing that is the sum of the universe.

No

No

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.

I did once, for about nine months when I was 18.

Then an exorcism happened, I became doubtful and finally stopped believing.

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 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.

One single god God, perhaps what makes a god a god? I do believe we form a network or web of connected consciousness. Who's contained within this web and how interactions work on it is where it gets interesting.

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. 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.

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.

I've affirmed before that I do. But that was a long time ago, and I maintain the right to change my mind.

The most honest answer to the question is 'I don't really think 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?