[Rodo]

I now proclaim myself the first truly believer of MY God, acknowledging this, "what I believe", is the only and ultimate truth.

May MY God have mercy on your souls sinners, for I will not.


EDIT: well that felt good, I know now why fanaticism is so spread out.

[qazwsx]

Steel obviously.

Nothing else in this world can you trust. Not men, not women, not beasts.

You must learn its riddle.

Starslayer, what is best in life?

To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

YES

Hot water, good dentistry and soft toilet paper

[iamzack]

I believe in ghosts and afterlife and such because it makes me feel better even though I know logically it's totally ridiculous to believe in something that is so obviously not real. (My life has sucked pretty hard and it's depressing to think this is the only one I'm getting. Reincarnation has the same appeal, but I really can't get behind any "learning lessons about life" bull**** religion turns it into.)

Didn't really believe in god for most of my childhood even though I lived in a religious town for the same reason I never believed in Santa Claus. Too many holes in the story for me to accept it no matter how emphatically my parents told me it was true.

But then I went to some bible camps when I was 13-14 and was heavily brainwashed until I did believed in the Christianist nonsense for a while until I snapped out of it. It was comforting to believe in a big sky daddy, but I got over it just like I got over the no sex until marriage silliness that was shoved down my throat by the religious indoctrination in middle school.

The end.

/serious

[Flipside]

In truth, I always liked a sort of mixture of Terry Pratchett, that death is just another step, and Sarek of Vulcan who coined the phrase 'Infinite possibility in Infinite Diversity'. It's nice to think that, in a Universe big enough for everything to happen in, that Everything happens in it at some point

To Quote Pratchett: "Belief cannot move mountains, but maybe it can create someone who can....'

[Ghostavo]

(blah blah blah) Fat Boy and Thin Man (blah blah blah)

That's Fat Man and Little Boy.  

I'm an atheist most probably for the reasons NGTM-1R described. It makes no logical sense that a being with the supposed power to reveal itself, wants us to believe in it without an proof.


Although, sometimes I'll just say I believe in greek/roman mythology just to mess with those who ask, whom I know are christian and whatnot. It's funny seeing them trying to say that what I "believe" is "not true" without undermining themselves.  

[rhettro]

I don't believe in a lot of things, but I do believe in duct tape.

[Nemesis6]

On the subject of afterlife, I can't say I believe in it, either, as much as I want to become something else. I draw the biggest comfort from idea of Transhumanism --- becoming something more than human, or just remaining human for longer thanks to Science, though I think having humans around longer would create a lot of problems, given the fact that we already have over-population problems, but I digress. The afterlife thing is one of the primary motivational factors of religion, and it's a powerful tool to control people with. Who would dare accuse a priest of pedophilia, knowing they'd risk losing what they believe is their only chance at an afterlife? You can talk about the good Christianity has brought you, but you're still a slave because you know what will happen if you lose faith; you'll go to hell and burn for all eternity. I don't think a God that loves us would do that. It sounds more like, as some people have pointed out, an evil tyrant, but when asking believers about this, I've heard that God doesn't WANT to send me to hell and that Jesus loves sinners, but that it's my own fault because God's judgement is always just. That's the reason the Westboro Baptist People talk about God killing the troops, killing celebrities, etc; they see those acts as God's acts, and the Bible says they have to love ALL God's actions.

Whenever I think about the future, it brings me comfort to think about the enormous progress we've made as a species already. By knowing the past, the future doesn't seem all that scary. I know I won't be a part of much of it, and that's just something I'll have to deal with. We can't really know what's going to happen in the future, but if you look up at the sky on a clear night, you'll get a pretty good idea of where we're headed. A little thing I think about often is that on clear nights, you can actually look up at the sky and see others galaxies, albeit very faintly. It's one thing to see the beautiful pictures from Hubble, VISTA, and the VLT(Very Large Telescope), it's something completely different actually to actually see one with your own eyes.

[Turambar]

there is nothing supernatural.

[Aardwolf]

there is nothing supernatural.

Aw dang, there's a good quote from House but I don't remember how it goes.

It was something about things that are impossible tend not to exist. Or somesuch.

[Kosh]

I'm a Pastafarian.





Only the FSM has all the answers.

[redsniper]

I believe in a thing called love.

[Goober5000]

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth;
and in Jesus Christ his only son, our Lord;
who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;
on the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty,
from where he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

[karajorma]

Funny thing is that your answer tells us the same amount as simply saying "I'm a Christian", i.e not a lot. There are so many people with completely opposing viewpoints who could have said the same thing as you did.

[Jeff Vader]

I believe in a thing called love.

Apart from that, I believe there are forces beyond our understanding in the universe. And I find it hard to believe any religion would be "right". That being said, I don't judge anyone who follows a religion/has other beliefs, as long as they're not trying to shove their views down my throat. In return, I don't try to force my views on anyone.

Be cool and try to get along. Life will be easier.

[qazwsx]

I feel indifferent to those who believe in a god, however, I personally do not believe in anything supernatural and I feel fine with people worshiping something in a peaceful way.

But if there's one thing I hate, it's when religion interferes with the growth and education of anyone, especially children.

[Herra Tohtori]

Either everything is divine (universe == god, if you want to call it as such), or nothing is.

Basically either universe is conscious of itself, or it isn't. I'm inclined to assume the latter until there's some evidence of the former, but I can't entirely deny the possibility.

Personal deities depicted in most religions I interpret to being either real, very powerful beings living in the universe, or stories (inclined to assume the latter, but even in case of former I wouldn't call them divine or gods).

So, I don't consider any religion to have divine origins as such. Either all is divine (no need for religions as you're part of what forms the universal consciousness) or nothing is (no need for religions period). Ethics doesn't arise from divine sources either. Morality even less.

If you were to need a classification to my view of the world, I would say I'm an agnostic who sees two options, atheism or pantheism as potentially valid, and leaning on atheism due to lack of evidence to support pantheistic view of world. I wouldn't call this a "belief" though, as it is a result of logical consideration of the world around me.

Note that universe being conscious of itself wouldn't really change anything as such. It would simply open the door to questions like does this conscience take active part in "itself"... which is a whole another can of worms.

[rhettro]

I'm agnostic, because I can't commit to anything.  LOL  I tend to believe that a rational scientific approach to things give the best results, but the limitations of our own physicality, meaning our short life span and our five senses, put a cap on what we can really know about the universe and the here after.  Much like an ameba will never be a great plastic surgeon, man will never understand everything.  Generally accepted scientific concepts sound like supernatural events.  Like the entire universe being smaller than an electron at the beginning of the big bang.  Think of the concentration of energy at that single point, where did it originate from?  Also consider, in the past we were all dead, and now we are all here, so if we were dead before and are here now could we live again after our coming death?  I have no idea. 

[NGTM-1R]

meaning our short life span and our five senses, put a cap on what we can really know about the universe and the here after.

I feel constrained to point out that every time you read a book, or a forum post, and use a TV remote you are making this statement more stupid.

We have long since transcended being dependent on our senses for the observation of the universe. Similarly, knowledge is not always or even usually lost with the death of the knower. If you mean that humanity, collectively, cannot know everything I see absolutely no reason to believe you. If you mean that one man cannot know everything, you're right.

So far. But we're working on that too.

[General Battuta]

One very serious and very scary concern currently circulating in the scientific community (particularly cosmology) is the notion that some vital information we need to understand the universe may already be behind an event horizon. 

[Snail]

One very serious and very scary concern currently circulating in the scientific community (particularly cosmology) is the notion that some vital information we need to understand the universe may already be behind an event horizon. 

Rly? How long ago did we pass this event horizon? Millions of years?