Why can someone believe in God and accept him without question?

Why is is level headed and normal to not accept the Story of God?

I as a “level headed normal” person DO accept God. Yay diversity!

And to be clear.. it’s natural for mankind to question things.. even people who believe in God..
I also have questions about physics.. math and science.. and I still believe those exist as well.

@NaturalMineralWater Cheers! Me Too!

lol

No. I as a level headed person who embraces science and logic, do not see any need for a God to exist. At the same time, as long as people who do see the need for a God to exist keep their beliefs to themselves, I have no qualms with them.

In the past, before we developed our knowledge of science and the way the world works, the answer of “oh, God made it that way” was an answer that satisfied the question and allowed the person to continue living their life. The alternative, saying “we don’t know” could lead to one’s life being stopped while one examines one’s purpose… and when you only live to 50 if you’re lucky, and all sorts of creatures are attacking your village, or you need to work to live, putting a stop on your life is a bad thing indeed.

But nowadays we have the answers to a lot of questions that were attributed to God in the past. These answers have been developed over observations of the universe, and some are still theories, but any theory is better than sitting on your hands and saying “God did it”. That’s like buying a 1000piece puzzle, where a scientist starts putting it together but the other person just looks at the picture on the box and says ‘well it already existed because of God, why should I try to figure it out?’ Who made the Earth? It was made randomly as a result of the Big Bang, just like everything else in the universe. Who made humans? We were made randomly, over millions and millions of years. Who made the proteins that form the basis for the first cell? It happened randomly based on the elements in the world, the dispersal of which was caused by the Big Bang as well as time and the random way our planet settled. Who started the Big Bang? I personally believe one of two things, one, that it’s a neverending cycle, that eventually the universe will stop expanding and will start contracting until the Big Bang occurs again and gives the next universal generation a chance to exist; or two, this is its only occurrence and is itself a freak random chance. What’s beyond that? I have no idea. But I do know it plays no relevance in my life whatsoever, so I enjoy that last mystery, just as I enjoy the mystery of death.

If anyone wants to attribute God to any of the points above, or any other points they can think of, fine, so be it. My purpose in writing these words is not to convert any of you who believe in a god. My purpose is to show how God plays absolutely no role in my life whatsoever, and that I find it incredibly offensive and ridiculous when people use their God/their Book/their Message to justify anything affecting other people than themselves, especially persecution or rights-denying of others such as with gay marriage.

God plays no part in my life, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It forces the burden of my success and my failures directly onto my shoulders, and I appreciate that. If you feel OK with your life, that is all that matters. You should make your happiness one of the top things in your life, and that doesn’t mean you need to conform to whatever other people think of you, cause if you try to do that, you’ll spend your entire life conforming and never being who you really are.

Questioning is a natural part of faith and it is my personal opinion that anyone who says they believe without question is either lying or deluding themselves. Even the strongest believers have moments of doubt – that’s where faith comes in. Mother Teresa spent her entire life in service to God, yet had her moments of questioning. That’s why I believe independent investigation and constant deepening are imperative.

Personally I believe in God. I believe that nothing plus nothing equals nothing and even if one goes all the way back to the big bang or primordial soup, or any other theories of the world’s creation, something had to have set things in motion, to me that something is God.

@dynamicduo, believing in God does not mean I place the burden for my success or failure on anyone’s shoulders but my own. I feel ok with my life and I understand that I am responsible for my own actions good and bad, successful and failed. If anything, my beliefs cause me to hold myself to a higher standard of personal responsibility for my happiness, my success, my contentment.

It has never been “normal” (defined as “representative of the majority”) for people to exclude the spiritual from their world view. If, by “level-headed”, you mean a head that harbors no irrational elements, I don’t know any of those.

@dynamicduo Nicely put.

@mineralNo amount of Bibles will convince me of a Gods existance.
However you seem a gullible type so i would like to inform you that you owe me the tidy sum of $1000,000.
Now i know that you owe me it and so do all the people i know yet you may need to question the debt.
However stick with me and my friends and eventually you WILL believe you owe me.Oh a questioning mind!

@dynamicduo – so you are perfectly okay with yourself enjoying the last mysteries outside of what can be rationally and scientifically explained, but you think other people are less evolved because they put God into their mystery space?

My belief doesn’t require me to substitute scientific facts for God.
Why does a belief in God mean that you will spend you whole life conforming and never being who you really are?

This is one of those debates that pretty much lead nowhere. I understand the need for some folks to believe in gods. I understand that some of us see no reason for god to exist at all. Sometimes, the proselytizers come across as ignorant because they assume that nonbelievers are misinformed, uninformed, or (my personal favorite), angry at a deity for the bad things to happen in life. Pissed at god because I didn’t get that pony as a child, or because someone in my family died when I was young. It makes about as much sense to me to be pissed at the moon because it isn’t made out of green cheese. (All I have to do now is find the Saltine Cracker planet, and I’m set).

My studies of history show that there are approximately 2,500 known gods in human history. At one time or another, people believed that only ONE of those thousands was the one true god, and they believed it for thousands of years. Same with the Christians and the Muslims today. They believe their particular deity is the only ONE TRUE god, and that a belief in any of the others is erroneous and many believe that you should die for your error. Looked at from a historical perspective, that strikes me as ‘stupid.’ Not that believers are stupid, but that their lack of an overall view of man’s attempt to define his world by placing the cause of all things mysterious at the feet of a deity is very narrow and close-minded.

The people that annoy me the most are creationists. Rather than proving the reasons and providing the evidence for their god creating the world and the universe especially for humans, they instead attack the theory of evolution and the scientific community in general, as if proving evolution wrong automatically proves their assumption that “God did it.” A common fallacy known as the “either/or argument” much like the other common one “Arguing from ignorance.”

So let’s say they are right; God did do it. Which God? We have 2,500 to pick from, let’s put em all in a hat and pull one out, totally at random. Can you imagine their surprise when the name picked out is Tezcatlipoca or Mithra or Ashur?! A hundred bucks says the believers ask for a ‘do-over.’

But to answer your question, believing in something beats believing in nothing. As an atheist, I believe in a lot of things, but none of them happen to be gods.

@evelyns_pet_zebra Quality pure Quality.

@zerocarbon: My life seems pretty ok and the people who i socialise with some have a real bad time with “God“in their lives.

Ha ha! I lurve that comment! It’s priceless. I think in answer to your question, it’s because there are so many “rules” and “regulations” in accepting God in one’s life, that it’s a little harder to comply to those policies. That’s why life’s a little harder when you have a “God” looking over your shoulder, in a sense.

I love your question, by the way.

@dynamicduo

Can you prove any of the things you’ve mentioned in your half-novel long response?
I seriously doubt that you can.

@fireside

Nice one!
Lurved!

When you’re a Jet,
You’re a Jet all the way
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin’ day.

@zerocarbon: I accept your existence without question, even though I have seen a lot more evidence of God’s existence than of yours. Would it be rational and level-headed for me to deny your existence? Would my denial of your existence cause you to no longer exist?

@cwilbur…The real question is, “Why is it so important that zerocarbon knows this?”.

@zerocarbon…<Take the above statement and reverse the usernames>

@cwilbur you accept my existence because i interact with you.
Tell me the last time you interacted with God(evidence please)infact no evidence required let me enjoy the story.

@zerocarbon You should check out my other question .. because you seem to fit the bill.. completely unprovoked causticity ftw. It’s a little disheartening that two people seemed to agree with your causticity .. I would think that no matter what you believed a little common courtesy would be in order.. but it’s fine.. if only you knew how faith affirming it is

I hope you and your God can forgive my quip.

Maybe you have no need to believe in God. I don’t know if God exists (because really, how can any of us know for sure?), but I choose to believe because… well… [scratches head] I guess because I don’t want to feel like life is just random. I do however disagree with organized religion, so, go figure.

People of faith have questions.

@NaturalMineralWater I don’t see any causticity in his responses. I see a firm conviction of what he chooses to believe, or not to believe, in the case of the existence gods. It’s funny (not to belabor the obvious) that when a nontheist expresses a firm opinion in the nonexistence of gods, they are accused of being arrogant or angry, or (pick any adjective you like) but when theists express a devout belief in gods, it is attributed to a strong form of faith. Sometimes it seems like there is a double standard happening.

I would never tell you that what you believe is wrong, even though I’ve had plenty of thesits tell me the exact same thing about what I believe. If what you believe works for you, good. I might roll my eyes about it, but its’ not my place to say what you believe is wrong. No one has the right to say that when it comes to personal beliefs.

That is why I say that these types of debates are pretty much pointless. Believers will not give up their faith in gods and nonbelievers will not stop saying they don’t need a god. Sheesh, look at the double negatives in that sentence.

The reasons for belief are as varied as the reasons for not believing, and on both sides, some just seem ignorant. I’m not saying anyone here is ignorant, I’m saying that some of the reasons we all have for what we take as truth aren’t as well thought out as they could be.

People are free to believe what they wish, for whatever reason makes sense to them. Arguing about it is not fair to either side. Arguing about it is a complete waste of time.

Are you calling me ignorant? You wanna fight about it? : P

@evelyns_pet_zebra did you not see him call me gullible and insult my intelligence? xD I want my red crayon back!

Hmm, I missed that, sorry, must have been selective reading. I don’t think you are gullible and I wouldn’t ever intentionally insult your intelligence.

@evelyns_pet_zebra No worries. =D

To answer the question.

It’s easier. When anyone has the choice over fact or fanciful delusion, most will pick delusion. Why should I actually think about how something works when I can just proclaim how it works, regardless of all the evidence to the contrary. Wouldn’t it be easier for me to just say, “Taxes don’t really exist” and ignore all of the letters from the IRS. Sure easier, but at what cost is the question.

My opinion is if we continue to pollute science, logic and reason with the ability to also believe in the absence of evidence we will reap the rewards by having every generation from here on out less and less interested in knowing how things work, and more interested in telling people how they work.

So again to answer the question. Cuz it’s easier for most (but luckily harder for a few)

@Noon

Agreed.
Except that, there are actually true and ultimate evidences that God does exist.

@archaeopteryx – sorry, I don’t need to prove anything to you of all people. And I’m sorry you feel my answer is too long for your likings. I guess the novels you read are pretty small :(

@Noon “When anyone has the choice over fact or fanciful delusion, most will pick delusion”
Really? You think so? I totally disagree. I don’t believe in santa clause anymore despite how fanciful a delusion it may be.

How is it that we are “polluting science”? Are you saying that those with beliefs somehow create a bias for all of science, logic, and reason? Those who believe in something lose all grasp of common sense? You’re talking about apples and oranges here.

People of faith do not choose to live by faith illogically

@NaturalMineralWater
Faith is by definition illogical. I need not belabor that point. And yes, I feel as though it pollutes science. Any time you teach someone that you should/can/need to believe something wholly, unwaveringly, without evidence or with specific evidence to the contrary, you are polluting their ability to make logical unbiased observations.

@archaeopteryx
Oh totally, don’t get me wrong, I have true and ultimate evidence that taxes do in fact not exist. However Our Lady of the Immaculate Deduction has chosen to make her presence known to only a select few. And if you would only open your heart to her great Ledger of Mercy, she would show you how you too can liberate yourself from the tax paying hell of modern society.

@archaeopteryx I call bullsh*t. There is no “true and ultimate evidences” of God.

@Noon I don’t know what dictionary you’re using.. but if you continue using it as a reference I’m wasting my time responding. xD

@NaturalMineralWater
“Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.” – American Heritage Dictionary

And yes, before you start copy and pasting the other definitions that relate to faith in god and christ, those are part of the definition too. If you are comfortable sharing a word that means proof without logic and evidence, for the belief in your lord and savior, that’s fine by me.

@Noon I love conversations where there is such a drastic difference of opinion so I thank you for the continued correspondence.. and I want to ensure you that nothing I type ANYWHERE on fluther is intended to be insulting or degrading in any way.. despite my sarcastic nature.. I just wanted to make sure you knew that. =D
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Why do you suppose there is more than one definition? Which one applies to my faith? It’s a bit too bold to drop all those other definitions in favor of the one that pounds your point home. (especially when the definition doesn’t say faith is illogical.. only that it doesn’t require evidence.. a definition I don’t happen to agree with anyway.. I have all manner of empirical evidence which is quite logical indeed)

If faith were not logical to me I wouldn’t have any… but of course.. then we may be going into different definitions of “logical”.. a dictionary game I’m loathe to play.

“Any time you teach someone that you should/can/need to believe something wholly, unwaveringly, without evidence or with specific evidence to the contrary, you are polluting their ability to make logical unbiased observations.”
I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. Faith isn’t something taught in schools.. and it’s certainly not prevalent in the world today imho. Should we squash diversity to bolster the speed of scientific progress? You think that would actually work? Who are these scientists to which you refer who just can’t seem to get out of church? xD What’s the deal with Christian scientists? If it’s true that faith creates a bias it would seem to be equally true that the lack of faith creates a bias as well. Sorry for all the questions.. I just don’t buy your premise.

As I’ve mentioned in many other “threads” ...people of faith do not believe wholly or unwaveringly .. they have doubts, questions, convictions, affirmations on a constant spin cycle.

@syz
I haven’t forced you to believe it, but hey guess what, the “ultimate evidence that God exists” is actually everywhere around you. It you who blinded him/herself from seeing it.

@Noon
Actually I’m not Christian. With all due respect to Christians though. :)

@dynamicduo
Well, my friend, guess what, I don’t need you to prove or disprove anything, I’m just telling you, as well as all everyone else here, that even if you try to disprove the existence of God, that you’re gonna fail to do that.. Epically.

Oh, and by the way, it doesn’t matter how many people will actually buy what you’re gonna say, because this is never a measurement of what’s true or false.

@archaeopteryx if you are not a Christian, are you religious and what do you affiliate with? Just curious.

@miasmom

I am Muslim, and yes, I am religious. :-)