Why Do You Believe Or Not Believe in God?
Recently I've read some high profile skeptic books such as Hitchens' "God Is Not Great" and Dawknins' "The God Delusion." Unfortunately for them, their works did not cause any crisis of faith and I'm quite content following Jesus, however I will acknowledge that their books were decent reads, though they did quite often vastly overstate their cases. But I enjoy reading such works, as well as theistic works by my favorite Christian authors and theologians. My question to anyone reading this is: Why do you believe in God, or why don't you? And if you care to follow it up, "Why do you believe in the specific tenets of your faith?" Let's hear your testimonies.
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About Me
- Bill Barnwell
- I am a 27 year old pastor in mid-Michigan and hold Master's degrees in both Ministry and Theology. I'm also a freelance writer on religious and cultural issues. Amongst places I have been featured or cited are: The American Conservative, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, Campus Report, EnterStageRight.com, The Washington Times, a high school textbook from Gale Publishing, and several college and university publications amongst other places. The views expressed on this page are solely my own. They do not reflect the views of any particular church, denomination or other entity.
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13 comments:
Hey,
I'm a Christian who is working on a series on Dawkins' book "The God Delusion" at my blog at:
http://michaelkrahn.wordpress.com/richard-dawkins/
There's already a good discussion underway. Join in!
Bill,
We can decide for ourselves. But in the end there is no other way.
I just blogged on this regarding Fred Thompson.
I suggest that the measurement we give him might be well applied to ourselves.
There are only 7 things that we must believe and act on to be saved.
Sorry. I retracted my previous comment because of the length.
It has been posted at JasonSidabras.com
I originally didn't want to post my blog site because I'm not trying to generate traffic here. I just wanted to answer your question. But it got too wordy. :)
I do not believe in God or any other supernatural being. There is no proof. Sure, the universe is awesome, and myself or any other human being did not create it, but this is as far as it goes. No one knows what caused life. Some people may use the Term God, as a loose term for the ultimate creator or the best possible. That is OK, as a figure of speech. For humans to attempt to speak for the so called Creator is ridiculous in my mind.
Richard Dawkins has a powerful analytical mind and, although combative, is a genuinely polite opponent. Although the tussle may be uncomfortable it is probably good training for Christians and other believers to engage with him.
That being said, I think Dawkin's scientific peers, have generally been his more effective critics. In particular I'd like to draw attention to the comments and observations made by Princeton Institute of Advanced Studies' physicist Freeman Dyson.
By any measure of the scientific pecking order Dyson is a more important and influential voice than Dawkins, who is essentially a highly capable science populariser working from a subsidised academic chair created for him by a wealthy fan. Dyson is the guy who got Einstein's office.
Dyson's religious views certainly are not theologically orthodox but he certainly doesn't regards God as a Delusion. For a sample of Dyson's comments see here.
When God, or whoever, finally shows up to talk to me like he allegedly did to people in the Bible, and I see and experience his hand in my life—not surmising or hoping or using illogical assumptions—then I will believe in him. Until then,
Reverend George Carlin is right when he says that"religion" is the biggest BS story on earth
Gene Redlin--
Of the 6.6 billion souls abiding on earth at the moment, estimates have it that 2.1 billion call themselves Christian. But of these, only a minority subscribe to all seven things "we must believe and act on to be saved." For instance, even a fair number of evangelical Christians might have difficulty with the notion that Jesus sits at the right hand of God the Father. If we take the assertion literally, where is the seat to be found? If we don't take it literally, have we fallen into an abyss of subjectivism?
But anyway, it seems a fair guess that worldwide a third or so of nominal Christians would fail to satisfy all seven criteria. Hence eternal damnation ("destruction") awaits over five billion souls abiding here today.
Many of these lead exemplary lives. Their ONLY failing is not to believe one of the seven items essential to avoidance of hell.
Hitchens intriguingly remarks that he does not so much object to the existence of God as he does to belief in the existence of God. That is, he says, suppose God does exist. What follows? Should one adore him, prostrate oneself before him, consider oneself a worm because one hasn't obeyed his every command or in a moment of annoyance took his name in vain or used a condom last night? Is the whole idea of abject surrender to the will of another--especially to one who at one his most splendid moments, towards the conclusion of Job, responds to fair questions with what comes down to mere bluster and blather, assertions of raw, albeit plenitudinous, power--is the whole idea of subordination and self-belittlement that inheres in theistic belief itself highly objectionable?
Certainly one can wonder whether it's not immoral and shameful to worship and adore, or even merely to respect and admire, a god, an evidently ruthless and cruel god, who would consign eighty percent of humanity to endless and quite considerable pain because of a failure to believe any one of seven assertions which insofar as their content can be deciphered at all are backed by a dearth of evidence. Even if the beliefs made sense and were backed by evidence, it would be monstrous to impose so disproportionate a punishment for a failure to subscribe to even one of them. Surely the god that devised such a scheme, if he or it or she existed, should be condemned and defied, not worshiped and obeyed.
I believe in the word of G_d,the messiah Yeshua son of David, who came, lived a sinless life, willingly gave his life for all, suffered and died being crucified, and three day's later rose from the dead. I am a Jew, from the line of Benjiman.
I have riddle for anyone who thinks Israel is a Jewish state...
Ham went and broke into Japheths house... stealing and putting on Japheth's clothes. He then went to the land of Canaan sounding and acting like Shem, putting Shem into slavery...what will be the outcome? Can one steal that which has been devoted to G_d?
For all you Hagee lovers, and pro-zion lovers, I must tell you that the entrance of the Russian jews is NOT the fulfillment of scripture, because the oldest and most well documented list of remnent Jews exist in Iran. They chose to stay in Persia after they were released to go back to their homes in Israel. Many, however chose to stay. Hagee has not cared for the neighbors of "Israel", caring for them, feeding them, clothing them or even offering a glass of water to them. Who are the neighbors? Palastine, Jordan, Iraq,Lebanon,Syria, IRAN. Real Jews who love G_d reject the state of "Israel." Understand this, it was formed by a people who have taken the name of G_d, who hate the Jewish people, with the sole intent of destroying not only the last real remnent of Judah and Benjiman, but also to destroy all religious. It will all be revealed very soon, and anyone who claims the "rapture theory" watch out, and get your doctrine straight.
The work of Achan is at work here, and all the sheep will graze in the Valley of Achor as the scriptures have said. There are many scriptures that have been quoted, but no one looks to the Valley of Achor.
Have we overlooked that which is truly important to G_d?
http://edenhadassah.googlepages.com
I am sure that there is a God, or possibly even Gods, since there are many things in the world that cannot really be explained by modern day science, or sometimes even general, rational thinking.
However, my beliefs over the years have traveled far from the beaten path that Christians seem to follow.
I believe in Good and Evil, and doing right over wrong. I would rather try a prayer of positive thoughts to the Universe at large, than simply direct my wants and needs to one single Divine Being.
Many things I believe are taken from other religions, and combined into something that works and makes sense to me.
I am fully open to new ideas, and tolerant to anyone who holds different beliefs than I do. I see no reason why my best friend may can't practice Wicca, while my taekwondo instructor is a hard core Christian, and my boyfriend is lost somewhere between atheism and Catholicism.
Certainly tolerance of others and their beliefs is one thing that everyone needs to learn.
I do believe in the teachings that Jesus taught in the Bible - for the most part at least. If I strip away alot of the extra bits that authors threw in, and re-interpret the verses for myself, then I can really see that He was one of the most Amazing people to have ever walked the Earth.
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