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Do you believe in God?

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Do you believe God exists?
1) God is a being, that one can have a personal relationship. A person God. 30%  30%  [ 55 ]
2) God is an impersonal force that guides reality as it is. He decrees our laws of physics, but does not intervene to break them. 12%  12%  [ 22 ]
3) God does not exist. Reality can be explained by scientific inquiry and the scientific method in by itself. 33%  33%  [ 61 ]
4) I am not sure. There is the possibility that God does exist, or does not. We must follow the preponderance of evidence when drawing our conclusion. 26%  26%  [ 48 ]
Total votes : 186

appletheclown
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06 May 2016, 11:07 am

There is no way to know if God exists. There is all the faith in the world to believe God does indeed exist.


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07 May 2016, 8:27 pm

Even a small amount of faith ( perhaps as a mustard seed) can grow as the seed that becomes a tree that many a bird can find shelter.

One of the places I feel accepted is our neighborhood church.
Church's aren't for perfect folks.

I'm far from perfect.

"If we can't laugh at ourselves, others will beat us to it." :o :o :o :o
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:o :o :o :o :o


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AspE
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09 May 2016, 7:38 am

appletheclown wrote:
There is no way to know if God exists. There is all the faith in the world to believe God does indeed exist.

Unfortunately, because faith is fake knowledge.



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09 May 2016, 7:41 am

Really?! ...because I think that is a fake definition.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


AspE
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09 May 2016, 9:18 am

NoahYates wrote:
Really?! ...because I think that is a fake definition.

What else do you call believing in something absolutely without evidence, and even in spite of contrary evidence?



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09 May 2016, 9:28 am

Faith has its etymological roots in the latin 'fides', which means trust or confidence. You need reason and evidence to have faith.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


NoahYates
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09 May 2016, 9:33 am

I think you are confused. You are speaking of "blind faith," which is an entirely different concept that you can read up on.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


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09 May 2016, 9:57 am

NoahYates wrote:
Faith has its etymological roots in the latin 'fides', which means trust or confidence. You need reason and evidence to have faith.

That is clearly an equivocation fallacy. Religious faith is by definition blind faith.



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09 May 2016, 10:16 am

That is ridiculous... as we have already been over... you are prone to providing false definitions... you define God as the god of the gaps... and you say faith is blind faith... you are ontologically committed to the assumption that God does not exist. "Faith is by nature blind faith"... are you serious?! Again, you show your disrespect for theists as intellectuals, while simultaneously betraying your own superficial understanding.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


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09 May 2016, 10:31 am

I think the deal is this is just a buzz word that gets blown way out of proportion. The unwise atheist hears the word faith and thinks "absurd!" and shut their mind off in the same way that the unwise theist might hear the word evolution and say to themselves "absurd!" and shut their mind off. There is no such thing as religious faith apart from ordinary faith, except, of course, the magnitude of the implications of this particular act of trust.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


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09 May 2016, 10:43 am

And I will readily admit that vast amounts of religious people themselves share this misconception about faith and will directly provide the definition of blind faith when asked to define faith. Common misconception does not have any baring on truth.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


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09 May 2016, 11:04 am

Also... you like to accuse me of equivocating very often... but in order to talk about words you have to do the language dance Wittgenstein discussed. All words exist in a web of interconnections, in order to derive deeper meaning you have to basically just keep dancing around until the concepts align and that is where communication occurs. All language is fabricated and, if I might, *evolving. By going back to the etymological roots of the word, we can also see in the Greek that the word for faith is pistis, which was also synonymous with trust, confidence, persuasion, reliability, and fidelity.


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“In the same way that you see a flower in a field, it’s really the whole field that is flowering, because the flower couldn’t exist in that particular place without the special surroundings of the field; you only find flowers in surroundings that will support them. So in the same way, you only find human beings on a planet of this kind, with an atmosphere of this kind, with a temperature of this kind- supplied by a convenient neighboring star. And so, as the flower is a flowering of the field, I feel myself as a personing- a manning- a peopling of the whole universe. –In other words, I, like everything else in the universe, seem to be a center… a sort of vortex, at which the whole energy of the universe realizes itself- comes alive… an aperture through which the whole universe is conscious of itself. In other words, I go with it as a center to a circumference.”~ Alan Watts


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09 May 2016, 11:25 am

NoahYates wrote:
That is ridiculous... as we have already been over... you are prone to providing false definitions... you define God as the god of the gaps... and you say faith is blind faith... you are ontologically committed to the assumption that God does not exist. "Faith is by nature blind faith"... are you serious?! Again, you show your disrespect for theists as intellectuals, while simultaneously betraying your own superficial understanding.

I never defined god as a god of the gaps. The definition of god, and the way believers justify their belief with respect to science are two different things. If faith weren't blind it would be called evidence. If you want my respect as an intellectual, you have to earn it.



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09 May 2016, 11:34 am

AspE wrote:
If faith weren't blind it would be called evidence.


I don't quite understand this. Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?


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09 May 2016, 11:35 am

NoahYates wrote:
Faith has its etymological roots in the latin 'fides', which means trust or confidence. You need reason and evidence to have faith.


When I believed in god I had emotional evidence for it. Think that god is there and loves me and I felt loved.


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09 May 2016, 11:53 am

NoahYates wrote:
AspE wrote:
If faith weren't blind it would be called evidence.


I don't quite understand this. Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

If you have a reason for believing something, you don't need faith. Faith is the absence of reason.