Are you capable of believing in God?

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I'm not. I haven't been able to since about age seven.

I see so much talk about religion every day, I've never seen so much before I was online constantly, hooked up to social networking and everything.

The debates do get a little annoying but it's because I TRULY do not understand it. Sometimes I want to join in the debates because I do stand by my beliefs, but I'm not at all passionate about them, so I don't.

I believe in evolution because it's science, and it makes sense. Plain and simple. for this reason, I wonder if I should really think that I'm entitled to participate in any religious debates. How can I argue that my beliefs are right if I truly cannot see the other side of the argument? I understand WHY people believe in God, but I could never truly empathize with them or know what's it's like to believe in something that you can't prove, so am I really fit to argue that their views are wrong? If I can't make the connections myself, how would I know any better? I think you need to be able to truly understand both sides of an argument to male an informed decision, so my decision really isn't all that informed, it's just there.

Anyway, just a short rant, I guess. I see a lot of my good friends that I respect getting into these debates and I am like O________________O

It's a non-issue for me, I feel the same way about being an atheist that I do about not liking Cheerios.

Anyone else?

Well, some persons have defined God as the greatest idea anyone has ever invented.

About as close to the idea of God I've found is along the lines of a horseshoe magnet which attracts and repels.

God is often viewed in terms of:

Light vs darkness
Good vs evil
Pure water vs polluted water

From the point of view of the religion known as Christianity, this religious science fiction movie tends to spell out traditional Biblical Christian beliefs (my view):

http://www.pilgrimsprogressthemovie.com/ (John Bunyan)(religious fiction movie based on a dream)

About defining faith (another fictional movie)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_of_Faith_(film)

---

http://www.beliefnet.com

Are non-profit religions of all kinds wrapped up with recent USA White Houses (Obama, Bush, Jr.)?

Yes - in a big way.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_off ... tnerships/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism

Personally, have found it a little amusing that Harry Potter is a practicing Wizard from Hogwarts who also celebrates Christmas too at Hogwarts.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Pott ... tone_(film)

In the large department of world religions, have no answers.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Flanders

Capable? Yes. But mostly I'm agnostic. I'm agnostic about evolution too. I have not seen enough to convince me.

But we do all need belief and purpose.

Yep, capable.

I've looked at the issue from every side that I could and I can make the intellectual connections, and understand why people believe, but I could never even begin to believe it myself.

My brain just won't make those kinds of connections. It's like someone telling me that the sky is purple...I don't think I'm cool for not believing LOL I really just can't do it.

I am capable. I grew up in Christianity and didn't reject it till I was 16.

No.....I can't wrap my mind around the concept of an omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent personal god.


I do believe there MAY be some form of non-material/physical consciousness (one my better definitions for the word "spirit" or "spiritual") however, but I have nothing but a million theories about that and I remain grounded in scientific materialism.

Nor can I wrap my mind around certain things often associated with a belief in the sort of personal god in question.

That would include the belief in free will which is something even many atheists (and this belief among atheists/materialists is something else I can't wrap my mind around) believe in.


I also consider myself a rabid anti-theist since I find the very concept of an omnipotent,omniscient and omnibenevolent personal god revolting considering the world we live in. Beyond that....I won't get started on my feelings about religion and spirituality in general as this is not the forum for that.

Yes, me too.....I really don't think I'm capable of believing in a God. Maybe in an allegorical sense, but not literally as in a real, thinking being. If I know I believe a thing, I'm already admitting that I don't know for sure, it just means that I feel it to be likely and that FOR THE TIME BEING I want to act as if it's definite. But it seems that deities demand belief in them for life - or more accurately, their mortal devotees demand that from each other, purportedly on the deity's behalf. I'd always be open to new info that could change my belief, which I guess wouldn't quite cut it with them.

My estranged wife is religious and sometimes expressed sorrow at being unable to share it with me. It saddened me as well, knowing we couldn't share something that's so obviously a huge part of her world. But if you simply don't think there's a god, you won't "get it," indeed there's nothing to get.

I'm afraid that the only way I can make sense of religion is from the starting point that it's incorrect. I'm tempted to post my explanations of why so many people believe something that just isn't so, but religion is a thorny subject and experience has taught me that what seems to me to be a sincere, peaceful explaination of why I'm not religious will be picked up by many believers as an attempt to invalidate their chosen way. I still remember the day I realised that my wife was seeing my comments that way, and that I was only doing damage with them.....so I stopped, and all the anxiety and hurt feelings about that issue vanished, never to return.

I can believe in him if I want to but I choose not to. I don't think he is real.

I can believe in other things too like Santa Claus or the Easter bunny or the tooth fairy.

"Alice laughed: "There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
[from Alice in Wonderland].

I haven't found myself capable, though the desire is there...

[quote="bonuspoints"]I haven't found myself capable, though the desire is there...[/quote

Exactly.

there have been times when I really could have benefited from religion and I do like some aspects of certain religions, a lot. I even enjoy some church services.

I've had to learn other ways of coping but I still think that I'm not as fulfilled as many religious people in some ways.

If someone proved that god exists, I'd have no choice but to accept it. But that'll never happen, so no, in the same way I don't believe the Earth is flat, I don't believe in god.

I used to be capable of believing in god, can't anymore. Like the OP, I couldn't believe anymore when I was seventeen.

"God is Superman and I am kryptonite."
-TheAmazingAtheist

The idea of a god seemed plausible to me when I was younger, but at that point I didn't really know enough to come to a sensible conclusion, or perhaps it was merely the fact that I wouldn't doubt what I was told by parents, adults, etc. about the nature of the universe.

Nowadays, the idea of a god sounds absurd to say the least, so I would probably say I'm more or less incapable of believing in a god.

In some ways, it seems strange to me to even debate the existence of such a being.
Debating the existence of (for example) intelligent extraterrestrial life seems reasonable, but debating the existence of a
magic, invisible, unprovable, hyper-intelligent being? That seems, to me, somewhat ridiculous...

I believe, although I am not very religious. My idea of world and what place God has in it is near, for example, to Robert Monroe's books about reincarnation. So "God" for me is not somebody, who can punish for bad deeds or give a cake for good.. it's a being who created a world, a school for us humans.
I accept the idea that God exists from both logical and intuitive point of view. As I sometimes say jokingly, "M-theory" is the best prove for me, that God exists - who else does need 11 dimensions, where 7 of them never would be seen))
I reject traditional religions because by many people they are used to avoid responsibility, but I have a deep feeling in my soul, that God exists, and wants us to study new things, to develop our mind and cultivate our consciousness. And to do good deed how we understand them, and be responsible of its results, of course.

There are two types of Gods from my experience. The literal God and the religious God.

The literal God would be the universe and the laws the govern it. Mother nature is an equivalent word for the literal God. I spend all my energy on learning about the literal God.

Now, the religious God does not manifest in physical reality but it manifests in people's psyche. That is why charisma and heavy emotion is almost always more important in swaying and keeping followers than actual proof of its existence.

Based on having autism, it is now obvious that I would have trouble accepting or knowing the God that mainly manifests as a group mentality. Also, my inability to connect with other people's emotions makes it so I cannot ingrain the God in my psyche alongside the group.

So no, the very nature of being autistic, makes me incapable of believing in God.