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Do you believe in God

Do you believe in God

  • Yes

    Votes: 96 44.4%

  • No

    Votes: 120 55.6%
  • Total voters
    216
mrqs said:
those would be the people who still believe in god :p

/j
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I believe in God, just not a large man sitting on a cloud with a long beard.

aiz4andy said:
I don't think children should be taught religion (indoctrined) at all. I t takes away their freedom of choice and teaches them to believe without evidence, or accept without question.

It also teaches them some pretty messed up morality.

As for the rest of what you wrote, again we are not only down to interpretation but also spin and supposition. It gets worse.

And what you said about it being necessary in times gone by, if there is a God - surely he should have been able to deliver a message that would span all ages, and if not then be able to deliver regular OTA updates?

Maybe this god is a dev who has given up on his app?
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Again, personification.

Jammy said:
I think that children should be taught about all religions, but in an educational way, rather than an indoctrinatory way. It is a very important part of our history and culture.
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I agree. In fact although my wife and myself are Christians because we believe in Jesus and live according to his teaching our daughter has not been baptised a Christian because we want her to make her own choice when she is old enough to understand. We also don't feed her meat until she is old enough to understand where it comes from and then make her own decision (I eat meat, my wife doesn't).
 
Yeah, I'll agree with that too. I don't mind the teaching of religions as a whole, just like teaching Geography - but teaching a children what to believe leaves a nasty taste in my mouth.

(No catholic priest jokes, please!)
 
bluenova - didn't God create man in his own image?

Didn't he send his son down as one of us?

Isn't his son also him, and he his own father?

I think the Bible and the Church(es) have done a pretty good job at personification of God. Could you point out which part of the Bible you have taken your philosophy from , and if it is the Bible, then is this just not further twisting a book to your own agenda which has already been done countless times over the centuries?

Well done on your daughter, though - my two children will not be baptised. They are welcome to when they are older if they choose, and I'll support them.

Like you, we are also a vegetarian household. We keep chickens and grow food so they know where it comes from. When they are old enough they are welcome to buy and eat as much meat as they like (just not in the house!).

The way I look at it is that I won't feed my kids anything that I won't eat myself, but once they are old enough to make their own decision it is up to them what they do.
 
aiz4andy said:
bluenova - didn't God create man in his own image?

Didn't he send his son down as one of us?

Isn't his son also him, and he his own father?
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That is what the bible says yes, but all of these statements say to me that we are one with God. Jesus introduced the idea of the Holy Spirit which is basically what I believe, a force that connects all nature.

Jesus said that he is man but at the same time he is God, he also said God lives in all of us. The NT also says that God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the same thing (Trinity, three in one). It all points to a force that connects everything.

aiz4andy said:
I think the Bible and the Church(es) have done a pretty good job at personification of God. Could you point out which part of the Bible you have taken your philosophy from , and if it is the Bible, then is this just not further twisting a book to your own agenda which has already been done countless times over the centuries?
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I'm not great at quoting the bible, I find it hard to give specific references as I don't remember every chapter and verse number, I just know what I've read and what I took away from it. I agree that the Old Testament personifies God quite a bit but the New Testament (written in a new age) doesn't.

I don't think I'm twisting it to my own agenda, I've just taken what I've read as a whole and applied by own judgement to it, which is exactly what Jesus wanted the listener to do as he spoke his parables.
 
I hate to quote the bible because it makes me feel preachy but as Andy asked, I've found a couple of quotes that relate to my understanding...

When Jesus was being attacked by the Jews because they believed he claimed to be 'the God', the personified God from the Old testament...

John 10:30-38
30I and the Father are one."
31Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, 32but Jesus said to them, "I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?"
33"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God."
34Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your Law, 'I have said you are gods'[a]? 35If he called them 'gods,' to whom the word of God came—and the Scripture cannot be broken— 36what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, 'I am God's Son'? 37Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. 38But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father."

Jesus is referring to Psalm 82v6 'I have said, You are gods; and all of you are children of the most High.'

He is trying to point out that he can call himself God because it states in their own scripture that we are all God i.e. God is everything and everyone.

This is one of many references throughout the bible that God suggests God is a force connecting us all.
 
I honestly don't see how that passage supports your case.

For one it relies on the old scriptures which do personify God - not forgetting the many conversations that are recorded there between God and others.

Plus Jesus himself personifies God on many more occasions when he prays (who is he praying to if not himself?), he calls out on the cross about being forsaken by his father, and does he not sit at the right hand of God in Heaven?

He is trying to point out that he can call himself God because ......
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Its statements like this that get me, though. Who are you to tell me what somebody else was trying to do? Especially when reading from a book undergoing numerous translations after being modified after being passed down by word of mouth.

....and then putting your own spin on it.
 
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