Do you believe in some sort of God(s)?

[NotFadeAway]

I'm a very devout Christian.

[IronUnkind]

Yes. But you knew that already.

[PokerFink]

I do not believe in god. A lot of people think I'm Jewish (my family is) and I often find myself correcting them. I am from a Jewish heritage, but I am most definitely not Jewish.

Thousands of years ago, the ancient Egyptians worshipped many gods. They also believed in an extensive afterlife, and that you could take your possessions with you to the afterlife. Today, ancient Egyptian religion is considered wrong and no one practices it. If you went around worshipping the Egyptian sun god, people would think you're crazy. Instead, people pracitice other religions like Christianity and Judaism and Islam that have also been around thousands of years and worship different gods.

Everyone believes that their own religion is right. The most obvious truth, to me, is that all of them are wrong.

With that said, I usually don't have a problem with people who are religious. If it makes you happy, then great, do it. If I marry a woman who is religious and she wants our children to be raised Catholic (or whatever), then I will let her, but I will not participate. It's not important to me. But in all liklihood I will marry a woman who is not religious either.

[amplify]

Sorry to tell you this bud, but you're Jewish.

[traz]

Like a couple others here, I believe in "God", but not in the traditional religious sense. I certainly do not subscribe to organized religion, though I was born catholic.

I do believe that there is a force out there far greater than myself. I don't think he's judging me based on whether I follow the 999 rules that the church lays out for me.

[amplify]

Sorry traz, you're Jewish too.

[Josey_Wales]

I do not. I think because humans have reason and logic, most of us have to believe in something bigger than we. Also, the mystery of death and that which happens in the so-called afterlife has spawned all these variations of religion. Most people do not want to believe that this is it. They want to believe that their existence means something more than just living and dying. This is ego or self-important thinking. If that helps them get through the day, I have no problem with it. Just don't try to cram your beliefs down my throatwhich is what I think a lot of devout religious people do.

[gumpzilla]

[ QUOTE ]
I believe in great mystery around the origin of the big bang and why there's something instead of nothing. I mean as a physics major, it just makes no sense. EVERYTHING in the universe should be a zero-sum game. Why is there energy? How can SOMETHING come from NOTHING? Even if there's some equal and opposite parallel universe, it still takes positive energy to split the two and create these states of flux that we live in.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could, of course, apply the same reasoning to God. While I think attempts at logically disproving the existence of god(s) are gauche, they are convincing enough to me that I don't really believe in one. (EDIT: This isn't quite right; a better way to put it is that the arguments for god(s) seem obviously silly to me, and absent a strong argument for I don't feel the need to believe.) It is certainly possible that one exists, but I behave as if one doesn't.

For those of you who believe in higher powers with no religious implications: what would you say is the point of this belief? Does it have one?

[Go_Blue88]

[ QUOTE ]
CMI,

I believe in a higher power. I believe that there's something bigger than us in the universe. I believe that there's something behind the feelings of universal rights and wrongs and moral codes we have beyond just collective consciousness over time. What that "thing" is, though, is something I don't pretend to have any ability to figure out. For lack of any better way to represent this concept that I believe in, I'll call it God.

[/ QUOTE ]

my thoughts on this subject are pretty similar to this post. however, i'd add that believing in some sort of higher power makes life feel less lonely and stupid. so i guess pragmatically, it is better for me to believe that there is a higher power than that there is not a higher power.

[Boomhauer]

I don't believe that God exists, but if I did it certainly wouldn't be in the Abrahamic God of the Bible (new or old testament), or Koran.

For an interesting read on the subject, read the God Delusion by Richard Dawkins which points out why God is not needed, why God almost certainly does not exist, and explores the roots of religion among cultures. link to wikipedia

Of those religious, how many are the religion of your parents?