My Views on Religion

reply to post by Itisnowagain


Please rephrase your reply because I didn't get the point you are trying to make.

reply to post by danielsil18


You say God does not exist because there is no proof. I say God (the word used in the Bible) is presence.
Presence is all there ever is but there is a belief in other than present - past and future. Can you prove there is a past and future now?

God is 'that which is'. 'That which is' is what is here now existing - it is ungraspable but the mind tries to make sense of it by using concepts. Words arise now that tell of other (past/future) than this which is.
The stories told in words are believed but what they arise in is missed.
This is God.

Originally posted by seeker82
reply to post by UnBreakable

 

I believe your definition of faith is considerably off. Faith is not a necessarily a religious word. Faith is "belief without proof". Keep in mind you BELIEVE that there is no God, but you have no PROOF that there is no God. Therefore you have faith that there is no God.

Also, you mention you don't belittle religions.... however you describe faith as a buzzword and imply it promotes laziness, both negative words. I hope this arrogance comes from being "belittled" by the very religious over your lifetime. I suggest whenever the extremely religious (assuming Christian) challenge your atheism, you should remind them that they have the same amount of PROOF that you do, zero.

If they say there are billions of Christians in the world that can back them up....remind them there are billions of people who believe something very different then they do. en.wikipedia.org...

Having a bit of humility, on both sides of the argument, will go a long way in OUR search for truth.

BTW - I'm an agnostic theist.

1) Nowhere in my original post did I claim to be an atheist. I'm in fact an agnostic. Just because I eschew an organized religion doesn't make me atheistic, I am spiritual. I never claimed to have 'proof' for or against. I just don't like people telling me that God definitely exists because they don't have proof either, only faith.

2) I never said 'faith' was a religious word only. I'm only saying organized religion throw the word around.

My favorites quotes while i was growing up:

"i passed the Exams!" "thank god for it!"

"i failed the exams!" "you didn't study hard enough!"

Originally posted by luciddream
My favorites quotes while i was growing up:

"i passed the Exams!" "thank god for it!"

"i failed the exams!" "you didn't study hard enough!"

My favorite quote I heard way back "It's times like this I thank God I'm an atheist."

reply to post by UnBreakable

Just because I eschew an organized religion doesn't make me atheistic, I am spiritual.

One can be an atheist and still be spiritual. My spirituality stems from an appreciation for the mathematical artistry of this reality, not from the edicts of a deity.

Originally posted by AfterInfinity
reply to post by UnBreakable

 

Just because I eschew an organized religion doesn't make me atheistic, I am spiritual.

One can be an atheist and still be spiritual. My spirituality stems from an appreciation for the mathematical artistry of this reality, not from the edicts of a deity.

edit on 12-8-2013 by AfterInfinity because: (no reason given)

I only say I'm not an atheist because I really don't know whether or not there is a God as described in Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition. To me practices such as Buddhism are more of a philosophy than a religion.

reply to post by Itisnowagain

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
You say God does not exist because there is no proof. I say God (the word used in the Bible) is presence.

... and herein lies the problem... interpretation.

Religions give us an "all important 'Book' or 'philosophy'" to follow, and it is either entirely true, or it is merely a 'guide' and open to interpretation.

I say learn from, and draw relationships to historical information... but don't "follow" anyone or anything other than yourself.

... "Yourself" is the only thing that an individual can actually have faith in, as everything else may be just a construct of the mind.

Originally posted by puzzlesphere
reply to post by Itisnowagain

 

Originally posted by Itisnowagain
You say God does not exist because there is no proof. I say God (the word used in the Bible) is presence.

... and herein lies the problem... interpretation.

Religions give us an "all important 'Book' or 'philosophy'" to follow, and it is either entirely true, or it is merely a 'guide' and open to interpretation.

I say learn from, and draw relationships to historical information... but don't "follow" anyone or anything other than yourself.

... "Yourself" is the only thing that an individual can actually have faith in, as everything else may be just a construct of the mind.

Good point, except there are a lot of people who take the words of the Bible literally. Fundamentalists say it's the "word of God" although it was written by man. But the same people back-track when I point out stories such as Jonah living in the belly of a fish for three days. This is when those same people tell me "well not everything in there should be taken literally." What parts then should be taken literally vs. analogies. You can't have it both ways.