God, people who do and don't, and Whys and Hows?

3 Part Answer.





~ Is there a God, Yes or No? ~





If yes:





A. Why do you think so?





B. Is there some sort of compelling text (direct quote) to back it up?





C. Was there a time in your life when you didn't?





If no:





A. Why do you think not?





B. Is there some sort of proof or data to support your answer?





C. Was there a time in your life that you did believe?





Please don't judge me for asking. Please answer each part, (A-B-C.) I think we can all benefit from knowing what motivates people in this area and enable more current rebuttals for another time. So in other words be nice, it's a survey, tell me your story.





PS. to ensure that this doesn't get personal I won’t choose a best answer, I am however going to leave it up to the voters. I encourage you all to keep checking in on this question for when it does go "in voting," cast your votes.





Not targeting a specific religion. Only questioning the motivation to follow or not to follow a religion.

God, people who do and don't, and Whys and Hows?
I don't consider myself to be of any specific religion. I never went to any church regularly, but I did go to a vacation Bible school for a summer (Lutheran).





I have no idea if God exists. I think it would be arrogant for me to claim that I know such a thing. I think and believe God exists.





I have no idea why I think so. I just believe it to be true.





Sure, when I was little, my mom would read me some childrens' Bible stories and whatever, and she told me that the idea of God and Jesus creeped me out. I'm not sure what age I was at that point, but apparently I started out as an atheist. And no, going to vacation Bible school didn't change what I thought in any way.





There is no way to "tell" if God exists or not. It's irrelevant anyway, all that matters is what you believe, and if that works for you.





Interesting question, I'm interested to see how others respond, hopefully you get real answers, and not just a bunch of people being judgemental.
Reply:Why are you questioning the motivation? My basic constitutional right to freedom of religion is not yours to question- had you thought of that?
Reply:A. Don't know.





Why?: Because I think that it is beyond the human capacity to know for certain whether or not a god or gods or something like that exists because of the inherent limitations of what humans are able to know as humans. I don't see any evidence that there is a God who is personally involved in the world and in individual lives or at least in mine, or that any God is running the show. But I could be wrong.





B. Proof or data?: I've studied Christianity and other religions. I've studied history, philosophy, psychology, literature, etc. The conclusion I come to is that there have been and still are people all over the world who think they have the answers to things, and yet they all disagree as to what those answers are. Based on my studies, I think that our concept of God is not really about God but more about our own unconscious psychology and way of understanding the world.





At the very least, I'm certain that all the churches and individuals who say and teach that they have absolute certainty about God are full of crap.





C. Yes, at one time I was a very religious Christian. I was born into a Christian household, studied it, went to church, and believed it. The more I studied and the more I experienced caused me to rethink things and to finally renounce my religion.
Reply:Yes.





Because my 'god' is all of existence so it is evidenced in everything. Not good or bad, my god is vast and miraculous. It is endlessly beautiful and hopelessly ugly. It is a wonder and a horror. My god is not all things to all people, it IS all things AND all people.





There is no text for my god - all text is my god because it exists. That thing which convinced me of it's existence is being in nature and witnessing the beauty and complexity of everything and how it all worked so seamlessly together. The trees, the animals, the plants, the insects - all with purpose - all with a place. I sat and I asked myself what made it go, where was the engine that ran this amazing universal machine? There must be a force behind all this cacophony of existence....god, not God.





I've always been close to my god but I took it for granted until my early teens when I could articulate how I felt about it.





We have to forget the Idea that 'God' is some guy in a big chair in the clouds. Our vanity as humans forces us to expect that all great and wonderful beings will look like us (witness our conceptions of aliens in science fiction- two arms, two legs, two eyes, nose, mouth etc.). God's form is unknown to us and will always be but its work is all around us.
Reply:First: I can't know for sure. But I would say "no" if you ask for a "personal god".


A. I was raised as an atheist. I believe in what I perceive and feel. And I believe in asking questions, in evidence and scientific thinking. I have seen no evidence of any kind of god. I have seen many things that point to the non existence of god. If I ask to any religion, I go to the point where there is no more answers. They ask me to believe in things that I can compare with Cinderella and the Fairies.





B. Scientific data points to the non existence of god. History and anthropology show that religions were born and grew because of social, economic and cultural needs.





C. I never believed. I build (and still do) my moral very carefully. I believe in trying to be honest, in searching inside and around you. I believe in Nature and Nature is the source of my "spirituality". I respect religions and beliefs, but I can't agree when religion is used to condone cruelty, discrimination or any kind of disrespect for a human life or any kind of life.