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Also for many people I think the answer would be "I believe in him because he exists," since that is all you really need to believe in him.
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"There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".
"Oh, you don't like my sarcasm? Well I don't much appreciate your stupid".
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I don't think there isn't evidence. I was pretty clear that there's no right or wrong answer. If you asked Fred, he might say he knows he's in love with his Wife because she completes him. This answer isn't wrong. If you asked James however, he might say that he knows that he's in love with his Wife because he just knows...this answer also isn't wrong.
What I'm saying is that there is no measurable standard. What I believe is evidence enough may not be what you believe is evidence enough but neither is wrong. The same goes for belief in God. To believe is to accept something as truth especially without proof. Having evidence can in fact influence your belief in something to be true or real...but it's not necessary. Belief is simply accepting and there is no required standard for acceptance in the supernatural...at least not one I'm aware of.
On a side note if anyone does know of some sort of established and documented standard for belief in something you let me know.
"There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".
"Oh, you don't like my sarcasm? Well I don't much appreciate your stupid".
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Most things which we accept, we accept on this basis of proof. That proof is not always rock solid (some of it is based on spurious media claims, for example) but there is a standard to which we hold most of our beliefs. Things that don't meet that standard - the Tooth Fairy, let's say - we discard as not impossible but, but extremely unlikely.
God, however, many people accept with no proof at all. Belief in God is a product of upbringing, societal and cultural convention, a desire for comfort and intellectual laziness.
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I agree that a majority of what we accept is based on a degree of proof. Climate change, political agendas, ect ect. And your example of the tooth fairy is a decent one, especially in reference to the topic of belief in God. And you're right again that many people accept God without any proof at all...even without a high degree of evidence.
You and I will have to disagree on how people come to believe in God. If belief in God was truly a product of external factors as you mentioned above...then we wouldn't believe in any Gods today. While it's true that a degree of people are indoctrinated from childhood into faith in a higher power, if it were true that this accounted for all believers then it wouldn't have been possible for it to start somewhere.
It's mostly an unspoken acceptance in the U.S., but regardless of viewpoint...no one can argue that our incredible experiment isn't the result of belief in God. Now I made that bold so no one would misquote me. I mention this to contest the last part of your point, that acceptance of God without proof is a product of desire for comfort and intellectual laziness. Our forefathers based their entire stake against the Crown on the idea that God gave us the right to be free. This idea of God given rights is the fundamental principle for our entire constitution. Our constitution is the fundamental principle of Country.
So when someone asks, "Why do you believe in God". My answer is "Because with belief in God...look at what we've accomplished". No one's saying that we're perfect, but when you stand us up in measurement to anywhere else in the world...it sure does make a compelling argument that belief in the Almighty isn't such a bad idea.
"There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".
"Oh, you don't like my sarcasm? Well I don't much appreciate your stupid".
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@Hank said: "Why do you believe in god?"
There are thousands of theos/gods, Priapus is a Greek god of fertility whose symbol was an exaggerated phallus .. you can look up the why's on the internet for each god!? They all serve some magical imaginary awe-inspiring, and an individualistic moral purpose.
As for my God, the Infinite Creator "I Am", .. He is my Father, not just my Creator, but also the source of my existence, that's why I believe, .. honor and worship Him.
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However, there are so many ways to show my beliefs. My beliefs are somewhat peculiar. I believe that God exists, but not 100% in the way most religious people do.
Now, the universe has design. There's no arguing about that. Even atheist scientists have agreed that the universe has design. If our Earth was a bit closer to the sun, we would roast. If our Earth was a little bit farther from the sun, we would all freeze. Our Earth is tilted just enough that we have seasons. Only a bit off and we would have strange weather and temperature patterns. So you see, the universe has been designed.
Big Bang? Nothing existed and then a particle suddenly exploded into the whole universe? I mean, there's nothing except for that small particle. When there is a effect, there is always a cause. But there's nothing there to make the particle explode. Someone had to trigger it. Maybe the Big Bang theory is true. But the universe can't just start on its own.
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(if that makes sense)
Under a system of perfectly free commerce, each country naturally devotes its capital and labour to such employments as are most beneficial to each. This pursuit of individual advantage is admirably connected with the universal good of the whole. By stimulating industry, by regarding ingenuity, and by using most efficaciously the peculiar powers bestowed by nature, it distributes labour most effectively and most economically.
- David Ricardo
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So here's another one. We have moral beliefs, yes? Most of us do. Now who gave them? Yes, your parents, ancestors, governments, and so on. But when humanity all started who gave them morals? Who was the first person to decided that murder was wrong and convince everyone? I am not a complete religious person. There are times when I doubt my religion. But faith never really goes away. The spark is still there. Sometimes it will come back, and other times, it will stay as a spark.
And still, you can't forget my Big Bang explanation.
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1. I first found God in my parents, who raised me as their own, and brought me up in the Catholic faith. When I was 12, I read through the Bible a full time, and found God even more. This has allowed me to shape my beliefs, even as a young teen, about morality, ethics, and life.
2. There are 2 ways to find God, the first was mentioned, Scripture. The second one was one that Ghostly mentioned, Nature. We look outside and we see all of God's creation, set in motion perhaps by the Big Bang, but set in motion by God, so that every bit of nature points to God. Although there were no scriptures in Socrates's day, he used nature to conclude that there had to be one divine being, and used that to find fallacies in his pagan culture, even before the Catholic Church was formed.
3. I also believe in God because of the promice of eternal life. If there was no goal in life, then what would be the point of life? If there was no goal in life, then what would the point be of being ruled by law if there was nothing to be gained by death. However, God sets heaven as a goal for eternal life, and judges us based on our deeds as people, suggesting that although we have the law, God's laws and divine judgement are superior to earthly judgement, and also suggesting that there is in fact a heaven to be working for.
4. God's continual signs on Earth come from Saints like John Paul II, Mother Teresa, and Father Damian. Although not every person believes in saints, they did work even after death to prove their sainthood. In order to become a saint in the Catholic Church, two miracles must be confirmed through the church, that suggests that they have achieved heaven.These signs can come in the form of healing, visions, and other things that may seem impossible to us, but are not for God. One might say that the person that was miraculously cured was not a result of a miracle, but a lucky result of stregnth of the body, a rare event in the course of many people. However, ask any of the people who got healed, and they will point ot the saint they prayed for. For instance, one woman was suffering from Parkinsons disease, a infection that eats at the brain, and she prayed to John Paul II for healing on Divine Mercy Sunday, a day created by John Paul II himself, and was cured the next day. One might say that it was luck, but I say it was because of mercy and faith. The church confirmed the miracle and advanced JPII from venerable to blessed, and was a saint within the next 5 years.
For all these reasons, I believe in God, not because I'm forced to, but because I chose to because of all that he has done to me.
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Hello @WilliamSchulz I see you are a Catholic, the ones who invented the Christian Religion. I've been meaning to ask a Catholic about this last Popes comment on BB-Evolution, this one in particular-
What did the Pope mean when he said: "God is not a magician"?
Thanks.
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Could you give me the time where he says that or alludes to that? Off of watching the video, what I can say is that Pope Francis believes that the universe did not start off of God having fun, and like magic, set everything in motion. God sets everything in motion for a purpose, not for fun and games. At 14, I do not exactly know where to draw the line between evolution and religion, but what I can say is that God sets everything in motion for a reason, and the Bible shows him to offer assistance and care for Earth's inhabitants and animals at Jesus's coming.
Thanks for the question, I'll try to look more into this.
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@WilliamSchulz all I asked you was: "What did the Pope mean when he said: "God is not a magician"?"
And what do you mean by "God setts everything in motion"?
Look, .. when my wife finally got pregnant with our twins (boy and a girl), we prepared two rooms, .. everything we felt would be safe and comfortable for them, no sharp object, no exposed electricity or demonic scary stuff, .. you know, things that could frighten them.
Watching what we do, is how I understand our Creator done it. So here is how I understand God creating, .. tell me if, and where I misinterpret or misread something both from my observation of the world around me, and from what I read from the Bible?
(Genesis 1:1, John 1- John 3:16 etc. throughout the Bible, and what we see of ourselves)
God is Infinite and Eternal, and this is NOT Gods attributes, but this is who God IS; Infinite and Eternal.
Our mind is of God, which is also infinite and eternal (don't confuse our infinite and eternal mind/spirit that takes possession of our body with our finite 3lb. brain. Neither time, nor space has any meaning for our mind, for time is only relevant for physical created things.)
So in the beginning God created the Heaven (singular, God Throne) and the Earth (again singular, Gods footstool), but for whom? God has no need of anything since He IS both Infinite and Eternal. But we see who and what was the first thing that God created, as we read in John 1 that: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So whatever laws and rules God created "Word" by, it came from and of God, and this, umm, system, or program that God created His son from, it is no longer Infinite Himself, but a created thing, which signified a "beginning with God". NOT Gods beginning of course, but "a" beginning with God, His first creation the only begotten Son whom we know is "the Word of God".
This is why God created the Heaven (singular) for (not our earths heavens like where the birds fly or where the stars are), but Gods Heaven, where His throne is, it is where He placed His newly created/begotten son Word, just as we prepare a place for our children.
Now once God created His son Word, whatever laws and rules He made him out of, He used it to create everything else, so it says: "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made". This was all Intelligently planned out and designed by God himself, so there is absolutely no room for any Luciferian Big Bang or that discriminating, black people hating Evolutionary concept.
This is why I ask as to what the Pope meant when he said: "God is not a magician, God doesn't just pop things out of nothing", because when he alludes to the Big Bang and Evolution concepts, that is EXACTLY what he is trying to make God out to be, .. a magician who pops things out of nothing.
Thanks.
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I don’t think I can provide a meaningful answer as to why I believe in God. I suppose there’s some kind of comfort in it, a certain sense of community that I derive from it. It’s not that my being Jewish is contingent on it, as many of my friends are atheistic Jews, and my wife doesn’t believe, so I don’t believe based on obligation.
If I really had to nail down why I believe, it’s chiefly out of curiosity. I find the concept of a deity kind of fascinating, and I suppose I’m more interested in the idea of God than I am in the reality. I’ve never studied religion, nor do I intend to, but I find the philosophy behind it to be very intriguing. I latch onto stories of the various pantheons as quickly as I do for any of the monotheistic religions, so they all just draw me in.
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"There's going to be a special place in Hell for people who spread lies through the veil of logical fallacies disguised as rational argument".
"Oh, you don't like my sarcasm? Well I don't much appreciate your stupid".
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Thanks for your clarifications. I apologize for not understanding what you were saying earlier. When I was playing the video, I was looking for your quote, but it was not there. However, with your interpretation, I can see where you are coming from. I would agree with 80% of your interpretation, but what I would disagree with is that God did not make Jesus. When Jesus is preaching, he said, "I saw Satan fall from heaven," indication that God did not create Jesus. It is a hardish concept to understand, but God is composed of three persons, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and The Holy Spirit, all co eternal and all three persons are one God. Without one part of God, God is not trinitarian or God, so Jesus, The Holy Spirit and the Father are the same God, one being, three persons. God chose to send Jesus to evangelize to the people on Earth, but when he died, he rose back up to the Father, but gave the 12 disciples the power to profess God's presence.
With that in mind, I agree with you 100% that God doesn't make things spontaneously happen for no reason. God is not a magician. However, that does not mean that miracles or out the ordinary events are nonexistent. God does everything for a purpose, even if our physical minds can not understand it at the time. I am not a scientist and I do not know if God caused the Big Bang or if it happened on its own. What I do believe is that if God did it, it was for a purpose, and the result was the formation of man, whom he gave souls so that we might be with him.
You asked me what I meant when I said that God puts everything into motion. This means that God makes a source, say the Big Bang. Since God is Infinite and Eternal, he could make everything perfect and eliminate sin, stop planet collision, or rewind time to stop an event from occurring. Despite this, God is not like that; he allows the universe to do as it pleases, but that does not mean that God does not care about the universe, he watches over it, but if something occurs, he can make the call about what to do. God lets everything happen according to nature so that we are not slaves of a God, but sons and daughters of a caring God. If God wants to go out of his way, great, but if not, God is still present, so when he sets everything in motion, he is really the spark for what happens in the future on its own accord.
To conclude, if Pope Francis is calling God a magician, then he is deeply mistaken. However, it seems like he believes God is not a magician, and what Francis is trying to do is establish that if God made the Big Bang or evolution happen, he did it for a reason, which I can agree with. I hope this segment helped, let me know if you have any questions!
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