Why do you believe in God?

I believe in God simply because I do. Nothing apart from myself has influenced it. I was an Atheist actually until last year. I died in a car accident, but was revived shortly after and suffered a little bit of brain damage. Particularly in my short term memory. I was in a coma for a little over a week. During that time I had outer body experiences, "talked" to a dead loved one, and felt many things I could never hope to describe. My family was told I would A. Die, B. Become a Vegetable, or C. Awaken mentally handicapped. C being the BEST and basically improbable outcome. Yet here I am, all of my intelligence and mind intact.

 

So basically the only reason you believe in God is because you have no other possible explanation for why such an event occurred.
Just like the people in ancient times believed in God.

 

I believe in God because I defied medical and scientific law, and have experiences with the afterlife.

 

Medical and Scientific Law is ever changing and gets defied all the time.
Afterlife needs not a God to exist.

 

I didn't state the afterlife needed a God to exist. I stated I have experiences with the afterlife, and that they have caused me to believe in God.

 

You inferred it.
For stating that you witnessed the afterlife as a reason for believing in God implies that you believe God has something to do with the afterlife.

Regardless, I'm not going to debate with you whether God exists or not as you've had an 'out of the world' experience. I will say unfortunately that your reasoning is the most legitimate one most Christians give me. That being said, meditation also brings an outer body experience, and your brain can produce such experiences.

 

I'm aware of such things, and I respect that both can happen. Maybe that is what occurred with me, but I don't believe or feel so. That's just simply my reasoning behind all of my beliefs. I honestly respect all religions or lack of religions, I just get very frustrated I suppose. Maybe it's because the experiences that caused me to believe were so extreme.

I apologize for anyone I may have offended, even though this is a debate board, haha.

 

Same goes like you, he's just there. Without him, this world won't be here like it is now. Without him, our parents, ourselves and any creatures/human being won't be here.

 

When an atheist asked a bedouin about god, he said:

الخطوة تدل على المسير
و البعرة تدل على البعير

A rough translation would be:

And footsteps are a sign that someone walked here, and camel dung is a sign of a camel.

Basically, by seeing footsteps on the ground, I know someone walked here, and I know that someone walked here and left the footsteps. The camel's dung indicates that a camel was here. I don't need to see the camel, instead I just saw it's dung; and I know it exists.

 

Your point being?
Either way; you make the point that for something to be considered 'existent', there must be evidence for it in some shape or form. For example, the footsteps are clear evidence that a being has walked here. The dung is a sign that a camel (or other creature) has passed this location.
So what evidence has your God left you? The Quran? The Holy Bible?
Let's not forget that these are scriptures written by humans.
If you can find one legitimate form of evidence that is universally acceptable, then; and only then, I will agree with you.

 

Point is, everything around us is a sign of its creator, and all the things you see around you, even you, yourself, are an indication of a creator.

 

I believe that Thomas Paine had the proper response to this argument (though, interestingly enough, Paine himself was a deist).

Given the susceptibility of the human mind to various delusions, I do not see this as something which can cause me to believe; if god wants us to believe, why not reveal himself to all of us?

Rather than just accepting your assertion, I'd like to see some evidence that that is the case.

Several thousand years ago, it seemed blatantly obvious to the Greeks that Zeus existed--all one must do to find evidence of this is to look towards the sky on a stormy day and see the thunder which is evidence of his wrath. Today, however, we understand that thunder is a natural phenomenon, which does not require a supernatural explanation.

Rather than blindly asserting that the universe MUST be created, I'd like you to present some evidence that suggests it is so.

 

Your staunch dedication to logical thinking throughout all these threads is quite refreshing. However, I'd like to say that the arguments you've so skillfully refuted have barely skimmed the waters of the vast and fascinating notion of god. Do not believe that these undeveloped and often dogmatic assertions represent the field against which you argue. Immerse yourself in the heart of an idea before you make any conclusion. Issues such as these have kept centuries of thinkers bent over their scrolls, absorbing and reveling in the beauties of our being. To believe in a literal god of the bible is logical idiocy. I suggest you read some philosophical views on the matter. Mendelssohn, Spinoza, Aristotle -- there are countless thinkers who have devoted much of their lives to the study.

 

I'll just leave this here http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

 

Haha. I can always go on - who created the thunder that you see in the skies? The greeks based their beliefs off of random thoughts that they had, but Muslims have many things that influence their belief in god.

Pick up the Quran, read at least a quarter of it; then come back and talk to me.

 

"Random thoughts that they had"
If by this you mean they created religion to explain natural phenomena, then yes. At the time, natural phenomena that we understand thoroughly today were largely mysteries. But now, who believes in the polytheism of the Greeks? Mysteries breed religion. So long as we have mysteries so too will we have irrational people quick to make up fairy tales to feel comfortable with their lives.

"but Muslims have many things that influence their belief in god"
Care to provide examples? How about some of these: fear, social standards, delusion, and ignorance?

 

I do believe that God does exist.

I just would like to say that I have spent my last 8 years being pretty involved in my church. I consider myself a religious person, but not overly religious where I think anyone who is not my faith is wrong or that I want to convert anyone.

I'm just going to post a few interesting "thoughts" of my own that I have.

~I have really loved what I have gotten out of going to a Protestant church. The main reason was because of a dedicated pastor who was with our church for ~30 years. It's rare to find someone that devoted to their job the way he was. He became very involved with not just the church, but many things around the town.

~I like how being in the Protestant religion just seems to be much more relaxed than say the Catholic religion. I had friends who really hated going to church because they attended a Catholic church and everything was very strict, and they had tons of homework each week. Then, for their confirmation class they had to put in outrageous hours and weren't allowed to miss even one class. In my experience I have had a great time because when I went the leaders always made it a great experience. We were there to be educated about God, and get to make friends.

~I always loved the way that my pastor would put it. He did not choose to pick religion or science. He always had the belief that religion tells us why stuff happened, and science tells us how stuff is the way that it is.

~Many seem to question if God exist why has He not saved us or shown himself? Well from what I remember learning in church God promised us that He would never harm the world again. I think it goes something like He has almost given up on Earth, and He sent His only son Jesus. Jesus was sent and for those who believe in that, our sins will be forgotten. Those who believe will be accepted into heaven on Judgement day.

~The thing about religion is that you need to have faith. If you need to have evidence of His existence then your clearly not a religious person.

~I guess my final thing would just be that you are either a religious person or you are not. I don't think that there is a right or a wrong. For those of you who are not religious I'm not one of those people who think "Well you only think that because Satan had corrupted you" We all have the freedom to believe in whatever we would like.

I'm open to discuss anything I have posted, but I would just like to ask that you please respect that these are my beliefs. I have noticed statements saying like prove it. Well sorry, but its not something you can do, you simply need faith, and think its an asshole thing to ask even if your not intending it to be one.

 

And yet; even after all of this beautifully conjured waffle, you have failed to make a point or produce any form of intellectualized argument.
'Thinkers' did devote their lives to this study. But how does this show or prove anything?
How is it logical idiocy (I don't think this is even correct terminology) to believe in a literal God of the bible?
If you understand the 'vast and fascinating notion of god', then how about give us a peek? Or was everything you just described completely useless like I see it currently?

 

Did I ever suggest that I was making an "intellectualized" argument? Your lack of insight shown within this post is astounding. What do you believe I meant by saying what I said about philosophical thinkers? Some sort of "appeal to authority" argument? No. I was saying that one must approach the argument understanding its weight, and secondly, that if one wishes to find a real "intellectualized argument", as you put it, one must turn to the ideas of these thinkers. It is logical idiocy--and yes, that is properly used--because, for example, it is irrational to hold that a god can create something independent of itself, for god is understood to be the whole. Another example is associating human attributes to a god. That is not rational because it limits the capabilities of god. Also, the nature of the god interpreted literally from the bible is one that requires logical and empirical basis which, unfortunately, it does not possess.
Finally, did I ever say that I understand god? To purport to understand god at such a young age (or ever, really) would be terribly boastful and untrue. I am saying that I have become at least aware of its enormity; if one wishes to see something great, one must stand on the shoulders of a great person.

 

I am separating this just because it is a central idea that everyone lives by every day of their life, believer or not. I have faith that my senses are telling me the truth about the world when I wake up every morning. I can not prove that they are nor can I test in anyway that they are still functioning correctly. I base this faith off of the amount of evidence I have acquired over my life. If I see a ball, I can pick it up. If I see red and say "That's red" people agree. If I hear someone speak and I speak back, they don't look at me like they said nothing. If you suddenly wake up one morning and start hearing voicing that are not real you will quickly learn to not trust your sense of hearing (unless you have lost all sense of reality). The same holds true if you are just dear. You will not think that nothing makes noise anymore, you will understand that you can just not hear it. This faith that everyone lives their lives based on in fundamentally scientific. You gather evidence with your senses and if it is verifiable (you do it and it happens again or another person does it and agrees), repeatable (you can always see and pick up the ball again and again) then you believe in your senses. This faith is also falsifiable, meaning that if you suddenly can not see, your faith that your senses do not lie to you is proven false. These are the fundamental aspects of the scientific method being played out unconsciously within the human mind. Thus, the human mind and human life is fundamentally scientific, not faithful. Thus, belief in religion is not natural. Thus, in believing you are altering your natural belief mechanisms due to you wanting something to be true and you become fundamentally biased unless you continue having faith in your senses, even if Elvis talks to you all day every day. For this reason any experiential evidence brought forth by a believer, who is fundamentally biased, can be discounted based solely on this bias.