I was just wondering how many people on this site do and don’t believe in God, and use him as a support or for extra strength. Anyway, the question is do you believe in god? If so why or why not? And most importantly how does your belief help you through your hardships?
23 comments
I am a new believer. I accepted god into my life last weekend at my friends Christian church. It was amazing. Times are still rough, but knowing god is in my heart makes me feel less alone. I pray just about every night. Last night, I spent the night sleeping on the streets. I’m only 15 and my life is pretty messed up. I prayed for him to keep me safe and I made it through the night, and I am actually at home in my bed right now. He can do amazing things if you let him in. He’s my last chance.
I was saved six years ago. I feel compelled to tell you my story and then explain why I am a believer in Christ. I was the oldest sibling and was abused until the day I got married. My children was horrible. There were times I had to watch my mother beath my siblings, beat me until I thought I would die, put a gun to my father’s head, and tell us to say our goodbyes. There were days I prayed God would take my life and end it. I thought I was a Christian then, but I truly wasn’t. I tried on several occasions to do it myself, and I just couldn’t go through with my plans. Now, I’m glad I survived those years. My husband rescued me from that experience and we’ve been together ever since. Do I still have depression from what I went through? Yes. Do I still have flashbacks about my childhood? Absolutely. But I know God has a purpose for my life. Maybe it is to help someone on this website, or just to share my story with others. I believe in God because He loved us enough to be bullied Himself, tortured, and eventually killed so we could enjoy Heaven with Him, instead of going to Hell. People always ask why He allows bad things to happen to us? He doesn’t. People make evil decisions because of Satan, and God sees us through them. I can truly say there are days I get depressed and get down, but I know God loves me and wants me to fulfill His purpose for me. One day I will meet Him and hear, “Well done my child.” I won’t have to worry another day, be depressed, or sad ever again, whereas others will have to suffer every day in Hell for their decision they made. In ways I have been through what you could call “hell on earth,” and I can honestly say it has made me a better person.
good for you man, but have you ever considered ‘religion is the opium of the people.’ ?
look it up and tell me what you think, i’m interested to hear your input
No, I don not believe.
In fact, I don’t really understand how the hell in the 21st century people can still believe in religion and god.
Well, I understand but it’s… ok, I’m trying really hard not to offend anybody. It’s better stop here because I get really pissed off about this.
yea i’m an atheist too lol
and say it! but keep in mind just not to intentionally insult people, you can say what you think though that’s what this thread’s about
I beleive in God just not how religion sees him ,
i think religion was created to keep people in check and tell them what to do or not to do in society.
I beleive everything is made naturally by God he gave you a concscience didn’t he? Don’t let religion or society or anyone else warp that!
Sickening things done in the name of religion Murder, Wars, Judging and creating hate towards others it sees fit, Circumcision.
Religion is created by a false god,
listen to your concscience it was givin to you at birth.
smcnally13,
when you’ve found God, you’ve found yourself.
I proved that gods exist, there is the benevolent powered but as bystander, and also the wish granter who’d put the beneficiary to great expense.
Do I worship the benevolent god I’ve encountered ? No. Just respect is enough.
What one needs is the life to learn from one’s own lessons.
That’s the main theme of being existed on this planet, as a material self.
Your soul can dance, I saw that. Lovely !
and you don’t need to use drugs for that, just remember that.
And you are the strongest though youngest in your family, start now to prepare yourself as their role model !
It really comes down to whether you like names or not. Everything is connected, if you believe anything exists at all infinity soon follows.
To say “god” or “no god” can be two different languages, which may be talking about the same thing. how do you interpret the sacred silence?
Does God exist? I don’t know.I feel spiritual but that is not the same thing.If there is a “God” i believe he/she still leaves us to our own devices so what is his/her role? i can’t get peace on this earth.i do good but do not receive the same back.I wish i could find something that makes me want to stay on this planet but right now there is nothing worth staying here for. I am hanging on by a very thin thread but it is breaking.Maybe if I die I will know for sure whether there is a God or not!
I believe in a higher power or “God” if you will.
I think we also have power (energy). There is good energy and bad energy.
Good energy is God like and “good” (creates good things). Bad energy is evil (creates bad things).
I believe this is everywhere and it’s inside of you and outside of you influencing you.
Positive energy brings good things; negative energy brings bad things.
When someone can produce clearly definable, objective, testable evidence whose verification can be independently confirmed by neutral observers, of the evidence of a supernatural being, then I will consider the possibility that there is a god. And I’m not holding my breath, waiting for that evidence to show up. We need to sort things out here…this is all we get.
marine105, as far the saying from Karl Marx that you quoted, I think it’s one of the few things that Marx actually got right. John Lennon rephrased it nicely: Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV, and you think that you’re clever, and classless, and free. Won’t quote the rest, but you get the point.
From a logical point of view it is much more likely that the creationist myth serves to satisfy our inherent curiosity. Very similar stories exist in most cultures. I believe that these myths were then developed by the powers that be to mould the proletariat as they saw fit. IE “cleanliness is next to godliness” The upper class were having their armies and taxpayers wiped out by disease and couldn’t convince them to abide by any form of hygiene regimen. However once cleanliness was declared to be next to godliness then the lower class smartened up. This is the least offensive example I could come up with.
From all that we currently know about the natural world and the order that exists in it down to the smallest observable level supports both the belief of evolution and the belief of creationism. It’s a tricky call. Einstein believed this to be proof positive of the existence of the Christian god. Me, I’m not so sure. We as a species certainly do a lot of silly things in the name of our religious beliefs.
I don’t really like the term spirituality but as we’re stuck with the language that exists I have no other effective term to use. I believe we have a largely misunderstood and unexplored side to our beings. I think that the exploration of this as yet unnameable aspect of ourselves could be considered the pursuit of spirituality. I think there are many really interesting things to find in that pursuit.
August, I do agree with what you say except… I truly do bring “positive energy” to those around me.I am a good,nice and loving person.everyone tells me how they”couldn’t do without me” but…….too many terrible things have happened to me and continue to happen.I just do not know what else I can do. every day I help people,children,adults and yet the ones I adore the most,hurt me and abuse me.I know in my heart that the energy I give is positive but my life experience blows my own theory out of the water!!!
john.doe, yes I agree with you that as a species we can do the most horrendous things under the umbrella of “religion”.That I do not understand.what “God” would support discrimination,murder,etc?? I too understand what you say about the term Spirituality.I use it to describe myself as i find it the closest “fit” to how I feel !!! I know that we don’t tune in enough with our instincts etc,etc, I find the whole subject fascinating,and am not understood by the people around me,on this subject!Surely we don’t know all the answers?Surely people who can simply put everything into one catorgory (being either “religion” or a catagorical denial that ANYTHING else exists) are people who are narrow minded?I don’t think that we tap into half of the things that we could do, as ,human beings are sooooo arrogant!!!!
i used to believe in god until i started getting bullied i fell like he caused this and i just cant believe in him any more
im a 12 year old kid
I used to believe in god until the day that I was blithely told that being what I am is sinful, perverted and immoral and that it’ll get me sent to hell for all eternity. I’m queer, trans and bi to be exact. And there was no room for the likes of me, unless I repented, as was made abundantly clear…
After I left the church (sydney anglican) I saw the harm that the christian religion does in the world and that it was an intolerant, reactionary dogma that wanted to drag us back to a time when all of our mores, values and laws were based upon that infamous, bloodthirsty and hateful old book of myths. The bible. So yes I’m a nonbeliever too; my conscience, my principles and my rational worldview demand nothing less. Anyways, have a nice day!!! =)
Shelly,see?That’s exactly what I hate about “religion”.I don’t believe that “God” would be discriminatory,elitist and so unkind.xx
I like what you said, john.doe, regarding that there’s still so much to know and explore for this whole “spirituality” thing. “unnameable, unexplored thoroughly, mysterious”..you name it.
And I am for one personally grateful that there seems to be a more “objective” and more-rational and ‘whole’ approach to seek, research, and explore this mystery in our very recent times/era. eg: things like meditation, New-Age, merging of Eastern-and-Western spirituality, a more rational re-construction and exploration of past known religions, and finding the *underlying* theme of ALL religions, mystics, beliefs, and spirituality from all around the world. Not to mention the emerging (& also quite interesting!) terms like: Indigo, Starseeds, Crystal children, and Lightworkers (just do google to each of this term, and you might be surprised).
With all these said, I am now personally a sort of ‘mix’ between being an Agnostic, Pantheist, Deist, and even still able to wholly respect the CORE of all major religion teachings like Christianity (I am a Christian myself, and now, see myself as more ‘enlightened/whole’ Christian, so to speak), Islam, Buddhism, etc.
Notice however that I’m saying the *CORE* teachings of religions, not the dogmas and little intricate details that often unfortunately & sadly causes the all the clashes, hatred, judgmental, and wars between the followers of these religions all around the world! which in my humble opinion, is NOT even necessary, if only these people can see the true, real ESSENCE (again, CORE) of these religions!
In fact, I would boldly wager that ALL religions are basically the SAME in its core-teachings, and therefore, needs to be more EXPLORED the ‘mystery of spirituality’, departing from THIS ‘whole, coherent’ point of spirituality. Instead of caring too much on all the often confusing, unnecessary, and even perhaps meaningless man-made dogmas and little-detail doctrines.
Again, like john.doe said well above, I also firmly believe that there’s soo much MORE for us human beings to really, really explore about the “what” and perhaps more importantly “WHY” most (if not all) humans have such a very strong, high needs of “spirituality”, in one form or another, in their life, which somewhat interestingly *separate* them from other multitudes of species on our blue Planet.
This, I believe, is the REAL quest of ‘Spirituality’, and ‘God’ (whatever that is or would be).
It is such a very, very unfortunate, sad, and pity though, to see how us human beings species have wasted sooo MUCH energy, our unique intelligences, resources etc to find the MISTAKES and judge and FIGHT each other (in the name of religion/God, etc),…rather than use ALL of those beloved, beautiful energy & power of ours to ALL TOGETHER start exploring more deeply of the underlying *What* and *WHY* of the mysterious thing called spirituality, and our seemingly needs/deep-longing search of “GOD”.
Only with such right start, I believe, humanity can really progress a whole lot, even perhaps exponentially, and might perhaps find much more interesting NEW things during their combined quest in spirituality!
Not through judgements, small minds, finding errors, hatreds, fighting each other, and meaningless wars.
Even if one is being very open-minded, the often-misunderstood life of atheism itself *can* be beautiful and full of meaning and, one perhaps may call it, ‘spirituality’ also!
Google “Ebon Musings Life of Wonder”, and please kindly read it,
to enrich your perspectives.
For more even of ‘enlightenments’, I kindly invite all of you to watch and hear what literally “my hero”, Carl Sagan, have to say regarding our human life, ie: google Carl Sagan Pale Blue Dot , and just click on those Youtube video links.
(sorry that I don’t write the direct link/url because it’s usually got moderated/pending for a long time in this website).
niki as someone whose worldview is fairly atheistic I get my sense of meaning in knowing that through evolution I’m connected to every living thing on this planet, or that in a sense we’re all children of the stars because life on earth most likely began from simple bacteria bought here on a stray comet. ..
Saying that I have no time for nonbelievers who think it’s okay to replace stupid religious dogma with an equally destructive political ideology…
That is beautiful, Shelly, ie: “we’re all children of stars”.
It’s in line with what Carl Sagan said: “We are star stuff, harvesting starlight”
This, itself, is already full of mystery & wonderment, that sadly &
unfortunately many theists seem to ‘push’ their views and judge atheism as “sorrowful life with lack of Meaning and Purpose”, while ironically and quite funnily, it’s sometimes the reverse that seems to be ‘lost’ and frantically grappling and screaming out the unnecessaries.
Thank you niki! I haven’t been able to find a sense of meaning and purpose in life but sadly, that’s more a reflection on me, yet on the other hand I do get a real sense of mystery and wonderment from looking at the great web of life that we humans belong to or looking at the unimaginable vastness and beauty of the universe of which our little corner of our galaxy belongs…