Flora - atheism?

Ah, that WAS more simple than I imagined. Ta!

So, you believe because you're scared/worried not to?

So as an academic question (and I don't mean to badger you), do you think you'd have believed in god if you'd grown up in the absence of any knowledge/teaching/awareness of god (say, a desert island)? If so, what form might that god figure take? (Because let's face it, elephant heads are more exciting than beardy men!).

May I please join in as I believe the same as EF.

Of course P. But I will confess surprise at your position.

I grew up in an atheist household. But from a very early age had a belief in a concept that I would as an adult count as a God. My father indulged me and took me to a church but my mother's family found it very bemusing.

I find my beliefs slightly confusing. When I am suffering from insommnia I will lie awake trying to understand them as it does not make logical sense to me. It is however one of the few things that I hold to believe in completely. Logically thinking I believe that I have this strong belief because I needed to have this belief to continue my existence as a child. I needed to believe that there was some meaning to existence and that there was someone/somethign that loved me to keep me going.

I don't think of God as a beardy man in a cloud and found that quite bemusing from an early age but think of God as more of pure energy/emotion/love. It is very hard to explain when I don't understand my beliefs myself. I often feel logically speaking I should be an atheist and it is a great surprise to most people that I'm not. Although a lot of people assume I'm a vegetarian as well and I'm not. I'm a bag of conflcitions.

You should read Knowledge of Angels by Jill Paton Walsh - addresses just this.

ETA: By 'addresses', I mean in a fictional sense.

Pantheism? God is nature.

But you are scientific to know that God is not energy? What is 'pure energy'? Like, not dirty fossil fuel energy?

Or do you mean 'energy is godly'?

Kharv - will check the book out, thanks.

Am on new iPad mini and it hasn't learned 'Kharv' yet. Tried to change you to Khartoum.

That's fine. I'm also a Sudan city.

Why is God not energy?

Well enough energy together makes matter... so are we all just energy, we are all everything and everything is us. Now I sound like I have been partaking of drugs.

I think Jesus was a decent bloke as well so I often end up saying I'm a Christian because other than his angry outburts it seems a good example to follow. Although I agree with a lot of the concepts centred within Buddhism.

I am now looking up Pantheism...

I consider myself agnostic (even though I know you don't like that word Footlong!) Mainly because I don't know what I believe. Sometimes I lean more towards atheism, sometimes more towards deism. I believe that if god exists, it's more of a higher power or force that acts on the world like what people call fate or karma, rather than a 'loving' god that has human characteristics.

I ended up strugglign to sleep last night because I was cross I hadn't explained myself very well. I think the above is a good comment on it. I think what I read of Pantheism covered a lot of my beliefs - can't believe I hadn't heard of it before. But I also believe that God could be thought of as the ultimate parent, loving without conditions.

I so wish I had an unquestionable belief in God. Or Gods. I feel it would be very comforting - rather than to continually question things.

On the says I think, oe ould love to go to church, complete the Alpha course, get my questions answered. I KNOW I cannot believe that we didn't descend from monkeys, and that the world was made in seven days. It goes against every scientific (not very extensive) knowledge. I have shunned most of my thoughts because my (soon to be ex) Husband said our marriage could never work as he could not respect me. He's very logical and practical, and scientific in his thinking. To the point of being unemotional about regular things.

Has everyone read The God Delusion and The Dawkins Delusion? I read them one after the other. Needless to say it hasn't helped much! But in my favourite reads of all time.

Do non believers think that the Big Bang just happened? One thing my H used to suggest was there could have been an intelligent being that existed but we may never know. Oh, that caused some arguments! 'Like a god?!'

While I find comfort in the act of questioning! But agree, it would be nice to believe in god. Unfortunately, it's not a choice that one can make.

What do you mean by supernatural? sorry I end up coming back with more questions. so many things that people describe as supernatural are just misunderstood natural events or misunderstanding how events can occur or just lack of knowledge of something.

Agreed. For example, seeing ghosts and hearing voices all have perfectly plausible and well-studied natural explanations.

Is God energy/love? That would be a supernatural belief.

Or is energy/love your god? That's not a supernatural belief.

I'm sure I've asked you this before, but what do you think the right word would be then? If everyone is agnostic as no one really knows, what word would you use to distinguish between someone like me and someone who has very strong religious beliefs, or someone who has very strong atheistic beliefs?

Not everyone claims to be "agnostic". I can think of a few religious people who claim to "know" that God exists. Similarly, there are die-hard atheists out there who would claim to "know" that no gods exist. Neither position is remotely defensible, in my cabbage, but that's because I'm, well, agnostic. I don't think it's a answer that can be "known". I don't see how you can "know". There's no test for god's existence, there's no evidence for god's existence, there isn't even a single definition of "god". Your beliefs change, sometimes theist (in various forms), sometimes atheist. You don't think your ability to "know" has changed, I don't think?

So you're an agnostic atheist (like me) sometimes, you're an agnostic theist sometimes.

Here's a chart to help:

I don't think people can choose whether they believe in god or not.