Why believe in a god? (page 4)

lancelink

cofty reminds me SO much of the typical wt puppet, a self righteous idiot to the core.

cofty

Seems like theism doesn't make people any more decent.

I respectfully made two points. Firstly, feelings are not a sufficient reason to believe in god and secondly that beliefs and religious practices do not necessarily deserve respect.

KOB has responded with vile insults and malicious lies. He could resolve that with a simple apology. I have no idea what I did to rattle your cage lancelink or why you thought your nasty comments might help the situation. Were you posting drunk?

slimboyfat

I am coming every stronger to the realisation that there must be a God. To me the fact that we exist is the proof that God caused us to exist. I’d need to hear some pretty strong evidence that it is possible for us to exist without God. How would that even work? We just popped out of nowhere for no reason? I don’t even know what kind of evidence could make that make sense. It would be like trying to provide evidence that I don’t exist. No matter how sophisticated the reasoning or the evidence might be, there is still the fact that I do exist. The same with God. No matter how sophisticated the arguments are against God, the fact remains that something must account for the existence of reality and whatever that something is is what we call God. The best argument against God, the argument from suffering, is not really an argument against God’s existence. It’s a statement of incomprehension about why the world is the way that it is in view of God’s existence. I agree with the incomprehension. There are many things in life that cause incomprehension but they don’t cause me to doubt the existence of reality itself. That’s madness.

[Edit: this post took around 24 hours to appear so might be out of place now]

Fisherman

Seems like theism doesn't make people any more decent.

How true. Read about the story of Israel and others.

LoveUniHateExams

Why believe in God?

Well, at least some people realise life can be really shit - and even those that are successful or win the lottery end up dead. So, the idea that some kind of afterlife with God awaits the believer makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside.

Also, in the real world, good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people, and that sucks.

Start believing in God, however, and the robbers who made off with all your possessions but weren't convicted by a human judge can now be punished by God in the end.

Of course, my answer doesn't cover all the reasons why people believe - some are brainwashed into it as children, some believe in God because they're scared non-belief makes him angry, and some just do it because it's what their family or tribe has always done.

Disillusioned JW

slimboyfat and others, hypothetically speaking (or writing) could some person or thing (or other entity) be the creator of our universe and of our reality and yet not be God? What is gained by calling an unknown creator God? If the creator can not be detected by us in any way, then why not say a Creator created our universe and our reality, instead of saying God created such? In that situation, the word "Creator" would be better terminology than the word "God, if we can not define God other than to say God is the Creator. What do you think about that?

To me an entity (even in an intelligence) who/that does not intervene in our lives isn't God (or a god) and thus should not be called God. Most people who believe in God believe that God intervenes in human life (or at least brings about an afterlife environment for humans when humans die). To me the word "God" means more than the word "Creator". I think when those who say they believe in "God", if by "God" we really only mean "Creator, then instead they should say we believe in Creator (or a Creator), rather than saying they believe in God.

To me a much stronger case can be made that Creator exists, than that God exists. To me a that concept which is called a deistic type of God really shouldn't be called God, but that instead it should be called Creator.

Disillusioned JW

Did a chat box write some of the posts of this topic (but with a human having transcribed what the chat box said)? It wouldn't surprise me if that was the case. Maybe a person besides making some of his/her own posts in this topic also made some posts in this topic using the aid of a chat box to come up with replies (or portions of replies), to make him or her seem smarter than he or she really is.

Linda14

Our study has three main findings. First, Mozambican subjects did exhibit improved auditory and/or visual acuity subsequent to PIP interventions. Second, the magnitude of measured effects exceeds that reported in previous studies of suggestion and hypnosis. Although it would be unwise to overgeneralize from these preliminary findings for a small number of PIP practitioners and subjects collected in far-from-ideal field conditions, future study seems warranted to assess whether PIP may be a useful adjunct to standard medical care for certain patients with auditory and/or visual impairments, especially in contexts where access to conventional treatment is limited. The implications are potentially vast given World Health Organization estimates that 278 million people, 80% of whom live in developing countries, have moderate to profound hearing loss in both ears, and 314 million people are visually impaired, 87% of whom live in developing countries, and only a tiny fraction of these populations currently receive any treatment.

Copied from the research document.

True there are some limitations to the study which is understandable and is normal in many peer reviewed studies. What is important is that there was a significant improvement. I never believed there was even any miracle anywhere before. But this is one of the studies that changed my mind over charismatic miracles. This is more interesting when you go through the individual cases.

Another one is that of a miracle by a baptist pastor who cured her wife of blindness. This reports are not the normal church claimed miracles that don't get investigated. It changed my mind because it was rigorously investigated and confirmed. I don't have to be there to believe that a peer reviewed article is not a joke. At least something significant happened which ever way you look at it.

There are more if you watch the Sendproof video. The GMRI website has few more miracles documented.

That wouldn't convince some people I know. Just saying that it convinced me that the supernatural exists.

Which ever view we hold I respect any for their own views.

cofty

As I said Linda this account was debunked by an evangelical Christian doctor on the Unbelievable podcast. The 'peer review ' was not what is claimed.

If god ever heals an amputee or restores a missing eyeball get back to me.

cofty

I think I recall the blindness account from the same podcast. Although it seems there was a change there was no medical reason the woman could not see previously. Nobody was accusing her of lying but it seems there was a psychosomatic element to her condition.

If god can cure at will why doesn't he?

Why believe in a god?

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