An idea that someone created this world and only half the population benefits from it on a daily basis? That's frightening to me, and the starving children in Africa. When does the benevolence come into play? Why are so many religions focused on the end game rather than the present?
I most definitely believe in JAH, the most high (GOD). If your antennas are working properly you can feel it.
First of all, I respect whatever higher power that is an inspiration in any person's life..............that being said ~> God is inside me. In my thoughts, feelings, prayers, my being....Sometimes he speaks to me outright. Sometimes I feel his presence inside me & in my life. Sometimes, I just see a sign of him in my life. Sometimes it feels like he's too busy to be working with me.....And sometimes......only like 3 times...He has stepped in and left me feeling like my life was spared because of Divine Intervention. Honestly, my faith has weak moments and I was at one time an agnostic on the verge of athiesm......things change when you have a hard, painful life experience that leaves you on your knees praying 4 God's hand of love and care in your life! Yes.....I believe in God. And, He believes in me. He consoles me & guides me thru my struggle to achieve my goals & dreams! Praise God! Praise Jesus! Praise You! Praise Me!
I don't believe in any of the worlds major religions. I believe in the observable world and all things about it which I think are philosophically proven. I don't outright deny the possibility of a God (of some sort) existing, but I see no logical reason to believe in one.
The universe is my god. That shit's a real higher power. 83% of the universe is dark matter and we have no idea what dark matter is. The overall order to the chaos of the universe is incredible (and yeah I know that's a paradox).
Nope, while I used to. Now, religions as well as all other 'supernatural' phenomena just seem like delusion to me. A comfortable, more elaborate view on the world, especially regarding death. Maybe it's possible, but none seem to have anything but half-baked anecdotal accounts to support it, so I'll have to be convinced a bit to buy any of it.
To me, it's like asking if one of the individual cells in your body believes in what it and all of the other cells in the body constitute. ------
Interesting. I had thought that given the fact that stoners are a counter culture, that the majority of people would not believe. Instead it seems that most are religious, but are not involved in mainstream religion, in counterculture form. Learn about quantum mechanics, you'll answer your own question: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2011/07/how-the-universe-appeared-from-nothing.html
Actually, for this article you only need a good understanding of the English language in order to grasp the true value within it. From the article... "Many physicists now believe..." If you paid 10 cents in order to read that article, as soon as you've read the quote above, you would then demand 8 cents back because that is what the value of the article is based upon. So what business does a scientist have in BELIEVING? Scientists are not supposed to believe, that's the job of religious zealots and Bible thumpers alike. Most likely, either one of two things happened here... Either the scientists are actually "believers" of their own "theories", or the author of that article, whom would be a representative of the media, whom are not scientists, put that word "believe" in the article. At any rate, particles have been observed to flash in and out of existence. But are they really coming out of "nothing"? One of the fallacies that comes out of modern day scientific culture is that "space" is more or less a "vacuum". So most people have the impression that space generally contains "nothing". From a materialistic point of view this is correct. There is very little material to be found in the spaces in between celestial bodies. However, space is filled with energy, which is something. So if you're motivation is to seek the truth, the question is, are these quantum particles really being born out of "nothingness" or are they born out of something (energy)? One thing that Science and Religion agree upon is that the Universe had a start date that began with a simple form of light and that nothing of form preceeded this event. It's not that I wouldn't buy into such a beginning, but it's the "nothing preceeded" claim that I have a problem with in both Religious and Scientific circles respectively. Why is that the case? I grew out of the Earth. The Earth grew out of the Sun. The Sun grew out of the Galaxy. The Galaxy grew out of the Universe. The Truth seems pretty evident to me about the origins of the Universe, without the need for silly "something out of nothing" conundrums. ------
I agree with you up to the point about nothing. Nothing is just that, no-thing, it is NOT an absolute absence. Before you can have something, that something must first have the potential to exist. So the potential is 'real' but its not 'something', it does not exist from our perspective, therefore its 'nothing'. You have had the potential to exist since time began, that potential was finally realized or 'actualized' i.e. brought into existence from nothing (potential). To me, potential always preceeds actual.
Human creativity follows this law. Anything we create is put through the potential or process of thoughts interacting with consciousness to form an idea which is made manifest into physical reality. What about all the stuff (universe) that we (humans) did not create? It's an interesting question when viewed this way. ------
That too had the potential before it was actual. Thats why i would say it began to exist out of nothing (out of an infinite potential) The infinite potential is timeless since it has no form or differentiation that can be used to determine time. The universe has forms which relatively can be used to differentiate time (by causal chains of events). The potential is infinite The actual is finite
I don't know. I'm sure there's more to see than my eyes can see. Does that mean that there's evidence of the divine? I don't know. Hell, you don't know. The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.