Do you believe in God? Every time I answer the question honestly I lose friends. Still I tell the truth: I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in the evolution either. I just believe we don’t have enough knowledge to know the world yet. Posted on 08/30/2010 7:28:32 AM PDT by Big Bureaucracy
Do you believe in God? Every time I answer the question honestly I lose friends. Still I tell the truth: I don’t believe in God. I don’t believe in the evolution either. I just believe we don’t have enough knowledge to know the world yet.
If you are still reading, I appreciate your tolerance.
Glenn Beck’s answer to America’s troubles is turning to God. Where does it leave us: the non believers? Beck’s solution reminds me of my godmother, who is a nun in an Eastern Orthodox Monastery on the Balkans.
When I visited her she answered every question I had with: you have to believe, you have to have faith, and you have to pray. That was the only answer to everything. She and Glenn Beck could be soul-mates.
She sensed it is hard for me to believe so she tried to teach me something simple: Just try to be good and keep praying ‘Lord forgive my sins’. That was kind of a ‘safety net’ advice she came-up with while trying to save my lost soul.
I think this is the answer: just be good. Do not lie, do not cheat, do not envy, do not steal, do not kill, respect your parents, do not idolize people, repent your sins and try to be good.
Does it really have to be in the name of God? Or just for goodness sake.
Mike Huckabee often says that if we agree on 7-8 things out of 10 – we still can be friends. Can God be one of the things we disagree on?
Half of the Americans don’t even agree on ‘do not kill’ and support abortions.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigbureaucracy.com ...
So if someone else has a different standard that they "believe" strongly in, it's just as valid as yours, like, sacrificing babies to a Mayan moongod, for instance.
I agree the commandments are a good starting place. Do not envy and do not wish your neighbor’s stuff - that gets rid of Marxism immediately.
Telling the truth, not stealing, not cheating - takes care of corruption. etc.
But some folks may not agree with all 10. Some don’t believe in God. Some have no problems with abortion. Some have idols (historical figures, philosophers, Hollywood stars...)
So how do we work together to bring rightness in our country?
They are free to believe it. Our laws prevent them to practice sacrificing babies to a Mayan moongod. We agreed on laws.
I won't pursue you on this any more, but I just want you to think about this:
But is it "wrong"? And if so, why? What is the definition of "wrong"?
“Right and Wrong are only universally “self-evident” because God’s existence is self-evident.”
Or may be because we debated it and agreed on few basic things?
“I’m a big believer in “by their fruits ye shall know them”” - this may be a good starting point for agreement.
What did we agree on? On a objective universal standard or do we just happen by coincidence to share similar personal preferences?
If we both happen to agree to that chicken tastes better than pork, would that make those who prefer pork wrong?
We all have it, it was placed there by our Creator. The fact that you hear that voice telling you what is right and what is wrong speaks volumes. You are almost quoting St. Paul verbatim. Look up Romans 2:14, 2:15.
Where does that leave non-believers? Benefiting from the beliefs of others. I don’t know of any Christians demanding that non-believers yield. That judgment is not theirs to make. But these days, too many non-believers are proselytizing by force. I won’t force you to accept God if you won’t force me to deny Him.
If we both happen to agree to that chicken tastes better than pork, would that make those who prefer pork wrong?
Interesting! If most agree there is God, would that make those of us who disagree wrong?
Thanks.
Most people, if honest, have confronted the same challenges.
A great teacher advised us to "seek," to "knock," and to "ask," which indicates an expectation that yours is a natural human question.
Never squelch the questioning. It is in the "seeking" and "knocking" and "asking" that we "find."
Do not allow anyone to interpret your searching for you. Perhaps the answer to your question lies in your desire to search.
Who determines Morality? Politicians?
Let’s hope not. However different religions propose different standards for morality.
We can try to express our moral values and try to convince people (peacefully) to share them?
“I won’t force you to accept God if you won’t force me to deny Him”
I respect your believes. I grew up in Eastern Europe and I’ve seen oppression of religion. It is a horrible thing.
Without God, MAN makes the rules- Hitler, Stalin, Mao, etc
There is a strong reason why do not kill, steal, cheat etc. basic game theory problem/dilemma is prisoner problem (two prisoner questioned by cops each can betray his accomplice or not..) anyway they have competitions putting different strategies against each other in this game. Not surprisingly one of the greatest is dead simple: do not betray, if betrayed punish by betraying yourself.
Murder, stealing etc are not isolated acts. They have consequences. Developed societies created norms that create an environment where those are more or less tolerated.. Think about place like Japan, very low crime, murder rate is extremely low. Most of population is barely religious and those that are either believe in spirits of water, wood, ancestors etc Shinto or belong to one of the 100 different Buddhist sects that agree on very few things with each other. Best part they are not murdering each other over religion for whatever reason.
“The humility of the tone of your first paragraph should never cost you a true friend.”
Thank you. It means a lot to me. If we practice telling the truth we have to face many challenges.
I put it in the title: it is not easy.
I appreciate your honesty, but I would like for you to think about a couple of things. There is no such thing as goodness. You cannot go down to the hardware store and buy 20 pounds of goodness. You have two options when it comes to whether something is good or not: absolute (objective) or relative (subjective). Without a belief in God there is no intrinsic or objective standard for good. Nothing is good in itself. Absolutes are not based upon individual or societal views on what is good or not. On the other hand, without God, the moral value of what is good is relative. Something is determined good because it conforms to a standard of thought or behavior that is acceptable to a particular culture at a particular time. For instance, the German culture, at the time of Adolf Hitler, believed that killing Jews and other inferior races was good for the world.
Secondly, I say this as nicely as I can, Agnosticism is illogical and cowardly. The default position of Agnosticism is Atheism. You either believe in the existence of God or you do not. There is no middle position. If you want me to explain the logical fallacy of Agnosticism, I will be more than glad to do so in another post.
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