Do you believe in God?

[LatinCoffee]

I totally do! God is light, peace, joy, happiness, love, etc., and no, God doesn't hate us for beng gay. He loves even more.

[archubbycub]

I think I believe in God still (had a very religious upbringing) I just question His motives sometimes!

[sonofthemanse]

The question of the existence of God is inevitably going to drive me insane. I wish I did; I used to. Now I'm not sure. I have had a very religious evangelical Protestant upbringing and I admire how the people around me are absolutely certain of his existence. But the whole thing just sounds a bit ridiculous to my enquiring mind! Plus I can't get my head round the fact that if homosexuality is a sin, God won't take it away. If He hates sin, it should be His pleasure to rid me of it! I'm considering converting to Catholicism & remaining celibate, regardless of whether I believe in Him or not. Just to be on the safe side!

[Rikki]

How about this - YOU are god. The creator of your reality, world, life. You define it. Make your own rules. Provided they incorporate respect for others. But your religion is YOURS. As mine is mine. Follow yourself instead of seeking it from others. By all means HEAR others but make your own judgements.

[archubbycub]

Manse - the way I view the whole homosexuality is a sin thing is, God gives each and everyone of us sexual desires, some of us to the opposite sex others to the same sex, and if He gave us these desires, then how could they be a sin?

[TimmyThink]

No!!!! I like to think of myself as a non-militant atheist.

but I do believe in god particles, mostly because we have solid scientific proof that the higgs boson does actually exists.

[pellaz]

...........NO

[Rikki]

Why the capitals?

[sonofthemanse]

Manse - the way I view the whole homosexuality is a sin thing is, God gives each and everyone of us sexual desires, some of us to the opposite sex others to the same sex, and if He gave us these desires, then how could they be a sin?

I don't want to enter a big debate, because then I'd have to be 'against' whereas I'm really sitting on the fence. Protestantism holds the Bible to be infallible and inerrant. So by that homosexuality is very much a sin (abomination, man shall not lies with man as with woman etc.). However, on a closer look St Paul's original Greek doesn't mention homosexuality - strange if he meant to talk about it, considering the many words to describe it in Greek culture. Plus what the Bible says can usually be twisted if you include the context of it. So is tradition or modern Biblical research right?

I don't agree with your opinion (however, thanks for voicing it!) because 1. It could be the Devil who gives us homosexual desires and 2. Some people have the desire to, for example, murder. Does that mean it should be allowed to kill at will?

As I say, I don't want to start a hostile argument, but these are some of the arguments for and against. (For the record, I don't think the Bible is infallible - I think it was quite obviously written by Man. However that, as with all of my opinions, is subject to change!)

[sonofthemanse]

I was at a religious thing yesterday. It was a seminar which was basically militant secularist-bashing(!). But the speaker explained that he once did door-to-door evangelisation & came across a man who said "I'm not interested." "Not interested in what?" The speaker asked. "God," the man replied. "Are you an atheist?" The speaker asked. The man said he was so the speaker shook his hand & congratulated him for having so much faith in there not being a god. The man was puzzled. "No, you don't understand - science disproves God." the man said. "What part of science?" asked the speaker. Evolution was the reply. The speaker asked "Micro or macro-evolution?" At this point, the man's brain was fried and told the speaker to come back tomorrow. He eventually converted to Christianity. But his main point was that, say, if someone's child died, atheism falls to pieces. Imagine walking up to a grieving parent and saying "there's probably no god. Now stop worrying about your child and enjoy the rest of your life." The parent is still broken. However, Christ's saving and healing power and make the parent whole again (so the speaker claimed). He also claimed that Christian apologetics was mainly about clearing away "debri" or misconceptions about God from people's (mostly atheists') minds. I'm not endorsing or criticising the speaker, just broadcasting what he said in case someone finds it interesting.