I just picked that book up of that bargain table at Border’s 2 weeks ago. I finished it in about 3 nights. Carl Sagan can shine my shoes anytime he wants… Y’know… if he was still alive and all…
Pardon. Perhaps One should have used different termonology. Not a very good communicator here. One does not believe in a god, as in an allmighty authority who judges people and has control over matter and created the universe (or however you’d like to basically define it). That being said, One also does not denounce the possibility. Of course, the idea of god exists as an idea.
The only definitions of God One has ever been able to relate to is “Everything” and “Love”. Didn’t Jesus supposedly say once that God was love?
At any rate, One is pretty sure that One is not missing out. 
gonna clear this up a little bit. in my opinion, if god does exist, any attempts to comprehend such an entity, whether it would be through organized religion, prayer, or meditation, is undertaken in vain.
a force capable of creating the universe and everything therein can only be comprehended by science, and even then, we only understand the processes at hand and not the hypothetical entity.
i’m content with acknowledging that i don’t know and that i will never know that god actually exist. i want my actions to be based in rational decision making and not based on what might happen to me in the afterlife.
As far as I’m concerned Jesus is God and I love him very much
Go Bills!!
HAAA!!! ;D
Funniest thing I have seen all day!!!
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is my new Deity…
God’s a funny subject and I REALLY like how a majority of pollers right now selected “I don’t know” which is the perfect example…because we DON’T know.
However, for all we DO know, there is plenty of evidence that he doesn’t exist…but with a few loopholes that state that MAYBE a God could exist.
I mean…science’s best theory on creation of the universe is the Big Bang…it seems to check out somewhat since we can see galaxies are all moving away from a central point in the universe, thus implying that they all came flying away from it long ago. However, what actually STARTED the Big Bang is a mystery as are many things in the universe. So that leaves the window that perhaps a God started the Big Bang.
Also, there’s the idea of life. Anyone refuting the evolution thing is just burying their head in the sand at this point but there’s no way that both evolution and a God can’t exist. I mean you can argue that we all came out as ooze from some cesspool somewhere and eventually evolved into what we are now. However, that ooze in the cesspool had to come from somewhere. There’s no scientific explanation for what started “life” in the first place. That also leaves an opening for a God figure to place life here.
Love this quote, Emmitt…I agree 100%. What I DO reject is most religions’ perception of God. For one, they ALL try to tell us what God wants, what he wants us to do and obviously many with FAR more ridiculous and silly rules all from what is supposedly God’s will. The very fact that people claim to know what God wants means they don’t understand what a God is at all. It’s an ethereal being! Mere humans are not meant to even comprehend what a God is or what it could possibly think in terms that our mortal brains can understand. This is why I liked the “I don’t know” answer…it’s a poll but that is the correct answer.
I also reject that “God is always watching” and that crap. No, he’s not. We’ve seen evidence piled upon evidence (or lack thereof) that God does NOT perform miracles or pay attention to anyone or answer prayers or any of that crap. In every battle in every war, both sides are feverously praying to God for victory and for everyone to make it through…and AFTER every battle, one of those sides is very disappointed. To even think that God favors one human over another is silly…and from a God’s standpoint why does he care about one human squabble over another? I found it strange that thnkfrst said he loves God. How do you love him? You don’t even know him!
At the very worst, if we want to believe that God created life and the universe than perhaps that’s fine. But at the very least, he’s in retirement. He turned off his cellphone, he ain’t taking phonecalls and he’s done paying attention and he’s just going to let this world help or destroy itself.
Heck, I think people are even are setting themselves up for a big letdown with the afterlife. Our sense of a “soul” is simply a fabric of our own brain’s creation. Once the brain shuts down, so does the soul. Your soul doesn’t go anywhere when you die…it just shuts down…much like when your PC dies or hard drive collapses. Everything on that hard drive is lost. All these folks looking for eternal paradise may be disappointed.
Plus the Jesus thing is funny. We’ve seen tons of nutjobs who claimed to be the Son of God. Yet why does everyone believe this guy? I believe he existed as some sort of wandering prophet who pissed off a bunch of kings and got killed. And I also believe that his followers (probably a bunch of jobless hanger-ons) used his notoriety and pumped him up as the “son of God” and spread his stuff around. But as the actual Son of God? And how’s he supposed to “return” someday? If someone shows up claiming they’re Jesus then they’ll be committed…heck, maybe Jesus HAS come back and is in some institution right now.
Now, if some big flood comes by and we’re all washed away, I’ll try to find a laptop floating by so I can be the first to come on here and say I was wrong. But until then?..meh…believe what you want but don’t think for a second that you know what God wants. No one does and it’s just arrogant to think you do.
The funniest thing of all this, is it also possible to say “I don’t care”? I suppose if the answers of the universe were presented to me, I’d be interested, but why do I have to care where we came from? What’s the meaning of life? I say, who gives a crap?
Stevo
Oh dude, there’s a whole Church and everything. It’s completely awesome. I bet Phish plays during the sermons, too.
"The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, while having existed in secrecy for hundreds of years, only recently came into the mainstream when this letter was published in May 2005.
With millions, if not thousands, of devout worshippers, the Church of the FSM is widely considered a legitimate religion, even by its opponents
I see no reason why the Flying Spaghetti Monster is any less ridiculous than anything the Scientologists believe in…and they’re a religion recognized by government and everything…
But seriously…I need some proof of this Spaghetti Monster. And why would he approve of me eating his smaller spaghetti breathren? I call fraud!!!
Stevo
I don’t. I grew up going to church but the first time I ever thought about it (about 10 yrs old) I realized I didn’t believe in god and never had. I have us figured to be a fluke of chemsitry and physics. Maybe life is more common than we can imagine, the universe has a lot of available space for such accidents of nature.
I do however believe strongly in the freedom of religion. I’m happy to be free to believe what I do. I gladly extend that same freedom to those who disagree with my views.
Well, a lot of people in positions of power use there belief (or feign of belief) to convince people to listen/follow/vote for them. They know how powerful ones belief in a religion can be and they exploit it. I remember George W. Bush said that god meant for him to be president. Things like these tend to reverberate strongly in the heads of those believers. They also use it to generate fear. Like when people insinuated that Obama was the antichrist or that events like Katrina and 9/11 are signs of the end times. And its not just politicians either. Its people trying to sell magazines, movies, pretty much everything. I would consider that control.
^Historically, kings, czars, and emperors all claimed to have been God’s divine right to rule and sadly, tons of folks believed them. When it comes to religion, sadly, people are VERY gullible…probably more-so than with anything else. If you want to get people to do something, tell them that God wants them to do it. This seems ridiculous but millions will do and believe whatever their religion says by thinking it’s the “word of God.” Overall, another flaw of mankind I suppose…
Stevo
there are great scientific explanations for both. you should look these things up before you spend 30 minutes composing a post thats fit for a rapture message board, or at least watch a fucking episode of NOVA.
My Gods are Gozer the Gozerian and Zuul!!
Hey, people are dumbasses. I think a lot of time when people want to blame civilizations problems on religion and politics, it is a copout. People choose to behave like morons.
There definitely a number of explainations for both but there is nothing that is widely excepted and most theories are impossible to prove or even test. In the case of both the big bang and evolution there is definite evidence of both happening. Nova may have shown some theories but none are considered the true answer among the scientific community. I was only saying that God was one possible answer. I don’t know what to believe either way.
Stevo
Yes, overall this is true. Religion is just a means to control those dumbasses in an easier way than most other ways of mind-control. In the end, I kind of feel that religion sells the human race short but stifling our natural ability to think for ourselves and make our own decisions on the way things are. Of course most just don’t want to think for themselves…it’s almost like they want people to tell them what to think. You see the same with political parties where people align themselves with them like they’re an NFL team. Sadly, religion may be the ultimate proof of the failure of humans in general.
Stevo
I like to typically NOT claim to know what nobody on earth could ever know. But hey, that’s me.
So really I like to maintain a strict stance of: How The F Should I Know? tempered by a lifetime of practiced Christianity and a belief in the sound theories of overall basic goodness.
However when my weak approach shot surprisingly turned out somehow to have landed within putting distance on hole 17 last night, I considered jumping on the Oh-I’m-Definitely-Positive-About-The-Unknown,-Believe-Me bandwagon and riding it into their camp. But then I remembered the lousy clothes and modern country songs and I instead smoked a celebratory bowl and shot another 3 on hole 18 & went to rehearse hippy music with my friends.
LOL…oh don’t worry…this happens to me all the time. It’s sometimes just fun to believe in some ethereal being who controls trivial things. Maybe the Greeks had the right idea…a specific god for every little thing…that way you know who to complain to. Damn you, golfing gods!!
I should note that I AM a firm believer in the Football Gods…there’s a reason why the Pats didn’t finish at 19-0 and then Brady broke his ankle the next game…the Football Gods can be cruel.
Stevo
Mission Accomplished!! 
Unconventional. I like my gods with twelve arms, fins, and a sidecar.