There may have been a thread like this created, but not in this matter. I'm writing a story for college and criteria and opinions from people would be of great help. Plus I'm just wondering what people believe in. Ok, this thread is not designed to test one's religions or argue if there is a god. If anyone makes comments insulting or attacking someone b/c of their beliefsI'm sure the mods may notify you of being off-topic. If you talk about another person's beliefs in a non-insulting way, that's fine. The questions for discussion is: -Do you believe in a god, an holy higher-up that started the universe and created everything in it? -Do you believe in the Devil or demonic activity? -Do you believe in ghosts? -Do you believe in an after-life? -If you don't believe in a god, what's your thoughts about the origins of the universe? I watched a thing on the discovery channel on aliens (awhile back) and some experts believe the uncharted 1% of our DNA (not related to the ape) is alien DNA. They think aliens came to our planet and did a project to where they inserted some of their own DNA into an Ape (male and female) and bam, our species was created. 99% of our DNA is the same as apes, but that 1% is uncharted and related to nothing on this planet. What do you think?
If you're going for a non-biased survey of sorts- This type of thing doesn't work so well because it's usually the people who are most opinionated who reply in this type of a thread. And the results become biased because the more casually opinionated person isn't motivated enough to post.. Just saying, you don't get a very fair focus group. As for me, yes to all except n/a to the last
Bit of a risky topic, but I'll give my two cents, it's really ****ing hard to try and tip toe around other peoples' beliefs on these things, so I'm just going to touch on the ghost bit. Spoilered to save people who are hell-bent on believing in ghosts from being butthurt. Spoiler Ghosts are a load of ****, assuming they do exist, there must be some existing precondition for somebody to become a ghost, and every ghost would have similar characteristics, which they don't. Based on the fact that the only similarities are "They go bump in the night", and "Only seeing it one for a fleeting moment", in my opinion, they do not exist.
No, I do not belive there is some higher power that put us here, in fact we all evolved the same as every other mamal on this planet. Religion was contrived to control the masses. The thought that a super being that watches over their every move was put in place so that they would be good when they were not being watched by people. This should cover all the remaining questions except for the last, why not? We would be completely arrogant to think we are the only sentient life forms in this or any other universe. We are here, they may be out there, we just havent met them yet.
Dude, nothing wrong with believing that. However, have you watched Ghost Hunters, Ghost Adventures, or Ghost Mine. What's your take on that and what's your take on EMP fluxations and EMP detetcting devices? Since you don't believe in ghosts, do you believe in God or the Devil?
Do you think any alien race out there knows about us? Try to imagine how old the universe is and if a species has been around a trillion times longer than us, would they know about us? Why would they create us and then abandon us? Just some things to think about.
Me... You can't really explain how we got here without bringing in a foreign deity. So I choose to believe in a spiritual diety. I do not worship said diety, because who am I to judge if this magical diety is a good diety or not. What if the diety that placed us here is evil? What then? Now here is my rant about religion. Spoiler Me and a friend of mine at school jokingly talk about the "religion of the magical invisible pink unicorn" The "Ebilb" states that the magical invisible pink unicorn flies around and over sees us all to make sure we are being good or not. People then ask us (jokingly) "Well... how do you know it's there if its invisible. I reply, "How do you know god exists?" "The Bible told me so" "The Eblib told me the magical pink unicorn exists" "Thats stupid, unicorns don't exist. "Ghosts don't exist... Why do you believe in ghosts?" "God is real..." I say, "How so?" "... Just is... Bible told me so..." Spoiler Now this is the part that pisses so many christians off. I don't believe in the stories of the bible. It's all crap. Thier "Holy Virgin Mary" Blessed with a son that she didn't concieve or whatever. Mary was probably just a prostitute. Gave birth to a bastard child who grew only having a father in religion. And cause this guy was like the earliest form of ghandi, everyone loved him. So when he got all ballsy and stood up to the romans, They crucified him. NOW THIS PART Is TruE FACT And IS IMPORTANT! The romans dumped his body in a cave. THE BODY WASN'T FOUND. Never. Ever. Probably got dragged of by a bear or something. Thats why I don't believe in religion. Cause the whole thing is just a bunch of metaphors and glorified, average people. I believe in faith. Don't get me wrong faith is fantastic. Religion = poo poo
My religious beliefs are a bit complicated, but in the end, yes, I do believe in a God. Yes, I believe a "Devil" exists. Ghosts are ****ing bullshit. Ignore that if u luv gostz. Yes, I do believe in the concept of the afterlife. I apologize for the vague nature of my answers, but your elaboration of your story suffers the same ambiguity. I am willing to go more in-depth if my opinions are insufficient. Narfidy, I assume your friend has blind faith in Christianity, which is, by the way, the only religion you addressed in your post. He has no heavy backup to support his beliefs, so his faith is solely molded by his environment, fear of possible pressure against him, and his kinsmen.
I think that is most people's takes on religion who don't believe in the god almighty. But you say you believe in faith. What do you think the primary drive for christian's is? It's faith. Believing in something that you can't control or prove right or wrong/ yes or no. Why do you not believe in ghosts if you believe in the devil and god? What strikes you as ghosts being bullshit? God and the Devil are something not seen by the naked eye, either are ghosts (perhaps), so why one and not the other?
This is somewhat of an unanswerable question. Events that have been recorded in both ancient and recent history cannot all be accurate, so it goes back to the question, "How can you detect which historical documents are accurate and which of them are inaccurate?" We can discuss that question a little further if you want, but I consider it pointless and off-topic. Just for reference, Loscocco is being sarcastic.
entrance of shuman in 3...2...1... Also, since I can't resist, old news. Just kidding with you, but a lot of of you're looking for in this thread was talked about in that thread. Even ghosts at one point or another.
Lol, you didn't waste one second did you? Different primary focus brother. I'll give you a D- for effort of 'getting me back' though. The last post was in May of last year and there was no focus for this thread. Your act here was pretty childish at the least. Even quoting cheese in the other thread, "So wait, whats this for? What are we trying to Discuss? I don't understand. Good for you, you have a religion." Yeah, different focus here, but like I said, 'D-' for effort. I was just asking why you don't believe in ghosts. It's not an unanswerable question. To say that is to say you don't know why you believe what you believe. Why do you believe in a God and/or Devil but not ghosts? Do you base your thoughts and beliefs on some recorded document or what do you base them off of? Or do you just believe for no certain reason other than that was the way you were raised?
My English is simply not good enough to go into depth on my beliefs and thoughts on the matter, without me having to spend hours to translate everything, so I'll just keep it short. My answer to all questions is yes, except for the last one: Honestly I think that's bullshit. I'm not explicitly saying there's no alien race, I just think that chances of ever meeting one are significantly small. And this story simply doesn't make any sense to me at all.
Oh, I thought you were asking me why I had my religious beliefs and did not have others' beliefs. Ghosts conflict with my concept of the afterlife, and the only real "recent history" on them comes from attention-hungry teens, grown adults who want money, and extremely crazy people. God and a Devil do not conflict with my beliefs. All of my beliefs are from the Bible, but they are...unorthodox, and I base further evidence for my unorthodoxy with outside sources. Why did you just accuse me of blind faith when I just criticized it a few posts ago?
He was just giving you the old thread for religion's link and said everything rather maturely. I don't see where you are finding issue with pac's comment, Fenix. I get that he didnt answer any of your questions, but that's okay, he did give you a link to a place where tons of other people have commented on religion. No need to go at him like that. It surely didnt seem to me like he was even remotely upset with you. No need for any of this. And while I'm here, I suppose I'll throw in my 0.02. I used to beleive in a god, I was raised Christian, but my family was never too religious and while they all (especially my sisters) believe in God and the devil and all of that good stuff I do not any longer. I prefer to look at this all with a scientific mind and not throw my faith into the hands of a faceless deity. I do not believe in ghosts or an afterlife (though for a while I did believe in reincarnation, due to this odd memory I have of very abstract colors and temperatures with no classification. It's weird and I've in the past attributed it to a time in between lives), mainly due to the fact I have no religion (unless you want to call me Agnostic, because I'm fine with admitting that there might be some deity or deities somewhere that were at least at one time a part of our lives (and still may be). It's too unknown for me to say that there is absolutely nothing, though I do lean in the direction enough to say that I do not believe in any of this). The universe. The universe is brilliant. However, while I won't say for certain that the Big Bang Theory is correct, I will say that I don't think anyone made it. I do believe it was a happy accident similar to how the BBT worked, while not explicitly that perhaps. I'm of the mind that nothing is unexplainable by science and reason, we simply haven't been around long enough to have seen this event or gined the knowledge to deduce the exact cause. If a god or goddess or many gods made the universe, I believe it was through scientific means. Your aliens are intriguing. i have often in the past thought upon the concept of humanity as an alien experiment, tough it is only a fleeting idea and nothing grounds it. While I don't wholly beleive that DNA theory, I don't disagree with it as a possibility. We cannot be alone in the universe, and it's an old place. Another civilization could have found us. If not, we are continually sending out little probes and shuttles and pretty soon people into space. Poking at the fringes of our world would most certainly attract attention to ourselves if another race is nearby. I can go into farther explanation if it helps your project, Fenix. Good job keeping this reasonable, guys. These threads are intriguing, I dont want any of the staff to have to intervene in it.
I find it much easier to believe faking something for a show is more likely than actual ghosts. As for God or the Devil.. I'm just going to stay away from that one, I don't want to get infracted I'll just leave it at "I don't believe in anything supernatural".
Short answer: no. Long answer: nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Science makes more sense.
To be perfectly honest, I don't believe in god, the devil, ghosts and the afterlife. I do respect people's beliefs though. As for the Universe, I believe in the Big Bang and evolution. As for aliens, I shall say this: The Universe is a very big place... If we are the only sentient beings in the universe (and all other universes for that matter) with all these stars and planets. Well, it would be a hell of a waste of space...