What's Your Faith, Or Lack Of It?

[loaf]

In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins produces a scale on which a person might be able to express how they feel about the existence of God, be it Islamic, Jewish, Christian, or anything else. He admits that it is much more subtle thing than simply seven options, but these are the major 'signposts' on a smoother scale.

 

The good thing about the MF polls is that you can contribute to the survey without having to confess your faith or lack thereof.

 

Read through each question and see if it sounds close to your view on matters. Read them all through before picking one. I guess it doesn't have to be your feelings an organised religion. Go with your instincts.

[Chinahand]

I'm a defacto atheist.

 

 

I do not think we get any guidance from the heavens, or believe any so called holy texts are such.

 

There may be much good in their teachings, but the can also be much evil. And you can only discover which is which through reason and evidence. Faith will be very very little help.

[Mission]

Club DFA for me too.

[loaf]

I have a suspicion that most forum members will lean towards atheism, but now's the chance to find out...

[Miss Take]

11 nil so far - we rock!!!!!

[La_Dolce_Vita]

I can't PROVE that God doesn't exist, so me too - DFA

[immortalpuppet]

I will never put my faith into the exsistance of a higher being. I used to attend church until my early teens and things just stopped making sense, i did try and discuss my loss of faith at the time but each time i would ask a question it was met by another question and that just made me even more confused.

 

During School i adored RE and it was one of the lessons i gave a shit about, it was learning about other cultures and beliefs and i think i was starting to get a degree of faith back. Then My Father Died in an accident and i went a bit mental, it was the usual story of blame and "how could a God let this happen ect ect" but after a while i realised i had to stop trying to blame something or someone and put it down to what it was, an accident.

 

I admire people who have such strong faith in God/Jebus/whoever but for me its all just chance and hope rather than a pre destined future where believers end up happy and the rest of us suffer.

 

I think we make our own fate and as humans we need to occupy a part of our brains that we dont fully understand yet, this part would centre around having a belief in something. They found a group of Monkies in the Jungle who went to worship a waterfall at certain times, if there were a higher being then why dont all animals who are supposed to be put here by him/her have the same capacity to believe or worship?

 

I think for me what it all boils down to is having more questions than answers, i would rather spend my time on something else other than faith.

[Skeddan]

Maybe someday someone will write a book called The Dawkins Delusion - about how scientists can blunder into treating everything in terms of evidential proof and subject to scientific method. (Does God exist - what is the probability that God exists - a kind of framing the issue in a way which is akin to an astrophysics question about some hypothesised entity).

 

The preface to The Dawkins Delusion might be something along these lines: clicky

[Bananaman]

Where's Father Christmas then?

 

Bah!

[Sentience]

I will never put my faith into the exsistance of a higher being. I used to attend church until my early teens and things just stopped making sense, i did try and discuss my loss of faith at the time but each time i would ask a question it was met by another question and that just made me even more confused.

 

During School i adored RE and it was one of the lessons i gave a shit about, it was learning about other cultures and beliefs and i think i was starting to get a degree of faith back. Then My Father Died in an accident and i went a bit mental, it was the usual story of blame and "how could a God let this happen ect ect" but after a while i realised i had to stop trying to blame something or someone and put it down to what it was, an accident.

 

I admire people who have such strong faith in God/Jebus/whoever but for me its all just chance and hope rather than a pre destined future where believers end up happy and the rest of us suffer.

 

I think we make our own fate and as humans we need to occupy a part of our brains that we dont fully understand yet, this part would centre around having a belief in something. They found a group of Monkies in the Jungle who went to worship a waterfall at certain times, if there were a higher being then why dont all animals who are supposed to be put here by him/her have the same capacity to believe or worship?

 

I think for me what it all boils down to is having more questions than answers, i would rather spend my time on something else other than faith.

 

Wow, I read this. and thought I'd posted it.

The only thing missing, from my personal point of view, is that it is far more important to be Christian, than religious.

But, there genuinely must have been something really quite exceptional about this young man for so many, believers and non-believers alike, to even remember his name, let alone be drawn into the perenial discussion.

I think there are times in everyones life when that absolute overwhelming sense of grief, unhappiness or dreadful sadness makes us look, not only to lay some 'heavenly' blame, but also for some 'Heavenly' guidance.

Just what this indicates I'm not sure of.

Like you though, I really envy those who have the ability to enjoy unquestioning faith.

It is such a shame that entire civilisations, and not just ancient ones, have used religion as a reason (excuse) for the slaughter of so many innocents who 'Don't quite see it their way'.

[VinnieK]

Completely impartial. Though I disagree with the phrasing in terms of probability - I wouldn't say that the chances of there being a god are equal to those of their not being a god, I'd say that it's impossible to measure either probability and attempts to do so (on both sides) is bollocks and a feeble abuse of probability theory.

 

The closest I come to theology is: Either way, I don't know and I can't know, so I'm not going to waste my time thinking or caring that much about it.

[Chinahand]

VinnieK can you make any meaningful statements about some of the claims of religion - the age of the universe, the order of creation, the fact that certain nations are meant to be a choosen people etc.

 

Do you really go - no idea, maybe its true, maybe its not, I can't know?

[VinnieK]

VinnieK can you make any meaningful statements about some of the claims of religion - the age of the universe, the order of creation, the fact that certain nations are meant to be a choosen people etc.

 

Do you really go - no idea, maybe its true, maybe its not, I can't know?

 

I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic. The question was about the existence or non-existence of some form of deity, not about whether we subscribe to the tenets and assertions of particular religions. Had the poll been "Do you believe in the Christian creation myth/etc." then of course I would have already answered no, but it isn't.

[Mr. Sausages]

VinnieK can you make any meaningful statements about some of the claims of religion - the age of the universe, the order of creation, the fact that certain nations are meant to be a choosen people etc.

 

Do you really go - no idea, maybe its true, maybe its not, I can't know?

 

Surely that's a different thing though. The question is "do you believe there is a God", not "how likely is it that a particular religion is correct".

 

To quote my view from another thread, which is pretty much the same as above:

 

Nobody knows. Nobody ever has, nobody ever will. Which is why spending too much time thinking about it or discussing it is pointless.

[Chinahand]

The question was about the existence or non-existence of some form of deity, not about whether we subscribe to the tenets and assertions of particular religions. Had the poll been "Do you believe in the Christian creation myth/etc." then of course I would have already answered no, but it isn't.

Ok - but I find it odd that you seem totally unwilling to debate the "form of deity". Questions of faith and religion are not as simple as exist not exist, the questions ask about how you live your life - do you live your life under an assumption that a deity exists or not - that goes into questions of theology - how should you live your life if you assume a God exists - or not.