Do you believe in God?

[Barty]

"""The writing is on the wall"" https://www.facebook.com/valdinn66617 IRONS"

[BRANDED]

"""gullible minds"" It is literally impossible for me to experience what is in your mind. We can find all kinds of common ground, like describing the taste of a banana which then is agreed upon by more an more people but what you experience is impossible for me to know. So. Someone who has a near death experience is pretty rare and listening to how they describe it would be a scientific insight as you would have both observation and data. There is quite a lot of evidence to suggest that the state of the mind under hallucinogens is the nearest humans might experience the real world and its seen very much as a spiritual experience."

[Willtell]

Coffee Thanks for the references and I'll treat it seriously although you don't deserve an answer. They prove nothing except to perhaps gullible minds prone to the need for affirmation of their life and existence. People get near death dreams then wake up after traumatic events. Doesn't mean their interpretation of a god being involved is right or that it was anything more than an active brain clinging on while being starved of some oxygen. Should we treat people reporting alien abductions seriously too then? Why are they always Americans with these varied life experiences put to camera? Either way if it rocks your boat Coffee that's fine but there's there to change my mind.

[Willtell]

“ The notion of the an expanding universe and the concept behind it's creation is small? Ok. If that's the way you see it” ————— Wils mate that’s not what I said. Is your other user name goose? Lemaitre proposed the expanding universe and deserves credit for it but not studying his life in schools kind of credit.

[BRANDED]

"You may have experienced an act of god. How would you know? Atheism Is Inconsistent with the Scientific Method, Prizewinning Physicist Says https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/atheism-is-inconsistent-with-the-scientific-method-prizewinning-physicist-says/"

[Coffee]

Your brain stopped working well before yesterday.

[Hammer and Pickle]

"I think I’ve had a near-death experience; after the third went in yesterday, my brain kind of stopped working and I don’t remember anything. Certainly no beardy-weirdy blokes on clouds pointing fingers…"

[BRANDED]

"Willtell Our minds may well be quite different from each other. But, what are our minds?"

[Coffee]

Here's another. It deals more with science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2QEXUIYL-U

[Coffee]

"I suppose the final test of the existence of God is what happens when we die. Thanks to advances in science - specifically medicine - more people are surviving heart attacks and other conditions that would have been fatal some decades ago. And with that comes the phenomenon of the near death experience, i.e. people who 'die' and are then resuscitated and tell of what they experienced. There are plenty of those accounts on youtube. I suspect that a few are just loonies, but many ring true. You won't find much about religion in their accounts, but you'll find plenty about God. Here's one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btacKoGvVtM Go explore."

[wils]

"Wils ""My apologies if I offended you by suggesting God was not an explanation."" Perhaps this is emotionally delicate territory for you, so please do tell me if I overstep the mark and cause offence myself, but you can rest assured I am very slow to take offence myself and certainly couldn't imagine doing so over abstract ideas. So you can relax about that. ""Fr Georges Lemaitre is such a small part of the science around the universe"" The notion of the an expanding universe and the concept behind it's creation is small? Ok. If that's the way you see it."

[Willtell]

"""There are deeper things than useful knowledge. Like, how come we dont all think exactly the same way? If science was so good? Is that a serious question BRANDED? Or are you trying to impress as you are failing I suspect. I hadn't given it much thought but as I have a few moments, perhaps it's because we evolved and we each evolve differently?"

[Willtell]

"Wils My apologies if I offended you by suggesting God was not an explanation. What I really meant was that he didn't create it all. I think we need to accept that it exists without someone creating it. If you believe there is a god, who or what created a god? The universe exists and without it there would be nothing to debate what we don't know for sure anyway. As for Fr Georges Lemaitre, yes I know of him. He got things right that Einstein got wrong. Like the expanding universe when Einstein thought it was fixed. Fr Georges Lemaitre is such a small part of the science around the universe that he really isn't worth more than a mention but certainly not a study. Unless you're a catholic of course..."

[wils]

"Willtell ""God doesn't explain it one little bit..."" God is not meant as an explanation. This a false dichotomy that underpins modern secular society. It's best illustrated by someone I follow in Teaching who regularly polls teachers and others in Education with the question, ""Should schools have to teach the theory of the creation of the universe by Catholic priest Fr Georges Lemaitre?"" I suspect many here would respond in the same way as the teachers do to that poll with a resounding ""No!"". But the better read scientists in the room will know that Fr Georges Lemaitre was the first theorise that the universe was expanding before the Hubble telescope confirmed it, and was also the scientist who came up with Big Bang theory for the creation of the universe. Two things you most certainly want taught in any science classroom. He is not an outlier either, those interested in quantum physics would do well to look into the religious beliefs of John Polkinghorne who is was involved in the discovery of the quark. I might be comforting for atheists to believe science has an explanation for everything but science will - and can only - explain what lies within it's realm."

[BRANDED]

"“God doesn't explain it one little bit” Science is ultimately useful knowledge. There are deeper things than useful knowledge. Like, how come we dont all think exactly the same way? If science was so good?"

[BRANDED]

"“God doesn't explain it one little bit” Science is ultimately useful knowledge. There are deeper things than useful knowledge. Like, how come we dont all think exactly the same way? If science was so good?"

[Fifth Column]

Yes I do. Allahu akbar

[ray winstone]

God is a DJ.

[Willtell]

"That's very profound Mike! You obviously have some knowledge of the subject? I'm fascinated by it and am reading 'To Infinity and Beyond' by Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the moment. It is very hard to get my mind around the 4th section chapters. They explain space and time relativity and future prospects of travelling at the speed of light and time travel. It takes some understanding and when you read that travelling at the current fastest speed possible would take 150,000 years to reach an exoplanet just 4 light years away in a known universe of 14 billion light years and possibly more after that... God doesn't explain it one little bit..."

[mashed in maryland]

Kinda

[Mike Oxsaw]

"I believe that the universe is inherently random (at the quantum level). As it is all built up from that quantum level, it inherits a degree of randomness which rapidly decreases as objects approach the size at which they become visible, whatever label is applied to them. That means, a few times, things occur that don't have - not just defy, simply don't have - an explanation (possibly one that we, through science, have yet to work out). Not every effect appears to have a cause - that's just the way it is. If people gain reassurance from personifying that cause, assigning it's instigator deity status and labelling such occurrences as ""an act of God"", then that's fine by me; insurance companies often use such a term as an exclusion to what they provide cover for. As science continues to uncover more and more about the reality in which we live, often having to reverse centuries-old thinking that takes it down dead ends, the need for a God diminishes, but at the very fundamental level of the universe, it will always be impossible to know certain basics."

[chevy chase]

I believe in a God that doesn’t need heavy finance.

[wils]

"zebthecat ""That was Bertrand Russel's whole point and it was to counter many arguments put forwards by other philosophers (Descartes being the obvious target) to disprove their argument proving the existence of God."" I understand perfectly the point he was trying to make, but it's wrong. Many people have pointed this out, but you don't need a degree in philosophy to see the error in it. If you are making a point about the burden of proof, as Russell is attempting, by comparing the existence of other objects with the existence of God, both God and the other object have to have equal plausibility. If you swap the teapot with something like a grain of asteroid rock, or piece of space junk the existence of that object becomes a lot more plausible. But Russell purposefully chooses a ludicrously implausible object in a sleight of hand. It's perfect rhetorically: it places the person arguing with the existence of God in the position of having to differentiate their belief from a belief in implausible objects and renders their belief in God implausible by association. But it is just that, rhetorical. It's not a sound argument. What makes it worse is that God is not even an object. So ignoring the problems with prima facie plausibility, the argument is not cogent."

[BRANDED]

God is everything. He works in mysterious ways. Some are very predictable. Some are extremely unpredictable. You can try and unlock this methods but you‚Äôll never be able to fully predict what will happen. You can only prepare for all case scenarios that enable you to grow from the experience. ?üòâ Son

[Eerie Descent]

"Profound stuff, BRAINDEAD son."

[BRANDED]

God would be as good an explanation as anything else. How on earth do you know what might happen tomorrow?