How many people believe in GOD.

[MHarrigan82]

I come from a very conservative christian background. I believe in GOD but believe that the bible is not 100 percent literal like most christian do. I don't believe if you are gay you are going to hell or an abomination like so many christian. Most gay people that I have been around have treated me with respect and class than hetrosexual people. I believe in good and evil and some of the so called christian conservatives are the most evil people around. Stealing money from people molesting kids. I believe GOD judges your heart not sexual orientation.

[loveboof]

I don't believe in God. Would this be better conveyed through a poll?

[trish]

According to this link

Demographics of atheism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nearly everybody believes in a god, a spirit or a “life force”. Though 25% of Germans do not, 27% of Belgians do not, 39% of Swiss do not, 40% of Bulgarians do not, 48% of Icelanders do not, 53% of Swedes do not.

If you were looking for a more personal response to your inquiry, I do not.

There are a few religions (or more properly sects) in direct conflict with what I take to be verifiable facts; e.g. the age of the Earth, the process of speciation etc. These are easy to eliminate from consideration.

There are a number of religions that propose physically unlikely entities; e.g. omnipotent gods who take a personal interest in individual humans, communicates with them telepathically, judges them and interrupts physical law to perform favors for those who are worshipful believers. These are pretty easy to dispense with as well.

There are a number of religions whose gods demand we worship them, who command we observe ridiculous rituals, who command we not practice birth control, or indulge in sodomy or any kind of sex not directed toward propagation of the species. These too are easy to eliminate.

Easy for me anyway. I realize that almost any religion offers good advice along with the bad. But then one has to use one’s own judgement to pick out the good stuff from the bad. So what good does believing in God do? I maintain it’s wrong to kill someone to gain what’s in their pockets. Suppose some religion maintains there a God who agrees with me on this and commands us not to kill and rob. If according to that same religion that same God commands that I stone my wife if she was a victim of rape, then I really can’t use that God’s commands as a basis for any moral belief.

After these eliminations there are certain quasi-religious systems that remain; e.g. the sort of pantheism that maintains the universe is God. If you catch me in a generous mood I might agree, the universe is God....but only because it’s a vacuous statement.

Here is where it gets a little tough. Gods, who they are and what they are, are delineated by their religions. If one jettisons religion and just believes in the gods, then one has the problem of defining who and what the gods are that you believe in. Frankly I find this to be a fruitless task not worth the effort.

There is also the moral question, "What do we owe to a being whom we believe created us, the universe and everything?" Do we really have to worship the dude? Can we really know it (the being) has our best interest at "heart" and we're not just a lab experiment? Etc. etc.

Ultimately I count myself an atheist (in the same way that people who have no morals are counted as amoral) because I do not believe that not everything in the universe (or the multiverse) isn’t a god (in the sense that I think the OP of this thread intends the meaning of "god"). The purpose for the strange and knotty locution of “nots” is to make clear what that I’m using “existence” as a quantifier and not a verb. More succinctly and with that caveat: I do not believe that there are entities in the universe (or the multiverse) who are gods.

[yosi]

believing in god is the human desire to be on the right side , contrary to the others who don't believe like them who are on the bad/wrong side.( it's so good to be on the right side , isn't it?.......)

the problem with that is that it's a black and white perspective , no other colors exist .

poeple who believe in god tend to try to force others who don't believe like them , some called it inquisition , others call it jihad , if such god exists , he needs to go urgently to see a shrink.....

..... for these last words there is a certain group of those who believe in god who will sentence me to death for insulting their god.

if such god exists , who needs him?

[danthepoetman]

If you pray enough, if you proceed to certain gestures or actions, if you pronounce certain words, if you want it with all your “energy”, some thing will happen… It’s magic. To invoke a being that’s above what is, over it, and completely different from it, to explain it, if you imagine an immaterial being to explain the material world, you put yourself in the exact same frame of mind: magic.
God lives of our fears and of our feebleness this world of contingency.
Then again, we can’t help giving emotional charge or intent to meanings. We think through evocations and symbols. Can we get rid of God? Not sure. It usually comes back to bite us in the ass in any other form.

How many people believe in God? The answer will always be: too many. I call myself an agnostic.

[Prospero]

Agnosticism seems to me to be the only viable position. To believe that there is or isn't a God depends upon a certainty which cannot be proven.

[robertlouis]

Agnosticism seems to me to be the only viable position. To believe that there is or isn't a God depends upon a certainty which cannot be proven.

I agree with that, although I wonder how many people class themselves atheists because of the increasingly extreme and strident voices of believers, whatever the creed.

Which is to say, I'm also agnostic, but for the purposes of debate in emotional terms I might call myself an atheist!

[Prospero]

The burden is on those who believe to offer proof. Without that I'll live in doubt.

[robertlouis]

The burden is on those who believe to offer proof. Without that I'll live in doubt.

But they can't offer proof - you have to share and/or accept their blind faith.

I tend to agree with Patrick McGoohan on this one....

[Prospero]

And what did our famed Prisoner have to say?