I Believe God Exists

[Bibliofagus]

god noun \gad also god\
                   :     The supreme or ultimate reality  :  The ground of all being  :  Infinite Mind.

What is a supreme reality?
What is a ultimate reality?
What is a ground of all being?
What is an infinite mind?

The only name "my" (I hesitate to refer to god as if god is my personal possession but it will make communication easier so I'll just go with it) "god" has is whatever word we can all agree to use to refer to it. I prefer the word God.

What's a 'god'?

[Mr.Obvious]

Good, that's a beginning. But what attributes does it have?
Here are some common onces many debaters argue it has: Is your "God" all knowing? Is it all powerfull? Is it benevollent? Is it always just? Is it always honest? Is it a personal being (meaning it comes into human life and makes miracles happen and answers prayers and ...) or not? Is it flawed or flawless? Has it been around forever? Is it immortal? Is it concerned with whom you do stuff (and what stuff) at night? Is it one being or one of many or one of three but still one? Is it the creator of the Universe? Is it it's own father? ...

[Bibliofagus]

Is it it's own father? ...

Never heard that one before lol.

[Casparov]

Belief in God is based on magical thinking and faith. Atheism is based on no evidence, and evidence that an all powerful loving God that can send you to hell unless you placate Him and has a history of being a psychopath is a contradiction in terms and not logical. Also there is no need for a God to explain anything when there is empirical evidence that does.  Solitary

The eighteenth-century mathematician and famous Materialist/Atheist, Pierre-Simon Laplace, demonstrated the line of thinking you have expressed perfectly. Napoleon, when hearing about Laplace's latest book, said, 'Mr. Laplace, they tell me you have written this large book on the system of the universe and have never mentioned God once."

And Laplace responded, "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-la. (Your majesté, I have not needed that particular hypothesis."

there is no need for a God to explain anything when there is empirical evidence that does.

The reason I have arrived at the conclusion that God exists is because the alternative is not convincing. The alternative, of course, being that we exist in an objective material universe. In which case the God Hypothesis would be entirely unnecessary.

I concede the point at the front that "Atheism does not equal Materialism" however it is my contention that in the great majority of cases, it is materialism which leads to the conclusion of Atheism. The two seem to go hand in hand. A Nihilist who believes absolutely nothing about anything, and is also an Atheist, obviously is not a Materialist, but also is obviously in no position to debate against. One cannot debate against someone who has absolutely no position whatsoever. As I have seen Atheists eager to debate evolution and Big Bang Theory, this leads me to believe that Atheists do have positive positions that they are willing and able to defend, and there must exist at least a few Atheists who are also Materialists. And it is these Atheists I wish to debate.

If it is true that we do indeed exist in an objective material universe, then it would obviously follow that there is no God, and I would too be an Atheist. I, however, am not convinced that we do in fact exist in a material universe. The evidence is quite simply not convincing to me.


P.S. I am well aware that all being an Atheist means is that you lack a belief in any god and nothing more. I fully accept that. But there are underlying reasons that you have come to such a belief, and if that reason is Materialism, I have a problem with that. If it is not Materialism, I'm interested in what your alternatives to Materialism are as an Atheist.

[Contemporary Protestant]

Buddhism and any other eastern philosophy

As a fellow believer, I strongly encourage for you to observe before you speak

[Casparov]

evidence that an all powerful loving God that can send you to hell unless you placate Him and has a history of being a psychopath is a contradiction in terms and not logical.

It seems you are referring yahweh, the God of the Christian religion described in the bible. I have no wish to attempt to argue for the existence of any God as described in any singular religion. Rather, I will attempt to describe an argument for "God in general", divorced from any religious conception, but at the same time encompassing all.

[Bibliofagus]

I'm a materialist and I just don't believe any of the stories about 'gods' anyone ever told me.

[Bibliofagus]

It seems you are referring yahweh, the God of the Christian religion described in the bible. I have no wish to attempt to argue for the existence of any God as described in any singular religion. Rather, I will attempt to describe an argument for "God in general", divorced from any religious conception, but at the same time encompassing all.

Good. Define it please. What's a 'god'?

[Contemporary Protestant]

You said you have a God, if your not a worshiper of YHWH, then who is your God

[stromboli]

God/intelligent force creates the universe. Why?

Creates us to worship him yes/no. If yes, why? If not, why do we exist?

[aitm]

A gender is obviously a ridiculous proposition. Any personality would only be a reflection of human projections onto that which is other than human.

I will attempt to describe an argument for "God in general", divorced from any religious conception, but at the same time encompassing all.

Much fun, sure good

[wolf39us]

3) See logo.

This forum is open to theists too :p

Forgive me if I misread you.

[stromboli]

1.
(in Christianity and other monotheistic religions) the creator and ruler of the universe and source of all moral authority; the supreme being.
synonyms:   the Lord, the Almighty, the Creator, the Maker, the Godhead; More
2.
(in certain other religions) a superhuman being or spirit worshiped as having power over nature or human fortunes; a deity.

God per se is usually expected to have some form and attributes; looks like Chralton Heston, can throw thunderbolts. An amorphous, non physical god with undefined attributes might more correctly be seen as an intelligent force; not supernatural. God by definition is supernatural. You might need to redefine that a little bit.

[PickelledEggs]

Do landslides have a "creator"?

You are thinking mudlside.

And yes I can create as many as you want as long as I have ample Baileys, Kahlua, and vodka

[Casparov]

 

Good. Define it please. What's a 'god'?

It seems most of you are still confused about what I mean by "God", even after I have provided a definition. Admittedly the definition I provided does require a little bit of deep thought to see what exactly is being said, so because of this I will further expound upon what I believe "God" to be like.

The default conception of God is of some outside entity that exists somewhere "out there" apart from us that has unimaginable attributes and characteristics such as omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipotence, etc. Most people that believe in Gods believe in their conceived God in this way and therefore most Atheists disbelieve in Gods that are conceptualized in that way as well.

I don't believe that God is something separate from what we are. I believe that ultimately, there exists only one thing, and that thing is God, and everything, including us, are parts of it. I believe that the ultimate reality, and the ground of all being, is Mind, and I believe that source of all Mind, is God, which I have defined as "Infinite Mind."

In short: Consciousness is fundamental. We and all life forms are individual units of consciousness. And the term "God" is reserved for the ultimate source of what we are and all that exists. The entire and all encompassing coagulation of all consciousnesses together as one conscious thing is "God."

Let me now point out that in my world view it is not so much important that "God exists" nor that people "believe in God" as it is that the actual nature of reality is such that this conception of God unfolds out of it. Of course if materialism is true than this conception of God is just as fallacious and fictitious as any other. But if Materialism is false, then that changes the whole conversation entirely. So for me, I am much more interested in discovering the true nature of reality, than I am in converting people into Theists.

Perhaps now I have shed sufficient light onto what my conception of "God" is, and I can begin the actual work of debating the evidence.