Do you belive in God?

[Farnhamia]

So, finding that the universe is expanding faster than we previously thought means there is a God in charge of everything? Couldn't it be that the universe is just expanding at a different rate than we previously thought?

It doesn't just do so for no reason, though. There's some reason it does. Possibly a failure in the Conservation of Energy, but...then that raises its own questions, actually more helpful to the possibility of things like the supernatural. And like I said, it's only a start. I still have to find that one writing of Kaku's that I can use as a source...

Are you saying that the expansion has suddenly changed?

[Risna]

I am definitly a pagan so I feel some sort of divine presense. A fusion of Shinto/Taosim. I will not reject the Christian God because neither of us are completly correct. God is a thousand sided dice.

[New Heliopolis]

It doesn't just do so for no reason, though. There's some reason it does. Possibly a failure in the Conservation of Energy, but...then that raises its own questions, actually more helpful to the possibility of things like the supernatural. And like I said, it's only a start. I still have to find that one writing of Kaku's that I can use as a source...

Are you saying that the expansion has suddenly changed?

It actually has. The rate itself is thought to have accelerated by scientists.

[Kleomentia]

I am definitly a pagan so I feel some sort of divine presense. A fusion of Shinto/Taosim. I will not reject the Christian God because neither of us are completly correct. God is a thousand sided dice.

Yeah, i wonder how God feels when he looks down to us.

[Farnhamia]

Are you saying that the expansion has suddenly changed?

It actually has. The rate itself is thought to have accelerated by scientists.

All at once or slowly over time? You'll provide me a small linkette I can check, of course. Still, I think I'll go with natural explanations rather than supernatural ones for the time being, until such time as the scientific consensus is "Yep, it's God, alright."

[Salandriagado]

Yes, I believe in God, something can not come from nothing which blocks all possibilty of a "big bang"

Incorrect. No current theory of the big bang posits that something has come from nothing. There are (or were, it's a while since I've read up on this stuff) five main theories (or I might just have misremembered). The only one I can remember anything about involved a collision between two n-branes. (Where's unhealthy2 when you need someone to answer ridiculously technical questions?)

God has changed lifes,

Evidence please.

he has turned the sinful on the right path!

Define "sinful". Define "right". Explain why anyone, deity or otherwise has the right to force people to behave according to a specific moral code.

off the condemnation of souls thing.

Provide evidence for the existence of a soul.

I cannot help but see how the red sea just randomly parted right as the jews were crossing,

It didn't. It didn't part at all. Your book is wrong, and demonstrably so on many terms.

also how the world just randomly flooded when God told Moses it was going to.

The world did not flood. This is one of those "demonstrably wrong" points.

ALSO I really cannot believe that we "evolved" from monkies or apes! If we share 98% of our DNA with other primates then we share 13% with Banana's! DID WE EVOLVE FROM BANANAS??? I DONT THINK SO!!!

We evolved from neither modern apes, modern monkeys or bananas. We do, however, share a common ancestor with all of the above. It just so happens that we separated from the ancestors of the plants a lot earlier than we separated from the other primates. Evolution happens. This is not up for debate. It is, to the greatest degree that anything can be outside of maths and pure logic, a fact.

Also to see all the things happening today that are so good, preformed in the name of God!

Yeah, like religiously motivated violence, the proliferation of disease and the continued poor treatment of women in large parts of the world

RELIGION is what tears us apart, not God, it tells us in the Bible that we will one day reunite as one church so what's up with hating eachother as Christians?

Source?

we should be celebrating the diffrences and talking about them!

At last, something that makes sense.

God, Jesus, and The Holy Spirit have made themselves present in my life multiple times.

How, precisely, do you know it was "god, Jesus and the holy spirit"? I'll argue that your body produced some chemicals that caused your brain to fire some series of synapses to produce an emotion that you like to call "god". That is neither objectively repeatable nor a piece of evidence in support of the existence of any deity.

I can only hope my athiest counter-parts will one day talk with the faithful and try to understand where we are coming from. (and possibly convert ;D)

We have talked with you. That is precisely the problem. To my knowledge, not one of you has ever produced a single piece of evidence or logical argument that supports your hypothesis (if indeed, you actually have a falsifiable hypothesis to start with, most of you don't ever have a coherent one of them) that has not been demonstrated to be entirely flawed and/or not in support of your hypothesis. Every falsifiable god that I'm aware of being presented has been falsified and as far as the unfalsifiable versions go, I'm going to go ahead and point you to Unhealthy2s probability space proof that the probability of such a god existing is 0 (not quite the same as impossible, see his point). If anyone could dig that post out for me, I'd appreciate it.

[Waffia]

I don't believe in God. God was just a tool to explain the unexplainable. But I don't think we need that tool anymore, with the quickly advancing technology from now.

[Norstal]

So, finding that the universe is expanding faster than we previously thought means there is a God in charge of everything? Couldn't it be that the universe is just expanding at a different rate than we previously thought?

It doesn't just do so for no reason, though. There's some reason it does. Possibly a failure in the Conservation of Energy, but...then that raises its own questions, actually more helpful to the possibility of things like the supernatural. And like I said, it's only a start. I still have to find that one writing of Kaku's that I can use as a source...

No it's not. Deferring to the supernatural won't give you more knowledge. It's like, drinking water to satisfy your hunger. There's a way to find out more about this without being a theist or believing in god.

This expansion could've been made by extraterrestrial activities, expanding energies, miscalculations, etc. Don't just resort to god.

[Avenio]

ALSO I really cannot believe that we "evolved" from monkies or apes! If we share 98% of our DNA with other primates then we share 13% with Banana's! DID WE EVOLVE FROM BANANAS??? I DONT THINK SO!!!

We evolved from neither modern apes, modern monkeys or bananas. We do, however, share a common ancestor with all of the above. It just so happens that we separated from the ancestors of the plants a lot earlier than we separated from the other primates. Evolution happens. This is not up for debate. It is, to the greatest degree that anything can be outside of maths and pure logic, a fact.

Just to add to your comment, I would be willing to guess that that 13% of our DNA is some of the oldest and most important parts, dealing with things like protein synthesis, sugar/ATP manufacturing and a lot of cellular processes; the foundation of life, in other words. So it does indeed make sense that we'd share that DNA with bananas (And probably most forms of life on our planet, I'd bet), as we're made up of largely the same base 'stuff' as it.

EDIT: To explain this better to laypeople, think of DNA as the blueprint for a house, in that a blueprint is a set of instructions and diagrams that show the details on how to build a house from the ground up. Though you can have an infinite number of variations in the type of house, method of construction and the like, there are certain elements of the blueprint that are found in all houses, like plumbing and heating and insulation and structural supports and the like. They're necessary to build a house, whatever that house may end up being. Similarly, that 13% of the DNA we share with bananas is the base elements of our genome, constructing the most basic and essential components of life, even though the final 'house' may be very, very different.

[Xenohumanity]

It's like, drinking water to satisfy your hunger.

[pointless misguided rebuttal]Just going to chime in and say that when my stomach aches for food, two glasses of water will shut it up for an hour or so.[/pointless misguided rebuttal] You may want to use a different analogy.

[Farnhamia]

It's like, drinking water to satisfy your hunger.

[pointless misguided rebuttal]Just going to chime in and say that when my stomach aches for food, two glasses of water will shut it up for an hour or so.[/pointless misguided rebuttal] You may want to use a different analogy.

No, I think the analogy is apt. Those two glasses of water ease your hunger for a while, but they do not satisfy it, nor do they provide nourishment. In just the same way, resorting to the supernatural ("extrauniversal energy") may seem to make the problem go away, but it does not add to our knowledge of the universe.

[Sociobiology]

So, finding that the universe is expanding faster than we previously thought means there is a God in charge of everything? Couldn't it be that the universe is just expanding at a different rate than we previously thought?

It doesn't just do so for no reason, though. There's some reason it does. Possibly a failure in the Conservation of Energy, but...then that raises its own questions, actually more helpful to the possibility of things like the supernatural. And like I said, it's only a start. I still have to find that one writing of Kaku's that I can use as a source...

I wonder if the anitmatter instability means random particle formation from the "froth" of vacuum (vacuum instability) results in matter continuously being added in very tiny amounts pushing the universe outwards, or that perhaps this particle formation actually generates a force of its own, that is just to weak to detect on anything but a galactic scale, or perhaps unlike gravity it scale with distance not the inverse of distance.

[Xenohumanity]

No, I think the analogy is apt. Those two glasses of water ease your hunger for a while, but they do not satisfy it, nor do they provide nourishment. In just the same way, resorting to the supernatural ("extrauniversal energy") may seem to make the problem go away, but it does not add to our knowledge of the universe.

True, true. However, making the pain go away lets you focus on getting the work you have to do done instead of looking for food and being in pain, such as how allowing religious/psychological comfort into you life allows you to live the semblance of a healthy life while you try to do your job, pass your classes, complete your research, or just survive, rather than having existential crises like they're going out of style.

[New Heliopolis]

It actually has. The rate itself is thought to have accelerated by scientists.

All at once or slowly over time? You'll provide me a small linkette I can check, of course. Still, I think I'll go with natural explanations rather than supernatural ones for the time being, until such time as the scientific consensus is "Yep, it's God, alright."

Linkette is coming. Had to be offline, which is why it took so long...

And I know. I just happen to have had plenty of religious experiences, so...

[New Heliopolis]

[pointless misguided rebuttal]Just going to chime in and say that when my stomach aches for food, two glasses of water will shut it up for an hour or so.[/pointless misguided rebuttal] You may want to use a different analogy.

No, I think the analogy is apt. Those two glasses of water ease your hunger for a while, but they do not satisfy it, nor do they provide nourishment. In just the same way, resorting to the supernatural ("extrauniversal energy") may seem to make the problem go away, but it does not add to our knowledge of the universe.

It certainly does--it confirms that there is in fact a multiverse, and that our own universe is in some amount of contact with it. And that's only from the general idea.

[Farnhamia]

No, I think the analogy is apt. Those two glasses of water ease your hunger for a while, but they do not satisfy it, nor do they provide nourishment. In just the same way, resorting to the supernatural ("extrauniversal energy") may seem to make the problem go away, but it does not add to our knowledge of the universe.

True, true. However, making the pain go away lets you focus on getting the work you have to do done instead of looking for food and being in pain, such as how allowing religious/psychological comfort into you life allows you to live the semblance of a healthy life while you try to do your job, pass your classes, complete your research, or just survive, rather than having existential crises like they're going out of style.

I'm not talking about doing away with any of that. I'm talking about coming upon a problem in astrophysics or cosmology or whatever, seeing that the data is not what we expected it to be, and saying, "Well, shit. It's not supposed to be doing that. I ... I can't figure this out. Damn ... sorry ... must be extra-universal energy or something, God I guess. Yes, that must be it, God. Well, good, who wants pizza?" What should be said is, "Well, shit. It's not supposed to be doing that. I ... I can't figure this out. Damn ... Did we measure this right? I think we ought to look at the numbers again. Somebody order pizza, it's going to be a late night."

[Farnhamia]

No, I think the analogy is apt. Those two glasses of water ease your hunger for a while, but they do not satisfy it, nor do they provide nourishment. In just the same way, resorting to the supernatural ("extrauniversal energy") may seem to make the problem go away, but it does not add to our knowledge of the universe.

It certainly does--it confirms that there is in fact a multiverse, and that our own universe is in some amount of contact with it. And that's only from the general idea.

Multiverses, fine. You were going to tell me why God is a better scientific explanation for things than either what we know or than saying that we just don't know at the moment. Multiverses are not God.

[Doctrana]

It is not possible for a god to exist, however, I remain open to the possibility we (Humans) are a scientific creation, brought about by a more advanced race.

[Furious Grandmothers]

All at once or slowly over time? You'll provide me a small linkette I can check, of course. Still, I think I'll go with natural explanations rather than supernatural ones for the time being, until such time as the scientific consensus is "Yep, it's God, alright."

Linkette is coming. Had to be offline, which is why it took so long...

And I know. I just happen to have had plenty of religious experiences, so...

Bolded for truth.

[Farnhamia]

It is not possible for a god to exist, however, I remain open to the possibility we (Humans) are a scientific creation, brought about by a more advanced race.

What makes you think that's a possibility?

[Mommywill]

No. If god existed and wanted me to believe in her, he'd send me an epiphany.
Also, if you can prove something exists, i.e. Church of FSM, you do not have to believe, you know.

[Farnhamia]

Linkette is coming. Had to be offline, which is why it took so long...

And I know. I just happen to have had plenty of religious experiences, so...

Bolded for truth.

Truth?

[Xenohumanity]

I'm not talking about doing away with any of that. I'm talking about coming upon a problem in astrophysics or cosmology or whatever, seeing that the data is not what we expected it to be, and saying, "Well, shit. It's not supposed to be doing that. I ... I can't figure this out. Damn ... sorry ... must be extra-universal energy or something, God I guess. Yes, that must be it, God. Well, good, who wants pizza?" What should be said is, "Well, shit. It's not supposed to be doing that. I ... I can't figure this out. Damn ... Did we measure this right? I think we ought to look at the numbers again. Somebody order pizza, it's going to be a late night."

Here, we agree (as we have been like real intellectual gentlemen). I hate half-assed religious answers (despite being religious myself). I know better than to try to 'defend' my faith when I know I don't know nearly enough to do so from the wide varieties of attack angles others can use to prove me wrong (I avoid those arguments for obvious reasons). I keep my religion personal, the questions it 'answers' far away from mundane/scientific experience, and let numbers and reason take care of the rest.
>science_marches_on.jpg

[Sociobiology]

It actually has. The rate itself is thought to have accelerated by scientists.

All at once or slowly over time? You'll provide me a small linkette

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerating_universe

[Furious Grandmothers]

Bolded for truth.

Truth?

That by chance, he/she just happened to be involved in subjective experiences that he/she attributed as religious in nature.