Does the (Christian) God Exist?

[Grave_n_idle]

There is actually rather a large amount of scientific evidence that God does exist. A prime example would be were the Jews crossed the Red Sea scientist have found remains of some of the Egyptian army.

Even if it was true - which it isn't, by the way - that wouldn't be evidence of the existence of God... just of Egyptians.

[Sakash]

But then process of Faith has not been explained by biology as far as i know. If you have any source that explains why Faith works, kindly refer it to me.

Absolutely.
Faith is entirely physical, and within the brain. There is nothing spiritual about it.
Faith is easily explained by neuroscience.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/06/01/can-neuroscience-cure-people-of-faith-in-god-what-about-faith-in-neuroscience/

I like this, cure people of all notions, including belief in their future and make them scientific zombies.

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1694723,00.html

nothing concrete. wishful thinking?

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

I have read a few books related to neurotheology, though this is first time i have read this. I appreciate their effort. But faith is not about wonderful spiritual experiences. Experiences are result of faith not cause of. but then again as i seen all these research till now, has not given the answer why faith based on love brings about peace and harmony in life? Why does it make people stronger, purposeful and motivated? These attributes need to be understood before they can really claim to know what they are observing in those experiments.

[Luveria]

Absolutely.
Faith is entirely physical, and within the brain. There is nothing spiritual about it.
Faith is easily explained by neuroscience.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/2013/06/01/can-neuroscience-cure-people-of-faith-in-god-what-about-faith-in-neuroscience/

I like this, cure people of all notions, including belief in their future and make them scientific zombies.

http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1694723,00.html

nothing concrete. wishful thinking?

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

I have read a few books related to neurotheology, though this is first time i have read this. I appreciate their effort. But faith is not about wonderful spiritual experiences. Experiences are result of faith not cause of. but then again as i seen all these research till now, has not given the answer why faith based on love brings about peace and harmony in life? Why does it make people stronger, purposeful and motivated? These attributes need to be understood before they can really claim to know what they are observing in those experiments.

That is being investigated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12510442

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/spirituality

[Sociobiology]

I like this, cure people of all notions, including belief in their future and make them scientific zombies.


nothing concrete. wishful thinking?



I have read a few books related to neurotheology, though this is first time i have read this. I appreciate their effort. But faith is not about wonderful spiritual experiences. Experiences are result of faith not cause of. but then again as i seen all these research till now, has not given the answer why faith based on love brings about peace and harmony in life? Why does it make people stronger, purposeful and motivated? These attributes need to be understood before they can really claim to know what they are observing in those experiments.

That is being investigated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12510442

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/spirituality

spoiler, faith often has negative effects on health, mostly due to not living up to unrealistic ideals.

[Sociobiology]

There is actually rather a large amount of scientific evidence that God does exist. A prime example would be were the Jews crossed the Red Sea scientist have found remains of some of the Egyptian army.

Source?

they have found a few scattered pieces of garbage in a sea the Egyptians regularly fished and sent cargo ships across, {jerking off motion}
nothing that would indicate an actual army crossing and being killed.

[Sakash]

I have read a few books related to neurotheology, though this is first time i have read this. I appreciate their effort. But faith is not about wonderful spiritual experiences. Experiences are result of faith not cause of. but then again as i seen all these research till now, has not given the answer why faith based on love brings about peace and harmony in life? Why does it make people stronger, purposeful and motivated? These attributes need to be understood before they can really claim to know what they are observing in those experiments.

That is being investigated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12510442

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/spirituality

All the literature only proves that faith has positive effect on health but not the reason. Yet this is good enough to start understanding that faith is necessary for good quality human life. why fight against faith? its better to try to learn to use it.

[Sakash]

spoiler, faith often has negative effects on health, mostly due to not living up to unrealistic ideals.

Thats when people misuse and misunderstand faith and use it to control rather than learn to grow. Faith needs better understanding to avoid conflicts between belief and personal reality. Faith has great potential if properly understood and used. My life is an example of that as is many others life as reported by scientific literature.

[Othelos]

That is being investigated.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12510442

http://umm.edu/health/medical/altmed/treatment/spirituality

All the literature only proves that faith has positive effect on health but not the reason. Yet this is good enough to start understanding that faith is necessary for good quality human life. why fight against faith? its better to try to learn to use it.

Faith is a form of spirituality. Not everyone needs faith to satisfy their spirituality.

[People Who Say Ni]

What is spirituality?

[Brickistan]

If it did exist then it would be our responsibility as moral human beings to kill the evil creature.

God is not evil. And if you're going to bring up Old Testament violence, God did all that to prevent further evil.

Could God not... Oh, I dunno... Not create evil in the first place? He is God after all, isn't he?

I assume you have some sort of proof to back this up? Otherwise, it's just a baseless assumption.

It's his belief.

A believe that not only has no basis in reality, but actually contradicts it, is not a belief worth having.

I see. Then you believe the earth may be flat?

No, but if i did, i would have every right to.

No you don't.

If you keep it to yourself, then fine. I'll mock you, but that's it. But when you see children being taught lies in school. When you see religious war fought. When you see widespread bigotry and hatred preached from the pulpit. When you see children dying needlessly because their parents thought that God would intervene...

Then you have no right to believe such nonsensical things.

Not saying that you do personally - more a comment on religion as a whole.

Any being that murders children to punish their parents is unjust and unworthy of worship.
The dirt under your feet is more worthy of worship than the being described in any of the bibles.

He murders the children because if he didn't, they would starve to death, a horrible death. The children might have been saved from hell and the curse of their parents. The Old Testament verses of violence don't prove God is evil, but that he is merciful.

You know, it never fails to amaze me just to what lengths Christians will go, just how many inane apologies they will offer, just to hide the simple fact that God - as presented in the Bible - is a evil, murderous psychopath. It's like they have mentally erased most of the Bible, retaining only a few select verses that they feel proves that God is good.

Ohh... And that he hates homosexuals, of course...

[Dyakovo]

There is actually rather a large amount of scientific evidence that God does exist.

No, there isn't.

[Hemingford Grey]

There is actually rather a large amount of scientific evidence that God does exist.

No, there isn't.

Well the bible is a book. It's a real book. It says there is a god. So god is real, duh!

I do find the whole "we can prove god" or "let's try to prove god/intelligent designer" movements/arguments annoying. I'm not a Christian anymore, but I do recall how there's this big part of Christianity where a belief in god is based on faith. Not some misguided, twisted interpretation of what you think truth to be.

[Sakash]

Faith is a form of spirituality. Not everyone needs faith to satisfy their spirituality.

Faith & hope are the foundation of life. Without them there is no spirituality. Spirituality is empowerment of Spirit which is creates faith and hope. If there no faith there is no spiritual benefit. No one can help a hopeless person. One has to find hope and faith within self to grow spiritually.

[Lost heros]

Faith is a form of spirituality. Not everyone needs faith to satisfy their spirituality.

Faith & hope are the foundation of life.

Wut.

[Conscentia]

Faith is a form of spirituality. Not everyone needs faith to satisfy their spirituality.

Faith & hope are the foundation of life. Without them there is no spirituality. Spirituality is empowerment of Spirit which is creates faith and hope. If there no faith there is no spiritual benefit. No one can help a hopeless person. One has to find hope and faith within self to grow spiritually.

There is no such thing as a "spirit", except in a metaphorical sense.

[Zottistan]

spoiler, faith often has negative effects on health, mostly due to not living up to unrealistic ideals.

Thats when people misuse and misunderstand faith and use it to control rather than learn to grow. Faith needs better understanding to avoid conflicts between belief and personal reality. Faith has great potential if properly understood and used. My life is an example of that as is many others life as reported by scientific literature.

The positive and negative effects of faith are irrelevant. If believing that two twos are seven made you live twenty years longer, two twos would still be four.

[Othelos]

What is spirituality?

It's defined as the search for "the sacred".

Faith is a form of spirituality. Not everyone needs faith to satisfy their spirituality.

Faith & hope are the foundation of life.

Not for everyone.

Without them there is no spirituality. Spirituality is empowerment of Spirit which is creates faith and hope. If there no faith there is no spiritual benefit.

False, false, and false. Anybody can be spiritual without faith.

You only need to find what's sacred to you, and for a lot of people, it's God/faith, but not for everyone.

No one can help a hopeless person. One has to find hope and faith within self to grow spiritually.

Again, false. Faith isn't needed for hope, nor is hope only created from faith.

[Conscentia]

What is spirituality?

It's defined as the search for "the sacred".

The Oxford English dictionary doesn't think so.

[Cascadistan]

My take on this question is this:

First, you need to define what you mean by (The Christian) God. I grew up in a Methodist (Christian) church and I found that everyone had their own description of who they worshipped. Some say God is a "He", or "She", or argued God was neither/both genders - and so on. Most arguments like this break down because people argue from different stances based upon their own convictions. So, I'd like to answer the question by first defining what I mean when I refer to (any) GOD:

A sentient consciousness who possesses the following 5 characteristics:
1) Omnipotence - he/she is all-powerful
2) Omniscient - he/she is all-knowing
3) Omnipresent - he/she is everywhere, all the time
4) Good or Just - he/she only supports what is Right, and never what is Wrong
5) Perfect - he/she never makes mistakes

From this definition, it doesn't take long before you find a contradiction in logic. How do you explain, for example, infanticide, or abortion, or other acts where innocent life is untimely killed? Why does an all-powerful being find it OK or logical to allow insane practices or events like this to happen unless there is, on some divine level, justification that it is *GOOD* for these things to happen? Can this make sense, without having to invoke the "God Knows Best" argument - which as far as I can tell is a cop-out for an actual debate of God's sense of ethics.

Where does the value of prayer come in? Why ask for something God already knows, or have a conversation when God has already ordained the present and future (like what will happen to you when you die)? Is it just a means for people to "feel like they are important"? The Christian Bible states that God needs you to pray for guidance - can't God choose your fate through action/inaction, and if something bad happens then it is because God determined it to be the best thing for you, however bad? And on that note, why are some of us doomed to go to Hell? Why did God make me (for example) such a skeptic if the "treasures of Heaven" were really meant for me as well as everyone who wants "Eternal Salvation"?

What is the value of giving money to a church? Can't God support the faithful? Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't a magical storm of gold coins on Chrisitian churches encourage a hoarde of new followers to Church - and being Saved *is* a fundumental tenant of the (Protestant Chrisitian) God, isn't it? Why isn't God making the answer to this question totally obvious by performing miracles like this?

So, arguments like these show that there can be a contradiction of logic as God is defined above. So, I'd argue by definition (The Christian) God doesn't exist. If you don't agree with my definition of (The Christian) God, then my argument may not hold weight with you.

Finally, let me state this: it would be nice if he did - scientists would have an easy answer for any pesky Physics question (e.g. "Oh, that's because of God - no math is required there."). It'd also make Life much easier to live knowing that the smartest, wisest, and kindest intelligence in the Cosmos is actually watching out for you. But, it simply isn't so - not because I want it that way, but because it just is. Personally, I'd like to see that a God (of any kind) exists, but Life just isn't that simple. All we have in this world is each other, and the vast machinery called Physics that science has partially uncovered so far. Personally, one of the reasons why so many people believe in God is because they don't clearly define or understand what God is, nor question what they have been told as children.

I hope this answer was helpful.

That's the wonderful thing about God.

He gave us free will.

Our actions, while maybe not having direct consequences in this world; we will be accountable for them in the next.

As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

[Conscentia]

That's the wonderful thing about God.
He gave us free will.
Our actions, while maybe not having direct consequences in this world; we will be accountable for them in the next.
As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

We don't have free will. Cause and effect dictates our actions & responses to the variety of stimuli we encounter.
The concept of free will is nothing more than the illusion of control.

[Lost heros]

My take on this question is this:

First, you need to define what you mean by (The Christian) God. I grew up in a Methodist (Christian) church and I found that everyone had their own description of who they worshipped. Some say God is a "He", or "She", or argued God was neither/both genders - and so on. Most arguments like this break down because people argue from different stances based upon their own convictions. So, I'd like to answer the question by first defining what I mean when I refer to (any) GOD:

A sentient consciousness who possesses the following 5 characteristics:
1) Omnipotence - he/she is all-powerful
2) Omniscient - he/she is all-knowing
3) Omnipresent - he/she is everywhere, all the time
4) Good or Just - he/she only supports what is Right, and never what is Wrong
5) Perfect - he/she never makes mistakes

From this definition, it doesn't take long before you find a contradiction in logic. How do you explain, for example, infanticide, or abortion, or other acts where innocent life is untimely killed? Why does an all-powerful being find it OK or logical to allow insane practices or events like this to happen unless there is, on some divine level, justification that it is *GOOD* for these things to happen? Can this make sense, without having to invoke the "God Knows Best" argument - which as far as I can tell is a cop-out for an actual debate of God's sense of ethics.

Where does the value of prayer come in? Why ask for something God already knows, or have a conversation when God has already ordained the present and future (like what will happen to you when you die)? Is it just a means for people to "feel like they are important"? The Christian Bible states that God needs you to pray for guidance - can't God choose your fate through action/inaction, and if something bad happens then it is because God determined it to be the best thing for you, however bad? And on that note, why are some of us doomed to go to Hell? Why did God make me (for example) such a skeptic if the "treasures of Heaven" were really meant for me as well as everyone who wants "Eternal Salvation"?

What is the value of giving money to a church? Can't God support the faithful? Wouldn't that be a good thing? Wouldn't a magical storm of gold coins on Chrisitian churches encourage a hoarde of new followers to Church - and being Saved *is* a fundumental tenant of the (Protestant Chrisitian) God, isn't it? Why isn't God making the answer to this question totally obvious by performing miracles like this?

So, arguments like these show that there can be a contradiction of logic as God is defined above. So, I'd argue by definition (The Christian) God doesn't exist. If you don't agree with my definition of (The Christian) God, then my argument may not hold weight with you.

Finally, let me state this: it would be nice if he did - scientists would have an easy answer for any pesky Physics question (e.g. "Oh, that's because of God - no math is required there."). It'd also make Life much easier to live knowing that the smartest, wisest, and kindest intelligence in the Cosmos is actually watching out for you. But, it simply isn't so - not because I want it that way, but because it just is. Personally, I'd like to see that a God (of any kind) exists, but Life just isn't that simple. All we have in this world is each other, and the vast machinery called Physics that science has partially uncovered so far. Personally, one of the reasons why so many people believe in God is because they don't clearly define or understand what God is, nor question what they have been told as children.

I hope this answer was helpful.

That's the wonderful thing about God.

He gave us free will.

Our actions, while maybe not having direct consequences in this world; we will be accountable for them in the next.

As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

If God gave us Free will, so that he can't control us , then he isn't omnipotent.

Do you have proof of this next world?

Atheism isn't a religion.

[Liriena]

That's the wonderful thing about God.
He gave us free will.
Our actions, while maybe not having direct consequences in this world; we will be accountable for them in the next.
As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

We don't have free will. Cause and effect dictates our actions & responses to the variety of stimuli we encounter.
The concept of free will is nothing more than the illusion of control.

Agreed. There can't be free will when our decision making processes are largely based on context and experience.

[Avenio]

As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

Ah, this old chestnut. When you have nothing else to argue, go for the 'atheism's just another religion!' smear.

[Liriena]

As for atheism in today's culture, it is looking more and more like a religion in its own right.

Ah, this old chestnut. When you have nothing else to argue, go for the 'atheism's just another religion!' smear.

A mediocre attempt at tu quoque, really.

[Othelos]

It's defined as the search for "the sacred".

The Oxford English dictionary doesn't think so.

I was quoting wikipedia.