Do you believe in a God/Goddess?

[Envy]

that's true. though where i live you can find a church around nearly every corner, haha. it's a nice place to live though, the people are very kind.

There are plenty of churches around, there are a lot of Christians. However it is interesting to observe the group I graduated from high school with (the ones I know, anyway!). Quite a few of the people I knew/were in band with turned out to be atheists. Many seem to be at least on the questioning side.

I even saw one of my friends go from Mormon to a nonbeliever (to exactly what extent, I'm not exactly sure).

One of the kindest people I know is a very strong Christian. She is so deeply religious that she can't see her kindness as a positive quality of herself and instead sees it all as God working through her. It makes me sad because she changed my life, and I know it was her.

I don't like Oklahoma, though. Even my mom is telling me to get out of the state when I go into teaching.

 

[Red Cat]

I don't like Oklahoma, though. Even my mom is telling me to get out of the state when I go into teaching.

Don't do it. If all the smart people leave Oklahoma, then the kids growing up there will become even more stupid.

 

[Tao]

No, and if there is a god, I hope a ragtag group of unlikely comrades (and an animal mascot) end up going on an adventure with an array of weird impractical weaponry to destroy that god via the power of friendship, because if a god exists then they've proven to be a proper **** as far as I'm concerned.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Nope. It amazes me when something tragic happens to someone and people say it's part of God's plan. Like what kind of God would just randomly take away an innocent person? Or maybe God's plan is to rescue the faithful and leave all the sinners and nonbelievers stuck here with Donald Trump...

Made me think of this:

 

[Envy]

Don't do it. If all the smart people leave Oklahoma, then the people there will become even more stupid.

Oklahoma voters gave a large middle finger to teachers this last election (and I'm not even talking about electing Trump, which is also a middle finger, but one we already expected). In a state where the legislators won't do anything about it, this is grave. I remember the teacher of the year for the whole state made a video saying he felt like he needed to leave the state. It's that bad.

Plus, I officially hate Oklahoma for its climate as well. Summer now takes up 85% of the year. We don't get winters. And there's that whole deal with tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. I've had enough. I want to live somewhere with four seasons and less severe thunderstorms.

On another more on-topic note, I don't really like equating religiosity or the like with stupidity. Make no mistake, religious people are not stupid. Religions like Christianity weave very elaborate webs that catch even the most intelligent people. That's just in their very nature.

Nope. It amazes me when something tragic happens to someone and people say it's part of God's plan. Like what kind of God would just randomly take away an innocent person?

"God works in mysterious ways".

I get so mad when I see news of tornadoes. Tornadoes that ran through schools and killed a bunch of children, and someone who wasn't effected or survived the storm enthusiastically thanks God. It's so twisted what this idea does to people's minds.

 

[Licorice]

Living in Oklahoma, I'm actually shocked how many nonbelievers I have found. We're increasing in numbers exponentially.

Hello from oklahoma too lol

 

[Halloqueen]

I suppose I'm agnostic. I was raised into the Catholic church and attended Catholic schools, but the hypocrisy I witnessed from my peers and others pushed me away from organized religion. Probably due to the influence of being exposed to religion at a young age, I don't rule out the possibility of there possibly being a creator of some sort. If one does exist, science and study of the ancient past of our planet shows at the least that such a creator doesn't align with the stories of creation.

I don't necessarily follow any particular deity. I was exposed to the Judeo-Christian concept of God. If I were born elsewhere or in another period of time, I would have been exposed to other concepts of gods and/or goddesses or not exposed to the concept at all. Since we cannot prove any of them exists, I don't care to sift through all the possibilities. All I can do is live a good life and spread happiness and love and let whatever god/goddess/entity, if they exist, judge me on those merits.

Most likely, there's nothing out there and nothing to look forward to. That thought is terrifying to some and it's understandable why religions give comfort to their believers. I won't say whether there is or isn't because I'm just an ordinary human and I have no idea.

Whatever the case may be, I hope there isn't a higher power, nor a heaven or a hell and we just cease to be after death. The human species doesn't deserve everlasting life and if we had any sense we would strive toward peace and prosperity on Earth since it's the only existence we can be absolutely certain of.

 

[Dawnpiplup]

I'm Roman Catholic, and I believe in one true God.

 

[Hopeless Opus]

yes i believe in god

 

[Goshi]

LeVeyan Satanist here so... nope.

 

[visibleghost]

not at all. i'm an atheist. i dont believe in any god and i get reslly uncomfortable if i have to go to churches and stuff. i try to keep it to myself because i know other people have different opinions and religions, but i get creeped out by christianity. (i have the most experience w/ christianity and being forced into christian things but i'd probably be as uncomfortable w/ being forced into another religion)

for me personally religion has always been reslly uncomfortable and every encounter i had with churches and christianity just made me dislike it even more. i have never been religious but my parents are kind of maybe idk christians. (kind of agnostics but also they do religion things sometimes..?)
as a kid my mom used to pray and make me pray sometimes. i remember her saying an aftonb?n (??? evening prayer???) sometimes before i went to bed. i also got a children's bible and was taught about christianity, sometimes i was made to go to church with them. (not on sundays usually but on special days like easter or w/e.)

i am the only one in my family who didnt go through with a confirmation but i think my siblings mostly did it because you go on a trip with the people you do it with hahah. none of us are very religious but i am definitely the most uncomfortable with religion of us.

idk exactly why christianity creeps me out so much. christians are fine but if i have to pretend to be christian or if i have o do christian things im going to be really uncomfortable.

 

[seliph]

In all seriousness I'm agnostic. I guess I don't really believe in a god but I like to (try to) believe in spirits and ghosts and people's energy and stuff, makes me feel better.

I did go to a church recently for the first time in like 10 years (it was my mom's friend's kid's communion or something) and it gave me super heebie jeebies, 0/10 would not recommend.

 

[toadsworthy]

Eh I'm iffy on religions and labels overall. I grew up in a very religious town and having it shoved down my throat made me super against it. Then I went to college and learned about all the needs each person has, one of which is spiritual. People fulfill that spiritual need with their religion, so I understand religion now but I don't care for it for my life but see why other people value it so much.

The whole judgement thing I hate, I shouldn't need a religious reason to be a good person. And so if there's a judgement day at the end of life I will be fine.

However, the creationism/ intelligent design and evolution discussion is one I'm more heated about

 

[LinkToTheWorld]

Not at all. I'll never understand the idea that there's a God somewhere who allows children to be abused or suffer horrific lives/deaths.

 

[1milk]

im not religious, i worship the whole kardashian family though. i dont believe there is a person in the cloud looking over us and protecting our people HOWEVER im different from the rest of my family because i believe in ghosts, mermaids, aliens and all that story ****

 

[idiotdoomspiral]

i've been raised in a c.o.e suburb for about 8 years now (not that my mom is religious) and my primary school is in that place, so i've grown up near a church that, every hour goes BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE and it starts at 4 am and ends at 1 am. but i've never been religious

 

[Aquari]

im neutral to the thought of there being a god, there might be one, who knows. for now im leaning more towards the side of science.

 

[Capeet]

I'm open to the thought that there's a deity or multiple deities out there, but I don't take the views of any religion as an absolute truth that prevents me from considering other options. I try to respect the deities of different religions the same. Maybe the beliefs of different groups are just different sides of the same coin in some way. Even if a deity a group believes in doesn't exist as such, there might still be a shred of truth behind its belief.

I honestly just want to keep an open mind. There might not be a deity out there but it's more fun to not exclude the possibility.

 

[Nightmares]

No, I don't believe in God... I spent a couple years as a younger kid believing in him because of my grandma (she's a Jehovah's Witness) but I've lost faith lmao

Now I'm pretty sure this is no God.

Apparently God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent
but "evil" exists so obviously he's not lmao
Also there's some really ****ed up **** in the Bible that I don't want to go into

- - - Post Merge - - -

Other religions I don't know much about / haven't been brought up around, so I can't really comment on them

 

[namiieco]

I usually don't think about it. I don't deny the existence of Gods/Godesses, though, I just don't care.

 

[ams]

Apparently God is omnipotent and omnibenevolent
but "evil" exists so obviously he's not lmao
Also there's some really ****ed up **** in the Bible that I don't want to go into

This is something I had to come to terms with as I got into my teens and realized that popular conceptions of God didn't make sense. There's no way that God could be both all powerful and all good. In this way polytheistic religions make more sense since their deities don't have to have conflicting traits.

I found this little quiz to be an interesting way to challenge some of my previous illogical beliefs: http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/god/

If anyone is interested it's kind of fun even if you don't take it too seriously (i.e it's definitely biased towards atheism)!