perceptions of god

[raizen]

there are soo many opinions on god in general from his/her/it's form to whom god will save to who god looks kindly upon and also whom god looks poorly upon but to me god isnt any one specific form to me i think that we are all tiny bits of god and also the world around us,i also beleive in kharma very strongly but hey,thats just me what do you guys and gals think?

[pirateninja]

Honestly?

Don't know. There could be one entity, multiple entities, nothing etc for all anyone knows. I don't have enough faith to accept any idea so far as my God, but I do not have so little faith to dismiss them altogether.

[Wander]

+ YouTube Video

I think that sums it up pretty well. I don't hate or fear religion (or the concept of God), I don't try to eliminate it, but I think it's such a silly affair. It's almost amusing how far people can go because their neighbor believes in the wrong guy in the sky. I'm open to the possibility of an invisible watchman, I may be wrong, but I so seriously doubt it.

[shakerdancee]

Who?

[Vampyrecat]

I am personally a Deist - This means I agree with the possibility of a higher power but I don't agree with any religion on what that higher power is.

I believe that MY god would not have allowed me to be created - for me to live - if I wasn't meant to exist. Having that mindset has actually helped me a lot in terms of my mental health; it has allowed me to live a life being happy and myself, without having to worry about being "wrong" or "sinful".

That's my choice. That's what I believe.

[skwidge]

I am officially catholic... but on the rare occasion that I do go to church, it totally weirds me out. I won't elaborate cos I might offend someone.

I don't believe in the catholic idea of god. I more believe that god is part of all of us, like our conscience. If that makes sense?

I have thought about it quite a bit, but I won't go into it cos there was a LOT of thinking that happened lol

Did you ever consider that our world might just be like a game of Sim City? And some computer nerd is up there running everything, trying to get a high score?

Just a crazy thought

[partietraumatic]

personally i do believe there is a god. Has anyone heard of or read anything by Richard Dawkins? Hes really famous here in the uk coz of his book 'The God Delusion'. In it he basically argues against the existence of god-i wont go into any of his arguments now as they are rather long.

Anyway he came and gave a lecture at our school and i went along. Even though he was arguing against god, i actually came out of the lecture more certain that there was something out there. Dawkins puts his faith in science, in evoltion/darwinsim, and the ability of physicists to explain the history of the universe through the big bang.

However what i kept coming back to was 'but what was there before-where did everything come from?'

Basically my opinion is this. Yes, there is a god- but who/whatever he/she/it is had been distorted by organised religions. I think there is a god we should all live good lives-that is what he wants. I don't think he cares if you're black or white, muslim or christian or sikh or buddhist or whatever, he dosen't care if you're straight or gay. He put us here and it is our job to protect everything he has made.

I believe if i live a good and moral life, and at the end god turns out to be Allah, say, then he is not gonna turn me away because i didn't believe in him in that guise.

anyway theres my 2 cents lol

[HighintheClouds]

For me.. God is very clear in my life. I am who I am because God, if he didn't make it happen, allowed it to.

My personal belief is that as a Christian, my goal here on Earth is to spread the news. No, I'm not trying to convert people into Christians. Really, after talking with somebody really knowledgeable, it actually came to me that in order to enter heaven... One doesn't have to be a Christian at all...

Yes, I may sound like I'm spouting rubbish. But hear me out..

What was Jesus' main teaching? Love. Us Christians were called to go and show this love to other peoples on the planet. Matthews 25 tells us that when we finally ascend to heaven, we won't be admitted in based on whether we were Christian or Muslim or Jewish etc. etc., but on whether we've basically loved. Whether we've shown the love to the last, the lost and the least in the same way that Jesus showed his love for us by dying on the cross. We die for others when we give bits of our lives away in the form of personal sacrifices. If I help you through a personal crisis, all those hours of my life cannot be taken back, can they? I've "died", in other words.

This God to me is the most wonderful God of all. Because he includes every single person in the human race. For all love (that's what I believe to be true) comes only from God. Jesus died on the cross not for the minority of Christians, but for the world. We were called to be the salt of the Earth. As this knowledgeable person told me, salt flavours. If we were to try to convert every single human being, we'd turn the whole Earth into a giant chunk of rock. Not very appetising is it?

I believe that my God loves me. Why? Because when something bad happens, I think for a while, then I thank God that nothing worse happened. Because there is this verse somewhere which says that God will not test us beyond what we are able.. This is also very relieving.

Haha, so this is how I can still remain strong in my faith. Because I love my God, although I might feel tired some times. And my God loves me. To tell the truth, ever since I came out to myself and started coming out more and more, I've put more and more trust in him. Because I know that I can't do anything. And so I turn to him. Whatever he wills be done, let it be done, because it'll ultimately be for the best. I can only pray that it'll be what I want and hope for...

[Endlessnight500]

I Like Highintheclouds, and a Christian. I have faith in God, I love God, and am loved by God. All that I am today is becouse of my religiouse journey, In finding God I found myself.

That doesnt make me passive saying God does as he wills so why try to change anything just go with the flow. If a farmer plants a seed he can water it, have it in fertal soil, and nice sunlight, but ulitmately God Is the one who makes the plant grow and flurish, But If the farmer never planted the seed then it cant grow. Everything takes Incentive. If things dont turn out like I planned then so be it, but I wont sit back and Pray for things to get better and not do anything to help change it. to help move it forward. God never promised victory without fighting for it.

My goal as a Christian isnt to convert people to Christianity, that is there choice alone, but I can live a life of Love, Faith, and Hope. I can share it with others, and live my life in a way that people look at me and say, wow, there is something different about him, I want that in my life. I will be fighting for Equality, for the LGBT comminity, and against any injustice that I can find, Life is about Love, and Compassion. I feel sorry for anyone who doesnt see that.

Oh, and the verse that Highintheclouds was talking about not being tested beyond your ability to over come it is 1 Corinthians 10:13.

[jbb1236]

There have been a many philosophers who have tried to answer this very question, and some how no matter how hard they try and disprove a "God" in the end they end up believe in some sort of higher power. My view, I know a higher being exits, but anything other than that I have no clue. Most of my values can derive from the fundamentals of Catholicism though.

[Seanboy23]

OMG, partietraumatic! I've never heard anyone else express the same view I have! Yayyyy!!

I've never been religious, certainly not in the worldly, organized, church-going way. I've always believed in the sciences, the rational, tangible explanations for the existence of everything around us. But when I mentally follow the chain of evolution and natural creation, I always get to a point where I try to comprehend just what came "first", where it all came from?

For me, that question, along with the abundant evidence I see that supports the probability of fate, and things happening for a reason, leads me to believe in SOME sort of higher power. I just don't believe in the human personification of that power. However, I also don't believe it's some wacky, celestial "mothership" like some of the cultish-type religions believe. Hmmm, I still sound a bit confused about it all.

I guess in the end, my everyday viewpoint is more toward "spirituality" and the soul, something that each of us has within, some more attuned than others. In other words, each of us is our own church. We carry it with us!

[Psychedelic Bookmarks]

I'm with you, Raizen, I believe we all have a little bit of God in us. Maybe there's some kind of loving principle in the universe... but not a God with a personality. Maybe some kind of wisdom created by the beings who have gone before us and reached enlightenment. I believe we all have the potential to perfect ourselves, reach nirvana, and see clearly all the love/God around us. But I'm very open-minded at the moment, just mulling things over.

[EmperorNero]

I don't think very much about it. I believe in a God who loves us all, and who wants us to love each other and behave nicely and so on. But I don't believe in all the useless rules found in Christianity, Judaism and Islam (that is rules about who you have sex with, what you eat, when you work, when you rest and so on). I believe in simplicity.