Are you a believer in God?

[Anonymous]

I am more Agnostic. I haven’t really come across something so far in my life that proved or disproved to me the existence/non-existence of God.

I once heard a religious person say something like they believe in God because something cannot come from nothing. They also called God the creator.

I personally don’t see how saying “something cannot come from nothing” proves God is real or god is the creator. What they said just seemed like a weak argument to me.

[BCRanger10]

Yes, I am.

Please be patient with me, as I'll be using some philosophical terms and definitions.

I can understand why, at least up front, the "nothing cannot produce something" argument might seem flimsy and weak. Once you start looking at the finer details though, it does check out. It's the principle of the excluded middle, which states "either 'a' is true or 'b' is true", a thing either is or is not; a light is either turned on or turned off, a woman is either pregnant or not pregnant, and others. If a light is off or a woman is not pregnant, someone must act to make the opposite true.

In our case, existence either is or is not. We clearly do. So then we have to bring in another principle, that being the proportionate causality: A cause must contain its effect; "a" must contain or be able to cause "b"; an effect cannot be greater than its cause. As it relates here, if there is existence, there must be an "existor", someone or something whose nature it is to exist, to cause existence.

The next question is inevitably "who created God? You say everything requires a creator, so who is God's creator?" The problem with this question is that God is eternal, having no beginning or end. God is supernatural, an uncreated creator, which is in keeping with the Hebrew word "bara", which is the type of creation that's only attributable to God. "Who created God" asks who created the god above God, but then would require asking who created that god, and then the one above that one, and so on and so forth forever ("infinite regress"). So a better way to state the original argument would be that "that which began to exist has a cause." Because God is eternal and has no beginning, he therefore has no cause.

Now atheists will claim that this is the logical fallacy of special pleading, which is just a fancy, technical term for a double standard. They can say that all they want. But they somehow think that in 2,000 years, no one, not a single person in all of Christian history, thought to ask "Hmmm, I wonder if there was anything or anyone prior to God. Golly gee, how do we square that one? How do I answer this most basic question about the origin of the world and of man and which may or may not have any influence or bearing on this soul that I may or may not have? I wonder if (depending on when this hypothetical person lived) if philosophical and theological geniuses like Saints Thomas Aquanis, Thomas More, Dominic, Ignatius of Loyola, Albert the Great, or Augustine or Popes John Paul II or Benedict XVI might have thought about it at all... nah, they didn't." It is what it is, I suppose.

[BCRanger10]

Thank you for MHO 🙌

[Asker]

Your welcome

[OneViewpoint]

No I don't believe in "God". And I automatically have zero respect for people who do.

Let's examine the argument you quoted from religiots.

"Something cannot come from nothing. Therefore creation must come from "God".

OK, let's say we accept that as fact. Then your "God" cannot exist because who or what created your "God" if something cannot exist unless something else created it? Your "God" violates your own rule you're trying to use to justify the existence of your "God"

That's how fucking stupid religiots are. But they've created a stupid explanation for that too.

"God" is a magical special exception. Only "God" can exist without needing anything to create it."

Nope, that's an instant fail as well. What proof do you have of this "special exception"? That's just bullshit you dreamed up to defend your bullshit "God". There is no proof the physical laws of the universe can all be switched off one time for one specific entity for one specific instance. If your "God" can be eternal and spring into existence from nothing, so can anything else. Otherwise explain the mechanism by which this is done.

These arguments just lay bare the truth that simple minded humans create "Gods" and "Gods" do not create the simple minded bastards who worship them. Which means "Gods" and religion are all lies and superstition created by humans to pacify idiots who are easily overwhelmed by things they don't understand and the fear of their own mortality.

[strateguy632]

'Come across' this https://www.google.com/search?q=proof+god+is+real

[emeraldsaphire]

I guess you have to define what you mean by god. Do you mean a sentient Omnipotent omniscient being or do you mean a force or an ideal.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Not Jehovah. A god sure, but not that god specifically.

[emeraldsaphire]

I think you mean Yahweh lol

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

YHWH is the god of Judaism, Jehovah is the name of the christian god, and Allah is the muslim god

[emeraldsaphire]

Jehovah is what happens when you mix the consonants of YHWH with the vowels of Adonai. It is a mistake and only the Jehovah's witnesses use that word. Christians Jews and Muslims all worship the same god. We don't know exactly how the divine name is pronounced so that makes it hard to write in English, but our best guess is Yahweh, that is the name of the Abrahamic deity. and Allah just means god in Arabic.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

It’s all the same god, just different names. And as far as I understand it, Catholics also use Jehovah.

[emeraldsaphire]

With millions of faithful i'm sure you can find some who do, but that doesn't mean we should be using a translation error as the divine name of Yahweh.

[CupcakeTheDestroyer]

Whatever

[Dargil]

Keep believing that. Women are largely incapable of critical thinking, anyway.

[genericname85]

naw. i'm an ignostic atheist. more of a secular humanist.

[mysteriousNicholas]

Yes and the devil also 😇😈🙂

[Iron_Man]

Yes of course

[beefcakebradybatson]

Yes as a Catholic.

[Anonymous]

Yes I believe in one God.

[beenherebefore]

I am.

[Massageman]

Yes.

[loveyouoak]

I'm not.

[wkhan_87]

Ofcourse i am