8. Questions, Questions, Questions!!

Here are some questions that were posed in the “Do You Believe?” group.

Some were asked by atheist, some by me, some by other believers, and some by those who are not sure. This is what I basing my blog posts on. I’ll cover these topics and more as I blog along …

Where am I going? - 30/03/08

What is your personal experience of God? - 31/03/08

“What is your personal experience of god? Do you feel the presence of the divine as a physical / emotional thing? Do you have visions or hear words?I would appreciate it if people would contribute experiences without skeptical replies, at least for a while.”

Welcome - Introducing Myself to the Group!

If you have just joined, welcome!
Say hello and make yourself comfortable.

Do you have morals? (asked by a Christian, named Rebekah)

For those of you who believe in some form of religion or faith… do you believe that those who don’t believe, can’t possibly have any morals. No God no morals???

Faith!?

How are we to understand the termfaith. Is it as Dawkins (amongst others) believes - ‘blind trust’ or is it something much deeper. Give reasons for you agreement or non agreement.

Have you been into religion?

Just wanting to understand where everyone is coming from.
I’m more interested in studying people than I am into debate. I love to know what makes people think!
So, I’d particularly like to know, especially from the professing atheists (boy, I hate that word), what your experience with religion has been. Personally, I think religion sucks!! Well, religion as I understand it!!

What is Truth?

…and how do you find it?
If you think you have found it how can you tell it is true?

Some things can be verified systematically but some can’t. We can explore the areas that are beyond direct study through logic, imagination, intuition. We can play what-if games and imagine consistent explanations - hypothesize. But without any cross check with physical reality how can you know if you are near thetruth or not?
Does it matter to you if your ‘truth’ is actually ‘true’ if it ‘works for you’?
What is truth and can you handle it?

R-e-s-p-e-c-t!

Do you respect thebeliefs of others, even when you don’t share those beliefs?
I respect some people who believe in thesupernatural, and I respect their right to believe whatever they choose, but I do not respect their beliefs. How could I?
Could you respect the belief that two plus three equals four?
Have we become so politically correct that, no matter how foolish, every opinion must be respected? Some opinions are just WRONG!

Knowing God?

There is a lot said here about how God talks to you and about “knowing god”.
But what does that mean? My understanding is that you have an intuitive feeling that God is with you and you attribute to God various thoughts or events that occur in everyday life. Tell me more…

Justified by Faith

What does it mean to be ‘Justified by Faith’ and what is its relationship to works?

Why is the group so active, and did you expect it?

It would seem, in a time when discussions on religion and politics are discouraged, because they are so controversial, that is exactly what people want to talk about.
But why??? Why do you want to talk about religion and beliefs?? Why do you who don’t believe want to know about what we believe??
Just curious!! I’m sure it’s not because you think we have the answers!!
And what does it matter what we believe, anyway?

What is “proof”?

And can we ever have “proof” for anything that happened in the past?

This obviously springs from the “proof of God” thread. But I wonder if you can “prove” anything that happened in the past, e.g. the big bang, evolution, the great fire of Rome, the Norman invasions, The holocaust?

Creativity

Where does it come from…? What are its origins…?
Goes w/o saying we can probably *all* predict some of the answers. Even still, love to hear it from la boca del caballo ; )

Facts and Faith! How important are each to YOU?

Now this one is not a debate, but more a psychological question… so we can understand where each one is coming from…

… Why is it that some people are more skeptical than others? Is it because that’s how they are? … or is it caused from bad experiences… being burnt too many times?

And then some are naturally more trusting and more gullible. Why is this? Why don’t some seem to learn?

Is there a balance?

So please tell us what you think! We’d really like to know!

Where does information come from?

Now we are here writing many things in this group… lots of information. We can read the information here in the threads… we could print it out and read it … we could email it to a friend… you could read it out to someone. But the information is the same. So the information is more than just words on paper… or on a computer screen … or spoken words.

Isn’t information a strange thing? You can’t really see it or touch it, but it can be communicated.

So where does that it come from?

What is DNA?

I know it is a form of information regarding our genes.
But in layman’s terms, what is it?
Keep it simple now!!

Please explain … SEX!!

If the universe life and us began as an accident a random chance and all complex things are simply a collection of simpler things .. As is being discussed in another thread.

Then i wonder how did the existence of self awareness arise.
How did sex drive arise by accident.

if it was all an accident and random chance then what came first the male or the female..

and if it started with only two how did they know to copulate in order to continue the species.

Proof of the Existence of God…

Many have said they have proof of a god or creator.

lts scattered throughout the group, so can you all please list what you consider qualifies as proof here.

Can we not have scripture. lts not proof.

Can we keep to “facts” and make the posts as short as you can, with relevant links.

To clarify…here is another definition of proof.

How did Computer Code come about?

Speaks suggested I start this thread. I’d posed this question in the DNA thread, but it was a bit off the topic.

Anyhow, here’s what I said:

Now, I’ve been in bed all day… SICK!!! Caught some bug!!
So consequently my head has been dizzier than normal.

But thanks to modern technology, I’ve had the world in bed with me. So I’ve been here checking out these threads during my dazed waking moments.

And, talking about technology, PD, I did like the analogy of the computer code. I do understand a bit of that, and I had a feeling DNA may have been something like that.

Anyhow, I will digress for a bit, with another question…
How did compute code come about?

Quest for Truth?

My guess is, we all have one thing in common…

We are all on a quest for truth!! Am I right?

We must admit that none of us has ALL the truth. We may have SOME truth, but knowing the truth is a progressive thing.

Would you agree? I’d like to know what you think!

No need here for long debates about what truth is… that’s what this whole group is all about.

Abiogenesis - The Origin of Life

I’ve suggested multiple times that someone should create a thread for abiogenesis, mostly because people invariably bring it up in other threads (such as the evolution thread). We have a “Creation Science” thread reserved for those who prefer a supernatural origin to life on Earth, but that thread is specifically for theistic explanations and includes the origin of everything from galaxies to species.

So I’ve started this thread specifically for the question “how did life on earth originate?” Evolution is not the topic of this thread, so please let’s not argue about that here.

Prayer

How do you pray? Does it matter? Is there value in the act of praying that is received independent of the existence of god?

I think perhaps the value is in believing that their is something bigger and will be there in difficult times. Prayer used to be incredibly comforting when I was a theist. If I prayed to an imaginary god now I’d get the benefit of introspection but not the peace that comes with turning my problems over to an omnipotent loving god.

What about meditation?

The Value of Human Life

The UK “Embryo Bill” is hot news at the moment as church and scientific establishment square up in a PR battle.

So is life sacred? Should life be protected at all costs? Is it ever justified to take a potential life to save real living breathing people? Is it a desirable goal to extend life as much as possible?

When does a fertilised human egg become a human?

The Mind of God

It’s funny how people of faith seem to think they know what their God thinks. For example: Christians as a general rule think that God thinks the only way to Him is Through his Son (also Him as it turns out)

And the common theme across all different accounts for “what god thinks” is that the person answering the question invariably holds the same values they attribute to God.

Which in itself is suspect, wouldn’t you say?

The Value of Human Death

Just to break a big topic into manageable chunks I would like to continue on th esubject of the value of life by looking at end of life issues

Trying to dodge the brickbats can I move the discussion to the other end of life? What do people think about euthanasia, “do not resuscitate” (DNR) requests, refusing treatment and capital punishment?

Two Questions for Christians

Two questions…

1. Do you study other religions to fortify your own?

2. How is a “true” Christian defined and would pluralizing your faith, as these two men have done, be against the rules?

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