Wish I Believed In God

[The Sum of Awe]

They are right, the truth isn't always the best.

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

I see life as meaningless, for you have to make your own meaning.

All I have is the Sun, but even I know that is not a personal God.

It's just weird feeling. Anyone feel the same?

 

[Onkara]

It begins with the desire. The doubts, confusion or reasons not to "believe" arise with the desire to find God. If there was no desire there would be no reason to consider the doubts.

Perhaps it is what we expect God to be, many of us expect God to be a physical body lurking above the clouds, and that is just not acceptable for most people educated in science today. Consider the pantheist God, God is in everything. If God is in everything then God can be found in anything, even if it is like catching a giant by his little toe, once you have hold of just a little you will still know you have found a giant.

 

[jarofthoughts]

They are right, the truth isn't always the best.

Depends on your definition of 'best', but whatever the truth is or is not, it is still the truth.
And I'd take truth over comforting lies any day of the week.

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

I mainly have one: There is absolutely no evidence to think that a god or gods exist.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

But life is wonderful and interesting and fun, with more to learn than you could ever hope to complete, which means that your whole life can be one of discovery!
I personally find life to be amazing and complex and totally mind-blowing, and I intend to enjoy it for as long as I can.

I see life as meaningless, for you have to make your own meaning.

I don't see that as a bad thing at all.
That means that my life can be about learning and teaching, and someone else's life can be about creating art, or raising kids, or designing buildings, or discovering the workings of the universe, or...anything at all that takes their fancy.
This creates a wonderful diversity of human experience that we are all the richer for.

All I have is the Sun, but even I know that is not a personal God.

The Sun is probably the closest we can get to an actual creator god, but it's not a god. It's the sun.

It's just weird feeling. Anyone feel the same?

I don't.
I have too much else that catches my interest and imagination.
You should try it.
Certainty (especially unfounded certainty) isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

 

[The Neo Nerd]

They are right, the truth isn't always the best.

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

I see life as meaningless, for you have to make your own meaning.

All I have is the Sun, but even I know that is not a personal God.

It's just weird feeling. Anyone feel the same?

Yes, especially the pessimistic part.

 

[LuisDantas]

I have had a similar feeling on occasion, but I just don't see myself really believing in God, or even wanting to believe in God. I guess it is just not in my mindset.

Why so, I can only guess. Maybe it is fortuitous, maybe I had one too many disappointment with external promises. If I believed in God I would certainly be a Maltheist.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

But life is wonderful and interesting and fun, with more to learn than you could ever hope to complete, which means that your whole life can be one of discovery!
I personally find life to be amazing and complex and totally mind-blowing, and I intend to enjoy it for as long as I can.

Yes, but if you really think about it... We're just, maybe not even, little aspects of the universe, we're so small, we're a random life out of many in the universe.

Though if a God existed, I could easily believe that God made us for a reason and that we could be the main life out of all of the other ones.

 

[jarofthoughts]

Yes, but if you really think about it... We're just, maybe not even, little aspects of the universe, we're so small, we're a random life out of many in the universe.

Though if a God existed, I could easily believe that God made us for a reason and that we could be the main life out of all of the other ones.

That's just your ego talking.
Why is it important to you that we matter to the universe?
Isn't it enough to be important to the people around you?

I have no reason to think that humanity matters to the universe, just like I am certain that I do not matter to humanity, outside of my family and maybe a few friends.

And I am perfectly fine with that.

I'll live my life as best I can and enjoy it as much as I can, and when I'm done, I'm done.
I have absolutely no fear of death and I see no reason to think that there is any kind of afterlife.
(This is not just something I'm saying. I almost died 18 months ago.)

Just lean back and relax mate.
The universe doesn't care what you do or don't do.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

That's just your ego talking.
Why is it important to you that we matter to the universe?
Isn't it enough to be important to the people around you?

But if you think about it... The people around you are just a bunch of cells and blood.

I have no reason to think that humanity matters to the universe, just like I am certain that I do not matter to humanity, outside of my family and maybe a few friends.

But talking to your family is kind of like just sitting there, talking to a brain that has eyes.

And I am perfectly fine with that.

Why are you?

I'll live my life as best I can and enjoy it as much as I can, and when I'm done, I'm done.

I agree, we should, but kind of hard knowing the small bits behind everything.

I have absolutely no fear of death and I see no reason to think that there is any kind of afterlife.
(This is not just something I'm saying. I almost died 18 months ago.)

Congrats on living! Sorry to hear about you almost dying.

Just lean back and relax mate.
The universe doesn't care what you do or don't do.

But it seems so empty and meaningless.

 

[doppelganger]

But if you think about it... The people around you are just a bunch of cells and blood.

Or they are intricately and inextricably intertwined within the same amazing Universe with everything else and part of that Universe manifests as a "me" who has a sense of compassion and connection to everything else and especially other things like "me."

The primal question is not "What is the meaning?" The primal question is "Do I need for there to be a meaning?"

 

[jarofthoughts]

But if you think about it... The people around you are just a bunch of cells and blood.

And if you think about it in a different way, they are highly complex beings whose elemental particles was once born in the heart of a star and which over billions of years has combined and recombined to bring before you a human being, as far as we know the only way the universe can know itself.

But talking to your family is kind of like just sitting there, talking to a brain that has eyes.

I'm sorry you feel that way.
I don't share that experience.

Why are you?

Because I know, as certainly as I can know anything, that no-one, living or dead, know or knew the meaning of it all.
And I don't think it's important for me to know either.
Even if I did think it was important, I see no way of finding out the meaning behind it all, and I tend not to worry too much about things I cannot change.

I agree, we should, but kind of hard knowing the small bits behind everything.

No-one knows the 'small bits' behind everything (unless you're talking about quarks, in which case we're making some headway).

Congrats on living! Sorry to hear about you almost dying.

I was hospitalised with the Swine flu and a lung infection on top of that, which put me in a coma for about a week and hospitalised for three.
I wasn't afraid then and I'm not afraid now.

See, no matter how you put it, I've lived a longer, better, fuller and more interesting life than at least 99% of the people who ever lived.
I've never known true pain, hunger or suffering.
I've been given access to all the education and knowledge I could want.
I've known love and friendship and the value of giving something to someone that they need.

What right do I have to complain if I should die tomorrow?

But it seems so empty and meaningless.

Life is pretty much what you make of it in my experience.
I routinely tell my pupils that they should choose their future education and profession not based on money or status or what other people think.
They should choose their path based on what they themselves want to do with their lives.
I have, and I am very happy with it.

 

[Orias]

They are right, the truth isn't always the best.

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

I see life as meaningless, for you have to make your own meaning.

All I have is the Sun, but even I know that is not a personal God.

It's just weird feeling. Anyone feel the same?

I used to feel the same way, but then I found this forum

I don't think its that you've got to many reason why not to believe in "God", just that you view "God" as a common or standard supernatural entity, when really its not.

Seems like you are holding yourself back with superficial labels.

I've already given you the etymology of the word "God", so you can start from there.

Be an artists of the Mind, not all fish swim down stream.

You want to believe, yet any ounce of change in "God" belief wouldn't make you less pessimistic, that is completely part of your Self evolution.

You yourself said you view Life as meaningless, and that you give your own meaning to it, so let it pour.

Instead of believing, just be. Because that is all you can do.

You have learned a lot here over the short time, and your young mind is capable of outdating the common era.

The best advice I could offer anyone at any time is that within the Self are the locks to gratification, the Mind is the key.

Best regards and Xeper,

Orias

 

[Nooj]

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

So believe. Don't believe in God because you have good reasons for believing in him, believe in despite of the reasons for not believing.

 

[Penumbra]

They are right, the truth isn't always the best.

I think I've got too many reasons why not to believe in a God.

But I want to believe because it would keep me from being pessimistic and down-looking at life.

I see life as meaningless, for you have to make your own meaning.

All I have is the Sun, but even I know that is not a personal God.

It's just weird feeling. Anyone feel the same?

I view life as meaningless with or without a god concept. Perhaps even more meaningless with a god concept than without. Meaningless isn't really a problem in my view, since I haven't actually seen a definition or description of how a life could even potentially have a meaning. Life just is.

I think you should just be who you want to be, and do what you want to do, with regard for all opportunities and consequences considered. Define and express yourself based on what you wish to be in relation to what you encounter.

 

[Quagmire]

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." --A. Einstein

I think the mistake a lot of people make is in their definition of miraculous.

 

[Vendetta]

I think jarofthoughts' first post in response was good. For me, I tend to take a non-atheistic approach to the issue. I guess you can say that I am agnostic but theistic at the same time. I do not subscribe to any popular tenant of faith, or pray to some specific deity but I do believe there is some "thing" greater than all of us, you, me, advanced alien civilizations.

Call it God, Shamoo, Ronald McDonald. SOA I understand what you're going through. It does seem as if life would be a meaningless existence without some type of divine author. However as jarofthoughts has mentioned, we can spend our whole lives discovering ourselves. I believe "God" allows life to play out itself and whenever God needs to intervene it will. For the time being SOA look at nature, kids, people, insects, and animals and contemplate.

What helps me is looking at the stars at night and wondering who in the hell created such magnificent splendor? I just cannot think that from the function of the cardiovascular system, to the brain, to our current orbit in how divine magnificent it all is. I believe there is a divine law (no rules and regulation) that binds the entire universe together. From the largest of planets to the smallest organism.

 

[Penumbra]

It's worth noting that value and meaning are not the same. Value can be had regardless of the existence of meaning.

Therefore, I think determining and experiencing the value of life, rather than the meaning of life, is a more consistent approach.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

It's worth noting that value and meaning are not the same. Value can be had regardless of the existence of meaning.

Therefore, I think determining and experiencing the value of life, rather than the meaning of life, is a more consistent approach.

Yes life is valuable, not meaningful.

 

[blackout]

Human Beings are Meaning Makers.

In this respect you are the gOd of your Own reality,
of Your Own State of Being.
You are both the Observer,
and the Observed...
to/of Your Own Self.

The Sun shines down on you by day.
At night, you must look UP, to bask in the Stars.
You also, are Star.
You can watch yourSelf Shine,
when you are up-looking.

 

[Vendetta]

I guess my last post was "meaningless." Perhaps SOA you might want to start with what GOD or type of God you want to believe in.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I think jarofthoughts' first post in response was good. For me, I tend to take a non-atheistic approach to the issue. I guess you can say that I am agnostic but theistic at the same time. I do not subscribe to any popular tenant of faith, or pray to some specific deity but I do believe there is some "thing" greater than all of us, you, me, advanced alien civilizations.

Call it God, Shamoo, Ronald McDonald. SOA I understand what you're going through. It does seem as if life would be a meaningless existence without some type of divine author. However as jarofthoughts has mentioned, we can spend our whole lives discovering ourselves. I believe "God" allows life to play out itself and whenever God needs to intervene it will. For the time being SOA look at nature, kids, people, insects, and animals and contemplate.

What helps me is looking at the stars at night and wondering who in the hell created such magnificent splendor? I just cannot think that from the function of the cardiovascular system, to the brain, to our current orbit in how divine magnificent it all is. I believe there is a divine law (no rules and regulation) that binds the entire universe together. From the largest of planets to the smallest organism.

Nature, kids, people insects, animals... Stardust, dirt, blood and bones, flesh...