Does anyone actually believe in God or are they just afraid...

jem · Apr 24, 2014

right... he does not believe in God... he believes in the multiverse... but.. if you watch the intereview...

he states that based on the incredible fine tuning of the constants of our universe... particularly the cosmological constant... one of the possible explanations is that it was created by God. (He prefers the multiverse explanation. )

Hawking states our universe appears designed by an outside agency... but he also posits a multiverse explanation.

bigarrow said:
"I don't believe that the universe was designed by an intelligence" quote by Leonard Susskind

bigarrow · Apr 24, 2014

jem said:
right... he does not believe in God... he believes in the multiverse... but.. if you watch the intereview...

he states that based on the incredible fine tuning of the constants of our universe... particularly the cosmological constant... one of the possible explanations is that it was created by God. (He prefers the multiverse explanation. )

Hawking states our universe appears designed by an outside agency... but he also posits a multiverse explanation.

piezoe · Apr 24, 2014

WaveStrider said:
Well, there are no such thing as atheists, IMO. Agnostics, yes. Atheists, no.

Many folks answer "belief in God" from a reflex of their upbringing.

Personally, I am uncomfortable with the ideas of both adamant atheists (so-called) and adamant theists for roughly the same reason.

Atheists (so-called) think they have a definitive answer to one of humanity's oldest questions, yet they cannot answer a question like - what are the natures and types of life forms in, say, Andromeda. How they then manage to make the leap to a definitive answer about God is beyond me....

Theists (IMO) tend to anthropomorphize God, ascribing their own human characteristics. This ego-centric tendency makes God small. And I don't even think most realize they are diminshing the concept of God.

Also, when it comes to God - are they talking about a "personal/interventionist" God (the "I want a bike for Christmas" God)?
Or an impersonal God (Spinoza - this was what Einstein believed in when he said "He doesn't play dice with the universe").

Or something else...?

I'm an atheist, not an agnostic.

stu · Apr 25, 2014

jem said:
You now agree there was a beginning of our universe.

Problem is, that's not the beginning of the universe. Big difference, rather infinitely big difference.

jem said:
There is evidence of a Creator... (the fine tunings are one piece evidence.)

Only by rather perversely supplanting the word gravity with the word Creator do you get evidence of a Creator.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." Stephen Hawking

fhl · Apr 25, 2014

stu · Apr 25, 2014

fhl said:

futurecurrents · Apr 25, 2014

Lucrum · Apr 25, 2014

stu said:

Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.
Benjamin Franklin

Wine is constant proof that God loves us and loves to see us happy.
Benjamin Franklin

...Ezra Stiles (1727â1795), the Calvinist president of Yale College, was curious about Benjamin Franklin (1706â1790) and his faith. In 1790, he asked the nation's senior statesman if he would commit his religious beliefs to paper. Franklin agreed. He was nearing the end of his life - he died six weeks later - and possibly believed this was as good a time as any to summarize the religious creed by which he lived.

"Here is my Creed," Franklin wrote to Stiles. "I believe in one God, Creator of the Universe. That He governs it by His Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we render to him, is doing Good to his other Children. That the Soul of Man is immortal, and will be treated with Justice in another Life respecting its Conduct in this ... As for Jesus of Nazareth ... I think the system of Morals and Religion as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw ... but I have ... some Doubts to his Divinity; though' it is a Question I do not dogmatism upon, having never studied it, and think it is needless to busy myself with it now, where I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble." ...

Ricter · Apr 25, 2014

futurecurrents said:

Lol, nice.

If God knew, at the time of your conception, that you would one day become an atheist, can it be argued that there is such a thing as free will? I mean, He knew in advance what your outcome would be, regardless of how long you considered the issue, so really your atheism is Fate. Unless God is not all-knowing...

Spike Trader · Apr 25, 2014

Giant Pope John Paul II Crucifix Collapses And Kills Young Man In Italy

Just two days before the canonization of Pope John Paul II, a giant crucifix erected in his honor collapsed in Italy, crushing a young man and killing him, according to ANSA.

A piece of the 30-meter (98-foot) high wooden crucifix fell down during an event near the village of Cevo, in northern Italy, instantly killing the 21-year-old man. The Jesus Christ figure attached to the cross is six meters high and weighs 600 kg,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/24/john-paul-ii-crucifix-kills-man_n_5206712.html