Do you believe in God and supernatural beings?

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Do you believe in God, gods, supernatural beings, magic? I don't, and it upset my parents when I was a child. I learned very early to never talk about it.

I'm watching this huge crowd gathering in St.Peter's Square on the BBC, gathering to see the Pope make his final speech or whatever it is called. All these people believe in an invisible super powerful being that never dies... and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/forum20.html

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp55goEW82c[/youtube]

I don't believe in man-made religion. I believe that much evil has been committed in the name of religion, Catholicism for instance, from what I have read, is based on deception by those who control it.

I am open-minded to there being an intelligent force that created everything. What would be the point of all this otherwise.

I am very open-minded to the supernatural, although I do require compelling evidence if not proof to fully state that I believe it exists. I have had psychic experiences myself.

Nope!

I'll just borrow this, if you dont mind.

Those with such closed minds would have the biggest shock of all and have the biggest problem adjusting if they were found to be wrong...

There's definately something.

All religions are a form of deception intended to control and manipulate the ignorant and uneducated (I'm not talking here about philosophical movements, which are intended to raise more questions as a tool of self empowerment).

Most people have an instinctive need to "know" how reality works and affects them. Religion fills that niche, where the revealed "truth" combined with belief stemming from the mystical experience provides knowledge of our place in the universe.

And sorry if it sounds disappointing, but there is no point to "all this". "It" just is. What exists, exists. What doesn't exist, doesn't exist.

As for the supernatural, I have been playing with my brain for so long now, I pretty much understand what is "supernatural" in it and what isn't. Imagination is the most powerful tool in the human psyche, but as every tool it has its shortcomings.

In the end it's all about the definition of truth and how one experiences it.

Hope this short lesson in epistemology, ontology and alethiology rises as many questions as it doesn't answer

Citations please.



There are probably many things that people thought were supernatural that can be attributed to tricks of the mind etc. However, there are some that can't. My own experiences could not be explained by tricks of the mind.



In some things yes. Not all.

I believe there is some sort of higher power out there, but I don't know what it is or what it does. I think that's for the best.

Got me there, didn't you?
I'll get on pasting the internet in this thread as soon as I'm done cataloging it.
The rest is a personal opinion/experience and as valid in this context as my own.
Cheers

I don't know....

If there is a god, I'm more inclined to believe in pantheism/polytheism, or both.

I think that what people refer to as God is in fact the Multiverse and infinite series of parallel universes but wwhether the Multiverse according to M theory qualifies for a deity, the jury's out on that one and the intelligence of ther multiverse is the collective intelligence and the consciousness of the sapient lifeforms which inhabit this and other universes. Some people do see a successful unification of quantum physics and the general theory of relativity as proof of God's exxistence but in the end there is only a person's faith that can have as well as any entheogen (not necessarily an artificial neurotransmitter) which could be in the form of music, prayer, fasting and simple partial epilepsy. If not then why do people have temporal lobes in their brain?

No.

Apparently autistics are more often atheist/agnostic:

http://mindmodeling.org/cogsci2011/papers/0782/paper0782.pdf

Yes, I believe in God.
(If you're interested in why read on...if not don't...I'm not posting this to start a debate/argue, I'm just monologuing on one of my special interests which I rarely get to talk about because people are so sensitive about religion...so hopefully I don't offend anybody on here, that's not my intention at all).

I was an atheist for years, but after reading the Bible mostly just because I figured if I was going to debate "pushy Christians" I should at least read their book (which most of them haven't even read, I've also read the Quran, which interestingly enough worships the same God as Christians and Jews...I was also Jewish for awhile, and would probably consider myself to be a Messianic Jew, I don't like how the Church/government corrupted Christianity, plus Yeshua/Jesus was Jewish). The day after I finished reading the Bible my anxiety got really really bad to the point where I was having several severe panic attacks a day, I had to go to the hospital...finally after a few weeks of that some verses from the Bible popped into my head about how if you pray for something in Jesus' name it will happen, so I took a chance and prayed for my panic attacks to stop and they did, I haven't had a panic attack or uncontrollable anxiety since. Also a few years later I finally got fed up with my chronic nausea and stomach problems (which doctors say is related to Aspergers) so I prayed for it to go away and I haven't had it since. There are plenty other incidents too, and I know if I was reading this when I was an atheist I would have thought it was stupid and it was probably just positive thinking that made it happen because until that special connection with God happens to you too you most likely won't/can't understand.
I'm actually going to school to major in World Religions now. Did you know that there are remains of chariots in the Red Sea that Biblical Archaelogist believe are from the Exodus story when God parted the Red Sea and drowned the Egyptians on their chariots, also there are remains of what some archaelogist believe to be Noah's Ark on Mount Arafat? (Of course these may be hoaxes who knows I haven't been there myself, but there are several youtube videos and pics).

Anyway I personally think it's just as silly to have blind faith as it is to have blind un-belief. I recommend looking into it, it's at least interesting (to me even when I was an atheist)...many argue that if believers are wrong oh well we are just dead, but if non-believers are wrong they'll have eternity to regret it (although personally I hope if there is an afterlife that all good people whether they believe or not will enjoy it).