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Do you believe in a higher power?

  • Yes

    Votes: 403 21.9%
  • No

    Votes: 1,153 62.5%
  • Unsure

    Votes: 288 15.6%

  • Total voters
    1,844

ninjabot

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
734
Right, I absolutely agree with you. Like pretty much everything in life, we should take everything in moderation. I would argue that once logic fails, the only thing you have left is faith essentially. Let logic rule until it can't anymore, once that point is reached essentially only faith can replace it. No need to challenge existing and observable logic with faith.

And I've gotta disagree with the "when logic fails" part.

When logic fails, I don't rely on faith. I accept that I don't know what the heck's gonna happen, and I work with what I DO know and make educated guesses on what's gonna happen. Sometimes I'm right. Other times I'm wrong. And that's it. I don't believe that my beliefs affect reality around me in any way.

I'll use "reasoned confidence" over faith every time.
 
Oct 26, 2017
6,315
Nashville
Yes I do. Although I feel like I'm in the minority here on Resetera lol. No problems if you believe or not just my thing.

Honestly, I think if God like the Big Bang. Big Bang we gotta go back a LONG time and we will never truly figure out what was first. That's why I believe in God cause those things in my opinion just can't appear out of nowhere and partake in an action that needs another causer to make it happen.

All my opinion of course.
 
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DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,296
And I've gotta disagree with the "when logic fails" part.

When logic fails, I don't rely on faith. I accept that I don't know what the heck's gonna happen, and I work with what I DO know and make educated guesses on what's gonna happen. Sometimes I'm right. Other times I'm wrong. And that's it. I don't believe that my beliefs affect reality around me in any way.

I'll use "reasoned confidence" over faith every time.

Do you subscribe to law of attraction theory? Alot of self help and personal achievement stuff mention it. Ive witnessed the benefits. Concepts like speaking goals or desires into existence. Whether it serves as subconscious motivation or metaphysically affects reality, I can subscribe to that as a level of faith in a sense.
 

ninjabot

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
734
Do you subscribe to law of attraction theory? Alot of self help and personal achievement stuff mention it. Ive witnessed the benefits. Concepts like speaking goals or desires into existence. Whether it serves as subconscious motivation or metaphysically affects reality, I can subscribe to that as a level of faith in a sense.

I mean, I do... kinda? But I wouldn't attribute it to faith. When I hype myself up for a game of Street Fighter and I'm like "Yeah, you can do this! You got this!", and I'm psyching myself up, I don't actually feel like it's gonna magically give me the win in the next match... but it chases away the anxiety and helps calm my nerves, which would indeed make me do better in the match thanks to less accidents with combo timing, which COULD lead to me winning.

Does that make sense?
 

DigitalOp

Member
Nov 16, 2017
9,296
I mean, I do... kinda? But I wouldn't attribute it to faith. When I hype myself up for a game of Street Fighter and I'm like "Yeah, you can do this! You got this!", and I'm psyching myself up, I don't actually feel like it's gonna magically give me the win in the next match... but it chases away the anxiety and helps calm my nerves, which would indeed make me do better in the match thanks to less accidents with combo timing, which COULD lead to me winning.

Does that make sense?

Yes. Im not saying that faith determines a 100% outcome. but it helps guide us to our wanted outcomes. Giving yourself the self confidence to perform better is having faith in your ability and your logic even. You dont have 100% control of the outcome because you're opposing someone elses reality, but your faith and will is pushing you to that result you desire.

At least how I parse through it.
 

Ducarmel

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,363
No

Some moments I do hope in the end everybody gets what they deserve, but I dont really believe that will happen when its all said and done.
 
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Valcrist

Tic-Tac-Toe Champion
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,716
I used to. Mostly because of family. Do I now? Not really. There's nothing that can make me consider something supernatural like a god to be real. There are so many man-made gods since the dawn of time and I'm not a fan of drinking the kool-aid.

I wish I could believe there was more beyond this life. But that's just all the more reason for me to live it out, even if my life is complete shit.
 

Squarehard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
25,990
95195.jpg
 

ninjabot

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
734
Yes. Im not saying that faith determines a 100% outcome. but it helps guide us to our wanted outcomes. Giving yourself the self confidence to perform better is having faith in your ability and your logic even. You dont have 100% control of the outcome because you're opposing someone elses reality, but your faith and will is pushing you to that result you desire.

At least how I parse through it.

I guess we're just disagreeing on the definition of faith then. To me, faith isn't just belief without evidence, but also in some cases belief in SPITE of evidence. And I already said that in my videogame analogy I knew that me stating I would win would not change things outright. That the side effect of calming my nerves by basically lying to myself didn't actually lead me to Truth, but rather comforted me enough to do well.
 

Apathy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,992
Not in the slightest. For as much as religion tries to peddle a god or gods, their scriptures full of examples of them interacting with humans, really suspicious they don't show up now.

Is snake oil on a massive scale. And no I don't believe in a spiritual force either.
 
Oct 25, 2017
2,880
Yeah, I'd say so. I'm pretty religious, believe in Jesus, all that.

I'm not religious, but I don't dispute the existence of Jesus.

I don't believe how he is represented in the bible, obviously (too The Elder Scrolls for me), but I do think there is a good amount of truth to the man in question. Just none of the scientifically impossible stuff.
 

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,247
The universe is an endlessly amazing place, and inventing explanations for why things happens just delays or prevents us from finding truth. The sooner we realize this at a species level, the better.
 

SmarmySmurf

Banned
Nov 5, 2017
1,931
Religion is basically "science can't explain this, this and this yet, so see, science doesn't have all the answers! So here's my belief system which has literally zero answers to fill in the gaps with fucking nothing faith!"
 

DarkSora

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 28, 2017
6,189
Yup.

Raised as a Catholic and will remain one. God is what keeps me going day to day.
 

moriquendi

Member
Oct 27, 2017
465
My answer is somewhere between unsure and no but if I have to chose an answer specifically I'm closer to no.
 

Air

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,262
Religion is basically "science can't explain this, this and this yet, so see, science doesn't have all the answers! So here's my belief system which has literally zero answers to fill in the gaps with fucking nothing faith!"

There's way more to 'religion' than this reductive statement haha.
 

Nose Master

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,724
Not in a traditional sense. I don't believe there is a bearded man in the sky judging every action of every person on the planet. However, I am open to the concept of something "more" going on with existence that is so astronomically outside of our perception that the easiest way to describe it would be akin to a godlike force. It also means that it's not something worth stressing about.
 

Evo Shandor

Member
Oct 29, 2017
479
I'm inclined to say 'No'. I was raised Catholic and am ethnically part Jewish so I think that makes me more inclined to be agnostic than I want to admit.
 

y2dvd

Member
Nov 14, 2017
2,481
I don't get how some come to the conclusion of stating "I've seen no evidence of a god, therefore I don't believe" is actually more arrogant than stating "There is no evidence, but God definitely exist".
 

SmarmySmurf

Banned
Nov 5, 2017
1,931
There's way more to 'religion' than this reductive statement haha.

Superficially, sure. And lots of strong feelings that are very important to you personally, I bet. But nothing of substance or value to a rational and inquisitive mind looking for a logical argument in favor of faith or religion.
 

Static

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,113
Voted no. There's obviously a degree of uncertainty there; you can't know what you don't know, and I'm open to having my mind changed, but I have zero reason to expect it will be, so 'unsure' presents a degree of uncertainty I just don't feel. Whatever hypothetical god or gods that could exist have never presented the human race with incontrovertible proof of their existence, and I doubt that my generation merit tipping their omnipotent hand to show their presence. So I am confident and comfortable in my belief that this is it.
 
Oct 25, 2017
1,293
I don't think we'll be able to understand the origin of everything by the time I die, so I don't think there's anyway to say for sure if there's a higher being or not.

As time goes on, I'm becoming more sure there's not a *benevolent* higher being, though.
 

Air

User-Requested Ban
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,262
Superficially, sure. And lots of strong feelings that are very important to you personally, I bet. But nothing of substance or value to a rational and inquisitive mind looking for a logical argument in favor of faith or religion.

You're being awfully presumptuous in this and your last post. It must be nice to have such faith
 

NameUser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
14,064
I don't get how some come to the conclusion of stating "I've seen no evidence of a god, therefore I don't believe" is actually more arrogant than stating "There is no evidence, but God definitely exist".
Yeah I think it's bad to say yes or no. Basically, my stance is—we don't know anything.
 

saenima

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,892
My brain cannot compute how something can come from nothing, so how the universe came to be without some kind of creating force doesn't make sense to me. So a power beyond our understanding is something I believe in, yes.

But how did that power came to be?

EDIT: sorry for essentially repeating the same question that has been asked 30 times already lol

Should have read the thread first.
 

Mahonay

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,321
Pencils Vania
I used to say I was agnostic to spare the feelings of my religious friends. As I've gotten older I have no qualms with saying I'm a pure atheist.

So nope. Definitely do not believe in any kind of higher power.
 

Tregard

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,221
Agnostic verging on theist; I believe there is some force responsible for the very nature of existence which we cannot possibly fathom, and that may be a higher power, and it may not.

I do not define my moral compass by this though, I just try and do my best by people and make the world which we do have control over a slightly nicer place.
 

MrMephistoX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,754
There's definitely a higher power of the universe called physics at work but it's not a god it's energy positive and negative. Religious dogma for the most part is just a way to explain the unexplainable. Philosphy is real and the golden rule is just a great way to behave as a human that more religious nuts should follow: treat others the way you'd want to be treated, don't judge and murder and theft is bad. Plato and Confucius had great ideas too but you don't see people worshiping them.

I'm definitely not going to rule out the existence of extraterrestrial advanced life that would seem godlike to a primitive society though.
 

Polioliolio

Member
Nov 6, 2017
5,399
I voted no, but I do believe, or expect, that an advanced civilization that doesn't self destruct, given time, could achieve god levels of technology and influence.

Even if 'god' exists and its aliens, without evidence of it, there's no point in worrying about it, and we certainly can't say it's true without evidence, so all this crap without evidence that some people believe can be tossed into the same bucket and ignored until evidence suggests otherwise.

Surely though, what we know about the universe, what we see and interact with, maybe even the entire universe as we know it, is just a fingernail scratch deep in something so much more. That's why we need to prioritize science and the study of the reality! I want to know more! Enough shitting around with religions and wars and capitalism, let's get to the point already! We could be traveling at light speeds, warping space and time, creating matter from 'nothing', just cracking the secrets of reality left and right and breaking the laws as we understand them now and in the past, but we're dicking around in the god damned dark ages. These things may never come to pass, but assuming we can get into gear and stop bungling around, the knowledge and capabilities that await us will be so incredible and astounding it would be unfathomable magic to us now.
 

LookAtMeGo

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,136
a parallel universe
The idea that anything evolves for a reason seems like a misinterpretation of how evolution works. Sometimes things just happen.
Hmm.. maybe reason was the wrong word. Function or purpose is the better word perhaps.

I can't really think of any evolutionary things that just happen without a specific function or purpose within its environment besides things that are dropped once they are no longer needed. (Like our body hair)
 

Static

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
6,113
Hmm.. maybe reason was the wrong word. Function or purpose is the better word perhaps.

I can't really think of any evolutionary things that just happen without a specific function or purpose within its environment besides things that are dropped once they are no longer needed. (Like our body hair)
Evolution doesn't work with intent though. At least as I understand it, evolution is the result of genetic variation in every single direction, and advantage or disadvantage given by that variation deciding which variations survive and are promoted, and which are evolutionary dead ends that go nowhere. Evolution "choosing" useful evolutions is a bit like water in a cracked container "choosing" to drip through the crack. It's not that water knows that the crack is there, but rather, that water exerts force on its container in all directions constantly, and finds the paths presented to it.

That is, evolution is a result of stupid genetic variation automatically finding the shape to best suit its containing niche, rather than a governed process by which some entity "makes the right choices."
 

MrMephistoX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,754
I voted no, but I do believe, or expect, that an advanced civilization that doesn't self destruct, given time, could achieve god levels of technology and influence.

Even if 'god' exists and its aliens, without evidence of it, there's no point in worrying about it, and we certainly can't say it's true without evidence, so all this crap without evidence that some people believe can be tossed into the same bucket and ignored until evidence suggests otherwise.

Surely though, what we know about the universe, what we see and interact with, maybe even the entire universe as we know it, is just a fingernail scratch deep in something so much more. That's why we need to prioritize science and the study of the reality! I want to know more! Enough shitting around with religions and wars and capitalism, let's get to the point already! We could be traveling at light speeds, warping space and time, creating matter from 'nothing', just cracking the secrets of reality left and right and breaking the laws as we understand them now and in the past, but we're dicking around in the god damned dark ages. These things may never come to pass, but assuming we can get into gear and stop bungling around, the knowledge and capabilities that await us will be so incredible and astounding it would be unfathomable magic to us now.

I think you phrased it better than I did. Think about Asgard in the Marvel movies. If immortality ever becomes scientifically possible the knowledge used to achieve it might just be lost to time: if one is born immortal what's the incentive to improve society? The scientific knowledge used manufacture something like the Bifrost or Thor's hammer could be lost as well and naturally there would be no incentive to improve something that just works without a need to maintain it from breaking down. Then society starts believing in magic, religion and monarchy again.

It's like people who kept living in Rome after the fall, the infrastructure from the empire was there but they kind of lost the ability to maintain it over time.
 
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Ryuhza

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
11,445
San Diego County
Nope. And if the god my parents believe in is real (a god who creates human life to be flawed, predestines certain people to be saved and others to go to hell for eternal torment, and somehow maintains that he is not to blame for any of it), I'd never want to worship him.
 

Emperor Ham

Banned
Feb 12, 2018
654
It's all dogshit. In this day and age humans should have realise is all lies.

Humans created God, no the other way around.

Hell, we know Scientology is bullshit, should be the same with all the other gods and religion.