Do you believe in God? If so/if no, WHY?

[munzter666]

He probably assumed that it's the God of the bible. I've read somewhere that elsewhere in his Pensees he examined the other alternatives to Christianity, like Judaism and Islam, and concluded that if any religion is correct, it must be Christianity. I think that the wager is only meant to argue the reasonableness of "betting" that God exists. As to which God he's talking about, the reader can look at the rest of his writings for his conclusion.

blaise pascal formulated that wager coz in the advent of half baked propped up evidences.
MUST be Christianity huh?
his ASSUMPTIONS lead to several miscalculations....
As said before, in reality there is an infinity of possible gods with the same probability.

betting that god exist, that would probably end up to which literature your basing it.hahaha
other religions have their own literature too...its not just the bible.hehehe

I think that God will judge us according to our actions and decisions, and according to what we have done or not done in this life. When we truly believe in him (and not just profess it with our lips or consider it in our minds), and when we acknowledge that he is Love himself, wouldn't that necessarily translate into our actions? That is, wouldn't we become loving in our actions also?

reality check.
other people with other beliefs...god or no god, are capable of doing those.
its just ironic to say that most people who speak highly about love, wisdom, and other holy words... are the ones breaking and abusing.hahaha

But God is not someone who arbitrarily sends people to hell for the mere reason that they don't believe (cognitively) in him. He has endowed us with our conscience, to enable us to discern right from wrong; with reason, to enable us to consider prudently our options; and with free will, to enable us to act and make decisions. With free will, we have the power to choose good, but also the power to choose evil. Because we have the power to choose evil, we have the power to disobey God. God is all-good, therefore when we do evil things, we consequently separate ourselves from him. While we are still alive, we have countless opportunities to do good and avoid evil, but if we consistently do evil to the point that it molds our character and we become a person who is characteristically bad, we run the risk of forever being that way, because when we die, we lose our chance of changing ourselves. If we stay forever that way (that is, a bad person) then we would find ourselves somewhere where goodness, beauty, truth, joy and happiness, are absent. That would be "hell", and that would be very painful and horrifying, since that is separation from God.

unfortunately, even under the christian umbrella...hindi rin nagkakaintindihan.
...if your god created hell, i guess he has some other plans tooo.haha

speaking about JUST.if a just god judges people for who they are, not for what their minds tell them is likely to be true or not. therefore a just god would still save people no matter how silly their belief may be(depends on your viewpoint)

BUT with pascal's wager, it more of a SELFISH reason. believe/submit or barbecue. the illusion of free will, more like emotional blackmail to me.

on a lighter note...
pascal's wager is the product of the gain from a certain belief and the probability that it is the correct one...in the absence of concrete evidences.

...you should pick the religion with the worst hell and the greatest heaven. place your bets.hahaha

[harris]

Hey are we arguing religion and belief here! These could lead us to confusion and chaos! Thats why we have our own brain, for some reason he wants us to think on our own, some of those books, theories and other script those are just for basis!

[josephdc]

blaise pascal formulated that wager coz in the advent of half baked propped up evidences.
MUST be Christianity huh?
his ASSUMPTIONS lead to several miscalculations....
As said before, in reality there is an infinity of possible gods with the same probability.

betting that god exist, that would probably end up to which literature your basing it.hahaha
other religions have their own literature too...its not just the bible.hehehe

Yeah, the wager does seem to have many problems. Many people think that it's the weakest argument for God's existence. But I think Pascal believed it to be the strongest. He said, "This is conclusive, and if men are capable of any truth, this is it." If his wager was heard in a vacuum, then people would be left to guess: "Which God is he talking about? Allah? The God of Judaism? Perhaps one of the millions of the gods of the Hindus?" But he wrote it as a Christian. Why apply the wager to other religions when he was speaking as a Christian? I think he was not trying to argue which "god" is the God (He has already reached his conclusion); I think he was simply arguing that it makes sense to believe in a God, and he points to the Christian God.

reality check.
other people with other beliefs...god or no god, are capable of doing those.

I don't think I have any argument with you there bro. Of course, all of us are capable of doing good deeds.

its just ironic to say that most people who speak highly about love, wisdom, and other holy words... are the ones breaking and abusing.hahaha

Like kinsa nga mga tao? Yes, there are bad people within the Christian faith as well as outside.

unfortunately, even under the christian umbrella...hindi rin nagkakaintindihan.
...if your god created hell, i guess he has some other plans tooo.haha

Yes, I agree, even within Christianity there are disagreements, but I don't think it's anything substantial. I mean, for Catholics and Protestants at least, they believe in a Triune God di ba? They believe that Jesus is God incarnate. They believe in his life, death and resurrection. They believe in the credibility of the Gospel accounts.

I don't see how this is relevant to what I've said. You brought up the idea that God is a "self-centered ego maniac." And I responded that he's not. So what are you saying?

speaking about JUST.if a just god judges people for who they are, not for what their minds tell them is likely to be true or not. therefore a just god would still save people no matter how silly their belief may be(depends on your viewpoint)

Maybe bro! God is infinitely just, loving and merciful.

BUT with pascal's wager, it more of a SELFISH reason. believe/submit or barbecue. the illusion of free will, more like emotional blackmail to me.

on a lighter note...
pascal's wager is the product of the gain from a certain belief and the probability that it is the correct one...in the absence of concrete evidences.

...you should pick the religion with the worst hell and the greatest heaven. place your bets.hahaha

Yeah, mura'g dili bitaw noble kaayo imo motive if mao ra na imo reason nga mutuo ka Ginoo kay mas makadaug ka kung mupusta ka niya hehe... But di ba Pascal lived in a time of great scepticism? People did not have confidence that they can rely on reason to bring them to a knowledge of God, so Pascal wrote that if they cannot depend on reason, then the more practical thing would be to "bet" na lang that he exists. Mura'g ingun ana, kay sceptical man kaayo mga tao, so for practicality reasons na lang.

Free will is not an illusion. We can choose to do evil, but that would ironically make us less free. True freedom lies in doing what is good, I believe.

[crinkle]

wah. daghana mga quoted posts oi... that's something i haven't seen in a while...

[splendid moonlight]

I'd be too proud to say that I am right here right now and I did it all by myself.

[josephdc]

Someone once said that for many atheists and/or agnostics the barrier to belief in God is probably not an intellectual one, but rather an emotional one. Some people perceive God to be "too restrictive", or "too inimical to my own interests." They view him as a cosmic kill joy, and see Christianity as a form of enslavement. But the opposite is actually true. True freedom, true joy and happiness, peace, and love, can only be found in God. He made our hearts, therefore it can only find rest in Him. The paradox from the Gospel which commands us to lose ourselves so that we may find ourselves, or die to ourselves so that we may live, bears a very poignant truth. The saints lived what at first glace were very miserable lives. They sacrificed, they lived their lives in strict obedience to God, etc. But they were also the most joyful human beings that ever lived. Read a few of their autobriographies and you will see that they experienced peace, and even raptures of joy!

So for many non-believers, it probably is more an emotional issue than an intellectual issue.

Bertrand Russell, when asked what he shall say to God if ever it turns out that He does exist and Russell is called to account for his non-belief, answered: "Well, God, you didn't give me enough evidence." One writer remarked to this, "Enough evidence for what? To compel you to believe?" He argued that for the spiritually indifferent, no amount of evidence will suffice. There is enough evidence to lead us to come to a knowledge of God, enough evidence to compel us to at least acknowledge that Christianity's truth claims are plausible. But if our hearts and minds are closed, no evidence will ever be enough. Seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened to you, Jesus said.

Just a thought.

Violent reactions are welcome hehe...

[grovestreet]

my country is the world.
and my religion is to do good.

-thomas paine

you see, he (thomas paine) didn't use the world "Religion" as a term that refers to a structured organization. Because i know there is something wrong with religion.

plz watch this movie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcASIeqKGQ8

[The_Child]

Still nobody answered my question; how do atheists disprove God which if in the first place they are in the first place being asserted by atheists that God does not exist.

How do you prove an absolute negative?

[baliguat]

To neutralize that negative is to add positive. weeee.... Labay lang.

[grovestreet]

Still nobody answered my question; how do atheists disprove God which if in the first place they are in the first place being asserted by atheists that God does not exist.

How do you prove an absolute negative?

we have to condition our mind to erase the concept of something superior than us.
erase the word "god" or in your vocabulary and you will understand.
see the world as it is. see the world in totality with yourself, that we are one with everything.

can't you see it? the whole point?