The God Questions

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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I don't know myself, tbh. Can I pass on answering? I find it very hard to explain.

I'm pretty sure Jive Turkey is kidding. I started the thread. You get a pass.:D

An atheist believes in no god, Christian or otherwise, in any form, no higher power. An agnostic has some wiggle room.
 
An atheist doesn't believe in any gods.


An agnostic doesn't know if any gods exist.

You can be both. As I don't know if any gods exist, as with unicorns. Guess they could. I just haven't seen any evidence to suggest they do. So I do not believe
 
Difference noted. I've just seen more agnostics shift between belief and unbelief. An agnostic can be steadily indifferent/nonbelieving or vacillate between belief and nonbelief as one might not believe in fairies, but leave a treat for them just in case--or not believe in ghosts, but would rather not be in a cemetery at midnight. Sometimes logic and primal/superstition conflict. Hence, wiggle room.
 
Buddhists don't actually believe in God do they? They are few New Age groups that practice spiritual development, such as meditating, but don't actually believe in God. I've met a few of them in my life. Many are lapsed Christians.

Is it possible to be an atheist and a spiritualist or do you think that means your agnostic?
 
Buddhists don't actually believe in God do they? They are few New Age groups that practice spiritual development, such as meditating, but don't actually believe in God. I've met a few of them in my life. Many are lapsed Christians.

Is it possible to be an atheist and a spiritualist or do you think that means your agnostic?

The Buddha never explored the existence of a god. The most he did was say that it was too complicated and unnecessary to wrap one's mind around.

I've heard about atheists declaring themselves spiritual, though I personally find it hard to understand. I see spirituality as having a relationship with God and seeing the divine everywhere. But others have different definitions of spirituality though.
 
I've heard about atheists declaring themselves spiritual, though I personally find it hard to understand. I see spirituality as having a relationship with God and seeing the divine everywhere. But others have different definitions of spirituality though.

I'd probably consider myself more of an agnostic than a true atheist, and am probably as far from 'spiritual' as you can get, but I can kind of understand being both. I'm thinking of the weird 'mother earth' spiritual types.
 
Buddha probably has the right thinking. The "what is out there" is so large that its most definitely infinite. Is there a god? Is there multiple gods? Who created them? What are they made of? It's just more complexity.

Live a good life. Everything else will sort itself out. If you need a belief, ok then.
 
Buddha probably has the right thinking. The "what is out there" is so large that its most definitely infinite. Is there a god? Is there multiple gods? Who created them? What are they made of? It's just more complexity.

Live a good life. Everything else will sort itself out. If you need a belief, ok then.

And besides, there's a saying that anyone who claims to know God, doesn't know Him at all.

It's a good saying and that's what I think of when radicals say "This is God's will!" - and that could be Christian or Muslim or any kind of religious extremists. Really, they know God so well? Because I would think if God was so easy to figure out, wouldn't life be simpler, other people be easy to figure out, and science easy to explore? I think God is as complex as the world is.

As for who or what created God or the universe itself, that's even something I can't wrap my mind around. If I find myself wondering about what created the Big Bang, then I'd want to go back and ask what created that? And that? And that? Time seems to have no beginning and it is both astounding and baffling.
 
I return again to my pet theory that God, if such a thing exists, may be the Final Mind of a previous universe. After that, unfortunately, it's turtles all the way down. Lots of turtles, potentially.
 
It can be argued that some sects of Buddhism believe in gods, as bodhisattvas can take on this type of "deity" role. It varies vastly from sect to sect though, more so than many westerners are used to with Christianity.
 
It can be argued that some sects of Buddhism believe in gods, as bodhisattvas can take on this type of "deity" role. It varies vastly from sect to sect though, more so than many westerners are used to with Christianity.

I guess this depends on what we mean by a god. If we are talking about something that transcends physicality and "normal" human experience, then I would say bodhisattvas are definitely gods. If we are talking about a supernatural being with direct power over the workings of the world, then they don't quite fit that mold.

The only question in this thread to which I want to respond is the one about the "War on Christmas." There is by no means a war on Christmas. If anything, there is a war on the part of militant Christians to impose Christmas on everyone regardless of willingness to participate.
 
Was Santa even religious? I don't understand what his birthday has to do with Christianity
 
Oh give me a break.

Sorry, no. Does it not strike you as peculiar that the cries about Christian persecution over Christmas are becoming louder as the Christmas season and its pervasiveness are expanding? Every year for my entire life there has been a noticeable expansion in the "Christmas season" and its presence in all forms of major media. There is absolutely no war on Christmas. If there is, it is the most pathetically unsuccessful war ever fought.
 
The "War on Christmas", if it actually did exist, should be fought by devout Christians against commercialism and materialism.

I think devout Christians should take a look at the commercialism and materialism of Christmas and realize it's the only reason the holiday is as big as it is. Take what you can get. Otherwise you have Easter. Imagine all the bitching and complaining about the 'war on Christmas' if it ever got as small as Easter?
 
I guess this depends on what we mean by a god. If we are talking about something that transcends physicality and "normal" human experience, then I would say bodhisattvas are definitely gods. If we are talking about a supernatural being with direct power over the workings of the world, then they don't quite fit that mold.

True.

Was Santa even religious? I don't understand what his birthday has to do with Christianity

:)
 
Oh, and I loves me some Christmas. I even think the birth story is nice. I like how friendly everyone is to one another around that time. I like visiting with family and friends. I even like shopping for people and exchanging gifts.

Easter is ok. Chocolate is ok
 
Sorry, no. Does it not strike you as peculiar that the cries about Christian persecution over Christmas are becoming louder as the Christmas season and its pervasiveness are expanding? Every year for my entire life there has been a noticeable expansion in the "Christmas season" and its presence in all forms of major media. There is absolutely no war on Christmas. If there is, it is the most pathetically unsuccessful war ever fought.

But wait. You said that a loud and vocal minority are trying to force Christmas on people even though they don't want to participate. I'm so confused. Do hundreds of millions of people in America want to celebrate Christmas (in which case your argument about a minority foisting the holiday on Americans collapses), or don't they (which is simply statistically untrue)?

There is no war on Christmas. But there's also no loud and vocal minority trying to force Christmas on people. If anything, taking your point just above, there are an awful lot of people who want to celebrate Christmas, and a small and vocal minority of people who don't. Both need to figure out how to live with each other, and trying to paint Christmas well-wishers as Christian jihadists is simply ludicrous.
 
But there's also no loud and vocal minority trying to force Christmas on people.

I'm not sure I agree with you here. Look back in some of our "war on Christmas" threads and look at the arrogance and mentality of some people who used to post in here. When ask, what if you know the person is Jewish? "I tell them Merry Christmas anyway, if they want to live somewhere where we don't celebrate Christmas they can move to one of those countries." And this mentality is a very loud and vocal minority. They are the ones who try and legislate Christmas. We had an article posted in here a few years back about Republican lawmakers trying to pass a resolution that would require 'Merry Christmas' on the President's cards he sends out, both Bush and Obama chose 'Season's Greetings' cards.
 
Do hundreds of millions of people in America want to celebrate Christmas?

Well, that's a good question, and I'd say it depends on what you mean by "celebrate Christmas." Are we talking about putting up a tree and buying presents, or are we talking about actually doing something religious involving the birth of Jesus? This obviously is purely anecdotal, but I "celebrated" Christmas this year with my parents, going through the whole litany of middle-America Christmas rituals, despite having no desire whatsoever to do so. And I'm sure there are plenty more who do so simply because of that cultural weight. At the very least there is a disjunction between those who participate in Christmas rituals and those who have genuine religious feeling toward the holiday.
 
"happy holidays" solves EVERYTHING.

and it includes Thanksgiving through New Years.

go with it. things will get better. promise.
 
I say Merry Christmas to people. I don't see how that can be offensive. It's so secular now anyway. I don't get upset when people say "God bless you" after I sneeze and get snot all over the place
 
I celebrate Christmas in the commercial sense. I love exchanging gifts and spending time with my family. I however, am annoyed that the Christmas season has extended to all of November. I'm of the opinion that the way Christmas is celebrated now, it's almost a secular holiday.

I used to work retail during the Holiday season, and I always said Happy Holidays to people. Why? Because I worked in an area with a large number of Jews, Muslims, and even Buddhists. It to me would be offensive to make assumptions as to the specific holiday people were celebrating.
 
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