My justification for this question lies within nature. Everything working in perfect harmony with everything else. So to answer my own question...yes.

But the truth is that everything doesn't work in harmony.

The truth is that it's a dog-eat-dog world.

Nature isn't always cooperative with life.

Where's the harmony?

I used to believe that at one time. But now I have serious doubts.

I'm now convinced that the most likely scenario is one of two things:

Either we are the creator, or there the is no spiritual world beyond this one.

The idea of a single conscious entity having created this entire universe with a specific design and purpose in mind is truly an unlikely scenario. Especially the idea of one that is a jealous being that demands to be worshiped and would get bent out of shape if people don't pay it attention. That isn't even mature behavior for a human being much less a God.

I'm thoroughly convinced of the scientific evidence that shows that the earth is 4.5 billion years old and that all life evolved on this planet from very simple organisms over those billions of years. I'm not the slightest bit concerned with how this might agree or conflict with any religious views. The time scales just seem to absurd to be the hallmark of a creator who has a purpose (especially if humans are part of that purpose).

If we condense that 4.5 billion years into the span of an hour here's what it looks like:

For the first 50 minutes of that hour nothing more than microbes evolved on earth.

For the next 10 minutes a myriad of animals evolved, and became extinct over the course of many geological time scales. The dinosaurs alone reigned for about 300 million of those years.

Finally, in the last 1/100th of a second, (yes, in the last 0.01 seconds of the earth’s existence humans appeared), and all of human activity historic and prehistory took place in that last 1/100th of a second.

Does that look like we were put here by a God who had us in mind as the main focus of creation?

I don't think so.

Also the world had been dog-eat-dog during all those billions of years long before we every came onto the scene. Animals murdered each other, and stole each others property, ate their young, etc, etc, etc. Disease and natural disaster were commonplace. In fact, it appears that there were several occasions where mass extinctions occurred. If there is any kind of 'baby-sitting' God it certainly appears that God is an experimenter that uses trial and error to design, it's clearly not a pre-planning designer.

Finally there is no way that humans could be blamed for bringing into existence what we call 'evil'. Clearly that kind of behavior is commonplace throughout this entire universe, and always was.

I'm seriously beginning to believe that we might just be mold growing on a rock.

I seriously don't see any reason to believe otherwise.

If there is a God it doesn't appear to be very compassionate at all. It's also an extremely poor example of a parent. I haven't seen any evidence of a supposedly 'loving God'. Is such a deity exists there is no evidence for it, and much evidence against it. At best it would be a deceiving God. Not a loving righteous one.

It's still fun to pretend that there is a God. It's always fun to pretend. I pretend. Why not? There's nothing to lose.

If there is a God (or a higher consciousness of any sort) I'm quite confident that it truly doesn't care what we believe anyway. It would be far above all of the petty attributes that mundane human religions attempt to assign to it. The Biblical God for an example is a totally disgrace. If God truly was like that picture then cosmic reality would be a bigger nightmare than life on earth. A self-confessed jealous egoistical judgmental God who gets angry if it isn't the focus of worship? That's sicker than sick.

I'd truly rather atheism be true than the biblical picture. Truly I would. I'd rather just die than discover that God is as sick as the Bible claims. I've met human beings who were wiser and had more compassion than the biblical picture of God. And they were atheists!

Do you believe in a creator. Regardless of faith, do you believe there is a supreme being that created the earth/stars/universe?

I don't believe in a single creator that created me and all the physical universe. I believe the universe is the co-creation of all the self-determined beings in the universe. But to me, that's not the real issue. The real issue is the fact that all these co-creators are not dependent upon the physical universe for their existence, any more than someone who sews and then wears a shirt is dependent on that shirt for his existence.

I think Confucius crated the universe...

My justification for this question lies within nature. Everything working in perfect harmony with everything else. So to answer my own question...yes.

"IMO, the point at which disharmony enters into the picture is when the human mind evaluates itself as "right" and all other minds as "wrong" (unless, of course, another mind agrees )."

I'm being made more aware of how this all too Human "affliction" effects my relationships (how I communicate) on a day-to-day (sometimes moment-to-moment) basis.

If I may, I'd like to substitute "valid" for "right" and "invalid" for "wrong". With those words, I could agree 100%.

The reason for the substitution is that in my mind, "right and wrong" are based solely on the goals of an individual. "right" = "assists in reaching goals", "wrong" = "hinders from reaching goals", whereas I think of "valid" and "invalid" as being based on granting other people the right to their own viewpoints.

Just my opinion.