i don't believe in ****...except myself.

classyjeff: Your post reminds me of an antecdote I heard awhile back:

A man visits his friend who happens to be working in his yard, lush with green grass, full bushes, and colorful flowers, and remarks, "It's amazing what you and the Lord have done with this yard." His neighbor replies, "Yeah, you should have seen it when the Lord was tending it by himself."

Some say that God helps those who help themselves. I consider that to be a cop-out. I figure it's better — even if you believe strongly in God — to live our lives as if there's no divine intervention. I believe we're on our own, regardless of whether God exists, and that we need to take full responsibility for our future. Nothing good can come from blaming our problems on God, other people, fate, or even ourselves. We need to figure out what we truly want in life and what we need to do to achieve our goals — and then do it.

I suppose it would be fair to call me an atheistic agnostic — meaning that I don't believe in the concept of an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving God, but believe that the possible existence of some non-physical reality cannot be known.

I won't go into detail about my reasoning, but I see no point to living life based upon the possible, but unlikely, existence of another reality in which we share no apparent part.

The sovereignty of God - Primitive Baptist Doctrine.

I only believe in shiny hats and triangle brains

Oh the power!!!

sighhhhhh...

Kat

Mwah!!! Kat!!! Big sloppy sqeezy hugs!!! I owe you an email, and no, I haven't forgotten you...

Big "sqeezy" hugs to you to my beautiful..... lovely... friend. Mmmmmuuuaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!
Kat

Ohhhhh! The love!! And squeezies!!

I believe in misspelt sqeezies...

I believe in God
and that Jesus Christ
his son died for us.

In my life's experiences
I've felt His presence
in many ways.

Mostly in the love
my family has for me.

I believe in the power of the force.

something had to start this all off, thats my belief. as for the whole religion thing, you can keep your voodoo hocuspocus abracadabra mumbo jumbo stuff, i have enough of my own weird superstitions to keep me going for a long time.

I do not believe in God at all. I also do not believe that everything in the bible is truth. I personally like to believe that this world and life is exactly what it is. We are here and we can do what we choose. Why should you base your life around something that binds you to a certain point. I am an intelligent, well-behaved, easy-going person and I live my life by my own moral values and standards. I believe that religions were made to emphasize morals and that they have become places of refuge and also sources of expression. I however find refuge in other things and express myself in other ways. I have many friends who are Christians so I am not against it or do not hate it at all. These are just my views and I also respect the views of others.

well said resserts. i'm not the type of person that would feel like life is pointless if there is no GOD. i'm who i am and i try to be the best that i can. i don't do it to try to get into heaven i do it because i think it's the best thing for me to do and the right thing to do.

I'm Jewish. Conservative thinking, Reformed living. Israelite tribe. My son is a Levite. Tribe is patralineal (sp?).

However, I do believe we are all on different paths to the same place.

I'm glad to see everyones views whether or not you believe.But for me some of the things that have happened,I know I would not of gotten through it without my higher power,and as I look back he was always with me each step of the way.

Ooooooh. Let's see if I can manage to say everything I want to say here:

The bible is a lie. This is clear as crystal to me and I can't believe anyone who actually takes the time to read it would think it to be true.

1. Christianity is a religion that is made up of bits and parts of other religions. Now, some of you are probably pissed off already. Just keep reading. I promise it is all true.

Christ was born of a virgin mother(sounds painful), died on a cross, and grants eternal life. Ok. So did plenty of gods who were revered and worshipped long before Christianity existed!

Examples:
OSIRIS: Egyptian god. He traveled the world showing kindness. His death is a familiar story: He was killed. He resurrected. He then becomes the god of the dead, granting ETERNAL LIFE. The ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead depicts this and shows his resurrected followers standing in his presence as he judges them. According to Plutarch, when these souls are set free and travel into the unknown, Osiris becomes their king. It is important to note that this was all some 1400 years before Jesus.

DIONYSUS: God of fertility/wine. Dionysus was the son of the god Zeus and the MORTAL WOMAN, Semele.

http://www.medmalexperts.com/POCM/pagan_christs_dionysus.html has this to say on the matter:

"The early Christians acknowledged that Dionysus (his Greek name) / Bacchus (his Latin name) came before Jesus. How? The Christian Father Justin Martyr, writing in the 100s AD, wrote that the Devil reading the Old Testament prophesies of the Messiah sent Bacchus early, to trick men about Jesus"

Grasping at straws, are we, Father Martyr?

PYTHAGORAS: This is the guy that gave us the Pythagorean Theorum. His followers fancied him like a god. He performed miracles--and so did his disciples--in his name!!! Much like Jesus' disciples. He also began a religion that believed in God and the immortal human soul.

2. 'God' repeatedly tells people to murder, despite the 6th commandment clearly stating that thou 'shalt not' do that.
(Exodus 17:8-14, Exodus 32:26-28, Leviticus 26:7-8, Numbers 15:32-36, Numbers 21:21-35, Numbers 25:4-13, NUMBERS 31!!!, Deuteronomy 2:30-34, Deuteronomy 20:10-17, Joshua 6:20-21,
Joshua 8:1-29, Joshua 10:12-14, just to name a few...)

3. There is a large amount of racism, sexism, and just plain pervertedness throughout the bible: If a man raped a woman who wasn't married yet, he just paid her father a fee and she HAD to marry him(he just raped her, so sick!)DEUT. 22:28-29. In Judges 19:24-29 a man gave his wife to a mob to protect himself. The mob gang-raped her all night and then killed her.



GOD TOLD HIS PEOPLE (MORE THAN ONCE) TO BOIL AND EAT THEIR OWN CHILDREN, WHICH THEY DID!

Deut. 28:53, 2 Kings 6:28-29, Lev 26:29, Jer. 19:9, Lam. 2:20, Ezek 5:10


Lot was LOVED by God. In Genisis 19:8, he offers his virgin daughters to a rape mob to appease them. What family values!


Well, I think I have covered enough for now. Ask me if you want to know more or if you are confused about something.

--R.

MsRach wrote:
“The bible is a lie. This is clear as crystal to me and I can't believe anyone who actually takes the time to read it would think it to be true.”

I share your sentiments. The mythical god depicted in the Bible would necessarily need to be a bumbling idiot, as well as being extremely inconsistent, undependable, a self-proclaimed egotist in dire need of attention, and would necessarily be a spoiled brat at best, or an outright demon at worst.

However, just because many religions are nothing more than overblown fairytales doesn’t mean that there is no spiritual essence to life. On the contrary there are many religions that view the spiritual nature of our essence in an entirely differnet light. Most of those religions see the universe (or nature herself) as the essence of all living and non-living things.

From a purely practical point of view you can ask where you came from. Well, it’s obvious that your body came from your mother, and we even know quite a bit about that whole biological process of what we call life. But is that all you are? Just your body?

Perhaps you may suspect this to be the case. It matters not. The irrefutable fact is that everything that you are, all of you, your entire essence came out of this universe. You are this universe, or at least a small part of it, no less than your finger is a part of your body. You have no separate existence. Everything that you are, including your consciousness, your experiences, your emotions, all that is you, is this universe. There is nothing of you that is not of this universe. You came out of this universe, and when your body dies you will meld back into the universe just as a wave melds back into the ocean.

There was never a time when you were not. You are not just the sum of your parts, you are part of the sum.

You don’t need ancient doctrines to know this. All you need to do is look around and you can see that this is what you are. You are merely a part of something much larger than what you perceive to be your “self”.

So yes, toss that Bible in the trash can where it belongs, but don’t think for one second that you are anything less than a part of something much larger. To believe that you are merely an individual that has only a fleeting existence is as silly as believing in biblical mythology. How could you be an individual? To be an individual you’d need to be a god in your own right. How silly is that? You are this universe. There is simply nothing else that you can be.

i don't think that you have to believe in a GOD to have a soul. just depends on your interpetation of what a human soul really is.