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God

Who here believes in God?

I agree with David.

This is not the point. The question wasn't Does America believe in God? Clearly, I think, the majority of Americans are religious to some degree.

The question is.. Do YOU believe in God?

the map used a poll to show religious affiliations by geographical region in america, not to prove whether god exists or not. and, statistics CAN be used to show facts, it just depends upon what facts u are trying to show. for instance, if i wanna prove up the statement "most people in america believe in god," i'd have to use statistics. it's a useful map. if u wanna live where the baptists live, this map says: you wanna live in dallas.

All religions have mountains of 'proof' of the truth of their beliefs.  How can someone just pick and choose at random and then become so self-righteous? 

What if I want to believe in Zeus and be pagan?  Thats pre-christianity, and they have just as many stories and compilations as christians in the bible.  How is that any less 'right' then any other religion?

M3lody,

?Santo- if one doesnt believe in God then they wouldnt really care what a God Loving person would consider the hard way, now would they??

You might as well ask me why I would bother to read the Bible (which I have done several times, BTW).  Can?t an atheist just be interested in someone else?s beliefs?

I am genuinely curious about your answer to the question, but if you don?t feel like sharing, that?s okay. 

The one thing I've heard, over and over in this debate is close-mindedness.

If I were to take the last 500 posts and summarized it, I could summarize it into two posts:
1) The minority of people said "This is what I believe." and were content to stay there.
2) The majority of people stated "This is what I believe and the rest of you are wrong." and then continued to battle back and forth over wording and "proof".

If you've found proof in god, or if you've just found faith, than I am happy for you. Congratulations for letting God, in whatever form you believe in him or her, into your life. If you don't believe in God, can't believe in God, that's OK too.

But for Pete's Sake, don't pretend you're right and I'm wrong. Your reality is not my reality. You can not force your opinions upon others no matter HOW hard you try, no matter how many arguments you make, no matter how much "proof" you find.

You simple can not do it.

So could we go back to more of "This is what I believe in." and less "I'm right and you're wrong.", please? :)

I dont believe the point of this post is to determine if God existis, nor which Donomination is the right one. Its not to determine if America believes in God anymore then, say the Middle East. Its a simple question that could be answered with yes or no. But the best part of this thread is that it got people thinking about their own beliefs.

But better, it gives everyone an opportunity to examine others ideas and thoughts, hopefully without prejudice. I personally appreciate those whose input was mature and informative. Not that I will change, nor will you, but its a mature discussion on a very important topic.

Meat_pillow:

"and, statistics CAN be used to show facts, it just depends upon what facts u are trying to show."

That is correct ? I should have been more accurate in my statement.  I guess I assumed the reason why M3lody called attention the poll in the first place.  I interpreted it as being presented as evidence that there is a god, rather than evidence that the majority of Americans believe there is a god.

Sorry if I misinterpreted your intentions, M3lody.

HK, Buddy. I'm sorry, but I cant disagree with you more. I sincerely admire those who stand up for what they believe. Who are willing to take the time to say, this is what I believe and this is why I belive that way. As long as its doen in a mature way its very informative. If people didnt stand up for what they belived there might still be slavery, and womens rights would be wrong. Keeping ones lips sealed about their beliefs doesnt do anything but opress and I'm sure thats not the intention of anyone here.

As I have stated several times, I dont expect to change anyones opinions, and I am very sure mine wont change. But that doesnt mean we shouldnt debate. A healthy debate built on mutal respect is admirable. A bash on the other hand is not.

Santo no need. I admire your intention.

*laughed* I'm not particularly surprised, m3l, that you disagree with me.

That's me weighin in personally, btw, not in any official capacity.

Just be very very careful guys. There are alot of people reading this thread, alot more than those who are responding.

2 totally different discussions are existing here...the one that contains a lot of intolerance, and the one that contains a lot of honest and open discussion about the topic of religion.

I am kind of impressed with the efforts of the latter and completely disinterested in the former.

Well thought out and articulate opinions that don't insult or denigrate another's beliefs, represent the best in open forum debate.

Good job, y'all!

am I really that transparent hk?  :0}

yeah I had to block in order not to fall into that trap Kathy.

I believe in God and Jesus!  I could say so much more but if you are reading this thread you have already had a chance to decide for yourself what you believe in.  I just pray for everyone that does not believe that someday, someway God will touch your life and you will believe and ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins and invite him into your life!  But please remember being a Christian does not make anyone here on earth perfect, it just makes us forgiven.

While I agree with hk, that there's no point in arguing about facts or proof and frankly I feel bewildered as to why this continues... since Faith can not exist where there is proof... if there is proof, Faith simply becomes observation of fact.  No one here is suggesting that anyone should worship Science or History, or are they?

if you are interested in science and history, I applaud you, and encourage you to pursue your studies as far as your mind will take you

if you belong to a particular Faith, or if you simply have your own conception of God that you adhere to, I applaud you and encourage you to pursue your Faith as far as your spirit will take you

if you would like a good source of statistics about religions in many countries, including the U.S., try ARDA.  It's a site that librarians trust.

perhaps some people do enjoy 'debating' -  knowing that all outcomes are already set... I'm not one of them. This thread has bothered me.  With this, I wash my hands of it.  I will simply wish you all the best in how your choose to live your lives. Peace.

ARDA has pie, scroll down

I think I am interested in this discussion because, although it has veered off the topic which was, indeed, a yes or no answer...It has travelled into the area of communicating over varied belief systems.

When 911 occurred, the first person who told me about it was one of the engineers at our company. His first response was that 'they' should round up all Arabs and Moslems in this country and arrest them. I was in an immediate debate with him, for obvious reasons.

I think that if people are ever going to learn tolerance, they have to understand that they are being intolerant in the first place...to that end, I think debating the intolerance of some people's opinions is the crux of the real issue in this thread.

hkellick, Sorry, I should have clarified a bit more.

I was once listening to NPR, and a senator was talking about global warming.  A caller asked him (in a round about way), "Don't you think that global warming is made up - just like the Earth revolving around the sun?"  He then went on to say that Jesus was the creator of all things, and explained that the Earth was only a couple of thousand years old.

I was kind of taken back by it.  I mean... everything that we've proven scientifically is just dismissed by this guy... So I was wondering how many people held this point of view.

20% of the American population refuses to believe something that we can prove, and see!  That's far more shocking to me than saying 95% of Americans believe in God - (something we can neither prove nor disporove).

Sorry if it seemed off topic... I wasn't trying to steer the conversation away or anything - I promise :)

*headshakes* Debating is only meaningful if people actually get something out of it at the end of the day. Otherwise, it's just pointless arguing.

if at the end of the day, you can see your own intolerance lain bare, then maybe you can do something about it and, as you hope, we can begin to learn tolerance. But if you're so close-minded that you can't see how intolerant you are, then really all you're doing is wasting time arguing something.

There's a difference between a debate, where we can hopefully all leave a little more wise and knowledgeable, and an argument where nothing's learned.

Yes. That's true. Perhaps I am giving us all a little too much credit...sorry  :)

I'd like to know where your 20% comes from, stacye, just like I'd like to know where m3l's 95% came from. Do you know?