why do you or don't you believe in God?

I have enjoyed your question and so to an answer -

I was raised with an idea of belief that I was taught to follow with or without my own decisions for I was a child.

As I became older I wondered about this god thing. And with all those about me I was convinced that there must be a God - As I reach the age of 21 I ran into doubt - and then learned a poem by Robert Service:

"My Father Christmas passed away when I was barely seven -

At twenty one alack a day, I lost my hopes of heaven -

And yet I know not what the cause, the reason is because -

I don't know which loss hurt the most -

My God or Santa Claus."

Now I am older and after dropping the ideas of a Christian God have re-emerged as a lover of the God of my own making.

It has very little to do with the teachings that came from a little black book containing 66 inner books - but from scriptures from around the world. It is not a matter of loving a God separate from yourself. Learning that you are a divine being created by a Divine being throws the light on a new dawn.

So to answer your question - in an orderly fashion - Yes, No, yes, Yes!

Hope this is what you were looking for and has taken away your boredom.

-I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.- Stephen Roberts

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?

Then he is not omnipotent.

Is he able, but not willing?

Then he is malevolent.

Is he both able and willing?

Then whence cometh evil?

Is he neither able nor willing?

Then why call him God?” Epicurus.

"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." Isaac Asimov

-If one argues, as some deeply religious individuals do, that without God there can be no ultimate right and wrong - namely that God determines for us what is right and wrong - one can then ask the question: What is God decreed that rape and murder were morally acceptable ? Would that make them so ?

While some might answer yes, I think most believers would say no, God would not make such a decree. But why not ? Presumably because God would have some *reason* for not making such a decree. Again, presumably this is because *reason* suggests that rape and murder are not morally acceptable. But if God would have to appeal to *reason*, then why not eliminate the middleman entirely ?- Lawrence Krauss, A Universe From Nothing, Pgs 171-172.

-If the Universe needs a creator, why doesn't god?

If god doesn't need a creator, why does the Universe ?-

I like your honesty

I believe because he has impacted my life. Through Faith I am finding more truth, reality and strength than I ever could on my own. i realized how inept and pathetic I really am.

But I also learned how special I am. How I was given a purpose. How I have a brother and a father who want me to come home one day, when the work is done and the mission accomplished. I have daily encouragement to keep going. I have gained so much

Now some will say I lack evidence. I have felt and seen the evidence, in me.

I have connected the belief with science in many many ways

I believe and know there is a God.

As for the religions of God is a leap of faith and choice

we are all lost and only have hope and faith left.

If you was born in a certain area you will take on there beliefs

So this could be Gods Plan I do not know for sure

But I pray Gods saves me and you and all that are lost in this world of lies

I tjink alot of it is from past experiences in their life that cuseed them to b angry and/or relationship issues with their parents or parent...Some think that it may b a bad realtionship a son has with his father...many atheists are bothered that people believie in God. What is it about atheists that they would spend so much time, attention, and energy refuting something that they don't believe even exists?! What causes them to do that? Atheists attributed their intentions as caring for those poor, delusional people...to help them realize their hope was completely ill-founded. To be honest, I believe they also have another motive. As they challenge those who believe in God, they are deeply curious to see if believers could convince them otherwise. Part of their quest is to become free from the question of God. If they could conclusively prove to believers that we are wrong, then the issue is off the table, and they would be free to go about their life.

They dont realize that the reason the topic of God weighs so heavily on their mind, is because God is pressing the issue. They will find out that God wants to be known. He created us with the intention that we would know him. He has surrounded us with evidence of himself and he keeps the question of his existence squarely before us. They cant escape thinking about the possibility of God. .." It might be that the underlying reason atheists are bothered by people believing in God is because God is actively pursuing them.

Malcolm Muggeridge, socialist and philosophical author, wrote, "I had a notion that somehow, besides questing, I was being pursued." C.S. Lewis said he remembered, "...night after night, feeling whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England."

Lewis went on to write a book titled, "Surprised by Joy" as a result of knowing God

Culture as well as upbringing is about 90% of why people believe what they do. Religions are geographical that is to say certain parts of the world consist of a majority of a particular religion. Making people who live there succeptable and hence statistically more likely to become that persons religion.

Well I don't think there is an omnipotent omnibenevolent omniscient deity because, look around ALL OF US SUFFER AND DIE!

As for the other kinds of gods, well, the list is endless, and some exist while others don't.

It's amazing that we're here, given a temporal eternity of moving matter; not to mention

...the real world of the Changeless, all knowledge, and supra-temporal eternity.

Man is nothing.

I believe in God because his son died on the cross for my sins. I don't need evidence, I have faith. Thats all I need. I'm so happy that I was born in a Christian family!

I don't see any evidence for a supreme being. And thank god for that (heh), because the god of this universe would be a total prick by necessity.