Do you believe in god?

[rezo]

Out of body experiences, like Gamevet mentioned, are the only paranormal experience I find remotely close to evidence for any god/afterlife. And even those are hard to defend against notions that its just the hallucinations of a dying brain with nerves shooting out a confused overload of sensory information to the eyes.

Christmas Eve and a 104º temperature meant that I ended up believing in Santa Claus for a bit longer than I should have.

[Hero]

*scratches head*

isn't science a religion? Sure, it's a process of proofs by which we can ascertain...but it's a concept invented by man. You have to have faith that the whole scientific community is approving and debunking different theories for the 'right' reason. In this case, for the reason that the theory doesn't match up to scientific standards. How come paranoid conspiracies of politics aren't allowed to bleed into the reverred practice of science? That is to say, how do you know that these guys aren't trying to hide or demonize different theories that run against their own personal beliefs? The only way to know, is to prove everything yourself. To figure out and know everything on your own is the only way to 100% to be sure that what you know is really true, and not just some stat spoutted by a fanatic, extremist, or someone with a personal agenda.

That said, I don't get how anyone could go about saying they are right and everyone else is wrong. For every theory or philosphy that strengthens your own belief, I've at least heard of one that puts doubt on it. Nihilsm is always the perfect example - nihilsm itself disentigrates the entire theory it was built on. How could you go about life, figuring out things for yourself, when that means you are really just conforming to nihilistic approach to life? So you dump one crutch for another. Or, to take it from a different angle, how do you figure out life 'on your own' without any 'easy answers' when, from birth, everything you do is an observation and intergration of the behaviors and beliefs of other people? The only way to achieve true nihilsm is to be abandoned from birth, and I don't think there would much progress if that were to happen. So nihilsm itself is a philosophy I could never pescribe to.

So there's just an example of the confusion. I never understood why it was so important for people to validate themselves through being 'right' - even when I do it. Like Aurelis, I believe in God, but that's something that took a lot of effort. Anyone who would call my faith a crutch demeans everything I had to go through to get to where I am today and insults me. Then again, I understand the same can be true for anyone of any belief, so I really don't know what the point in asking 'do you believe in God' yields. I believe what I do, and for anyone who would claim it to be weak or questionable of me to do so needs to really look at everything out there and ask:

"Isn't everything questionable?"

[ginaman]

If theres one thing great about man's invention of science is that when science works right, results can be repeated over and over and over again without fail. Try doing that with anything related to religion and spirituality. Proof of science's effectiveness is the modern world around us. Hell, video games would not exist if it wasn't for it. Spiritual/paranormal happenings are far too random & biased to be taken as hard facts about life. Science, however, does actually help out at times, and far more predictably than any supposed miracle or act of God. Science we actually know exists as man can manipulate and enhance the world around him with that knowledge. Religious thought does little to manipulate or ehance the actual quality of life of human beings other than psychological alteration.

Science is indeed questionable, but much less fallable and definitely more fact based than religion. I certainly hope to see science one day either outright prove or disprove spiritualism without a shadow of a doubt in anybody's head. I just don't think that will be happening within my lifetime.

[rezo]

hero: faith does not equal religion. I even recall Aquinas saying that god can be understood through rational thought, but I could easily be screwing that up.

Anyways, axioms can be regarded as theory dependent as opposed to "truth", and so faith need not apply. Yet,that is the only place where they can be seen as necessary in science, and even then you don't have to. People can use it for other reasons, but that is on them.