Why Don't You Believe?

yeah that's cool but doesn't the third noble truth simply state that the cessation of suffering is possible?

 

Well, I did not ment to focus on the arab religions here really. I'm still talking about God in all it's vagueness. If it's energy, plural, intertwined with reality or not and/or the creator of our universe I still can't see why god has to be unreal because suffering is real. I'm definately not thinking there's a conscious being that invented suffering for testing or punishing us though.
I'm also not getting why god has to be outside existence, if anything is intertwined with reality, nature and infinity it has to be the divine energy that's running through it (so to speak, I just try to consider everything). A creation of the universe seems pretty different from building a house, why be so sure the creator stands completely loose from it here?

 

Geez....

God is absolutely perfect, but without being nonperfect he couldn't experience he couldn't truly experience himself as truly perfect (in the simplest put way). It's like, if someone was sad their whole life, and never experienced happiness. They wouldn't relate to sadness how we do because there is no relativity, they understand it as only what IS.

To answer the Buddhist delimma on suffering, it's the same way. Us humans experience suffering on a largely mental level. It's because we use such a heavy system of time (past, future, tomorrow, today, later). This is a very effective tool to help to b effective in life, yet Ultimate Reality does not have such a system.

In Ultimate Reality there is only NOW. The only thing that can be experienced is the reality of THIS Moment. When you do a thing "tomorrow" you are not (Within the context of Ultimate Reality) doing it tomorrow, you are doing it NOW. When you dream of the future you are actually in the process of creating NOW, it is simply the NOW that has not been created/experienced yet. This is what's meant by "God is Timeless". God is Pure Being, Pure Now, which is the One Reality. Try to deeply understand this, and understand this concept in relationship to your mind.

There is no "perfection", whether it be energy transfer, combustion, or economics. This is because perfection would be God, and nonperfection leaves room for change/evolution. We can't have a perfect society (collective consciousness) because each individual is on a different point along their personal evolution. It's only a matter of "Who They Are" and "Where They Want To Go". All we can do is try to make the best system which helps people along with this. The mind is the sole creator of outer reality. (You take an caveman out of his Ancestor's Land, and put him in New York. You tell him buy/sell/lease/rent. Understand the mind of a man going through this process. This is how we all are)

Suffering is mind. I'm sure we all know people who suffer daily (abusive relationships?) and yet don't see it that way. Everything suffers on different levels, and everything reaches "joy" on their according level. Man is capable of such unspeakable Joy/Peace (3x better than the best ecstasy rolls you can do) that if you experienced it once all your previous life would seem like suffering in comparison. Meditate on this.

There is so much more, but I already hijacked this thread a bit. Sorry =X

 

The original version of that song (by good ol' Cat Stevens) is probably a billion times better.

...but to stay on topic.

I believe that the best answer is silence, because I don't see why I need to justify my beliefs in front of anyone.

I do not believe in God because I do not believe in God.

 

Hmmmmmmmmm. Weren't you the dude that started this thread? What you believe or don't believe in is up to you, man, and you don't have to have or give a reason. But it doesn't make for much discussion.

 

Just read the quote in my signature.

 

I don't get what you want to say with your sig. You don't believe in god because other people do not want to believe in yours?

 

All you have to do is tell them to read the Christ Conspiracy, if they dare to read it "game over"

 

I don't believe as I have the ability to think and, as mankind in some form or other has been around for up to two million years, but the universe is a provable 13 billion plus years, wtf was god doing in between if he made us in his likeness?

 

Chilling

 

I don't believe because each different religion offers no more proof of it's validity than the next.

In fact the great number of different religious beliefs sways more to the side of it's man made origins.

With the thousands of various beliefs in the world today I would ask what made there's anymore likely to be able to understand the mind of a supposed omnipotent god than any of the rest.

 

You know you can also believe in something you feel as right. Why is believing always mixed up with religion while it seems more logical to believe in what you feel anyway. Believing is in essence not about facts and books, I thought that is called something else.

 

A) I don't think "God" is distant and chilling in heaven - I think god is all around and within us. My interpretation of god is a healthy balance of both the scientific/physical, and what is spiritually felt in the individually.

B) I don't believe in God as the all good because I don't believe in Satan as the all evil. I see no point in humans being born sinful, but I do see a point in humans being born...well...human. Satan is scapegoat theory.

Not to mention that in Norse mythology (predating Christianity by a long shot), the Underworld was ruled by a goddess named Hel. Too much is stolen from pre-Christian religions. It's a bit too copy + paste for me to take seriously. Christianity is a mythology like any other.

When I was little I went to church and my pastor told me everyone in the world had an opportunity to hear about Jesus and accept him, and it was our choice if we became saved or not. So are you telling me the little boy raised by Hindus has the same fair chance as the little boy raised by Catholics? Right.......

(I'm Pagan if anyone was wondering)

 

I guess it depends on what you are "believing" in.

Are you trying to describe faith?

 

No, I'm trying to say that believing in (a) god doesn't have to mean you have to call yourself anything, or adapt any religion or an 'existing' god. Just believe, not consolidate with a collective fantasy (no offense intended).

 

BSR,

to the original question of how to answer that question, here is my most common answer (well, the most common polite one)...

I don't believe in a 'supreme' power of any type, for the simple reason I have never seen anything that happened in this world that was not the result of nature or the choices people make. To top that off, the people who talk loudest about their being some form of god, are the people who do their best to act against everything that god is supposed to want them to.

If the question is geared more towards organized religions, I also point out that those who start and continue organized religions do so for the power associated with it. Those who follow them, do so in order to have someone other then themselves to blame (ie: It was god's will).

 

To not believe is to relieve oneself of responsibility. If you dont make a decision, you cant blame yourself.

I disagree on the idea that different religions validate their invalidity.

The concept of different religions in fact can vary well either make or break ones faith in the beyond. The beyond is nothing more than the idea, completely supported scientifically, that there is a reality beyond what we understand. If you believe all religions to contradict each other, than you will not accept any religion. But if you believe they coincide with each other perspectively, in an unhindered state of recategorization and redistribution, then one can understand why they are considered different ideas but are nothing more than the same concept regurgitated.

 

Actually, non-believers in any sort of religious based faith tend to be the most upstanding citizens in society. In fact, those that do true evil, commit true acts against the nature of humanity, tend to always identify with believing in God.

 

It's not that black and white in real life, just in your head :sunny: