Quote:
Originally Posted by 100_Percent_Juice
Lets put everyone on the same playing field. I will tell you why I believe in a creator and that the bible is inspired by him if you tell me what you believe in and why you believe it.
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I have no problem with that. But are you saying the Bible is
inspired by god, or the literal word of god? Because I would be willing to accept the Bible as "inspired" because to me, that doesn't imply a required literal interpretation.
But as far as what I believe, I'd call myself an atheist-leaning agnostic. Basically, I don't believe in a god as described by the major religions. IMO, there is no "man in the clouds" that has a purpose for mankind. If there is a god (i.e. an entity that created the universe), he/it/whatever must exist outside of our universe. Because of this, a) it is impossible for him to interact with the universe without violating the laws that make it operate, and b) as part of our universe, we do not have the capacity to understand god or anything that exists outside our universe.
So, with regards to Christianity... I believe Jesus was a real person, and a great philosopher. I agree with the majority of his teachings, but I believe that some of it is a product of his time and therefor outdated and can be disregarded as such. I do not believe Jesus was the literal son of god, I don't believe that the folks in the Bible that talked to god ever did so literally. Some of them may have been charlatans, but I suspect that the majority of them simply were inspired by prayer/meditation, so they likely believed they were in fact instructed by god. And to me, none of that invalidates the teaching in the Bible... it just means that as a follow of the Bible, people need to interpret the lessons therein and critically apply them to their lives. Blindly following the Bible results in conflict with those that interpret it differently, which IMO is exactly the opposite of what Jesus would have taught.
I believe that morality comes from within each person, but is mostly a concept born out of mankind's nature to form a stable society. IMO, society has evolved as a mechanism of humans to allow us to be more successful than all the other animals that didn't develop a structured system for working together. So most people have an inherent moral compass that allows us to determine whether or not our actions are good for just us, or good for all of us. Those that don't have that compass are reigned in through law, which is why law should reflect our common morality. I don't believe mankind needs guidance from a higher power in order to be able to determine right from wrong, nor do I believe mankind needs some sort of threat of damnation in order to prevent most of us from doing wrong. We just need individuals willing to stand up for what's right and teach others, even at their own personal sacrifice, not unlike what Jesus did when he was martyred.
And most importantly, I don't feel like I'm missing out by not believing in a Christian style god, or the implication that we as humans aren't anything special. IMO, the universe is so amazing on its own, that just being a tiny part of it, with the ability to think and reason and learn about it is already an amazing gift from god/the creator/FSM/whatever. I'm just fine with the idea that if god created the universe, we are probably such a tiny little eddy in the massive currents of time and space that god probably wouldn't even take notice of us, let alone bother to speak to us and guide us personally, even if he could without breaking the laws of physics that allow the universe to operate. Just because we weren't created for a specific reason does not preclude us from finding purpose.