Does God really exist?

TheLightWithin said:
-- religious institution and practice have additional goals and purposes, like helping communities and giving people a window into another reality, a set of metaphysics, a cultural touchstone, the inspiration to pray for help, the inspiration to help one another etc)
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That can be done without religions also. The 'other reality' is even starker than the perceived reality which we consider as truth. Few people will understand that. Metaphysics is a worm-hole, better to be kept away.
 
muhammad_isa said:
Well, here we agree .. satan and his 'woo-woo' should be shunned. :)
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As a Muslim you can't do that. Have you not thrown stones at Shaitan if you have made the Hajj prilgrimage.
Qur'an mentions Iblees, malāʾikah and Jinn (some good, some bad). That is God's word. You cannot deny that, otherwise there will be no Jibrael for Muhammad and no messages from Allah.
 
TheLightWithin said:
Intriguing. What do you mean by that?
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I mean the existence or non-existence of Plasma, the opaque ionic cloud at the beginning of the universe.

"Light first emerged in the universe about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, during a period known as the Era of Recombination, when neutral atoms formed and allowed photons to travel freely. This light is referred to as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation."
Duckduckgo AIAssist
 
"The recombination epoch begins at around 18,000 years, as electrons are combining with helium nuclei to form He+. At around 47,000 years, as the universe cools, its behavior begins to be dominated by matter rather than radiation. At around 100,000 years, after the neutral helium atoms form, helium hydride is the first molecule. Much later, hydrogen and helium hydride react to form molecular hydrogen (H2) the fuel needed for the first stars. At about 370,000 years, neutral hydrogen atoms finish forming ("recombination") greatly reducing the Thomson scattering of photons.
No longer scattered by free electrons, the photons were ("decoupled") and propagated freely. This vast collection of photons from the earliest times of the universe can still be detected today as the cosmic microwave background (CMB)."
en.wikipedia.org

Chronology of the universe - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Sorry, since "belief" is mentioned a number of times in the topic I thought it might go here.
 
rstrats said:
No. I have never been able to consciously choose any of the beliefs that I have.
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Me either.
I find we can influence our beliefs, by the information we gather, the questions we ask, the thoughts we hold, etc... but we can only fool ourselves for so long if we claim to believe something we really don't believe / are not convinced of (for example giving in to social pressure to adopt the beliefs that others hold, but you are honest with yourself, you realize you simply do not agree)

What is the saying? "A main convinced against his will, is of the same opinion still"
But just seeing it there, you can se it it is misworded... it's exactly what were are talking about, belief is NOT an act of will.
 
Aupmanyav said:
Yeah, that is how we do it. Know the option, analyze it, think about how it affects us, and then form our opinion.
Some of all these considerations could be sub-conscious, and we may not be aware of them.
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Whether you think something is true or not is not really chosen.
A lot of things I think are true don't have anything to do with how I think they affect me.
I think water is wet. I think that whether or not I'm at risk of getting wet. It's just in alignment with reality as I know it.
Now if you mean making a commitment to a particular philosophy, you could consider how it affected you.
But it would also require believing that its ideas were true, and in alignment with reality.
 
Aupmanyav said:
Yeah, that is how we do it.
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I wonder if you might demonstrate your ability.

Maybe you could use something like leprechauns to demonstrate your technique. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a leprechaun is "a fairy peculiar to Ireland, who appeared in the form of an old man of minute stature, wearing a cocked hat and a leather apron." and who stores away his gold in a pot at the end of a rainbow, and if ever captured has to grant three wishes to the person who captures him.


So, assuming that you don’t already have a belief in them, how about right now, while you are reading this, CHOOSE to believe - be convinced without a doubt - that they exist. Now that you believe in leprechauns, my question is, how did you do it? How did you make the instantaneous transition from lack of belief to belief?
 
rstrats said:
I wonder if you might demonstrate your ability.

Maybe you could use something like leprechauns to demonstrate your technique. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, a leprechaun is "a fairy peculiar to Ireland, who appeared in the form of an old man of minute stature, wearing a cocked hat and a leather apron." and who stores away his gold in a pot at the end of a rainbow, and if ever captured has to grant three wishes to the person who captures him.

So, assuming that you don’t already have a belief in them, how about right now, while you are reading this, CHOOSE to believe - be convinced without a doubt - that they exist. Now that you believe in leprechauns, my question is, how did you do it? How did you make the instantaneous transition from lack of belief to belief?
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I analyze it, and find that it may be exciting to a child aged 6, but even at 82, it brings a smile to me. Leprechauns are OK for them, but it is surprising to me that people believe in existence of any God or in 'everlasting-life', 'life in heaven with 72 houris', when they have grown up.
 
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