Refraining from saying I believe in God

[AION]

I do believe in God and I live in a deep SD orange country so if you say you believe in God people will think you are backward. And to be honest although I believe in God I have more in common with atheists than the regular Christian or Muslim. 

Christians and Muslims tend to be very rigid and not open minded than Atheists. At least with atheists you can have very interesting conversations, especially with the ones who are in the twilight zone between SD orange-green.

The thing is I don't like to over explain things, so with some instances I just say I'm atheists because I know with these people it is very binary: you are rational and with us or you are irrational and with those religious zealots.

So do you guys always say you believe in God? I believe 100% authenticity is stupid. Especially when you deal with regular people. One has to develop healthy persona's to deal with people. Sometimes being authentic is not loving. 

Mask on. Mask off.

Edited May 6 by AION

[Mixcoatl]

I believe in universe but for the sake of peace I sometimes say I believe in God, knowing I'm referring to the universe.

I sometimes say "who cares?" in order to avoid exhausting conversations.

[Yimpa]

Believing in God is a trap.

[gettoefl]

Isn't belief in God faith. Maybe that's a better question: Do you practice faith. Or better in what if anything do you place  faith. Because how you live for 24 hours shows where your faith is. God could be prayer time or church time. Nothing might mean atheist. Belief in God conversations often lead to grandstanding. Look to unite with people not divide.

Edited May 7 by gettoefl

[Vincent S]

 

[LastThursday]

I'm nominally an unconfirmed Catholic. I wasn't brought up religious and for the most part I've been atheist most of my life, so I find using the word "god" a bit icky. The word also has heavy religious baggage, so I find it's best avoided in polite conversation. I've used it on here though because there's less confusion about its usage. But its usage on the forum has a different definition than the normal everyday definition.

From a metaphysical level, I also have problems with what the word implies, that there is a single entity in control of things. I find that non-obvious. I don't think it's even really possible to capture much at all with the word, because a word always has a "semantic range", but supposedly "god" is everything without exception. i.e. the word is effectively meaningless. That makes believing in "god" difficult for me.

But there's no doubt that my everyday experience is inexplicable in a number of ways, and that's what I attach the label "god" to.

[shree]

Skip beliefs. Go straight to God. LSD will do.

[Nemra]

I used to believe in God, and I prayed and attended the ceremonies at church when I was a kid.

As I grew older, I started deconstructing Christianity.

I thought if I'm going to use words that describe the whole reality, then why should I believe in that? Why not experience it if it is meant to be a direct thing? My experience is already present, so why should I consider it as something unattainable and beyond my reach and still believe in it? Why should I cherish any belief? Etc...

Now, I don't believe in God, which I say straight to others' faces when I'm asked; otherwise, I laugh at their humble arrogance.

Edited May 7 by Nemra

[Breakingthewall]

God is the reality, then you believe in the reality. I think that everybody believes in reality, the point is knowing what reality is, then atheist are closer than christians, because they are open to any possibility, Christians are closed to every possibility except their belief, so they are lost. 

[Hojo]

If people say God is reality you are saying you beleive in reality. Do you beleive or do you know reality exists? That's a good one to ponder.

Edited May 7 by Hojo

[Someone here]

Yes you should not tell everyone what are your worldviews or beliefs.  If you go to Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan and say God doesn't exist you gonna get beheaded .

@LastThursday concerning the question of whether God exists or not ..I say the cosmological argument is convincing .if every effect has a cause ..and the universe is an effect which is make over agreed upon "fact " in the scientific community that this particular physical universe we exist on is not eternal but Has been brought into existence via the big bang then its safe to assume the cause is god .a conscious all powerful entity .since you are conscious and the universe is so intelligent.