Religion And God By Dean Thorpe

Some people may agree with what I have written here, but I know many others will not! I am not trying to convert anybody and don't want anybody to convert me, I am just explaining why I feel the way I feel and believe or not believe the things I do! No offense is meant to anybody with different beliefs! I am lucky enough to live in a part of the world that mostly accepts freedom of speech. 

If you don't want to risk being upset or offended then I suggest you move on

According to a lot of people God is all seeing and all knowing, he knows what you are going to do before you do it and if you do things that displeases him that you don't get to go to the big after party at his house when you die . . . that would mean he knows every child abuser, rapist, murderer and he chooses to just watch it happen??? 

When a drunk driver gets behind the wheel of a car and is about to run into a group of innocent school kids he is there watching every step of the way . . . he has the power to create heaven and earth, but when a ten year old is about to die of a brain tumor he does nothing to help . . . I have seen plenty of people who deserve to be struck down with a lightning bolt live long healthy lives while some people have done nothing but help people their entire lives get to live in pain and suffering . . . I am not perfect, I have done things I'm not proud of, but I have done a lot of good too. I am still slightly open to the possibility of a God, but if he or she is there then I don't respect him or want to go to his place when I die! 

I know he supposedly gave us free will, but I have pets and if one of those pets was trying to kill another then I would step in, I could never just stand by and watch! Watching somebody suffer does not sound a very Christian thing to do!!!! I do believe in good and evil, I do believe in right and wrong, I do try to do what my own moral compass tells me is the right thing, but if God does exist then I have no interest in going to heaven! It's hard for me as there are people I know and love who do believe in him and his rule book, but I just can't do it! 

I did the Alpha course last year and when we were discussing the concept of heaven the person leading the group was asked about the whole seeing your loved ones again thing, but if the person had remarried then it would cause chaos as for instance both wives might want to see their husbands again, but might hate each other! The leader explained that in heaven the slate is wiped clean, we have no memory of anything that happened on Earth and just feel love towards each other. I believe that we are based on a combination of nature and nurture, take away the things we have been through and we won't be us, maybe we will be something better, but that is not us! We are humans, warts and all! Sometimes it's the imperfections that make people perfect!!! Everyone walking around being full of nothing but peace and  love sounds like some boring drugged up world to me and doesn't appeal. One of the things that make my partner and I so close is the bond we have because of things we went through before we were together, that has shaped us into the people we know and love, but erase those pasts and we would be very different people and I love us the way we are! 

Someone once told me that God must be real, it wasn't possible for millions of people to be wrong! The huge flaw in that is that there are many different belief systems, some based on one God, some based on multiple Gods, some don't believe in any God! I have complete faith in my belief system, as do millions of others, but if one day it is proven that God is real and that it is the Christian God, or that there is no God, or even that we should be worshipping the Flying Spaghetti Monster or any other belief then a lot of people will be proven wrong! A lot of people are brought up with religion, they believe because their parents did, the parents believe because their parents did etc. If that person is wrong then they have to accept that something their parents believed in 100% is actually a lie, that they fell for a lie passed down generation to generation. This could be referring to any religion out there, they can't all be right, some people must be wrong. 

I don't believe in any God, but I am not willing to close my mind completely to the possibility! I wouldn't say I am agnostic as the amount of belief I have in God is so tiny, but I accept anything is possible. There might be a secret world hidden under the surface of the moon where unicorns and dragons exist in their millions, not much chance of that, but as I said anything is possible! Although I am writing this and know people I care about who do believe will read this I still try to stay off the subject when I meet people. Going up to someone and saying you think something they have believed in for many years and something maybe their parents, grandparents and so on also had a strong belief in could be a complete lie is very rude!!! The problem is that I have friends from many different faiths and so no matter what, some of them must be wrong!

When writing a story you create characters, it takes time and effort to create good ones, so you only create the ones you need, no point creating Fred, who is the brother of the auntie of the cousin of the grandmother of the vet who looked after the main characters dog once when they were three years old, unless there is a very good reason! lol

Now imagine creating a planet instead, creating every last rock, every tree, every everything! That would be a lot of work! To make it more interesting you could have a sun and moon rotating around that planet, just glowing balls in an otherwise empty sky, no need for anything more. Us humans are curious people, so eventually we realised that we rotate around the sun, as do some other planets and we do have a complete, highly detailed moon, as do most of those other planets. Already you are getting into a lot of complications and hard work to create all these things. Then we worked out that our tiny solar system is just one in a galaxy of millions or even billions of planetary systems, all with their own planets, moons etc. It didn't even stop there, it turns out that there are tons and tons of galaxies in our universe!!! Theoretically with that many opportunities the chances that we are the only inhabited planet is very, very low. Other life doesn't have to be like us, it could be planets with insects as the only form of life or they could be millions of years more advanced and be made of pure energy! In a universe like ours anything is possible, unicorns, dragons, trees that can walk and talk etc. might all be out there. Unlike most of the Earth some might even have intelligent lifeforms! lol The point is why create all that!!! It makes no sense what so ever to build in that level of detail, it would have been much easier to just have a sun and a moon revolving around us.

No! There are many things that the answer to could be God!!! I just think that one day those things will all be explained away by science! Travel back a thousand years and so many things that we take for granted now could have easily been explained to people back then as being made by God or powered by God and most people would have believed it, because to them those things would be amazing and only possible by some mystical power!!! Just arriving in town in a helicopter would be enough to convince people you were a messenger from God! Show them a home made video message from "God" on an iPad and they would believe anything you say!

I attend various Gay Pride events, some of the worst hatred I have ever seen was by organisations like Christian Voice, upsetting young children, inciting violence, showing complete intolerance for a huge section of society, in fact showing some of the most un-Christian behaviour I have ever had the misfortune to witness. I know they only represent a small minority of Christians, but it's another example of how religion can be easily twisted into something negative. In some countries any form of homosexuality is punishable by death, the reason? In many of those cultures it is because of their twisted religious beliefs.

Any good God would not want his creations killing each other over who they choose (free will etc.) to love! Love is a wonderful thing and as long as it's between consenting adults and consenting adults then I believe God would be all for it!!! This is not just a comment against the Christian faith, I know many people from other beliefs that excuse their hatred by hiding it under the label of doing God's will. On a more positive note I will say that at Pride there are also people from the Gay Christian Association etc. there, showing their support for people of all sexualities and genders.

No, I don't think so, but being a religious extremist from any religion can be big trouble. I am sure that any good God would want to send a message of peace, to love one another no matter who we are or what we believe in, to help those in need from all over the world. Many people seem to think that their belief in their religion somehow makes them superior to others, have a right to pass judgement on others and to treat them very badly, in really extreme cases thinking that those who do not believe as they do should be killed! That comment is not aimed at any religion in particular, many of them have their extremists, a great many evil acts have been performed throughout history in the name of God. Many wars have been caused by people not agreeing on the same religion.

Treat others with respect, even if they are different from you!

Don't harm others, especially those weaker than yourself!

Always help anybody in need if you possibly can!

Take care of the planet, it's a really amazing place!

Try to do nice things for others, to make them happy!

Bring the next generation up to be good people!

Be someone who makes the world a better place to be in!

Use your talents to help others, that is why you have them!

Never try to force your beliefs on somebody else!

Remember we are all equals, no matter what we believe!

Those are the sort of things I think would make any creator proud of his creations

Exactly the same things!!!

Being a good person is what matters, not who you do or do not pray to!

Sometimes having a little faith is a good thing, a lot of people get comfort from thinking their loved ones are in heaven, I bet many secretly get comfort from thinking bad people end up in hell! lol I am not saying those people are wrong, just that it's not what I believe myself. As an Atheist I find death rather scary as to me that is the end, we just stop, the concept of heaven is a nice one and I can understand why so many do want to believe in it, but I just can't!