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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[TD1]

Religion doesn't come into my life at all, except from a societal perspective - i.e. the morals. But, then again, I don't pick said morals because they're in the bible. I pick them because they're moral.

[Helgoland]

Dwarfy, your posts make up a disproportionate amount of the total in this thread - maybe deep down religion is more important to you than you might think

[TD1]

Nah, I just love arguing. Religion is so theoretical, I can never be wrong

[Angle]

Nah, I just love arguing.

Fight! Fight! Fight!

As for myself, religion is pretty meh. I was raised Unitarian, and was never much interested in it - I remember when I was young and some friends were saying something about god, and I was all "Who dat?" and they were all "There's a man in the sky!" and I was "...No, seriously, who dat?". I find science much more useful for establishing an understanding of the world, philosophy much more useful for juding whats moral and whats not.

[TD1]

Hegel would hate you
Apparently there were three pillars to arguing god's existence. Post Kant and Hume they were arguably destroyed. Ontological, design and cosmological. This led to a "sea change." We stopped arguing for god's existence and started arguing for religion. Thus we moved into the post Kantian philosophy of religion. Hegel says we should move back to arguing about God.

[SirQuiamus]

Hegel would hate you
Apparently there were three pillars to arguing god's existence. Post Kant and Hume they were arguably destroyed. Ontological, design and cosmological. This led to a "sea change." We stopped arguing for god's existence and started arguing for religion. Thus we moved into the post Kantian philosophy of religion. Hegel says we should move back to arguing about God.

...although it's up to debate whether Hegel ever wanted to argue for God's existence as an external object, like most philosophers had been doing until his time. I'd rather say that Hegel simply took the Christian concept of God for granted, and his attempt to prove the "concrete" existence of a God is yet another demonstration of the "subjective movement of Spirit" within his own dialectic. It's pretty interesting from a psychological point of view, but since Hegel was mostly unable to tell the difference between words and things, he was poorly qualified to make any existential arguments about anything.   

[That Wolf]

Genesis verse 26
To sum it up, it states god and the multiple other ?gods? Exsist.
"In our likeness"
Another reason to say the bible is the knockoff version of the real thing

[Bohandas]

Could be the royal We

[HeroPizza42]

ptw

[origamiscienceguy]

Genesis verse 26
To sum it up, it states god and the multiple other ?gods? Exsist.
"In our likeness"
Another reason to say the bible is the knockoff version of the real thing

This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit talking about themselves. They do this alot. "Let us make man in our own image"
The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are different from eachother, but together they are God.

[freeformschooler]

Pretty sure it's just the royal We.

[Cryxis, Prince of Doom]

Genesis verse 26
To sum it up, it states god and the multiple other ?gods? Exsist.
"In our likeness"
Another reason to say the bible is the knockoff version of the real thing

This is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit talking about themselves. They do this alot. "Let us make man in our own image"
The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit are different from eachother, but together they are God.

+1

[Rolan7]

I've heard the Trinity explanation, and it does fit the Christian perspective.  But keep in mind that Jews follow the Old Testament (for a looong time), and they believe G-d is indivisible.  Their explanations I found say it's either the "royal we", or he was addressing his angels.

That second explanation suggests that angels naturally look like humans, though, which is a little odd.  Some angels can at least appear human-like (enough that the people of Sodom called them men).  But other angels are 6-winged beasts (Seraphim) or burning wheels (Orphanim).

Trying to figure out if even Satan's default image is humanlike, but apparently not.  He was/is a cherub.  Which are *not* exactly cute winged babies.  They are large enough for God to ride on, and have four faces - Human, Eagle, Lion, and either Ox or "cherub" (indescribably unique, I guess).

It's possible that the angels (or all the ones God was addressing then) have a human-like form, and that shared image is what God was referring to.

That would also explain why God's appearance is supposed to be beyond comprehension, and nobody can see him without dying, and yet many people had face-to-face meetings with him.  Jacob even *wrestled* with God, and WON.  And was awarded the existence of Israel:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/32.html

Awesome origin story aside, it suggests God (like the angels) has a limited human body he can walk around in.  And while this obviously isn't the true image of heavenly beings, the fact they have it in common makes it a fine image to create humanity in.

The bible is *fascinating* sometimes.

[origamiscienceguy]

It seems that angels have the ability to change their appearance.  Although some interpreters have said that the phrase “sons of God” in Genesis 6:2 refers to angels, the Bible frequently makes it clear that angels are nonmaterial; Hebrews 1:14 calls them ministering “spirits.”  Intrinsically, they do not possess physical bodies, although they may take on physical bodies when God appoints them to special tasks.  Furthermore, God has given them no ability to reproduce, and they neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mark 12:25)

[Bohandas]

Trying to figure out if even Satan's default image is humanlike, but apparently not.  He was/is a cherub.  Which are *not* exactly cute winged babies.  They are large enough for God to ride on, and have four faces - Human, Eagle, Lion, and either Ox or "cherub" (indescribably unique, I guess).

I thought he was a seraph

  Jacob even *wrestled* with God, and WON.  And was awarded the existence of Israel:
http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gen/32.html

Awesome origin story aside, it suggests God (like the angels) has a limited human body he can walk around in.

Or alternately, that wrestling is fixed.