OT - Do you believe in God?

[roger_ramjet]

Might have been Brian Lord

That would have been Cyril's brother?

Which takes us full circle to cover versions of advertising jingles

"This is boredom you can afford from Cyril Lord"

Answers on a crisp new plastic £5 note please

[Oldtimeram]

I guess it was all brushed under the carpet in those days

[adlestropred]

I'm agnostic. You can argue that you need a creator to set everything in motion, but then again who created the creator and his or her creator.

[Romanis]

It's fine whatever the belief or not. What I don't like is in your face militancy be it from religious fanatics or atheists

[ramAnag]

It's fine whatever the belief or not. What I don't like is in your face militancy be it from religious fanatics or atheists

Fair enough Rom...do think the religious fanatics have more to answer for than the atheists over the łast half century or so though.
One of the greatest examples of institutionalised hypocrisy I’ve ever seen was on a visit to Rome and the juxtaposition of abject poverty outside and indescribable wealth inside the Vatican. I believe the latest Pope seems to have a good attitude towards that sort of issue...but faces enormous resistance from within.

[MadAmster]

My own view is that there isn't a God.

In the off chance that there is, I would not worship him/her/it as any omnipotent "being" that could allow all the genocide that has happened in the world, the abuse of children, slavery etc etc etc isn't worth deifying.

What I am 100% against is organised religion. It is not a belief system. IMO it is a way to execrcise control and power over believers.

[Andy_Faber]

My own view is that there isn't a God.

In the off chance that there is, I would not worship him/her/it as any omnipotent "being" that could allow all the genocide that has happened in the world, the abuse of children, slavery etc etc etc isn't worth deifying.

What I am 100% against is organised religion. It is not a belief system. IMO it is a way to execrcise control and power over believers.

Down at the coalface its a bit different to that M, in fact its a strange thing sometimes, my experience is there are a lot of folk (Christians, can't speak for other religions) who's belief is sort of secondary to getting together with other folk and trying to do a bit of 'good'. I'm not a fan of 'evangelising', either for any religion or for the rejection of it

[MadAmster]

In the village we have a fanatical bibleist (new word?). He is part of the Dutch Reformists I believe. Before that he was with a different church. They found him too fanatical and tried to "calm him down". he didn't like that so he joined the Reformists. Apparently some there also find him OTT.

Bumped into him one day when I was out walking the dog. He buttonholed me and started off by saying folk in the village are rude as they hardly ever say hello to him. My experience of living in this village since 1989 are that they are ar right friendly bunch, so I told him that. He was dischuffed with my answer and then very quickly got on to the bible to prove his point quoting all manner of bits out of the bible.... none of which was relevant to the point he wished to make. He quite obviously KNOWS the bible but I am convinced he doesn't UNDERSTAND it.

Anyway, it was hard to pull oneself away without being rude so I stayed politely. Then he asked a question about my beliefs. Eureka I thought I can tell him, very quickly that I am not a believer and exit stage right....... WRONG!!

I then get his life story.... he had interrutped halfway through my 2nd sentence.... obviously guessing, correctly, that he wouldn't like my answer. There followed 3 or 4 more questions which I couldn't even get to half answer and then the sermon started. He managed to get in the fact that he is a manic depressive and lonely. (I thought.... and I know why) Every point was accentuated by a prod to my chest with his index finger.

At this point I had had enough. I managed to shut him up and inform him that I was exiting the conversation as I had no wish to converse with someone who asks questions but then fails to listen to the answer and prods people he has never spoken to before in the chest........

I think I got my point home because, since that day, I have greeted him with a "hello" or a "goede-morgen/middag/avond" depending on the time of day on many an occasion........ He ignores me! Result!! Downside might be that I am now probably top of the "rude villagers" list.

Bloke's a proper Jodrell.

[swaledale]

Down at the coalface its a bit different to that M, in fact its a strange thing sometimes, my experience is there are a lot of folk (Christians, can't speak for other religions) who's belief is sort of secondary to getting together with other folk and trying to do a bit of 'good'. I'm not a fan of 'evangelising', either for any religion or for the rejection of it

I'm a fan of rejecting it or at least the bit which states this is "the book" and these are "the rules one has to follow"! Puzzles me why seemingly intelligent people would even profess to believe half of the rubbish spouted by organised religion its patently obvious that much of whats said is a particular interpretation of what someone else said and IMO shows a rather touching lack of ability to question and mans arrogant inability to accept that there are some questions which we do not and may never know the answer to.

Whilst undoubtedly there are many of a religous persuasion that have or are doing "good" not sure that actually balances out the terrible wrongs committed in the name of many religions.