There may not be a god...

[Gambit]

Haha, I've been on some spectacular atheists forums. There was one Facebook page, "Pray For an Atheist", which was pretty much taken over by the atheist members. Anyway, the minister/pastor who run the page ended up having to shut it down. It wasn't because of the largely atheist membership, however. No, he was exposed, for well, exposing himself to one of the female atheists, via pm.

It was a shame really because that page was awesome.

In terms of your position gringo, it's one I have trouble understanding the reasoning for. You said yourself it basically boils down to what you 'hope' for. IMO it's like me saying I want to hope that fairies are true, so I'll label myself as agnostic towards fairies. Sure you can't disprove them, but what is the reason to take them seriously. What is it that differentiates god and fairies in your eyes? To me they are both mythical beings.

Perhaps another thread for another time, but I am interested in hearing what you have to say on it

No, that's a reasonable question to ask. I've had experiences in my life which lead me to believe there is something more than what science can explain. Now, I'm going to basically give away the ever present battle which goes on inside my head here by presenting logical explanations for those experiences. Some can be argued away with coincidence. For instance, the time when I felt my friends and I should not take a certain route, to the point where I went into a panic over it, and 5 minutes later there was a paramilitary shooting incident in which 3 people were killed, right were we would have been had we taken that route. Then there was the time when I was on a bus, seen a girl I had worked with years before, then thought to myself it can't be her, she killed herself. I found out the next day that she had committed suicide the day I had seen her. Again, I can offer an explanation for that, which is completely logical and not uncommon. The events that I believe happened on the day of the girl's suicide didn't actually take place. The day after, when I was told of her suicide, I somehow convinced myself that I had a vision the previous day. As adults we often do this when sharing childhood memories as though we were there, when in fact we had only been told about a particular event.

However, no matter how much I rationalize these events, I still cannot consider myself an atheist, because I still believe there is something. I'd even go as far as to say that I believe in a creator, although, I have no idea as to the nature or intention of such a being. I know, I'm not offering any proof of anything, but that is pretty much where I stand on the matter of god. To be honest, I'm not even here to try to convince anyone of anything. I'm here to listen to and learn from people who I feel I have common ground with; both atheist and theist alike.