I believe in myself, therefore believe in God.

[Mystic]

A lot of people belief in God is so connected to their culture and religion, that disbelieving in their religion/culture, would result in a total disconnect from God.

In fact, a lot people go through a phase of Deism after leaving their religion, only to be lead out of it, slowly but surely, into Atheism.

This however definitely not going to be my path.

Sometimes when I really think about the issue, I wonder, how would I view myself or human beings, if I disbelieve in God.

Our sense of self is connected to so many beliefs with no real "evidence" for it, in the sense of scientific or philosophical or logical evidence.

The sense that I exist. What is this "I". Why do I regret past actions, why do I care about future actions.

Why do I feel connected to my family. Why should I feel gratitude towards my parents?

Why should I love? What is love? What is loving...what is this I that love.

Why should I feel pride? Why should I feel shame? Why should I want honor? Why should I believe in honor?

What type of praise should I deny? Should I acknowledge mundane praise but reject holiness subsection of praise?

What is praise? What is being praised when someone does something great? Is the body and motion of the body in that action? Is the brain cells working together that are being praised? What is this me that I see constantly? Is it located anywhere? Is it the body? So if you cut off my legs, would I be losing a part of that "I". If I lose some brain cells, would I be losing part of that "I".

What is justice? What is morality? What is right, what is wrong, what is good what is evil.

You see, I came to the conclusion, if God is a delusional concept, then so are all these. Our sense of I, our sense of praise, our sense of pride, our sense of beauty, our sense of justice, our sense of honour, our sense of greatness, our sense of morals and ethics, to me, these are metaphysical, and must have come down from a living metaphysical eternal reality.

At the very least, they are highly questionable, very improbable to being justified in belief in these things, without belief in God.

A perpetual identity...I am a soul. I occupy a different realm that 3d space. The true me is not located in my mind, it's not simply an imaginative conception being created by brain cells. It's not just an idea. It's a living reality that is non-physical.

I see it. I know it. I'm not a delusion. My pride is justified. My shame is also justified. My regrets, my looking towards the future.

An exact objective measurement to who I am exists, even if I don't know it, I know there is a objective measurement to me. It's not universal, it's rather particular to a perfect judge. Without his eyes sight and vision of who I am, my existence would not be possible.

It would be a delusional concept, with no grounding. I live through this being, I see through this being, I know through this being.

Blood is important and binds people closely, but spiritual origin, is more important, and makes this being the closest of all beings to me.

I will love this being with all my heart. I will revere it with all my heart. And I will look towards till my soul eyes break all veils, and reach the source of grandeur and my soul becomes suspended in honour of it's sanctity and holiness.

I won't say I don't care if Atheist believe or don't believe. I think our relationship with this being is healthy for us. Recognizing it will help us recognize who we are. Forgetting will make us forget who we are.

Just like it's unhealthy to disconnect from family, friends, etc, it's unhealthy to disconnect from the closest of all beings to us, the most caring for us.

I don't believe God interferes in the physical world, but I do believe he interferes in the spiritual world. And in that, I pray all of you will one day realize your souls existence and it's spiritual realm, and that God will help you achieve certainty in him and in your own souls.

Peace be upon you.

[Angrboda]

Does the spiritual "I" express itself through the physical "I"? If not, then of what relevance is the spiritual "I"? If so, and this 'god' affects the spiritual "I" then its doing so affects the physical "I" and therefore, if it does interfere, it interferes in the physical world. (Which also means that it and the effects of the spiritual "I" should be detectable in the physical world.) I get it, you want these things to be real in a way you can't imagine being possible in physical terms. And since your imagination isn't up to the task, and you're unwilling to part with your romantic notions, you punt to a mythical metaphysical realm, hoping to evade the problems your mind couldn't solve in the physical realm. First off, that simply doesn't work, as it creates more problems than it solves. Second, your argument then becomes an argument from ignorance for the existence of this realm and these things, making it worthless and your conclusions invalid. Moreover, this whole exercise seems like little more than coddling your wishful thinking and to hell with the consequences. You want these things to be true, so you insist they must be true. Besides being total bullshit, that's the answer of a child. If these things matter as much to you as you say, then they are important questions and deserve better from you than this wishful bullshit. If you're just trying to escape reality, do so; but don't try to wallpaper over the fact with a bunch of worthless romantic shit. It takes more resolve to hold firm at "I don't know," rather than making up bullshit answers like this. The god you've created here is little more than a projection of your infantile needs.

(And for what it's worth, I can account for basically all of these concepts in terms of physical processes, which, even if I'm wrong on some, points to the fact that you threw in the towel way too early.)

[Cyberman]

Nice story. Bit wordy but well-written with a lot of thought gone into it.

But was this part really necessary:

And in that, I pray all of you will one day realize your souls existence and it's spiritual realm, and that God will help you achieve certainty in him and in your own souls.

Because that sort of sentiment of apparent affected superiority is liable to generate only one sort of response and it's probably not going to be a nice one.

[wwjs]

I hate playing a psychologist or when someone else does it but you seem to believe in this God just for a comfort that it gives you and answers your questions (not that I'm saying it talks to you).

[Minimalist]

Once again....you remind me of this comment from H.L. Mencken:

God is the immemorial refuge of the incompetent, the helpless, the miserable. They find not only sanctuary in His arms, but also a kind of superiority, soothing to their macerated egos: He will set them above their betters.

You need a sky-daddy to validate your worth and I find that rather sad. Face life on its own terms.

[Mystic]

Because that sort of sentiment of apparent affected superiority is liable to generate only one sort of response and it's probably not going to be a nice one.

Oh because I feel I am right regarding one matter and I hope others reach the same conclusion as I do because I feel it will be better for them in terms of well being, it means I feel that I am a better human than all those who have not reached my conclusion?

Also, I do believe in intercessory prayers simply because I believe God wants us to help one another and not feel ashamed of receiving help from others. As he is the closest and greatest of all beings, we definitely should not feel ashamed of asking his help, and I don't think he wants us to only ask him for ourselves either.

You need a sky-daddy to validate your worth and I find that rather sad. Face life on its own terms.

I need a transcendent origin/creator/mother to validate my worth, yes I do, because value would be a delusion or at the very least, I would not feel I know value to exist, without that verification.

[Gilgamesh]

I need a transcendent origin/creator/mother to validate my worth, yes I do, because value would be a delusion or at the very least, I would not feel I know value to exist, without that verification.

Does the prospect of value not existing objectively bother you?

[Mystic]

I need a transcendent origin/creator/mother to validate my worth, yes I do, because value would be a delusion or at the very least, I would not feel I know value to exist, without that verification.

Does the prospect of value not existing objectively bother you?

It does a lot.

[pocaracas]

Before it was called Kinect, there was project Natal... and Milo, a fully AI character, learning about its world and ours




Milo believes he is, therefore.... someone made him. That's quite a big leap! We know some team of programers created this character.... but how would Milo get to know about it?
How would Milo describe how his thought process works? How would Milo associate his emotions with something tangible?

And now... from just measuring the electrical impulses in a microprocessor, the flow of data from that processor to memory and also inputs and outputs from the kinect... how can we discern Milo's emotions?
We know they are there, we know someone created the program. But how and where do they come from, if all you can measure are the physical quantities?

It's the same with any computer program that has a bit of extra complexity.... How can you discern, just from measuring the microprocessor's activity, the connections to RAM and I/O ports, how can you tell that the program is playing a movie file? or taking you to your "second life"? or showing a series of calculation from Wolfram Alpha? heck, even the simple act of drawing a window!?

Now take the human brain. We can measure some electrical activity in it... in a very coarse way... We can measure some activity between the brain and the sensory inputs.... we can measure the outputs...
How would we make the jump to the high-level reasoning that goes on in the brain, if we can't do it for something we actually know is man-made??

You chose to jump in a parallel way: If Milo has all these abilities and is created, then we are too.

I prefer to think that even knowing that Milo is created, we cannot know how his reasoning works. We cannot know how our reasoning works, we also don't know anything about us being created, so it's better to withhold judgement until we can... if ever.

[Neo-Scholastic]

...I can account for basically all of these concepts in terms of physical processes,...

I seriously doubt it. Let me know when you publish the definitive and final account of the human mind.