OT: Are you interested in god?

Interesting topic. I'm an atheist and have been ever since I first gave the question any serious thought, when I was seven or eight. I've never been bothered by the idea of there being no god, or the absence of an afterlife.

But the question, or the idea, of god does interest me quite a lot, though I guess more from a cultural or anthropological point of view than anything else. I'm interested in the different notions of god(s) that different peoples throughout time have landed on, and the religious beliefs that have sprung up around those gods.

Most of all, though, I'm interested in the concept of faith, more than god. I've never been someone who felt the need to pray, or to attend church, or got anything out of believing in something. The idea of having faith that someone is watching me, judging me, cares anything about me and the rest of humanity, holds no appeal for me whatsoever. For someone who depends heavily on facts in my daily life, I find it difficult to wrap my head around the idea of making decisions or forming opinions based on something as intangible as faith.

But I remain fascinated by people who do have faith, who live their lives by a code held up by tradition and the belief that it's the right way to live. I find it frustrating and admirable in approximately equal measure. I don't pretend to understand it, but I do find it interesting!


*Formerly Nothin_but_the_Rain*

Yes. I was an atheist when I was a kid, but was always interested in the Subject, even then. When I was in my early twenties, about the time I started reading Graham Greene, I made what is often called a conversion. I call it waking up.

Believing in God is somewhat akin to having a hunch. It comes naturally to some people. Others go in and out of Faith several times during their lives. Others, like yourself, are either wholly uninterested, or they're queasy, or just downright hostile, about God. That also changes with some people.

God is a continuously interesting Subject to me, as a subject.

🇺🇸 Liberty • E Pluribus Unum • In God We Trust 🇺🇸

Hey hey hey... Clever choice in words.
Interest is what makes life different.
Someone who'd say, no, thanks... Would be a serious case for treatment.

Manelle
"to tax and to please, no more to love and to be wise, is not given to men"

...only in the context of history and the various religions...so no.

No. I'm an atheist married to a philosopher, parent of another philosopher. I'm not sure which one of them now owns the embroidered and framed sign I made for my husband, which reads God Is Boring.

SPEED
Don't mistake my silence for weakness. Nobody plans murders out loud.

Not in the slightest, and I never have been. That doesn't stop me from enjoying the works of certain God-botherers, often of the bead-rattling persuasion, such as Spark, Burgess and indeed Greene. Though given that I can recall virtually nothing of that particular book other than that I've read it, I perhaps didn't find it as engaging as most of his work.

No valley too deep, no mountain too high.

I'm not a believer myself, I've never spent a Sunday morning in church, but that doesn't stop me appreciating works of fiction where it is assumed God (or the devil) exists. I can suspend disbelief when reading Stephen King's The Stand, or watching things like The Omen or Brimstone and Treacle.

"the fact that i would think twice before committing any evil is due to conditioning and doesn't have anything to do with god."

I would say belief in a god is due to conditioning as well. No one is born into the world with an innate conviction that we all need to be "Saved". As far as actual evidence goes, there isn't anything to be "Saved" from. As for the power of prayer, why would Muriel Spark need to call on God to stop her plane from crashing? If God is omniscient, he's supposed to know about everything that goes on. If God can see that a plane full of people is about to crash, and he has the ability to stop it from happening, why does he have to wait for someone to ask him to stop the plane from crashing? Talk about lack of initiative...

I am curious about God as a god. The concept of worship is anathama to me. I cannot wrap my head around the concept of worship. I understand love, even adoration, but lying prostrate before something in worship is....beyond me. I am curious about people who truly worship God. Is this based in fear, or is it some overwhelming all encompassing love that makes you give yourself over to that extreme?

Without being disrespectful to anyone's belief system, I personally find the idea of worship unpalatable and the object of said worship to be suspect. Who would want to be worshiped? No one I would be interested to know.