Discussion on the Question "Do You Believe in God?"

in #writing7 years ago (edited)

Props to @beograd for sharing this link where Jordan Peterson is asked this question.

His answer is frustrating for many people, and without speaking for anyone but myself, I'll attempt to answer the same question with perhaps a little more explanation (which may or may not fall within the same realm as Jordan Peterson's regard for the concept of God):

0:13 - 0:45

"It's an attempt to box me in..."

If someone were to ask me whether I believe in God, we must first come to an understanding of what 'God' means to you.

When my understanding of what your interpretation of God means to you, then I can either relate to you and agree that I interpret God the same way, or disagree by sharing what my interpretation of God means to me.

Some people interpret the nature of God as described in the Christian bible, as an omniscient and omnipotent father-like figure who watches over each one of us and has a direct and influential, sentient impact on our lives.

Others may interpret God as "The Force," as described in the Star Wars series of movies.

Still others may interpret God as a "higher power" that defies description, yet still carries some unknowable yet influential impact on our lives.

I believe in God.
That doesn't mean that if you believe in God, that we both believe in the same thing.

Which brings us to the next word, "believe."

Do you believe there is a higher power?
If so, do you believe that higher power is as exactly described in the Bible? Do you believe all of the stories in both the New and Old Testaments happened exactly as described?

Answering for only myself, I absolutely believe in a power greater than ourselves. I also believe that humanity, for thousands of years, has carried that belief that some power greater than ourselves exists.

Do I believe in all of the stories from the Bible?

I don't know.

Perhaps they happened exactly the way they were described.

Look at today: I can call my friends in Australia and speak to them face to face, with no lag time, with a device I have in my pocket, and can do this at a cost of pennies per minute (essentially for free).

Is it that unreasonable that someone walked on water, cured blindness with a touch, or turned water into wine?

Surely speaking face to face with someone literally on the other side of the planet qualifies as a miracle! Yet any two people, each with a smart phone, can accomplish this same miraculous feat.

1:05

"I Act as if God Exists"

As do I.

My interpretation of "The logos," as Jordan Peterson describes, is the ideal we are presented with where we have the ability to maximally transcend ourselves to achieve enlightenment, or a peak state where our ego and our environment achieve absolute harmony.

Perhaps, to be "One with God."

Whether this is actually possible is unknown.

Across cultures, we are presented with stories of individuals (Christ, Buddha, the prophet Muhammad) who HAVE transcended from wherever all of us are at this very moment.

Their guiding principles demonstrate a path, one which we may aspire to, in order to achieve a position closer to their awareness of reality as we recognize it. A state of supreme harmonious existence IN reality.

Heaven on Earth.

Harmonious synchronicity with everything around us...

Being 'one' with the Force, perhaps?

Do I believe in a power greater than ourselves? Yes.

Do I KNOW there's a power greater than ourselves?
No.

Do I believe we can perform miracles?
YES!

Do I know if we can transcend our current state of self to an elevated state of being?

I've experienced glimmers of that in my own life; whether that permanent state of being can be achieved, I don't know.

I hope my own answer, to the question above, offers more insight into just how difficult a question it is; no doubt my answer will further frustrate some people while illuminating the nature of the question for others.

I do know this:
LOVE is the answer; expressing sheer joy at the awakening of our own energetic awareness, and giving yourself to recognizing the sentient awareness of energy around you, reciprocates upon you additional joy magnified exponentially.

THAT idea, like so many more things in life we each need to experience (for ourselves) to believe, cannot be taught or 'learned.'

It needs to be experienced.

Love is that path.

@scan0017 😘

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This is a very interesting topic! Speaking from my perspective as a human being; not as a religious person, I believe a supernatural being who happens to be called God does exist. As regards the miracles in the bible, I must say that those miracles are not far from what we're experiencing today. Recently, an acclaimed man of God used African magic to turn water into blood. How he came about his powers is kinda shady, but he actually pulled off that stunt perfectly well.

But regardless, I think that some occurences in the bible could have been modified or adjusted(I can't seem to get the right word to use) to suit our present day society and may not have happened exactly as written. I hear there are so many secrets which have been buried in Rome and we may never get to know about. But whatever those secrets are, I think it's best to let them be and continue to think that the world is indeed a mystery.

hopefully a good day, I believe that God exists, because of all that is in this world belong to the Lord, we only live for a while, life we have many demanding and always prayer that we have a charity worship for US in nature there, the time we is dead, hope you always successful friend Yes, I will upvote and restem, I hope you can appreciate my friend.

thats really an important topic of believing on god or not thanks for sharing such an great writings and video as well resteemed soo many other could reach too @scan0017

Blessed is the one who realizes the presence of God Almighty. Yes I always feels the presence of God whenever I surrender whole heartedly to Him.

Hey Niki!
I just found a conversation on YouTube where his answer may be of use to you - check it out at 1:45 to 2:30 🙂
PS: Please write more funny stuff; you're really good at it 👍

I like to share my opinion... I have listened and readed so many verses of The Bible
And The Quran and other Hindu holy books .... I believe no prophet of God had their own power whatever they did which were impossible for any human .... was because of Allah ... and they also said this by themselves ... i believe in god beause I have seen that everything in this world whether it’s phone or car or anything has its own creator so we humans we are so complex ... did we came here by our own ??? No I don’t believe we must have our creator and that’s our god now the important thing is that we must believe and worship the true god ....I’m not a scholar I have been listening MR. Dr Zakir naik for so long ...so I recommend you to watch his videos and here is the link of his one video clip ... I hope you will watch this video .... THANK YOU

If god is uncreated then how can we feel his existence ???

Jesus Christ (pbuh) never claimed that he is god

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hey Scan! I haven't been on Steemit much lately. Funny thing, you may or may not remember this, but I'm a worship leader at our local church. Few months ago the leadership asked me to do sermons as well sometimes, for the bible study group. I often use a Jordan Peterson starter point. Haven't been through the 12 rules of life book, but I'm at part IX of the biblical series :)

Cheers and all the best to you Craig!!