Welcome to Gaia! ::

Let me start off by saying my denomination. I am a Unitarian, defined as:

A member of a denomination that believes that stresses individual freedom of belief, the free use of reason in religion, a united world community, and liberal social action ~ Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

I believe that God exists, just as the fundamental physical forces exist. As to whether or not God is male of female, I believe God is neither. I see God as more of an intangible force rather than an omnipotent being. Rather ironically, my faith is inspired by science, namely the events that lead up to the creation of a single person.

First you have the formation of the solar system from a swirling cloud of dust, 5 billion years ago. After that, you have the creation of Earth itself, 4.5 billion years ago. The protoplanet hypothesis provides the reasons for which vast bodies of water, essential to life, came into being on a desolate ball of rock. Interestingly enough, and something to be considered throughout this little rant of mine, the formation of the oceans is due to vast amounts of heat in the form of radiation and meteors which whould have been enough to destroy even the hardiest of creatures. After the creation of the oceans, volcanic eruptions release a certain mixture of gases (Ammonia, methane, hydrogen, nitrogen, and water vapor, but no oxygen) into the early atmosphere. These are exposed to energy carried by lava, sunlight, lightning, and radiation. Again, life as we know it could not exist in this state. Proteins and lipids (fats and oils) spontaneously form, buiding the basis for life. RNA, and later DNA are formed at some point, though biologists are not absolutely certain why. Then we have the history of life on Earth, encompassing proliferation in the seas, invasion of the land, rise of reptiles, fall of reptiles, rise of mammals, evolution and survival of the hominid, evolution of the human, and finally the sum total of human history to bring to where we are today. Along the way there have been numerous windfalls which led to this one path, this one reality. I see that as evidence of some omnipotent force guiding the whole ordeal.

It may seem crude to believe that, simply because we don't know how something happened, we must attribute it to the work of a higher power. Not entirely. One has to ask if we've reached the threshold, the point where science can no longer explain the world around us. Of course, people have been saying that for centuries, and they were wrong. Then again, secular science has insisted for the past hundred years that we are on the verge of creating the Unified Field Theory, and they too have been wrong, at least historically.

You know what? I've talked too long. I'd like to hear some other peoples' thoughts on God or religion in general.

I'm a pagan, I believe in both a god and goddess, though I am just starting my journy into paganism and wicca so I have yet to have my god and goddess chosen for me (Not by a higher coven or what-not, the god and goddess choose you, by giving you a stronger interest in them.) I seem to be leaning towards Bastet though.

Good choice! Music, dance, parties, and keee-yute wittle fuzzy kittens!

I'm just not really interested in religion period. I just try to live a good life, so I'm pretty much just an agnostic.

Although I'm not Christian and my mother was Catholic but very open and understanding, I have no ill towards Christianity. In fact, I went through a dumb phase in high school/after where I was pagan/Wiccan. Nothing personal, but I just found that it was no better than Christianity in its negative points. I couldn't play the oppression, I'm different like everyone else game anymore.

Still, I utterly fascinated by studying religions. I don't bash the Bible, but I view it in a more metaphorical sense. Strangely enough, I'm married to Catholic and we have never had serious issues with varying faiths. I Don't mind my son being raised Catholic, but I also stress about other faiths as well instead of bashing any. I can't dismiss a higher power, but it's just not an important issue to me to have any type of faith. I tend to agree with a lot of my husband's Catholic ideals regarding science, which I think people often misunderstand the Church's offical stances.

I beleive that there's got to be sometype of powerful force. The fact that the planet is here, the perfect distance from the sun and everything is perfectly balanced right down to each molecule, there's got to be something. I do believe there is a powerful force that most of us worship, we just interpret differently. I don't believe everything in the bible because people wrote it, not God and we all know people were not around when the Earth was made and people that could actually write were not around to write about the creation of everything. That is why I believe that the dinosaurs and all that existed even though it's not in the bible. How can the people who wrote about the bible write about something that they didn't see and know existed?

I don't like to talk about my beleifs to people because church people I know get mad when you don't think exactly like them, and some science people try to treat you like you're stupid.