Always an interesting question.. Do You Believe In God ? So let's play... Do I Believe In The God of the Bible (Old/New Testament), Torah, Talmud, Quran, Buddhist Scriptures, Vedas, TAO, Sikh, etc. Books... God No ! (LOL) We don't even really know who the frak wrote those books... and what about the corrupt translation of these books over the centuries or the 27 varieties of Christianity... NO... Faith Based Belief In Other Peoples Written Opinions (The Bible, all religious books that depend on Faith/Belief) is just HUGE opinion. Do I Believe There is Logical Evidence for a Supreme Intelligent Designer... YES ! It is starring you right in the face for everybody... Common... YES ! My Background... Science University Degree, Senior Software Architect Involving Math Based Code, Senior Database Programmer, Custom Information Systems, 1000s of hours spent asking myself.. WTF ? Is Actually True... What ?
My most favorite quote from a movie I forgot is " I believe in God, sometimes". Hedging one's bet, human frailty.
The great mathematician Pascal looked at faith, God as a mathematical probability, expected value concept, not unlike us traders trading options. Looking at it that way, he said he believed in God: 1. Probability there is God: A small # perhaps 5% 2. Utility if there is = infinity, there is life after 3. Probability there is no God: A large # perhaps 95% 4. Utility if there isn't = -100, there is nothing after Therefore, the expected value of belief is: 5% x infinity + 95% x (-100) = infinity If you are a trader, you have no choice but to believe in God as the positive expectancy value is infinite.
Interesting Post... Thanks for sharing... Pascal is agreeing there is a God but with strange logic and very low odds?... Pascal's TOP probability component of his Postulate: ""God as a mathematical probability" is ?? """Probability there is God: A small # perhaps 5%""" ... Really... Pascal that is embarrassing ! Okay... 1. How did Nothing Decide One Day to BANG ! (Did nothing have nothing better to do?) 2. How did the debris of this impossible "BANG" coalesce into lumps of matter that then, within some monstrous time horizon, became sentient (Conscious Life) from an insentient state (dirt, rocks). 3. How did impossible "sentient" life mutate from One cell single bacteria into mutil cell life forms when there is no record of 2 cell bacteria, 3 cell bacteria, 4 cell, 5 cell, etc. 4. How does the fossil record not show failed evolutionary mutations by the BILLIONS and also how does the fossil record show that many species "appeared" at the same time. Pre Cambrian Time Period. So IronChief... Instead of unimaginative Pascal let's go with Sir Dr Fred Hoyle who is considered THE or one of THE top scientists of all time... and lets look at one of his most famous statements... about the impossibility of Evolution (let alone the redic Big BANG) and the more likely postulate that there is an intelligent designer which his quote/statement infers. """"In his 1983 book The Intelligent Universe, astronomer FredHoyle wrote the following infamous passage: “A junkyard contains all the bits and pieces of a Boeing 747, dismembered and in disarray. A whirlwind happens to blow through the yard. What is the chance that after its passage a fully assembled 747, ready to fly, will be found standing there?""" and this would only be a very small amount of obvious evidence of an Intelligent Designer...
It is like a black swan event. Unless you believe the probability is zero, it will always have a positive expectancy. You must not be a speculator, if you are one, the vote is obvious.
Don't get me wrong, I understand the value of religion as a mean to keep humans in check, from reverting to the ruthlessness of the animal state. But that has nothing to do with a supreme being. As a humanist, I know that the valuable teachings of religions can be taught and held with the same convictions than those of believers, without the supernatural. I've lived in countries where religious teachings are barely tolerated, saw human ruthlessness towards humans and came to recognize that the fear of a god is a powerful means to prevent primitive chaos.