I googled "What is your relationship with God?" and I gotta tell you, I'm not seeing any prophets.

My understanding of God is constantly evolving. My faith has had ups and downs. Ultimately, I think those struggles are how we grow.

On Sunday 7/22/12 - 5:43:16 PM Mat wrote: I googled "What is your relationship with God?" and I gotta tell you, I'm not seeing any prophets.

That only means one thing: there are none.
:)

age 6, 7 = believed there was a "cat god" and a "dog god" + trolls underground
age 8 to 11 = believed in a strange mixture of christian god + ancient egyptian gods + norse gods
age 12 to 14 = believed solely in christian god
age 14.5 = briefly muslim (then, had realization)
age 15 to 18 = considered myself agnostic
age 19 to now = discovered I am actually agnostic atheist and I am more doubtful than before

but currently.... religiously.... it's complicated.
I believe in some buddhism to some extent <- - but it's very complicated. That doesn't have to do with the god/gods issue, though.

So, there was quite a lot of change in my very...early days.

hard to argue with some of the ideas behind buddhism but I think it falls down when reincarnation is presented as a fact

On Monday 7/23/12 - 4:46:11 PM glennh70 wrote: hard to argue with some of the ideas behind buddhism but I think it falls down when reincarnation is presented as a fact

About the whole reincarnation thing...
I'm going to respond to you about that when I have more time.
Also, because it's been a while, I'm going to have to go locate and reread some stuff because I want to give a good response to that.

but I don't have time now.

From not believing, to believing, to not knowing and accepting not knowing.

It was interesting and encouraging to read previous posts and how many have and probably still struggle to understand the concept of God. I believe its good question and not just accept the current religious views.

Where I struggle to reconcile is where did everything come from if not from something (God)? The creation of the universe or universes and what made everything is far beyond our comprehension or understanding. And if there is a God, then how did God begin? To claim there is no God is as hollow as proclaiming they know what God wants. Nobody knows

Everything comes from Walmart...

I've never believed in any supernatural beings, not even as a kid (I gave the Tooth Fairy the benefit of the doubt, though, because who else could have left 50 cents there in exchange for my tooth while I was asleep?)

'To claim there is no God is as hollow as proclaiming they know what God wants. Nobody knows' true but you can say there is no evidence. Have you read recent work in quantum physics? matter pops in and out of existence all the time - it just seems that something tipped the balance for the big bang.

it's interesting that many Americans still seem to say well 'someone must have started it'. That assumption has faded a lot in the UK so it appears to be a cultural thing.

I don’t see a conflict between science and how everything began. Science may be able to postulate theories of what happened before the big bang or even how something just appeared out of “nothing” but science will never be able to explain the origins of everything. Nothing is not nothing if something just appears from nothing. We will never understand the origins of everything

So, I'm back here!

I want you to read about rebirth as a cycle of consciousness:

You can find a quick summary here:
http://universaldhamma.blogspot.jp/...

and it seems the section on the wikipedia article got taken from here:
http://www.indianetzone.com/29/rebi...

(but my 2 second googling didn't give me amazing sources
but I think those have decent enough content)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Also...
There is a type of birth and death and rebirth situation I thought of (that other people have thought of too - it's called eternal return)...I think it's POSSIBLE. If universes are appearing over and over and over, it's possible that the universe as it is now might happen over and over and over....which would mean I would be born over and over and over. I think it's extremely rare for - things as they are - to happen over and over....but within infinity....rare is still...actually..an infinite amount of times.

As far as I can tell, rebirth could happen that way as well.

The only thing is -
With rebirth as a cycle of consciousness, nirvana is possible.
but, if eternal return occurs, it complicates things a little.
But I guess, if you become an arhat (and you probably can at some point), you can do that over and over as well and that...that state can be infinite....just as you're infinitely born, infinitely attached.
You're infinitely trapped and infinitely free.
- in that case -

Hm, I guess it seems to work.

But I guess the important thing is the - now - and what I believe is that...the path can definitely free people from suffering.
and currently I am suffering.

Yes, I was quite pious until I discovered a certain item four years ago, now I'm a Kadathist