Do you believe in God? Why/Why not?

[JWeinCom]

superchunk said:

JWeinCom said:

Eh... well there is something that happened to drive so many common stories... floods.  

Virtually every civilization was born near a river or body of fresh water out of necessity.  So, it's not surprising that nearly every culture has some kind of story involving floods.  Basically every civilization also has some sort of Cinderella story, because every culture has step children, and that sort of situation.

Likewise, I think that we all have experiences we can't explain, and it's often natural to associate them with miracles.

Overall, I really have no objection to your beliefs, and I actually am curious.  I've been looking for an organization where I could meet with people who want to do good in the world, and have a community connection.  I've looked mainly at secular humanist organizations, but for the most part it seems like the events they have are all about spreading atheism or secularism.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but not what I'm into.  I was more interested in helping people and perhaps having a supportive group.  

I've heard of Universal Unitarianism (I think that's what UU stands for), but I haven't looked into it that much.

Have you attended UU services often?  Would you mind sharing some of your experiences?  Do you think as a very strong atheist I would feel welcome there?

RE: Noah - the stories have a lot more in common than a flood. They all focus on a man/family that based on guidance from divine built a boat to save substantial life from a catastrophic flood. I think that base root is what is true and that story spread far and wide due to the abnormal level of catastrophe.

UU is awesome. Anyone regardless of belief, ability, sexual orientation, etc is welcomed. The focus is not how you worship or don't worship something but how you work to improve your life and the lives of those you can impact. I go on Sunday's (they do have roots in Christianity, but that is not the basis UU). You will find atheists and theists in any congregation as an example. I'd suggest that it doesn't hurt to take one hour on a Sunday and just pop in on your local congregation. You may like it or not, but its no risk and very little investment.

Take a look at this.

https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles

We started going because we wanted a place where all people are accepted, we could build on strong morals and good character for or kids, and we could use the community to make some sort of difference to others. While my wife and I are theists, 1 son is atheist and the other 2 kids are still figuring it out. However, they have learned that helping others is a critical part of life and we do things such as go to Mexico to build homes, etc. We also work with homeless when possible and are active in political protest. UU is a very liberal community. I believe you can only raise the well-being of your entire nation by improving the lowest points first. Its how business do well and its how the nation should focus its long-term strategy and investment.

We're humans and we're going to create similar stories about the things we experience.   I don't think it's all that surprising that we're going to have strong commonalities among our stories. It may be interesting to look for if there was in fact some major event that it stemmed from (I think it could just be the common experience of flooding), but I think you're taking a leap too far.

I looked into a couple of UU ummm "churches" if that's the word in my area.  One of them seemed basically like Christianity in disguise.  The other seems a bit more truly open.  I may check it out this Sunday since the Jets are playing tonight and I won't have to miss the game.  Thanks for the suggestion.  Contrary to many atheists I do see the value in religious tradition... and if I could get it without the actual religion, I'd be open to that.