Goodness me this looks like a fun thread.
Well I became an atheist back in 1975 when I was 7 and had to attend a Salvation Army run Sunday School. To me it didn't seem realistic that there was a God that created the world in 6 days and all of mankind descended from Adam and Eve.
When all these religious texts/ books were written (The Bible, Qu'ran etc...) well over a thousand years ago life was a lot more of a hardship than it is today and, as a result, people needed to have something to believe in whereby they would know they could end up somewhere better in the afterlife. Also peoples knowledge back then was rather limited (that is not to say they weren't intelligent). However over the last 100 years or so due to leaps in science and improved education has meant that there are significantly fewer people attending church services these days.
I know none of that answers the question raised at the start of the thread. In my opinion I believe in the Big Bang Theory and Evolution to explain about life evolving on this planet. Do I possess any evidence to support this? No I don't. I'm not a scientist, I'm a credit controller (well unemployed credit controller). Science is about pushing the boundaries of what we know. Religion (and I can only say what I think about Christianity as I've never read the Qu'ran or other religious texts) hasn't said anything different for 2,000 years or so.
If anybody who is religious wants to criticise me for that "obvious" answer would they mind answering this question for me. Who, or what, created God? (When I've popped that question to religious people in the past I've received abuse and been denounced as an agent of evil and actually not received an answer. On that basis I've always taken it that religious people can't handle being questioned/ challenged. Please prove me wrong)
Good post. I wouldn't say I am religious but I do believe in God but I don't believe a lot of what Christianity teaches and I believe what Science has to say about the origins of Man and the world. I think that Religion and Science can coexist and even help each other if people in both camps would open their mind, Einstein said it best when he said 'Religion without science is blind, science without religion is lame'.
As for your question on how God was created, I have no idea but I still have faith that he exists and I welcome people who challenge/question religion because how else are we supposed to learn anything. There are people on both sides of the argument that annoy me, namely those who believe they are right without even considering the point of view of the other side.
