I do think the universe is a little more complex than a loaf of bread.

About what Paulpicks said, I think that it's too simple to think that God just made it happen. It's the same troughout history over and over again. When people don't understand something or don't know the anwser to something, they immediatly point to God, who's done it.
I don't understand how the planet was created so it was propably God. I think that's just too easy. It's just a simple way to say: well I don't want to look deeper into the subject so I'll just say it was God, which can never be proven anyway.

And to be short, I think consciousness and morality is still just part of a more developed limbic system. Also, if no one, after you were born, would tell you that there might be a God, wouldn't you be the same as animals? These animals don't live in the same environment and situation as humans and can thus not be used to distinguish man from animals. I think humans are special because of their ability to think and make more use of the neocortex but I don't think that humans are special spiritually.

This is a true story.
On October 23, 1987 I was living in St. Louis and my mother was living in Southeast Louisiana. That night I dreamed that my grandmother had died. At 3:30 AM in the morning I awoke and sat up in bed with a strange feeling that something was wrong. I immediately made a long-distance phone call to my mother in Louisiana and asked her if "grandma" was OK? Her first response was: "Do you know what time it is? It's 3 o'clock in the morning". But I asked her again. She said, "Your grandmother is fine. I talked to her on the phone at 7 PM yesterday evening". I said, "Thanks" and went back to bed. The next day I got a phone call from my uncle. "Son, your grandma died this morning in the middle of night." "I knew it" I said, "she came to me in my dreams to say goodbye". Lots of people can tell similar stories to this one. And I myself have had other similar experiences at least a half dozen times in my life. Experiences such as this reinforce my belief that life does have a spiritual dimension, and that the human psyche is far more complex than even the most learned of us imagine. Human beings are far more complex than the evolution of their limbic system -- we each have a spirit within us. The real world is far more than the physical stuff we see and touch. Life does have a spiritual dimension.

We have to be careful not to promote what is known as "the God of the gaps" theory which says that anything we can't explain we attribute to God. The shortcomings of this theory were known centuries ago. If we appeal to the God of the gaps theory, God gradually gets squeezed right out.

If we could explain every mechanism whereby the whole of the universe was understood - this still doesn't eliminate God. We know more now about how jet engines function and make them more powerful and reliable - but that doesn't eliminate Frank Whittle who invented them in the first place.

I suspect part of the current debate which (quite wrongly) suggests that science and religion are incompatible is a result of misunderstanding the way the early chapters of the Bible work and the way science works.

*Gasp!* You found me!

I'm a Hindu, but I don't have time to explain, unfortunately. I have class across campus in 14 minutes! Yikes! I'll be back later. ;D

I am amazed at the high level of discussion that is taking place, especially given the nature of this website.

I would like to thank the first person on here who was against the idea of a god for proving those links and owenowen321 for mentioning that everything we cannot explain should not be automatically attributed to God. I think that people who believe in prayer should look up 2 things, meditation and the placebo effect.

The facts are that we are unable to prove or disprove the existence of God. I believe that God is fictional and that it would make just as much sense so say that we are in a simulation created by the most advanced computer ever, which exists outside of time and created itself.

I am sorry to say it, but even the smartest Christians I have dealt with or read (like my beloved C. S. Lewis) are seemingly unable to critically analyze their own belief systems.

The early chapters of the bible state that God created Adam and Eve. Then it states they had 2 kids, one of which killed the other. The surviving son then randomly had a wife and lived in some town. My questions is, where did these other people and the town etc come from?

Well, the old testament was written by the Jews. A little known fact is that even though we Jews are called monotheists, it's actually that most believe that Our People have One God and he is Our True God. That isn't to say everyone else didn't have their own gods. We didn't have pacts with those gods and didn't care about them. So the answer is, nobody who wrote the torah gave a damn about where they came from, because they weren't the Chosen Ones. Besides, the torah was oral history passed down through so many generations it's just teeming with contradictions, clearly my ancestors weren't big on editors!

Thankyou for this. I appreciate that you are giving a decent explanation.