Of a sort.

I strongly believe that the universe we are in is one created and run by an intelligent 3rd party.

But unlike 99.9% of the people who share that belief, I happen to also believe that this 3rd party was itself created from evolutionary processes in a world that was not created.

It's a belief that seems to go back at least to the 3rd century CE, but centers around the notion that a chaotic universe where life evolved without design (an idea at least as old as Leucretius in 50 BCE) would eventually create life sophisticated enough to be able to create worlds itself, and that we are in the re-creation of such a universe at an earlier point in time.

One of the wildest aspects of that belief in antiquity was its focus on the notions of Greek atomism and matter being made up of indivisible parts as an indicator of its claim of being in a copy of a higher fidelity original. Especially given that a central component of my own belief in this topic relates to the similarity between quantum behaviors (indivisible parts of matter) and hacks we have started using in building procedurally generated voxel based virtual worlds.

No. But I am open to the possibility that we are all fractions of a superbeing that is the sum of the universe.

I believe in Claude.

No.

We can't know. And that's fine.

Whatever started the physical process that created us is pretty fucking crazy. I bet it's a simulation.

So many people in this thread were traumatized from church lol. God isn't inherently a bad or stupid idea... just depends on how you define God.

Yes, without a doubt. Been an Ordained Minister since 1987.

Yes, even if not really in an established denomination (despite going to church).

Don't know, don't care.

It's worth noting I do consider belief in the simulation theory a form of theism.

no

a God? Maybe. There are too many technical coincidences in life and physics for me to believe all of it was random chance.

the God? Nah. I was raised non-denominational Christian but I don't even go as far as to claim that anymore.

Unless the question specifies which God it is referring to ( Ancient Greek gods like Zeus or Poseidon, Roman Gods like Apollo or Mars, Judeo-Christian God, Hindu Gods etc - or referring to the concept of a "Creator" in general ) - it can not be answered.

Assuming it refers to a "Creator" - then no, I do not see any evidence supporting that Creator.

God is supposed to be All Powerful AND All Good. The current fucked up state of the Humankind clearly suggests that he (or it) is not both of those at the same time.

God? What a preposterous idea! I believe in aliens, Lister!

I would say I lean towards not believing, but I am open to other ideas. And if god did exist it really wouldn't change anything for me. I would just live as I normaly do

It is impossible to know whether there is a higher power. I believe that the existence of the universe fundamentally violates causality to begin with, since everything must have a beginning. Thus anything is on the table.

All human conceptions of religion and spirituality are almost certainly wrong though.

Yes, and I have peace in my life because I have this relationship.

I absolutely do not.

No.

One single god God, perhaps what makes a god a god? I do believe we form a network or web of connected consciousness. Who's contained within this web and how interactions work on it is where it gets interesting.

No, and as far as I can remember I never have.

I should add that my parents consciously decided not to make me grow up with adult santa claus as part of my life. The idea was that once I'm old enough to decide (somewher 14-18) I can decide for myself. They haggled out a deal with my school where I was free to sit in with varying religious education classes to compare. Eventually having a chat, I was by then big time disillusioned by how little sense everything made, and while at the time I could not understand how my friends could take this nonsense as anything even remotely true, I also knew I could not takei t serious.

So, here I am. Still no adult easter bunnies for me. 😅 I mean, I get why some people find it a useful thing to cling on to in times of desperation, but then I would also say that that is no different than the grifts Theranos or homeopathy or so were/are running. You just milk money out of people's grief, desperation and loneliness. Because of how low the barrier of entry is to most of our religions (after all, our parents make us start with it by default 😢), the buy-in is so low that most people never actively notice this part. Maybe I had it easy, since I would have had to climb that barrier first.

Do I believe in any higher power in general? Well, no. A bit of a shame, I know. But I doubt the Twelve from Final Fantasy are all that real; cool as it would be to meet Nald'Thal or Menphina because of their kickass fight-themes in FFXIV.

I used to be a pretty devout catholic but went through the whole crisis of faith. So these days, no.

I still wonder a lot about before the big bang, or wherever the actual "start" of everything was and what sparked it or made the energy exist in the first place, but I don't want to just hand wave it and say God because we don't have an explanation. But its definitly something I ponder

No, but I don't want to rule it out completely. I there is, it's probably nothing like anyone has every thought about. There's a lot about the universe we don't know. I think it's a bit foolish to claim for certain things when we know so little about the universe. One day, it might be possible to measure the soul with scientific equipment, and future people may look back on us and think, "Wow, they actually believed they were only organic, not even realizing they have a quantum soul," the same way we look back at people who thought the earth was the center of the universe.

The world is a complicated place, and what we say now may look foolish or ahead of its time 100 years from now.