~thought of the moment...do you believe in a higher power? if so, then what would that be & why do you believe; & if not, then why not?

wow... DivA. Going for a real, honest to goodness topic, eh?
Ok, I will bite. I see that a few people have read this already and decided not to.
The short answer is no. I do not believe in a higher power.
My reason? Look around. What sort of monster would create all of this and then watch it slowly go to shit. People shooting each other, in his name no less. Babies being born with diseases. Some people say that God created AIDS to kill homosexuals because of thier evil, sinful lifestyle (the fact that people actually think that makes me so mad I can hardly see straight, but anyways...). If that's the case, then wtf did a fetus do to cause such a horrible wrath? There are just too many things wrong with everything for me to truely believe that someone is in charge.
Now, all that said, I do think that I would be a happier person if I did believe though. Just knowing that there is a beautiful place that I would go to after I died would be great! But, I know that there isn't. To me, only humans could invent a place like Heaven and then go right around and invent a super fucked up thing like Hell.
Please understand, that I do not belittle anyone's religion or beliefs. Not at all. I just have my opinions and, except for this very moment, I keep them to myself. Like I said before, I would love to believe. I just need something... more.

You know, DivA, you're not allowed to post a question this deep and not partake yourself.

I would be very careful about these topics. They can lead to people's personal believes being either offended or offending someone. Let's keep any mean spirited remarks or anything flame-like to one's self.

I've seen it happen on so many forums, so I'm just throwing out the warning now.

EDIT: That means that it's cool to discuss, but nothing bitter.

Personally I do believe in a greater power. I try not to bother with labels and deep thoughts like what it is. I just believe in it. One may ask why? I would guess my answer would be cause Im a very optimistic open minded person, and because I want to believe.

Do I believe in a higher power, yes, but it is good to remember that these higher powers were written by man. I actually believe in two higher powers. I do believe in a God, and I believe in an Anti-God. I don't know why our god allows all of this negative stuff to happen, but I think that the devil or anti-god causes the negative things to happen. I don't think that god doesn't care but maybe he/she whatever or whomever may not be allowed in some way not to help. There are so many beliefs on this topic and the only way to truly know whether god exists or not wil be to die. The answer to that question is yes, but I don't follow the rules of one specific religion because the only way to know for sure, like I said before will be to die.

I feel a lot like scu on this one. I don't think any higher power, at least one like any religion I know of on earth portrays it, could create this world and let this happen to it. Catholics say that it's all part of free will, and because we have this, is why evil people kill others and harm people... but what about cancer? What about AIDS? Natural things, diseases, stuff that our fragile human lives are weak to, because there has to be something. If there is a God simliar to the one the Christians believe in, I'd like to know why he lets us live like this and not a paradise, similar to the one we have to do good deeds our entire life to get into, instead of allowing all this. Free will is great and all, but murder victims and children or anybody who dies of a terminal illness and is ripped from the world had no free will... they died because we're organisms with immune systems and sometimes they get infected and they fail, and some people are mean and some people hate and kill. Not because we were given the gift of anything, least of all free will...

Meeeeeeh~

Yeah, but we have to remember, Higher Power doesn't necesarrily mean all good higher-power. It could make human or conscious choices and maybe mankind has done something to betray this higher-power(or maybe it's off somewhere faraway and it left us to do as we wll.) Think about it. We have murderers, killers, racism, war, and all of this other stuff with Bush and Iraq etc. Maybe it's not that he won't do anything, Maybe all of this has made it so mad that it chooses not to do anything.

Not really, not my thing to look into and whatnot, so I'll leave it at that.

I believe in a higher power, one might call him God, another might call him Frank Zappa. For lack of a better word I an christian. I do not in any way follow church law. I, myself follow the bible, what I feel, philosophy and many other things. I guess you can say I belive in God, and Jesus and so on. But I consider my religion to be more pagan in nature. The bible states that there is 3 gods (Interpret it how you wish, this is just the way I see it) There is God the father, God the son and God the holy spirit. People believe for them to be the same person, I believe for them to be 3 seprate entities all together. As I said, I'm christian for lack of a better word, but it's really my own belief system.

I in no way think any form of religion is wrong, nor do I think any is right. I follow what I believe because it makes me a better person (not saying if you don't follow what I believe that you're a worse person, this just makes me and me alone better)

All I know is all religion stems down to one thing. There's something out there.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, us being on earth makes us guests in somebodys home. Lets not mess it up.. Because clean up would be a bitch.

Everyone should love everyone and hate no one. Hold hands... yadda yadda....

Peace on earth good will towards mankind.. yadda yadda..

I guess what I'm trying to say is:

"Be Exellent to Eachother."

and...

"Party on Dudes!"

I am not a practicing believer in any religion. Though it may sound blasphemous to some, I always thought studying the bible and going to church was a waste of time. My family is very involved in Chrisitianity, and sometimes I feel like a black sheep. When I visit them, I've been pressured to go to church events and stuff that I really did not want to attend. Now I have no problem with the Christian religion nor any religion at that, but I've always been highly skeptical of any higher power defined in the ways that were presented before me. However I will say that deep down, I have always believed in a God, which of course I refer to as just God. I guess it's because I really can't see how existence could have been created from science if in the beginning there had been nothing? I suppose I'm mostly influenced by scientific reasoning, but of course that his it's limitations as well. It too is based on laws and words defined by man.

So basically, yea, I do believe in a higher power you could say. Deep down, like everyone probably, I'd just like to know the truth. And I suppose it's better to be open minded to the thought rather than completely shut out from it.

Even under the assumption that God’s existence is unlikely, the potential benefits of believing are so vast as to make betting on theism rational. - Blaise Pascal