Faith and Science Collide: A Future for God?

Tom, why did they focus on the eye-glassed guy with the VanDyke beard? Was Satan lurking in the crowd to see what the hub-hub was about? But seriously:
-Depak was expressing basic stuff. Most of which was/is considered heresy, wrong-thinking, etc by most Christian churches, Catholic Church, and most Orthodox Churches (at least officially but likely Depak’s stuff is probably in line with many current practices/teachings/sermons). Usually the issues were taken seriously and refuted by bigtime Creeds, Papal Bulls, censures, ex-communications, etc. (read up on Manichaeism, Gnostics, the Reformation, etc etc and so on….) Much of these thoughts existed a long time ago but have reappeared in Christian churches in recent times, essentially, is using VERY old issues but under a “new age” mantra, and to some degree Asian religious ideas, to appeal to Western audiences under a “Christian” framework. There also is, of course, the direct influence of Hindi and Buddahist, primarily, on Western religions due to the “fad” in the past decades and some of those old ideas also creeped in. Deepak just packages these basic ideas and has a nice receptive audience but they have nothing to do really with Christianity (at least as the Bible or Jesus would have it) except as this new/old idea of “spirtualism”, ecuemenialism, or whatever.
This is in no way to criticize, or support, one demonination or indeed religion at all, except to say one needs to be careful with definitions and know history. I suggest reading up or even taking a basic comparative religious class to get some basic history and you’ll see that most of this “new age” stuff has been dealth with before. Many times. Amazingly, or not, the ancient debates, councils, works, etc dealt with even more perplexing issues and often in much better format, and indeed debate, than ABC “roundtables”.

Factually I agree with the scientist, I think he’s 100% right, but religion has a role. It brings people together and can be very comforting. Hopefully in the future it will go back to being about love and compassion for others instead of political issues and power as it is today.

As god is an imaginary construct, neither a past, present, or future is a property of god.

I would love to believe that when I die, that some disembodied form of my self floats out of my body into some nirvana. But there is no proof of this from either Religion or Science.

I’ve seen comments on a lot of sites lately; this site is attractivve because it seems to attract people with working brains, who seem generally to recognize that we may not be able to “think” our way through this issue.
I agree that you cannot (should not) have a debate” about “God”; but we can, and probably should, share “conceptual” ideas.
Seems to me that, unless there is a “God”, who chooses to clearly reveal himself/herself/their selves (sic), we may go on guessing, more or less “forever”.
I agree with, and try to live like, the person who believes that it does not require a “God”, to behave civilly and responsibly to our fellow creatures.
I do not feel obligated to espouse any particular point of view.
I “guess”, but will not argue about, the possibility that we are merely a lesser “culture”, established on this planet by some other, substantially superior, culture.
I also have a portion of my brain which is comfortable with the idea that our “God” is entirely within our own minds.
I am into “recycling”, including accepting that it may happen to some, or all, “souls” (as an engineer, I have a bit of a problem with the expanding “numbers”, of world population, but I suspect that is not significant), to be “reincarnated”.

do democrats have a future….they think they are gods…

Creation
Religion seems to be worried that science is moving in on their territory by answering the question of creation. Actually science does not answer the question of creation at all. The two biggest theories we relate to creation are the big bang theory and evolution. They are not theories of creation but theories of change.
The first law of thermodynamics states that matter and energy are interchangeable and each can be changed in form. That is to say that matter can change into energy and energy can change into matter and that matter can change into other types of matter and energy can change into other types of energy. But science says the there is no known force in the Universe that can create or destroy anything, either matter or energy. Only change them.
Evolution describes matter and energy changing over time. We all agree that matter and energy change over time.
The big bang theory is not about creation. It states that all matter and energy at one time were present in a tiny ball and exploded to create the known universe we see today. It was not a process of creating something out of nothing , just an expansion of what was already here and the changes that took place as it expanded.
The theory also states that the big bang itself would have destroyed all evidence of whatever existed before the big bang. Therefore although science has lots of theories about how things change over time it offers no theory of creation at all.

I believe in myself and my family. My family is my spititual comfort. I don’t need some made up god to find happiness and peace on earth. I see the future of god desolving into a renewed belief in onesself and family. In the past God was an excuse. In the future excuses will be more personal and not based on some make believe spirit of some kind. Maybe the worl will finally find peace without religion to fight over.

Does “God” exist? Have a future?
If, we open mindfully, and intelligently, redirect this famous “Title” to identifying ‘Life’, we can concretely state: That ‘Our Creator’ and “Origin” both exists and has a future. The future of ‘man’ is another story; as. Life needs not ‘man’ to continue on in its evolution.
By doing so, we also regenerate Life into our very own Natures of Being; as, so early civilized man demonstrated to factually, and realistically, be of Physical and Spiritual (other nature)attributes in many ways.
From the Christian (Catholic in particular) point of view: The upcoming Pope-ly Saint declared that heaven, hell, paradise, and purgatory, do not exist. That pretty much wipes-out the fairytale versions and H-Book Fiction Novels. It also knocks -out their “God’s Future”; unless ‘man’ foolishly determines to destroy Life via “Blind Faith” cover-ups of factual historical mind-games, which were instituted for reasons of wealth and power at extremely human levels.

Why is it that people who call themselves christian, have to call those who are not “pigs’ , traitors, etc. I guess they simply call themselves “christian” but don’t really follow Christs words…I believe there is a name for that, but I don’t call people names…

God is too great and omnipotent to be explained by man and science. Science is man’s attempt to explain what is around us. If scientists can’t explain something they can’t prove with the limited technology available to them, like God and his scheme of creation…then they lazily dismiss it as not being real without putting their own logical and intellectual shortcomings into account. How mortal.
Nature and our universe work too well to be a mere coincidence caused by a violent explosion with an unknown cause. Imagine tossing a hand grenade into a garage and expecting a fully restored, operational 67′ Ford Mustang to result from the blast! That’s the ‘Big Bang’ in a nutshell, a scientific fairytale to fill an imaginary void that religion already explains, and in better detail. Faith is a meaningful virtue too easily discounted by non-believers who don’t understand it.

Are you kidding? Does God have a future? Ummm…I guess that depends on your opinion of God. But, opinion does not dictate truth. If that were the case, then no matter what your opinion on anything, YOU would be right. Ummm, again…since an opinion does not determine truth, our opinion of God and His existence has no bearing on the truth or whether or not He has a future.
So, if there is a God, the question is ridiculous. And if your opinion is that there is NOT a God, the question is still ridiculous. I love this…that which has been made questioning the future of the maker. Based on this ludicrous question, I think WE are the ones who should be questioning OUR future.

Hi FGreggMeagher, The First Ammendment says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” From the constitution online. But what did a liberal pig like me expect from a Republican. Those proud to be dumb. Faith is belief without proof. A debate is impossable as there is no proof to present just faith. I have faith, do you? Or do you want proof? Faith at the point of a gun is not faith but fear.

Science cannot disprove the existence of God but it might discover – much to its chagrin – that there is a God. Despite its occasional claims to the contrary, the scientific community still has a lot to learn about our environment.

Y’all have an opinion. But I dare you to honestly ask God what he thinks. Quietly without format be true to yourself. Ask what he wants you to know. Ask if He is. Ask Him to lead you. Show you what makes Jesus freaks like myself tick. Because if you humble yourself & ask Him to reveal himself, you just better watch out. A bomb won’t go off. A light won’t flash. But if you really take some time to let God take control, you will find He does exist, He loves you, He needs not our little debates. He has a plan for you, not to harm you but to finish the creation of you He intended before your parents ever met. God created everything & part of our experience of that we call science. It is just His order to this creation. Most will never take a honest moment to acknowledge God & therefore write me off as something less than human, but get over yourself. He will fix all your little worries, your needs to be accepted, your desire for fulfillment. He won’t make you into something you abhor, but rather something you always wanted. Something special that when you look in the mirror you can stop criticizing yourself. This will take time but God will only honor your humble request to know him. Please take that moment He loves you & I without knowing you love you also, & I am even now saying a prayer that you come to know Him & His way of life. Jesus is the way, the truth, & oh yeah that’s right He is God. May you be blessed in every way & may you stop for a moment & ask Him for some proof, guidance, love. Don’t get hung up on my words here you honestly know what I am talking about. I am just another fail-able human but you know deep down inside God Loves You in Jesus. I hope God blesses your sox off. Peace y’all!