I asked Father O'Hare from my parish if God was really true, he said "he gave you that talent you have of speaking with your mouthful".... I know work as a food critic

Well, if God is a carefree psychopath with no concern with the past, present or future, I'd say the evidence is pretty compelling.

Wonder how much time the early pilots spent flying around above the cloud base…..

An update from my perspective, 12 days on from asking the question ...

I don't believe in god and thought that when I raised this on the forum he or she would punish me.

I can report that except for a brief thunderstorm when we were in Whitby last weekend (and we got wet) and a slight case of athlete's foot (now cleared by some creme - I didn't bother to pray, though, I just applied the creme as directed) I have not (yet) been punished for my impertinence.

I therefore conclude that god:
1. is not concerned about me and lets me do what I like;
2. has noticed me and meted out minor punishments;
3. is waiting to unleash an almighty punishment on me (frogs, blood, etc that sort of thing);
4. quite likes me and will conjure up a big lottery win for me sometime soon;
5. does not exist.

I've gone for option 4.  Praise the lord!

But of course I could be wrong - what do wise forumites think he'll do?

what do wise forumites think he'll do?

Romans 1:28-30, speaking about humanity as 1 entity....

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

So if you wantenly cavort around not caring about God or how he wants you to live, he will give you over to your sins and allow you to live as you please. But ultimately this will result in your (spiritual) death. Good luck with that!

So if you wantenly cavort around not caring about God or how he wants you to live, he will give you over to your sins and allow you to live as you please. But ultimately this will result in your (spiritual) death. Good luck with that!

I actually laughed out loud at that. Evidence gathered from a book of fairy tales.
How anybody in these enlightened times can give credence to a collection of story's written over 2000 years ago by persons unknown is beyond my understanding.
Even more incredible is the fact that these 'were selected from what was available, collated and put out as the word of god.
But even more incredible than that is that people believe it.

Now I'm not saying there isn't a god, nobody can say for sure either way but what I am saying is that if there is a god he is nothing like that as depicted in the bible or as told to us by men who dress funny.

You'll be lucky mememe, he's got more important things to do. He's busy chastising homosexuals at the moment after spending the afternoon making sure some highly paid footballers who "crossed" themselves scored a goal or two.
He's also got to observe a few sessions of god's justice being carried out by the religion of peace tomorrow, after all he's the same god you know.

Religion is bull crap. But I personally believe God exists. Here is one of thousands of reasons I could come up with. In the old testement the book of Daniel gives a countdown to when the messiah will come into Jerusalem. The OLD TESTEMENT is a jewish book. To the very day using the jewish year, it prophesies jesus entering jerusalem over 500 years later. Jesus fulfills jewish scriptural prophecy in hundreds of instances. He over turns the roman empire. A broken man on a wooden cross over turns the roman empire.
the dead sea scrolls are carbon dated. They are jewish books. They pre date the gospels which are the christian add on. yet they both reference each other. This book is a living entity. It is not Harry Potter. It's an unfathomable mystery which is the living word of god. That sounds spooky and insane to Atheists. I know it does because I was an atheist for over twenty five years. I know all the counter arguments for atheism - But the bottom line is you are going to die. I personally would prefer that when you die you just wink out and blackness engulfs you. I find that thought reassuring. I find possible immortality very scary. All these WHY questions can be answered by reading a book that's easy to find. If you want to refuse God, then do so after reading the book. Not the TV or what others say or do. Just read the book. IT IS NOT A LITERAL BOOK. It's the work of god and it speaks to the man in the third century as well as the twenty first century. So it begins let there be light - not... let a quantum singularity manifest among a forming hydrogen cloud. These terms would be meaningless to man in the third century. IT speaks to all men, at all times. Please be aware eternity is a long time. Eighty years is nothing.

IT IS NOT A LITERAL BOOK
Which could be said to be ambiguous for good reason. A book of metaphors and not fact can't reliably be disproved

There is no God imo.
We are an insignificant planet in the vast Universe. Why would a so called God have anything to do with us?.....we are nothing in the great scheme of things.
The Bible is a story not fact.
We got lucky that a mixture of chemicals produced us and everything else.....nothing to do with a God.
Religion has caused more wars and violence.....is this what 'God' intended?
God is something made up by civilisations long ago that did not understand the workings of the universe. I am also still at a loss to understand why supposed intelligent people in the Clergy believe that anything written in a work of fiction can have any influence on the human race and it's existence.
If a plane crashes......many say, if one person survives 'it's a miracle'......what about the 250 others that perished then!! The fact is one person got lucky.....end of.
Is anyone seriously telling me if I go to church I will become a better person.
I give generously to many charities......this to me is what it is all about. I like to help people who have not been as fortunate as myself. They have simply fallen foul of the twists and turns of life. God is not helping them at all.
We simply have a bigger plus more complex brain that any other animal that produces thoughts where other animals are not capable of processing. To my mind religion is simply a comfort for some, and if they want to have this in their lives then I don't have a problem with this, but don't inflict ridiculous beliefs on others......let them make up their own minds.

We are an insignificant planet in the vast Universe. Why would a so called God have anything to do with us?

There was a book called Ptolemy's Almagest. A standard Astronomical handbook used through the middle ages.

A quotation in the book reads: 'The Earth, in relation to the distance of the fixed stars has no appreciable size and must be treated as a mathematical point.'

Therefore, scientists knew for centuries that we were a little planet in a vast universe and never did they think it had any bearing on the religious question.

Look for a clip on youtube called Religion and Science by CS Lewis. It's where I got the above from, it's very good.

one thing that is very strange about the human being is that they can communicate wirh each other by writing.
in other words I can pick up a pencil and paper and tell you how I feel ,I wonder if in this vast universe of ours if there is other life can they communicate in written form.

"if they want to have this in their lives then I don't have a problem with this, but don't inflict ridiculous beliefs on others......let them make up their own minds."

But you are inflicting your beliefs on others right here. How come you're allowed to do it and not others. What about freedom of speech or do you only believe in this when someone is saying something you agree with.

'Christ' is a title, it wasn't a surname.
So I'm saying there is a distinction between Jesus of Nazareth and a person believed to be the messiah.

Anyone who comes to a conclusion about the existence of God is an idiot.

Did Jesus exist?

Apart from the bible stories there is only one other record of Jesus from the first century, written by Josephus a Roman Jew. There is controversy over this document, some say it was corrupted and a typical account is given in this link.

http://www.josephus.org/testimonium.htm

There is an article about the Testimonium on Wikipedia too as well as many other sites.

The astonishing thing for me is that there is no record of Jesus in official Roman documents of the era. The Romans were excellent at keeping records and one would have thought that having tried and executed such an allegedly conspicuous person, there would have been any number of documents were the story of him true.

I'm an aethist too (thanks be to god !)

but its not just the catholics that believe in jesus half the world believe.
Messi is a great footballer,half the world say he is the best ever,the other half would not agree,but in years to come nobody will say he did not exist.
Jesus must have being famous in his time,he had to be different than the run of the mill guy,and he had a lot of supporters.whatever he done or said he got half the world believing in him.Muslims believe in him as well as Christians so his fan base is fairly large.
it is difficult for some people to believe he was the son of god,but even the aethists except that the guy lived.
lets call him a historical jesus,but he still walked the earth and as far as I know he never claimed to be god.
all he did was talk about his father when he mentioned god,and someone called him the son of god,but he said he was the son of man.

Christ, so to speak.

I'm a devout atheist and smugly thought I'd be safe from the nutters - that they'd just kill the wrong types of muslim, some christians and possibly a couple of quakers.

Seems I'm wrong - I'm rapidly re-assessing my options, and fitting window locks.

And thinking of getting on of them pet pigs ... I hear they don't like them, well any pig, that is, but I wouldn't want a big one in the lounge and on the foot of the bed at night.
We've already got a dog so should be ok-ish.

I believe you have the basis of a decent theory.
But I merely give logical analysis.
I don't get annoyed but I do end up incredulous.
You base your perception of knowledge on what other tell you to think. The longer back in time the fruitier the outcome.

How can you not see the simple constant here is that Jesus existed as a carpenter of the time?
Just like the life of Brian.
The complete lunacy of the collective being greater than those erudite enough to control it.
Like all these f uckin nutters doing s hit in the name of God.
It's just punk rock adolescent theory based in resentment.