Just out of curiosity

[The Sherman]

I've always wondered this. I am an athiest and am pretty sure that there is no god/gods magical elephants that govern us. But I know I cant be sure for certain.
So question is what % would you give the possibility that there is a god?

I'll start and say i believe the chance of there being a god at about 1%
(oh if your going to answer could you let me know if your athiest, agnostic or what faifth you believe in thank you)

[Lil O'lady]

I'd say it's 50-50 either way although like you I choose atheism. We choose, or are encouraged, to accept a great deal of 'scientific' argument without proof that we can interrogate or understand, so I don't see the difference between believing in that and believing in little divils.

[jake-the-peg]

The difference is that although we do not understand a lot of scientific argument It is possible (with enough work) to learn and understand it and people do.

I've never been to Australia but I know people who have and I've seen pictures so I'm willing to believe it exists.

I don't understand how proteins are formed in the cell . But People tell me that ribosomes convert the information in DNA into proteins. They seem to agree on this and have evidence for this so I'm willing to believe them.

Religionists however all seem to disagree on the nature of God and never seem to have any hard evidence apart from the writings of people who disagree on a lot of stuff and people's personal revelations.

Now you might say "we have very little evidence for Shakespere's existance but I'm sure you think he existed."

That's true but nobody claims Shakespere arose from the dead, walked on water or asended into heaven.

We have a principal that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence - Tell someone a blue car wen't by they won't wan't to check - tell them a blue elephant did and they'll want to see the photo!

So with all of that I'd say less than 1 in a million

[SuDFB]

Im a Roman Catholic, and although I completly understand the point that have been mention I stillb beleive God exists... I was brought up this way and when I go to church and feel a wonderfull presence when I am there.

I like to beleive there is something else out there then just science and that when you die thats it...

I cannot justify what I beleive its simply something I feel and beleive in... you may think its because I was brought up as a Catholic but there is more to it, as a teenager I lost my faith, was going through a hard time and felt that God was not their for me, and recently I started to go church again and I feel such an inner peace...

To me there is a God 100% but I respect the people who don't beleive as when you put science and religion next to each other science can proove more then religion ever will...

:)

[WaldoMcFroog]

Is there any point in trying to assign a number to it? If I say I'm 99% sure, how did I arrive at that figure? It's meaningless.

I think it's very, very unlikely indeed but that's because no one has ever shown me any credible evidence and on the basis of what is put forward as evidence, I find it difficult to conceive that anyone is likely to, but nevertheless, show me some credible evidence and I'll change my mind.

I'll tell you one thing though; any evidence that does support the notion of a God seems to me to be far more likely to come from scientific observation of the universe than from obsessively pouring over an obviously human-inspired text.

If I ever am convinced by evidence that there is a God, I don't anticpate that it could be a theistic God, but a deistic one.

[The Sherman]

Well Waldo your answer like mine are the boring answers but for people who say 50/50 or are 100% sure then its very intersting for me to listen to how they have come to those conclusions.
How does anyone get to 100% on this subject? thats a mind set so far removed from me thats its always interesting to speak to those people to see how their reasoning works.

[Ankou]

as walso says unless you are 100% either way its pointless putting a number on it so it would be an emphasis on scale. likely, unlikely, highly unlikely, improbable, impossible.

aside from that, this q is just a variant on the 'do you believe in god' or 'why do you believe in god' theme.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Actually, I have no problem with 100% either way. It's just that I can't see any great value in discussing how come you decided that you're 99.9% certain rather than 99.8% certain.

[Ankou]

well that was my point, nice of you to reiterate it.

[jake-the-peg]

No Ankou I deeply disagree.

Unless you can accept the tiny possibility you might be wrong then your position is one of faith.

This is the great lie that religionists like to level at atheists that their position is just as much about faith and belief.

It's not true and it must be resisted

[WaldoMcFroog]

Ankou, your post wasn't there when I began replying to the Shermster.

[Ankou]

ok waldo.

so what you are saying jake, is that in truth everybody is 99.9% sure either way. being 100% is just dramatic and exaggerating.

i am happy say that i am 99.9% certain there is no god, but a religionist would have to say 100% or they would have a crisis of faith.....

so it really is 'why do you believe in god'.

[keyplus90]

First of all I am Muslim as many know here. I do not think that certain things you can gauge in numbers or %age. I personally believe 100% that there is God. However I do not believe in tooth fairy, Santa, and all other things people talk about here. But as I said, someone will ask me that where is the proof for me to be 100% certain. So what would I do? Nothing much being a human. Because as human our knowledge as well as abilities are very limited does not matter how clever we think we are, there would still be so many things around you that you would not have any idea about. How much your wife, son, daughter, husband or other relatives love you, or hate you. can you put that in %age? Or can you even prove that with 100% surety?

We human totally depend on our given senses. Someone shows a picture of Australia to jake and he would believe in it. But perhaps that person showed him picture of Afghanistan and said it was Australia. How would Jake know? So Jake is totally dependent on the reputation of that other person. I have a simple (if understood) or difficult (if not understood) reason to believe in God. A human has nose, eyes, ears, hands, tongue etc to tell something exists or not. But there are so many things that do not exist according to these tools. Do your thoughts exist? How would you prove? When a person is dead he still has eyes, ears, nose etc. What is missing that he does not listen, move or speak any more? Can you prove what that was which is missing now? What would you call it? We did not see it, but something was there which is there no more.
So all of us believe in someone else. Few believe in what few prophets said and few believe in what few scientists said. Difference lies in time. Few believe it as Faith and few as scientific fact (or even theory sometimes). Science still has long way to go to prove few things. But I am sure one day they will. But for few that might be too late.

[Ankou]

i asked my wife last night in bed how much she loved me and she said oh about 100%

i said prove it.

it was a most memorable night. i'm convinced

[Ankou]

so is 110% perfect-er then ?
it must be because alan sugar gives it all the time, so he says.

[chakka35]

The Sherman, I'm curious to know why you should try to assign a probability - a very rational idea - to something which is not rational at all. You're mixing cultures here - the equivalent of a mathematician trying to calculate the square root of a teacup and a cabbage.

How would you go about calculating the probability of there being invisible fairies at the bottom of your garden? Where would you start?

[Ankou]

chakka, everybody knows that the square root of a cabbage is a brussel sprout.

[naomi24]

I have no reason to believe that God exists, and, hence, feel the possibility is extremely remote. That's as near as I can get, Sherman. Sorry.

[sammmo]

I would like to believe 100% that there is a god but as I've no evidence iether way i'd have to say 50%. a priest once asked me if i believed in the devil and i told him i've no evidence of iether the devil or god.. I would love to see a ghost just to prove to me there was an afterlife .. even if it were a evil demon I would love to see one.. if i did it would prove to me there was a god and a devil and that this is'nt our only chance of "life" afterall.. i would believe 100% then and only then that there was a god. but at the moment i'm on the fence.. wanting to see proof