It so, belief in a god is better based on blind faith, because the existence of god is pretty illogical. For starters, what created god, and what created the god that created god, etc ad infinitum? Then there's the bit about a god not being at the effect of the laws of the universe, such as gravity, thermodynamics etc. And of course where on google maps does god live? It's just much better to say, "I have faith in the existence of god."

As a Buddhist, I like to turn the whole question on its head. Buddhism is a non-theistic practice. We don't believe in a creator God. We don't even believe in the existence of an ego. We postulate egolessness. Ego is a fictional concept that we create in our mind. So if there is no ego that can be found, weighed, and measured, then who/what is it that believes in a god?

There is no god that uses hurricanes and tornados to punish sinners. We don't know the origen of the creation of this universe, or even if its the only universe. We simply don't know.

as a universe without God. God was not created God simply always existed. If there is no God what created the universe? If the big bang theory is true and the universe was created by a single atom exploding what created that single atom? If the universe always existed like some believe how is that anymore logical than the existence of God? God does not use hurricanes to punish people,but in his providence he does cause hurricanes.

we don't know how this universe started, only that it did and about when. God does not cause hurricanes. The spin of the earth on its axis, the vagaries of weather, the evaporation of ocean water, and the expansion and shrinking of gases in the atmosphere cause hurricanes. This universe did not start with a single atom. It started by what is called a "singularity," which is thought to be an infinitely dense amount of gravity. Basically "singularity" is the name used for "we don't know." We don't know what a singularity is, because we have never been able to observe one. We can only speculate that it has the property of infinite gravity, and that inside it, space-time ceases to exist, or at least exists in some way that we don't understand.

You lack the scientific knowledge to discuss cosmology. Perhaps you should just stick with belief in God based on faith. But if you postulate God based on logic, well frankly your so-called logic is deeply flawed. There are just some questions for which we have no answers.

So if it's logical to believe something can exist without being created. What makes the believe the universe was created by a singularity anymore logical than the believe that God who exist without being created created the universe himself? Whatever the scientific explanation is for how hurricanes happen God causes all of those things too and therefore God causes hurricanes.

or arise from some pre-existing causes and conditions? You have no such evidence, and neither does anyone else. There is no evidence for creator God that exists outside of space time and the laws of the universe. So just stop already with your bogus so-called logic. You are free to believe in God, or not.

Personally I'm rather fond of the Hindi version of how the world came to be. That is rests on the back of a big turtle. And when asked, "What does the turtle stand on?" The answer is, "It's turtles all the way down."

Nothing+Nothing=nothing therefore something somewhere along the way had to exist without being created for anything to exist at all. Stop with your total disrespect of Christian believes on a Christian forum. Your logic isn't anymore superior than ours.

It was said that they had noticed the slight wobble in the Earth's motion.

This is more of a Taoist thought. The mutual interdependence of polar opposites. There would be no word for good without a word for bad. Just as a coin has two sides, we wouldn't need a heads sides without a tales side. If you love or hate, it is only possible to name that feeling without it's opposite. There would be no word for hot without cold, it would not even be thought of. Early Christians, the Gnostics knew this.

for a long time not just Gnostics. God created the laws of opposites to begin with. Isaiah 45 verse 7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.

Deuteronomy 30 verse 15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good,and death and evil;


Pre-Christianity there was an early form of Gnosticism. Which taught dualism that there was a God that caused all the good and another God that caused all the evil. Which is why God affirmed he alone does it all in the book of Isaiah.

that don't take the Bible as the literal truth. Rather, we understand it as a human expression and morality tales, relative to its time and place. So quoting Bible passages to me in place of real scientific fact is a pointless exercise. You won't swing me to your point of view that way.

Buddhism sees "good" vs "bad," "light" versus "dark," etc as dualistic thinking. They are just concepts.

Not the main forum or the forum for Buddism? So of course the bible is going to be quoted here.

and quote it frequently. But I don't take it literally.

one must also accept that the Creator does not intervene and guide creation. If a person kills another, the blame for that killing is one the person doing the killing.

If sentient beings are to be truly sentient they must be free to act freely, and in the action, they accept responsibility both for their actions and for the consequences of those actions.

I am one of those Christian that believes in an deterministic theology. I don't believe that any man's will is free of the sovereignty of God.

But if sentient beings were created in the image and likeness of the Creator, does that not imply sentience and free will?

sovereignty. There are things we are told in scripture God can do that we cannot and even God himself doesn't have total free will. He is bound by his own nature. For instance the bible tells us God cannot lie. Therefore God is not free to lie. Scripture teaches God has perfect knowledge of all things. Therefore man could not act outside of God's perfect knowledge,because if he could God wouldn't have perfect knowledge of all things.

The Creator is not bound by our limitations. We believe that also. So there is no equivalence except that we are both sentient.

The Creator created sentient life and that life has free will. Absent free will, the will to act freely, humans would be merely puppets acting a script.

My view.