[Иван]

Do you belive on God?

How do you think, why are so many religions and theories, and which of them is correct?

In my opinion, all religions are talking about one God, but they call him with different names.   

[Haveunique]

Interestingly, we've just been discussing the question of religions with one person recently... and we agreed that faith and religion are two separate things. I believe there are forces so much stronger and smarter than us (we can call it the Universe) that the best thing we can do is learn how to live in this world in the best way we can.

Religion - I think it is great to have faith in what you choose for yourself, but that's a very private matter.

Ivan, why do you think there is one diety and people name it differently? Maybe their gods are different?   

[Режиссер]

I believe in life before death, in my deeds and in cream after shave. That really helps not to put your responsibility on others)   

[Procyona]

I don't believe in any one god, but because there in no prove, I cannot say that there is not any. So to say, I'm an agnostic/ateist. To me it doesn't matter what people believe in, because we cannot grasp the ultimate truth during our lifetime anyway. (That is something one may know after we die, there is no point worring about the matter while we live.) The point is to life the way you feel comfortable in, to find your own personal truth and way of life. To my point of view, it can be found in religion as well as in any other thing man can devote himself for.

Because I'm a biologist, I tend to explane religious behavior through evolution theory. In this theory religions exist because people tend to see patters even when the is not none (to find other explanations to random events, like the beauty of nature by an unknown deciner). This is reasonable to the survival of the race, as hearing a noice in the bush on the way to homecave, it's better to imagine a lion in the bush when there was none, than left it unnoticed and get eaten by the lion.

Since I'm a non-believer myself, it's hard for me to know why people believe, as they usually just believe and do not consciously choose to do so.

How do you think faith and religion differ, Tetyana? How do you define faith?   

[Сифу Юрий Марченко]

The question of religion is very theoretic: a lot of different views, and not many proves. The human person may use the same thing for different goals, for example, to use knife to kill, or to prepare the deliciouse food. The same people can do with religion, to use to start war, or dedicate all teir life to promote the peace. As for me, I believe in Universe laws, it is more realistic for me.   

[Иван]

[SergS]

It is part of our nature - believe in something bigger then myself. So it is nature to believe in god / gods / space / …

I believe in one god, but I think it is just because of upbringing. Yes all of modern religion have single god. But look like it just because it is more comfortable for authority.

Think why children study history and Christian religion in the school. No other way – it is upbringing…   

[Fanda]

I belive in power of the nature. Nature where we came from! Let´s say that nature is only word. There is something stronger that we are. There is a system like animal, plants and people are born and died. Some people named it God, but I don´t thing that it is important to named it. Power is the same in the all over world, names are different!   

[Gra-ach]

I don't believe in Christian God the way it's described by The Church. In every religion the earth and everything around us was created by a deity or group of deities, but these Gods differ very much from one another which leads me to believe that there's something that overseas everything that's going on (because at some point at time poeple invented things) but I don't believe that it's actually an everythingseeing creature that has the power to punish or bestow gifts.

I believe more in the theory of egregores (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore) or something like that. Some kind of mental projection of every person or living thing that exists on Earth. It somehow makes sense for me, because in this way I am responsible for my future and everything I do and wish will somehow eventually come back to me if I work hard enough. And what I see when I go out is proving this theory.

As to why the God(s) was created - people knew very little and they had to explain things - so еры was the source. Afterwards, people needed someone or something to be responsible for bad or good things - like my kid is sick, this is a God's doing and I'm white and fluffy and it's not like I was drinking and smoking while pregnant. So it got promoted in order to lift the consequences of people's own actions from themselves, to have an excuse to act in the wrong way (usually). And then people realised that it's a good notion, that they can do little but cover by God's name and have a lot of power over others. And right now it's still like that.   

[Borys B]

I do believe in God and I have strengthened my faith after reading Karamozov brothers by Dostoevsky - novel about 2 brothers, one of them Ivan did not believe in God and became mad because of difficult circumstances, another Alyosha completely relayed on God that it will help to solve problems, and he survived, but problems were not solved because of lack of activity from Alyosha. The first character explain and argue that God can not exist and the last character give explanations why the God exists.   

[Haveunique]

[Gra-ach]

I don't argue with that. Religion, like everything else in life, is a personal choice. I know a lot of people who truly believe in God but at the same time respect my position as well. It gives them strength to move on and peace of mind, because they know that everything is going to be as planned... by God.   

[Procyona]

You are right Gra-ach and Tetyana, many people have confort in religious truths, and sometimes they grow to be better people because of it. (Like prisoners who turn to Bible or meditation.) For me, religion seems too easy an answer, though ;)

[Gra-ach]

And it usually says that people don't have a free will and that everything in life is predestined. I don't want to believe in this, though for some it may be a blessing to think that it's not his(her) choice, but a divine path. And that you have to do nothing in order to get something. And it's very easy to abuse this notion, like to say that I had a vision that this person should die so I went and gutted him (just exaggerating).   

[Procyona]