Thanks for having a go Crucifer.
Hmmm... Everything began with a big bang, I think. But that had to come from somewhere... And was moulded, I believe by a someone (God type being) existing in that somewhere... It works because it was designed to work independently of its creator... And so on... I'm not being very coherent here...
How God came into being? Hmmm... I don't know. I believe it may be outside time and space as we understand them. Rules like "how" and "why" don't apply to it...
So for this whole thing to work, there must be another "reality" which contains atleast one super-being who is able to set up a three-dimensional universe by some unknown means. This other reality, as it's unknown, could contain anything.
It wouldn't have a gender, I don't think... I don't think, anyway, that it would have genders as we understand them... Hermaphrodite maybe?
I am not familiar with the bible, but isn't God referred to as "father" in some texts?
Gods motivation is investigation. That is one thing I do believe. The universe is one big experimental cloud of dust...
We're all part of a big experiment? Well that would explain all the suffering and unfairness.. but how exactly does that offer you any comfort? If I were to be a victim, I would rather be a victim of random forces of nature, than a casualty of an experiment in which the instigator allowed for extreme levels of suffering to occur.
Physically, God can sort of manipulate the physical Universe. Mould it, if you will, but not absolutely directly change things because of cause/effect...
Monitoring every single person? I doubt it. You know the way you have really really weird days sometimes? Gods taken an interest...
That makes no sense to me. Can you be more specific - what sort of things can be moulded? If cause/effect is not possible, how could God take an interest and cause you to have a "weird" day? Do you really think this experimenter focuses in on you personally and decides "I am going to make his day a little different today"?
Mightn't have multiple souls... Might have different aspects of the one whole (Trinity style) that are responsible for different things...
But ultimately, God either has one consciousness or it doesn't. From what you're saying (i.e. that God does take an interest in you occasionally), it seems that God must have multiple consciousnesses or there'd be no way to take an interest in everyone even once in their lives.
Evidence that God is doing good things: Butterflies. LOTR. Mozart. Einstein. Roses. Water (Miraculous substance). Humanity in itself, in certain ways. Gravity. Picasso. Scientific Progress. Language. Mathematics. Etc. Etc. Etc.
I think this probably gets to the crux of it. And I've had these moments myself - when what you see around you or the emotion you're experiencing just seems too right or perfect or sublime to be a random grouping of particles obeying physical laws. But as beautiful as it seems, it can be explained by science alone. Also, none of those things make up for the suffering and unfairness in the world. For example, I can't imagine feeling it was a fair trade-off if I was wheel-chair bound at an early age, but was still able to see butterflies. And from your previous answers, it sounds like those things are just the positive aspects of Gods grand experiment with the universe, rather than a conscious effort to improve the world.
Praying is just hoping with bells attached. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Someone can pray for something selfish, but still belive that God wants the best for everyone, which is why prayers often go unanswered. It's about the bigger picture.
So does God listen to prayers or not? It sounds like you're saying he can't answer prayers and that it's down to luck if someone's hoping comes true?
The bigger picture that I'm getting from you seems to be that God set up the universe to investigate what would happen. But it was set up in a way that allowed for great unfairness and injustice to occur with no way for God to stop it. That sounds highly irresponsible to me. Is this really a caring and loving God, or someone simply toying with humanity?
Why do I believe? I am here, now, having these thoughts, typing them, knowing that I type them. I know. I think, therefore I believe...
Self-awareness must mean there is a super-being in another reality??
We are animals, and we can trace our lineage back to creatures that were not self-aware. Therefore self-awareness was a gradual progression, and a totally natural thing. There was no gaurantee it would happen either. Did God direct the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs and allowed for the ascendency of mammals? If that asteroid had missed, we would not be sitting here today having this conversation.
The fact that self-awareness came on gradually over time is proof that no divine force is needed for this to have occured - it simply developed from simpler and simpler life forms going back in time. It is just a by-product of evolution.