"Do you believe in God?" What do you accept and reject as definition of God? What requirements are there for belief to exist? The question "Do you believe in God?" contains a lot of subquestions, which is why I am asking. It is ambiguous as a question as it stands. == Ok. Supernatural. Another issue. Driving line between physics and metaphysics. What is natural? What is not natural? == I have to unpack your compressed assumptions to be certain I'm understanding your questioning properly in order to answer it properly. == I am agnostic about most things. My default position on most things is: "I don't know". Knowledge I gain is tentative at best. An analogy would be: certainty for me is "more solid sand" than uncertainty, which shifts and can't be walked on. I test. I probe. I ask questions. I consider. If I am going to cross a rope bridge, I do so with great care. Sometimes I do not cross the bridge at all and instead find other ways of traveling across. When I see a 0.0001% I am careful to decide whether or not it is necessary to round to a 0 because that 0.0001% may be more significant than it at first appears. So, that gives you a 'gist' of my approach. I am agnostic towards most things. == Deities-as-written are stories constructed to give explanatory power to various systems. As they stand, I have not found a written deity whose constructed story matches what I would consider entirely accurate. However, this does not preclude the possibility of something in the [SET OF DEITY] yet unknown or unscribed not existing. It's an area of ongoing investigation from time to time. The case remains open. I act as-if the possibility exists. == A full comprehension of God from the judeo-christian traditions is dependent upon a number of factors. The sola scriptura is not enough but is it possible within a fuller tradition within which the scripture is a part-of? Yes. I investigated this possibility in my mid 20s for 5 years. I converted to Eastern Orthodox and spent a little time in a monastery, learning their practices. I cannot say what I learned/experienced is God or not God. I don't know. == I'll give an example: Sometimes I don't know if I'm doing the right thing. I make decisions. I know the cognitive processes that take place. I also know there are systems in play in the world that are not in my control. There is also the future: Am I making the decisions that will lead to optimum results, not just for myself but for whatever direction these larger systems go into. So, if I say, "Does the future approve of my decision?" Am I not saying, "Does God approve of my decision?" Is not one substituting for the other? If I say, "It is random and out of my control" is that not the same as saying, "It is God and out of my control", replacing "random" for "God" in the realm of "choice"? Is Randomness supernatural? Are unknown systems that function whether we know of them or not, supernatural? If we say "The laws of physics dictate", could that not be simply a description of God for a modern era? Do we know if there were a God that God would be a conscious agent or an agent with a personality that can't be circumscribed? In a pantheist worldview, even if we were describe the deepest inner workings of matter, even if we were to describe the effect of every cause, they might consider that all we have done is described the processes of the gods animating things. A realm where there is no distinction between natural and supernatural - just a state where, "this is how things are". So, I believe in systems and processes. Dictionaries are useful but limited. Synonyms are far more flexible. == By analogy, the dictionary would be your bible. It defines you. My bible? I'm writing it as I go along. == The definition of atheist is not one that can apply to me, for God which is a part of that definition is not adequately defined for me, rendering the question nonsense. Let's go back to the beginning of my questions back to you: "What do you accept and reject as definition of God?" == Could you, for example, accept a natural God? I'm not saying I'm advocating for it - I'm just trying to discern what you can accept and what you reject. == Why not? Look at the Gaia concept for an analogy. That is a goddess concept and it's not unreasonable to consider those working for the planet are engaging in worship of the natural world and its systems and processes. == Or another consideration: Logic. I come across this a lot in Philosophy forums. There are those who hold Logic to the level of deity. For them, the Universe is built upon Logic and all things lead to Logic and come through Logic, ignoring the fact that Logic is a human constructed system that happens to work very well (it's pragmatic) for problem solving, for internal consistency, for building machines and such. == I know. It's just too pat and dry for me and contains too many assumptions and unknowns, most particularly, the "self aware substructures". Is it possible? Sure. But for me, the jury is out on it. I still maintain that math, like words, does a great job of describing the Universe in a story form, but it's still not the Universe itself. ==