Necessary to believe in God?

[Eddye]

Okay, I did a search for GOD and came up with 200 pages of 5492 threads. Perhaps what I am looking for was somewhere in there, but WOW! The closest I have come were these posts which clearly show than an abundance of people DO believe in God:

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=42467&highlight=God

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=43035&highlight=God

https://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38758&highlight=God

I am curious about the number of people who do NOT believe in a traditional Higher Power.

What brought me to this was a recent theological discussion with my Jewish girlfriend. We are basically on the same wavelength (so I suppose thats good for us), where she believes in the God who created everything but doesnt care about what happens in the world, only about the outcome, (sort of like a science experiment), and I believe only in the POSSIBILITY of such an entity but not in the context of any organized religion which I have come across thus far. (Satanism is the closest I have found to what I believe, though even that seems to not be all encompassing. I do not prescribe to any religion so please don't get hung up on a particular reference or lack of here and miss the point of my question.)

I DO BELIEVE RELIGION IS NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN CIVILIZED SOCIETIES!!! I just have no faith in the whole omnipotent, omniscient, loving God thing to whom we should devote our lives, depriving ourselves of certain experiences that seem to be the very nature of our existence, spending time on our knees seeking guidance from and worshiping. I AM NOT CRITICIZING ANYONE FOR PRACTICING RELIGION!!!

My question is this: do you all feel it is necessary for a care provider to believe in and/or have faith in God or does it matter if he/she believes there might not be a second chance in "Heaven" and have only one FINITE life to live so therefore it is mandatory to ensure everyone gets the best possible chance to be happy and make our marks (so to speak) the only time around?

Thank you in advance for your thoughts.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Originally posted by cicicross

Ok first of all I will apologize for people taking my comment as an insult. I was fed up with the scripture, preaching tones, and witnessing being posted. People were saying that you had to believe in God to be a good nurse, and I snapped. I wrote it and posted it without reading it twice to my regret. But more than one person said that believing in God was the only way to be a good person. This is basically calling all non believers miserable people who are going to hell. Well I don't believe in your hell so that doesn't apply to me. Fact is I was calling all those sentiments crap, not the Bible. I try not to be as insensitive to others beliefs as they usually are to anything non-christian. Pagans etc have their beliefs called crap constantly and have to put up with people telling them that if they don't accept the lord Jesus Christ as their savior they are doomed to fire and brimstone forever. Well I guess that all of God's first people, the Jews are going to hell then also because they do not believe in Jesus as the Christ messiah. He was just another prophet who said he talked to God for them.

Anyway, as to the person who said they would pray in their hearts for the person who didn't want prayed for...well I wouldn't want that either. Just because you aren't doing it out loud does not mean it is not disrespectful of our disbelief to pray for us to YOUR higher power.

Very good of you to be tolerant and apologize. I try to understand that Christians, true Christians, must follow their mission, their one and only true purpose and that is to save nonbelievers. Rejecting Christ does mean we're not going to heaven in their eyes, and the Bible commands them to witness to that.

Doesn't mean I want to hear it, but when I do hear it as I've heard on this thread, I try to not think of it as preachy shoving it down my throat, but that they are good people following the Word.

Then I tell them where to shove that Bible. JUST KIDDING!

But when I hear that my lifestyle will send me to hell, that there is only one way to get to God, that what I believe is evil, it does get a little old and I can certainly relate to why you snapped.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Originally posted by Jay-Jay

Please do not refer to the Bible as 'crap' This is insulting to those of us who are Christians, and is in violation of our TOS.

Hmmm-I am going to have to refer to that TOS again...I seem to remember every race, creed,sex ,nationality and nursing speciality being"insulted" on this board at one time or another...

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Bottom line: At least RESPECT opinions, don't have to AGREE with them.

I don't agree when people say there is no God, or hell or whatever, but i am not calling their viewpoints anything BUT opinion and/or viewpoint.

[Shiva_Las_Vegas]

Originally posted by shunda

Of course, I would respect your wishes if you did not want to hear about God. But that would not stop me for praying for you in my heart.

May God Continue To Bless Us All!!!!:)

I don't think that would really respect my wishes. Don't pray on me, either silently or outloud.

Thanks.

[Jay-Jay, RN]

Originally posted by ktwlpn

Hmmm-I am going to have to refer to that TOS again...I seem to remember every race, creed,sex ,nationality and nursing speciality being"insulted" on this board at one time or another...

LOL! (Looks back at her very lengthy PM list) Yep, I seem to remember that too. Um, that's the ALLNURSES TOS I was referring to. The Christian's TOS is in the Bible....the short version has only 10 rules.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Originally posted by Jay-Jay

[b The Christian's TOS is in the Bible....the short version has only 10 rules. [/b]

LOL! That's a good line....