Talking about God...adjective or subjunctive?
Hola todos mis amigos,
I have a question about when someone is referring to God or religion. You could be certain or doubting/questioning the existence of God. Do I have to use the indicative when I'm certain and the subjunctive if I'm doubting or are there others rules applied in this matter.
saludos mi6mi6
2 Answers
The matter of doubt/certainly with mood is from the speaker's (author's) point of view of reality. So if you wish to declare your opinion or express your doubt or deny something, it is from your personal, mental, point of view. You can declare something that you believe to be true even if it is not actually true. Remember that the indicative is meant mainly to inform the listener of something. You do not have to be 100% certain of something to express an opinion. The indicative is used for likely, probable, suppositions while the subjunctive is used for denial, contrary-to-fact and unreal conditions.
So if you believe in God, declare your beliefs or opinions if you think that they are probable or likely. If you wish to speak of things that are contrary-to-fact (if I were God...) or unreal (if I had know that before I would have...) or if you wish to deny something (no creo que Adam....) use the subjunctive.
The mood isn't based on 100% certain 0 conditionals and everthing else is subjunctive. It can be a matter of I expect this or I do not expect this to happen, or to express the theoretical different from what you perceive of reality.
If you declare that "I am going tomorrow". That deals with the future. Can you be 100% sure that you will go tomorrow? You are only declaring/informing what you intend or a likely or probable outcome.
If you say I don't believe that I will go tomorrow. Are you declaring that you are 100% sure that you will not go. You are only expressing that the outcome is unlikely or improbable.
We don't need an epistemological debate on the existence of God or the reality of religion to express what we see as probable or improbable outcomes, or to express our subjective reaction to something or to inform someone of something.
delete-already answered
Just because one doubts, disbelieves in, or is agnostic about one idea doesn't mean that one uses the subjunctive. The subjunctive is used to convey a sense of uncertainty as we might with a few English words or intonations, but the sentence must call for its use first. The rules for subjunctive don't change just because one is speaking about religion or other beliefs.
For example, "Crea en Dios" doesn't simply mean "I'm uncertain in believing in God," and would actually be interpreted as an affirmative tú command as "create in God" or as an affirmative usted command as "believe in God" (likely this one because it makes sense).
Instead, you could say something like: "No sé si hay un Dios" or "No estoy cierto de que Dios exista." The first sentence is indicative because that's just how "No + saber + si" works, and the second is subjunctive because "No estar cierto" brings on the uncertainty or doubt, not necessarily the subjunctive itself.
If you wake up one day and feel certain that God exists, and you want to tell someone this, you'd say: "Creo en Dios" or "Creo que Dios existe," etc.
If you wake up one day and feel uncertain that God exists, and you want to tell someone that God exists (even though you're uncertain), you'd say: "Creo en Dios" or "Creo que Dios existe," etc. If you wanted to imply the uncertainty, you'd need a phrase that gives that implication, which would invoke the use of the subjunctive. "No sé que Dios exista," "no es cierto que Dios exista," "puede que exista un Dios," etc.
Basically, the subjunctive isn't (usually, but that's another case) used based on one's own beliefs on a certain topic (though the sentences that express these ideas trigger the use of the subjunctive quite often). Rather, it's used based on the other information in the sentence that conveys the doubt.
I hope that clears some things up for you! 
