Do you believe in God and why

[Mel52]

Hopefully this topic will help some people think about it a little more and hopefully will help people become closer to God no matter who you hold your God to be. But I may not identify with a specific religion but I ASSURE YOU THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A GOD.

 

 

[Tagged]

37 minutes ago, Mel52 said:

Hopefully this topic will help some people think about it a little more and hopefully will help people become closer to God no matter who you hold your God to be. But I may not identify with a specific religion but I ASSURE YOU THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A GOD.

 

 

How can you assure us about there is a good? It is Assuming there is a god, nothing else!  

 

 

[Issannative]

No but its a good novel

[notmyself]

6 hours ago, Mel52 said:

Wow this topic has been going on for months now. But yeah I definitely believe in God. Very much so! I was raised Lutheran but I don’t necessarily identify with any specific religion because religion too often divides us all. But I MOST CERTAINLY DO BELIEVE IN GOD! And when you’ve seen some of the things that I’ve seen in life (LOTS OF THINGS), it kind of makes you know for sure that God does exist. But people can believe whatever they want although I can’t help but feel sorry for anyone who doesn’t believe in God. I especially feel sorry for Atheists that’s a really pessimistic view on life.

 

 

Atheists and?

 

 

[notmyself]

6 hours ago, Mel52 said:

Hopefully this topic will help some people think about it a little more and hopefully will help people become closer to God no matter who you hold your God to be. But I may not identify with a specific religion but I ASSURE YOU THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A GOD.

 

 

 

The invisible leprechaun formally called Colin who resides in my shed assures me in no uncertain terms that there is no god. On what grounds should I disbelieve him?

[notmyself]

6 hours ago, Sunmaster said:

(Corrected to avoid misunderstandings)
 

 

Cheers

 

So, considering that after 200.000 years (since homo sapiens) we're still debating if God exists or not and no definite answer has been found yet that can satisfy one side or the other, I doubt we will come to a satisfactory conclusion here anytime soon.

 

The rudimentaries of believing\acting on **** for no good reason would very likely predate modern man. In any case.... as much as we like to 'big up' our species, we are still very gullable. One of my interests while traversing the planet has been local beliefs, superstitions and such. Some of it has been useful in that I always spread the entrails of a goat around my hut to ward off bad spirits and I'm still here to tell the tale. What more proof could I want?

 

 

 

[CMNightRider]

Picture a guy floating downstream on a raft on a hot summer day. He’s having the time of his life, enjoying the ride as the cool water gently splashes on him. You’re on the shore and you know that there’s a deadly waterfall not far downstream. This guy is floating blissfully and ignorantly toward certain destruction! So you yell to warn him. You throw him a rope. But he rejects it and keeps floating toward certain death. Why won’t he grab the life preserver? Because he loves what he’s doing and he doesn’t want to believe your warning.

 

Why do people reject God’s wonderful offer of salvation through Jesus Christ? You would think that everyone would eagerly grab the life preserver that God has thrown out through the gospel (John 3:16????“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Why would anyone reject such a wonderful offer? Why would anyone want to keep heading for eternal destruction? In our text, John shows us:

 

People reject Christ because they love their sin and they hate having it exposed by God’s light.

 

[Sunmaster]

1 hour ago, CMNightRider said:

Picture a guy floating downstream on a raft on a hot summer day. He’s having the time of his life, enjoying the ride as the cool water gently splashes on him. You’re on the shore and you know that there’s a deadly waterfall not far downstream. This guy is floating blissfully and ignorantly toward certain destruction! So you yell to warn him. You throw him a rope. But he rejects it and keeps floating toward certain death. Why won’t he grab the life preserver? Because he loves what he’s doing and he doesn’t want to believe your warning.

 

Why do people reject God’s wonderful offer of salvation through Jesus Christ? You would think that everyone would eagerly grab the life preserver that God has thrown out through the gospel (John 3:16????“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Why would anyone reject such a wonderful offer? Why would anyone want to keep heading for eternal destruction? In our text, John shows us:

 

People reject Christ because they love their sin and they hate having it exposed by God’s light.

 

No, people reject your "salvation", because it's based on a very screwed up understanding of what God is.

 

God is supposed to be pure, unconditional Love, the highest possible expression of LOVE.

1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

 

God loves all his children equally. Yet, according to you, some children are more deserving than others. A person who grew up on the other side of the world and who never had any contact with your version of God, Jesus or the mighty bible, is (again, according to you), condemned to eternal damnation, even though this person has never done anything bad in his/her life.
Romans 2:11 For God does not show favoritism.

Does that make any sense to you??

It shouldn't come as a surprise then, that people prefer floating down the river and happily ignore your warnings. What you think is a deadly waterfall downstream is actually a stairway to heaven, accessible to EVERYBODY, not just a selected few.
Don't you see? It's the same mentality that sent priests to convert the "savages" to save them from hell, willing or not, by any means necessary. "Follow my way, or else...!"

Mark 12:31  'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by Sunmaster

[sweatalot]

The mistake of the religions is to believe - or claim - God is kind of a person.

[thaibeachlovers]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 5:16 PM, mauGR1 said:

Overpopulation, paradoxically, is a sign of favourable conditions,

I fundamentally disagree with that. That's what animals do when food is plentiful. Humans, though, continue to breed even when they are living in a war zone, then complain that the kids are being killed by bombing etc. That to me says humans are not very intelligent, as we have the ability to not have children if we so wish.

[thaibeachlovers]

41 minutes ago, Sunmaster said:

God is supposed to be pure, unconditional Love, the highest possible expression of LOVE.

That version is only recent. Before then, God was a real bad dude that would send you to hell if you didn't do what his minions told you to do.

Not much evidence of love in the old testament.

[Sunmaster]

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That version is only recent. Before then, God was a real bad dude that would send you to hell if you didn't do what his minions told you to do.

Not much evidence of love in the old testament.

True that. 
If we assume that the "God Vengeance" was made in the image of the men of that time, and that the "God of Love" is a reflection of our time, then we can say there's been some positive development at last.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Sunmaster

[Skeptic7]

5 hours ago, CMNightRider said:

Picture a guy floating downstream on a raft on a hot summer day. He’s having the time of his life, enjoying the ride as the cool water gently splashes on him. You’re on the shore and you know that there’s a deadly waterfall not far downstream. This guy is floating blissfully and ignorantly toward certain destruction! So you yell to warn him. You throw him a rope. But he rejects it and keeps floating toward certain death. Why won’t he grab the life preserver? Because he loves what he’s doing and he doesn’t want to believe your warning.

 

Why do people reject God’s wonderful offer of salvation through Jesus Christ? You would think that everyone would eagerly grab the life preserver that God has thrown out through the gospel (John 3:16????“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” Why would anyone reject such a wonderful offer? Why would anyone want to keep heading for eternal destruction? In our text, John shows us:

 

People reject Christ because they love their sin and they hate having it exposed by God’s light.

 

Because the waterfall is real. Because it exists and everyone floating towards it will suffer the same result...gravity. Because we have knowledge of waterfalls and the effects of gravity...and know the dude is gonna PLUNGE and not keep floating. What you're offering is throwing him a lifeline and truly saving his life. What you pretend to know and offer in the BS second paragraph is that he'll keep floating! I know it's a metaphor, but it's an incredibly terrible one.

 

And why would YOU try to save the guy anyway??? He'll be in your nonexistent heaven with your nonexistent deity very soon. Seems you should just let him take the plunge, meet his demise and live even more blissfully ever after floating beside GEE-ZUS on the raft of eternity. I would try to save him for obvious reasons...but if he didn't want help, then so be it. Pop open another cold one and let the Darwin Awards have another nominee. 

 

I don't "reject" Christ and YHWH same as I don't reject Allah and Mohammed or Santa or Zeus or The Easter Bunny or The Flying Spaghetti Monster. 

[Skeptic7]

4 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

That version is only recent. Before then, God was a real bad dude that would send you to hell if you didn't do what his minions told you to do.

Not much evidence of love in the old testament.

Not so, if you're referring to New Testament as the recent version. Hell is much more "New Testament" than "Old Testament". 

 

This quote from desiringgod.org...

 

No one in Scripture spoke of hell more than Jesus did. And no one spoke of it in more terrible terms. And no one made it more clear that it was a divine punishment, not just a self-inflicted consequence.

 

Jesus calls it “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46), “eternal fire” (Matthew 18:8), “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12; Mark 9:43; Luke 3:17), a “place of torment” (Luke 16:28), “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13), “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:42, 50; 22:13; 25:30), being “in anguish” (Luke 16:24), “where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:48).

And he teaches that people do not go there voluntarily; they are “cast into hell” by God (Luke 12:5; Matthew 5:29; 18:9; Mark 9:45), “thrown into the outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; 22:13; 25:30). God is the Judge who makes these reckonings.

 

And another quote from apologeticsindex.org...

 

Christians have more than ample teaching in the New Testament to establish the doctrine of a literal, eternal hell (see Matthew 3:7, Matthew 3:12, Matthew 5:29-30, Matthew 18:9-12, Matthew 13:38-42, Matthew 13:49-50, Matthew 25:46, Mark 9:43-47, Luke 12:5, 2 Thessalonians 1:9, Jude 7, Revelation 14:11, Revelation 20:13-15, and Revelation 21:8).

[mauGR1]

6 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

I fundamentally disagree with that. That's what animals do when food is plentiful. Humans, though, continue to breed even when they are living in a war zone, then complain that the kids are being killed by bombing etc. That to me says humans are not very intelligent, as we have the ability to not have children if we so wish.

To compare humans to animals is not so far fetched to me.

[mauGR1]

On 8/19/2019 at 8:14 AM, thaibeachlovers said:

People living in Idlib or the Congo would disagree with you.

We live wonderful privileged lives in the west compared to most of humanity, and we waste it on BS, for the most part- reality tv, anyone?

..And, you said repeatedly that you see the presence of God in the shining stars, which I agree, why don't you see the same in all the disasters which afflict humankind ? The way I see it, if God exists, it's beyond good and bad, and good and bad are there to teach us lessons.

Without wishing to criticize, I know that life can be extremely hard sometimes, but the image of a good, all-forgiving God sounds false to me.

[Issannative]

Haha its a never ending story a good novel accepted and agreed good to control the populace has been proved to be good because it is still controlling ppl now be they christ jew or mus its all about control

[Issannative]

You belive in nothing then it's bad no control over you that's it basically

[Skeptic7]

Zero surprise here...

 

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2019/08/22/Survey-Atheists-Jewish-score-highest-on-religion-test/3811566484918/

 

[upu2]

Of course I believe in me, what a silly question

[Issannative]

All praise to up raise your hands

[Issannative]

I once saw a holy chicken

[Odysseus123]

3 hours ago, Issannative said:

I once saw a holy chicken

Don't mess with holy chickens.

 

I think it was C.Claudius Pulcher who tossed his sacred chickens overboard after they wouldn't eat the blessed pulse saying "If they won't eat then they can drink!"

 

The moral of the Roman tale being that he lost the ensuing naval battle against the Carthaginians..

[notmyself]

All of these facets of untruth are a hobby that has gotten out of hand. Imagine you collect stamps, fist edition books, paintings, songs, limericks and such. We all love them dearly....  cherish them.... comfort them.... tend to their needs. I'll play with my toys and you can play with your toys. If you wish to play with my toys along with me then cool... you don't have to and in return I don't have to play with your toys. 

[Elad]

I spoke  to a friend the other day, he's a christian and believes everything in the bible. I questioned him over a couple of passages from the bible one of them is where it claims that certain men back then such as 'Noah' lived to an age of 950 years or so when life expectancy would've been at most 50 years.

His answer to this was that when God created the solar system, the Earth was orbiting the sun much faster than it is now and the years were much shorter, they lived for around 50 'now' years but it was 950 'then' years.

 

Is he making this up or does it state this in the bible??

Back in those days everything was orbiting the Earth, we were the centre of the universe.

 

In any case, i calculated that the Earth would have to orbit the sun every 20 days to give them an age of 950 Earth years (50 now Earth years.

 

Then using Newton's third Law where the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi major axis

 

 Puts the Earth at a distance of 21.6 million km from the sun.

Which means the Earth would've been closer to the sun than mercury, and no life could exist at temperatures of over 1000 C. The Earth would be a ball of molten rock orbiting the sun.  

 

[Skeptic7]

2 hours ago, Elad said:

I spoke  to a friend the other day, he's a christian and believes everything in the bible. I questioned him over a couple of passages from the bible one of them is where it claims that certain men back then such as 'Noah' lived to an age of 950 years or so when life expectancy would've been at most 50 years.

His answer to this was that when God created the solar system, the Earth was orbiting the sun much faster than it is now and the years were much shorter, they lived for around 50 'now' years but it was 950 'then' years.

 

Is he making this up or does it state this in the bible??

Back in those days everything was orbiting the Earth, we were the centre of the universe.

 

In any case, i calculated that the Earth would have to orbit the sun every 20 days to give them an age of 950 Earth years (50 now Earth years.

 

Then using Newton's third Law where the square of the orbital period is proportional to the cube of the semi major axis

 

 Puts the Earth at a distance of 21.6 million km from the sun.

Which means the Earth would've been closer to the sun than mercury, and no life could exist at temperatures of over 1000 C. The Earth would be a ball of molten rock orbiting the sun.  

 

The "Fundies" have an answer for everything...regardless how "effed"-up. If they don't have an answer...they just make one up. Beyond ridiculous. Mind-bogging (and numbing) that they still cling to their silly "stupid-stitions" and unreasonable blind faith. ???? 

[Odysseus123]

5 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

The "Fundies" have an answer for everything...regardless how "effed"-up. If they don't have an answer...they just make one up. Beyond ridiculous. Mind-bogging (and numbing) that they still cling to their silly "stupid-stitions" and unreasonable blind faith. ???? 

Fundamentalism is-as you know-very big business and the US is it's engine room.It is therefore not surprising that they acquire some of the best marketing minds in the business to construct ever increasing,complex explanations to counter science and it's "materialistic" view of the world.In fact the more implausible the ideas are the more powerful is the "Leap of Faith" that guarantees a persons acceptance within the group.

 

No-one is going to admit that the Bible is a group of foundation myths,potted history,poetry,tall stories,metaphors and homilies all wrapped up in the viewpoint of a group of highly aggressive goat herders 3,000-2500 years ago..

[Skeptic7]

15 hours ago, Odysseus123 said:

Fundamentalism is-as you know-very big business and the US is it's engine room.It is therefore not surprising that they acquire some of the best marketing minds in the business to construct ever increasing,complex explanations to counter science and it's "materialistic" view of the world.In fact the more implausible the ideas are the more powerful is the "Leap of Faith" that guarantees a persons acceptance within the group.

 

No-one is going to admit that the Bible is a group of foundation myths,potted history,poetry,tall stories,metaphors and homilies all wrapped up in the viewpoint of a group of highly aggressive goat herders 3,000-2500 years ago..

Yes. They've got alot of high profile kooks in the USA. Apologists (aka science, evidence, fact and reality deniers) the likes of William Lane Craig, Ken Ham (the Ark guy), Ken Hovind, Sye Ten Bruggencate, Matt Slick and dozens of others. Real nut-jobs. These guys never miss a beat, regardless how wrong and absurd the answer. Kinda like Trump! 

[notmyself]

4 hours ago, Skeptic7 said:

Yes. They've got alot of high profile kooks in the USA. Apologists (aka science, evidence, fact and reality deniers) the likes of William Lane Craig, Ken Ham (the Ark guy), Ken Hovind, Sye Ten Bruggencate, Matt Slick and dozens of others. Real nut-jobs. These guys never miss a beat, regardless how wrong and absurd the answer. Kinda like Trump! 

 

They don't really have a choice. Take evolution for example... They cannot accept it while at the same time believing in the creation narrative. This is why, to some extent, I'm on their side. The ones who pick and choose are the radicles.

 

 

 

 

[CMNightRider]

Atheists have no explanation for the origin of life or mankind’s sinful nature, in spite of their noises to the contrary.  The God of the Bible, on the other hand, has given us the only historical basis for understanding the origin of the human gene—and mankind’s sinful nature—His Word.

 

Not only is the Creator God the source of all life and the source of our knowledge about life, He is our only hope (through Jesus Christ, the Creator/Savior/Redeemer) to escape the consequences of our evil nature, which blinds us to His truths (1 Corinthians 2:14) and causes us to seek our own way (Romans 3:11).