Does God exist?

[+paradox]

What I find missing is almost no mention of Jesus in all of this. My beliefs are that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and through my repentance or turning from sin and by putting my full faith in Him is what gives me salvation from my wickedness. It's not so apparent to people who know me here because I was saved not long before I got into forums.

The Bible is the word of God and with it tells us the story of God's involvement in the life of man and how wicked we are and how glorious He is. It shows how a Christian is to live as well as show the promises God made to those who believe and to those who don't. Having faith means trusting in those promises because they were fulfilled in the past and will be fulfilled in the present.

I will say I find it rather curious that the atheist in this discussion decided to use already made images of quotes he likely never written himself while atheists in general make the charge to think for yourself while he lets others do the thinking for him.

This world is as it is because of sin and has slowly fallen apart because we refused and continue to refuse to obey God and his laws. The more we disobey and rebel against him the worst our lives will become till we either turn to him and repent or end up dead where we face judgement by God for the lives we lived.

It's not enough for me to just say He exists because even the devil and his angels believe that and they tremble in His presence. I experienced far too much to ever doubt His existence. The reason God doesn't answer all prayers in the way you want them is because he sees our world far differently for he sees all both in this present moment and for all time.

the Human Race does enjoy pointing the fingers at everyone else but themselves, much? (;

 

[+paradox]

i believe god...now i ask you, can you see the gravity? (yes.) who control the planet? (God.)

Religion is the cause of 90% of conflict and war. (could you believe that's not an accurate percentage and blaming God for the Humans actions maybe too harsh?) (; Where is your peaceful God now? (still peaceful, watching and loving?)

 

[+paradox]

I'm still waiting on the link to the outside source that backs up the statement that "religion is the cause of 90%...".

I could just as easily say that Pride, or Greed, or even Machismo is the source of 90% of conflict and war.

But of course, somebody would want to see the reference material.

And, something else, who said anything about the "Supreme Being" and Peace?

The working definition I am most familiar with includes Righteousness, which may or may not include "peace" depending on the circumstance.

But then again, that wouldn't be just jumping in and bashing all concepts of god in one fell swoop.

maybe wickedness and evil has something to do with war? (;

 

[Ladyvamptress]

I personally do not believe in God, but I also do not think he never existed. I grew up believing there was no God, but after seeing miracles with my own eyes that I cannot explain, it had me questioning if there is something out there. I am the type of person who is too full of pride to ask for help, so I will never pray to God to help me, but I want my kids to have an open mind to accept or deny God themselves. I will never push what I think off on someone else. I will state what I believe in and also state what others believe in and give my children the option to believe in something THEY choose to.

I tried to find God, to accept him and to believe in him, but it's just something that seems impossible for me due to me being the type of person that if I don't see it then I don't believe it. I know things in my life have happened and there is no way for me to explain how they happened, but I am not going to jump up and proclaim God did it when another force may have been at play. I will simply go through life neither accepting or denying there being a God and I will live my life the best I can. When I die, I will find out the truth and that will be the day that I accept or deny God. I am a good person, not because I want to get into heaven (as I don't believe in any of that stuff currently either), but because it makes my life liveable. I couldn't live with myself if I could help others and actually didn't. If God is real and heaven and hell is real. I hope that I have proven myself worthy for a spot in heaven. Once there I will thank God for all he has done and live my after life continuing to help as many people as I can and watching over my loved ones.

 

[+paradox]

to that i say (and also explains a few other points):

The church doesn't necessarily represent God, God exists with out church and religion... Religion doesn't represent God either... Just like your actions don't necessarily represent your father or family... God gave you free will, God will judge you at the end... To those that don't believe in God due to so much evil and carnage on this Earth, It's because of Humans, not God... Your free will that God gave you lets you do what ever you want, if you choose to not believe then don't... It's more logical to believe in a Almighty (Creator) than to believe there's not... As a science buff, I'd thought you'd understand that... I enjoy when people try to disprove God when they can't, yet get mad at the people that believe because you say that God is imaginary... Imaginary? Please do tell on how you came up with that since you can't disprove God... But yet Science is proved wrong over and over and over again... I wonder why? Because Humans tries to understand what they can't understand, and try to make things as facts when It's merely a guess or false... I'm sure you're the guy that thought the Earth was flat and stoned the guy that disagreed with you... Nice try...

 

[+paradox]

I personally do not believe in God, but I also do not think he never existed. I grew up believing there was no God, but after seeing miracles with my own eyes that I cannot explain, it had me questioning if there is something out there. I am the type of person who is too full of pride to ask for help, so I will never pray to God to help me, but I want my kids to have an open mind to accept or deny God themselves. I will never push what I think off on someone else. I will state what I believe in and also state what others believe in and give my children the option to believe in something THEY choose to.

I tried to find God, to accept him and to believe in him, but it's just something that seems impossible for me due to me being the type of person that if I don't see it then I don't believe it. I know things in my life have happened and there is no way for me to explain how they happened, but I am not going to jump up and proclaim God did it when another force may have been at play. I will simply go through life neither accepting or denying there being a God and I will live my life the best I can. When I die, I will find out the truth and that will be the day that I accept or deny God. I am a good person, not because I want to get into heaven (as I don't believe in any of that stuff currently either), but because it makes my life liveable. I couldn't live with myself if I could help others and actually didn't. If God is real and heaven and hell is real. I hope that I have proven myself worthy for a spot in heaven. Once there I will thank God for all he has done and live my after life continuing to help as many people as I can and watching over my loved ones.

that's perfectly fine sweety. (;

no one needs a religion or a belief to be a good person, good spirit, good soul or what have you.

 

[DrLeftover]

One thing I can say is that whoever made the graphic, evidently drew their Bible knowledge from T-shirts instead of the Book itself.

The quote actually runs as follows:

1 Timothy 6:10 (KJV)

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Timothy+6%3A10&version=KJV


and nobody else noticed the error

odd, no?

 

[Damian]

It is as resonable for you to believe in a god as it is for me to believe in a flying hippopotamus. Can you disprove the existence of the flying hippopotamus that controls the universe and created everything? Remember, he can't be seen and can't be touched either, but he exists!

 

[+paradox]

That's fine...

How does anyone know for a fact that there's no flying hippopotamuses on other worlds in a different universe or in another reality or dimension?

You've proven my point even further...

 

[DrLeftover]

That's fine...

How does anyone know for a fact that there's no flying hippopotamuses on other worlds in a different universe or in another reality or dimension?

You've proven my point even further...

One would have to accept the existence, or non-existence, whichever the case may be, on Faith.

Let's see, what was that working definition of the word????


"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."
Hebrews 11 : 1 (KJV)

 

[DrLeftover]

Another argument could be made that Without GOD, well, for one thing, this song would be meaningless:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zJ3zV8aGAM


And we can't have that now can we?

 

[LegendHidden]

I'll hold on to the old somewhat clichéd statement; I would rather live my life believing in God and die to find out I was wrong, than to live my life believing God does not exist, then to die and find out I was wrong, or something to that effect.

I really honor that statement! I really like how you put it in place.

 

[Bluezone777]

The problem with that statement is it relating to God on fear and god did not give us a fearful spirit nor did he reconcile himself using fear. The same can be said of Pascal's wager which is pretty much the same thing just worded differently.

There is only three things that could motivate you to do something which are : self interest, fear, and love.

Self interest and/or fear would not give Jesus the motivation to go to the cross and save mankind by taking upon the wrath of God destined for us onto Himself. Only love could motivate Him to do that because a love of both God and people( read Matthew 22:36-40) is the only thing strong enough to bring you to doing that so why would He want us to come to Him on anything else then what He used to redeem the people who believe in Christ and Christ alone. Unfortunately a lot of people believe themselves saved through the motivational power of fear or self interest but neither will ultimately save you. Self interest and fear won't lead someone to live a godly life which is the hallmark of a believer as it neither serves the natural man to follow either fear or self interest to the end as they lead you part way then make you run because the logic behind both says to do so.

 

[Bluezone777]

Well you can feel it but it doesn't mean it's a good feeling to have. We can have it all but we end up choosing what we want and don't want. I feel when a believer fully rejects something then the temptation is taken away as he has fully rejected it and shown in his heart he has no love for that thing that has been tempted him for he has through free will rejected it so he's abiding by your free will to take the temptation away as you want it gone. As long as you still have love for it then it will remain because you chosen by your own will to hang onto it. It's a slow process though and takes an entire lifetime. This is definitely no say a prayer for five minutes and you are done thing as many preachers out of ignorance preach to people that they can say a prayer then live any way they wish. That is wrong and is nowhere in the bible to be found. I believe a lot of what people do that we might consider evil or bad is based around accepting falsehoods about God, Jesus and the Bible as truth. It was written that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fear in this case would be better translated as meaning respecting the Lord.

A lot of it is freely choosing to deny yourself so much that is available to you but because of your belief in Christ reject because you know choosing to sin was the very thing that put him on the cross in the first place. In the end, this life lets you choose whether you want to go to that court on judgement day defending yourself against a holy God as judge OR have Jesus be the counsel that defends you on that day.

 

[DrLeftover]

"Fear God"

Another misconception based on the mistranslation from the King James Bible.

The word in the text should have been rendered to a combination of "honor, obey, and respect" God.

Not Fear.

 

[Damian]

Honor and respect yourself and the people around you.
Fear not an imaginary being that lives in the sky and shall punish you for breaking his law.

 

[Bluezone777]

Honor and respect yourself and the people around you.
Fear not an imaginary being that lives in the sky and shall punish you for breaking his law.

What's stopping me from honoring and respecting others while respecting God's law at the same time? The entirety of the law is built on two commandants which are love God with all your heart, body, and soul along with the second rule being love others as yourself (Matthew 22:37-40). Sounds to me that I can both follow the law of God while honoring and respecting others so I don't see the conflict.

...

I figured the word was supposed to be honor, obey, and respect and not fear. It sounds loving to honor, obey, and respect someone but not fear them.

 

[beowulf]

The word in the text should have been rendered to a combination of "honor, obey, and respect" God.

respect s something that is earned, not just freely given.............and how can you respect something which no only refuses to show itself but allows untold evil to happen in a world it created when it supposedly 'loves all its creations'

obey.....you saying i should blindly follow something that will not even show itself to me?

honour has a 'u' in it

 

[TommyTooter]

The word in the text should have been rendered to a combination of "honor, obey, and respect" God.

respect s something that is earned, not just freely given.............and how can you respect something which no only refuses to show itself but allows untold evil to happen in a world it created when it supposedly 'loves all its creations'

obey.....you saying i should blindly follow something that will not even show itself to me?

honour has a 'u' in it

only for you limeys

i would also contend that respect in terms of common courtesy is something that should be automatic. for myself, a person is always respected until they earn my disrespect.

there is a sensation that is called the 'ruach hakodesh' or holy wind by the jews and 'indwelling of the holy spirit' by the christians that is unmistakeable when somebody has said something profoundly true or you find yourself in a holy place, which for me is usually in the cathedral of nature where i can feel the unity of my spirit with the rest of creation.

einstein didn't buy that bearded guy in the sky schtick either, but he did recognize that there was something that consciously made what is and holds it all together. my personal opinion, after many years of studying ancient scriptures of many people, is that there is a single entity that is all that is, was or ever will be, but humans are not the last step between us and that. there are more highly advanced races and the cosmos is heavily populated with sentient species, but we've been quarantined due to harmful behaviors of these advanced beings, possibly also because of warfare between them that threatened to wreck the planet.

 

[Damian]

The word in the text should have been rendered to a combination of "honor, obey, and respect" God.

respect s something that is earned, not just freely given.............and how can you respect something which no only refuses to show itself but allows untold evil to happen in a world it created when it supposedly 'loves all its creations'

obey.....you saying i should blindly follow something that will not even show itself to me?

honour has a 'u' in it

only for you limeys

i would also contend that respect in terms of common courtesy is something that should be automatic. for myself, a person is always respected until they earn my disrespect.

there is a sensation that is called the 'ruach hakodesh' or holy wind by the jews and 'indwelling of the holy spirit' by the christians that is unmistakeable when somebody has said something profoundly true or you find yourself in a holy place, which for me is usually in the cathedral of nature where i can feel the unity of my spirit with the rest of creation.

einstein didn't buy that bearded guy in the sky schtick either, but he did recognize that there was something that consciously made what is and holds it all together. my personal opinion, after many years of studying ancient scriptures of many people, is that there is a single entity that is all that is, was or ever will be, but humans are not the last step between us and that. there are more highly advanced races and the cosmos is heavily populated with sentient species, but we've been quarantined due to harmful behaviors of these advanced beings, possibly also because of warfare between them that threatened to wreck the planet.

Respect can be earned instantly, quickly or it may take huge periods of time. Whatever works for you. And I'm fine with that but respecting something that was created only for explaining what could not be explained and controlling the masses...is insulting to say the least. Insulting it was THEN. Now... it's just plain stupid. Why? Because we have science and the theory of evolution and do not need a magic man in the sky to explain how various scientific phenomena work.

And as for the common argument 'I'm a good person thanks to god'... The reality is that the majority of heinous crimes committed against people on this planet across all of recorded history had their roots on religious beliefs, but the ability to distinguish right from wrong does not require any religious beliefs. In addition, animals who are incapable of understanding our human concept of religion show clear evidence of understanding moral behavior and distinguishing between right and wrong.