Does God Exist?

I've hurt god's feelings have I? I mean, we're only talking about my eternal soul and my understanding of the meaning of life here. But hey, I acted like a child, so I totally don't deserve any of that. Nevermind all the things I do in my life for good, never mind that I volunteer at a hospital and have devoted my life to helping those less fortunate. Nah, I showed a little attitude in a forum, so forget it. Meaning of life? Denied. Eternal glory after death? Don't make me laugh, I shouldn't have been so dang patronizing.

If your god is like this, your god can eat a barrel of shit.

 

Oh God has a problem with being tested? Yet supposedly our whole lives are a big test God is putting us through. Seems like kind of a double standard.

 

The gist of the Christian God over the past few pages: Put all your faith into God but don't expect him to do anything.

 

I think God has to be the creator of this world. I'm sure he would have a lot of power, as creator. I think my parameters here are pretty lenient, considering how seriously some people take this subject. Well, if you're going to take it to those logical extremes...why talk about God at all? Isn't everything just perfect?

I assume you're talking about the Bible. The Bible says a lot of things I find hard to swallow. I think that's something God could do if he came back...explain why it says these things a little better.

That's a big "if", given the information we've been provided.

There are those who say the Quran could. Can't God resolve this situation?

I think some guy with super powers could come along and tell us which, if any religion is the best one. Or maybe they all are! But just tell us. Otherwise we're never going to figure this out.

 

Many times i find non religious people much kinder than religious folks....

not always the case....but non religious people are are not anything hoping for reward or punishment.....

case in point...bashing Jennifer Aniston by someone then saying god bless and pray in same post? Seriously?

I see some really walk the walk of what they preach, too.

 

Yes you and whole lot of others

Yes we are and it's not so much about what you deserve but the fact your acting like a petulant child prevents you from getting the understanding you say you want.

Those things are nice and I commend you for them but let me ask you a question, do you expect doing those things to help you understand physics better?

You don't see the causal relationship between what you do and where you are going. If you want to go to the store you have to takes steps toward the store. Take steps away from the store and you are not going to the store anymore, no one is punishing you for those steps but those steps are taking you away from the store not toward it.

So would you say that things like this are steps toward God and the understanding you say you want or steps away?

The old God can do anything I want him to concept. When it comes to doing things in the Universe he created, God has to work with in the rules that he created for that Universe and even if we do not understand how miracles work, they still are within the rules of the Universe. So no Pokemon.

As for Malaria, as pointed out mankind eliminated malaria in North America and Europe but mankind has decided that in the 3rd world countries it is too expensive to do so, let them eat cake. Maybe if we just let them die, God will step in and bail them out.

 

No, God has no problem with being tested. The statement is for us, so we don't get caught up in testing over and over again things that didn't need testing in the first place and never make any progress.

No, our lives are not big test God is putting us through. Our lives were given to us by God for us to enjoy and that means we do have decisions to make and those decisions will make big differences in how happy that life will be. God has given us an instruction manual and the better we get at understanding those instructions and following them the happier our lives are going to be.

The fact that many around us are "happy" living marginal lives and call God instructions restrictive does not mean that if they actually lived by those "restrictive" instructions their lives wouldn't become more enjoyable.

 

Yep, he's not going to come to your drunken parties and do magic tricks.

 

knock knock

Don't test god?

Watch me.

 

You know everything isn't prefect, have you thought about why it's not.

What might those things be and why do you find them hard to swallow?

There are many that have found the information given to be more than sufficient.

Quran? Do you understand Arabic or are you planning on learning it anytime soon just you can decide if Quran is the word of God?

What did you have in mind?

This is what you had in mind is it? A few party tricks and you're on board? Just tell you? Okay, the Bible is the word of God. Did that help?

 

Again, you're claiming to know the mind of God. What if God really does just want the people of this thread to become believers? I don't see why not -- who knows what God's plan is? Maybe he'll show up here! You don't know!

Well what kind of true friend holds out on those that are true to them? God has everything, meanwhile good people are dying in wars. Good people are starving to death. And all because God doesn't want to give hand-me-downs to a-holes?

Testing is the most crucial part of making progress, though. Testing is a testament to wonder. You wonder about something, so you test it. You'd think God would be flattered by testing.

Well it would aid us for instance if God could tell us if he was being literal or figurative in several instances. Otherwise we're going to be going around in circles for a looong, looong time.

 

For the love of... nature. Please tell me you didn't type that with a straight face.

 

Not really but as you get to know him you begin to know how he thinks about some things.

God wants everyone in this thread or not to become "believers". He probably won't show up but his representatives just might.

Dying in wars? If mankind would just stop going to war wouldn't that stop without God's help? Starving to death? If mankind stopped be so greedy and shared the surplus rather than burning it or letting it rot, no one would starve. Isn't mankind's greed, mankind's problem? God wants to help but honestly, just reading this thread, how many do you think really want God's help and are not just giving lip service to "God why doesn't God help".

The real problem, almost everyone wants something for nothing. I want God to fix all my problems but I don't want to change any of the things that cause those very problems and will continue to cause those problems.

Like I said; test all you want but in the end you'll get lost in all this testing and you will never make any progress. At one time I thought things like "question authority" or "question everything" seemed like good ideas but the problem is there is no end to it. If you've questioned something then question it again and then again, where does it stop?

Try this instead; make sure of all things; hold fast to what is fine.

Try just using a little common sense, like if you read the words in a vision, parable or illustration then most likely what you are reading is going to be figurative and if you don't see those or similar words or phrases then more than likely what you are reading is literal.

 

Why? Don't you know that it is considered a sacrilege to translate the Quran into a language other than Arabic?

 

Same has been said for translations of the bible.

 

When you told us to drink deeply, you never said it was the "kool aid".

 

Well since at least three different languages were used to write the Bible it is a little harder to say that about the Bible with a straight face.

 

It is a quote and it is talking about the sharing of water not "kool aid".

 

I'm not talking about God coming and fixing all the problems. Just settling the issue of if he exists and how to follow him. And not even for everyone. Just for the people who happen to read God's response to this thread. Just wait for it, it's coming...

It stops when you've learned what you need to know. Every experience teaches us something.

There are parts of the Bible where common sense doesn't suffice. Things that seem absolutely literal can't be taken literally because they're crazy and no one is willing to do them.

 

Surely theists must admit that god is largely indifferent to the plight of individuals,or even ignorant,in absentia or more prosaically a cosmic force that set the wheels in motion then left the building.

If someone asks me if I believe in god is reply "where is he physically located,does he require sustenance,isn't he awfully lonely etc.

The question is on a par for me with the dilemma's of the physicists,some of whom try to create models of the universe which require no creator.That is,is the universe bounded or unbounded,infinite or finite in duration,and did it emerge out of the necessity the impossibility of there being no physical reality at some moment in time.(We'll leave aside the notion of multiverses.)

It seems to me that non-existence is impossible,because even that requires the conceptual ization of "no space",which still implies the imputation of something which is "no space",which is a something.

I put the god question as a category among these questions,which requires science to help us understand.Everything that exists has physicality,otherwise it would not exist by definition.Therefore if God exists he is physical.So is he located exactly.Universal or extra-universal? possible?

My hunch is we will never know.Maybe there are super-advanced aliens who don't and will never know.Maybe at the moment we are just not clever enough to answer the god question,and maybe never will be,if we make it that far.

I apologise to those theists who take god as a matter of faith,but this is just something I am not %100 able to commit myself to at the moment.