Does God exist? (6 Viewers)

[danieljarvis]

bill bryson - a short history of nearly everything.

good book if you want to get an outline on sciences thoughts.

 

[veterandoggy]

I said nothing different in the last line to anything else... why clarify? I am convinced Jesus is not dead and because of that, I am just as capable of hanging out with him as with anybody else.

no, it was the thing about him flowing FROM you that confused me. dont worry, i believe he never got crucified in the first place, but raised to the sky with another person resembling his picture taking his place. (im muslim, for your information. the rest already know ie sasha, ntb, moonlight)

You can dance, you can dance,
Everybody think with your pants

lmao, did you make that up?

 

[Wilmo]

no, it was the thing about him flowing FROM you that confused me. dont worry, i believe he never got crucified in the first place, but raised to the sky with another person resembling his picture taking his place. (im muslim, for your information. the rest already know ie sasha, ntb, moonlight)

Ah I get you... i'll use a little analogy to explain that if i can...

I am like a light bulb, and God himself is the light. It would be stupid if the lightbulb was so thick that the light could not shine out of it and thus defeating its purpose. The glass of a lightbulp is very thin so the maximum amount of light can get through.

The thing about being a christian is that I don't want people to focus on the imperfections in the glass, but instead on the perfection of the light.

Interesting theory... but i dont think you spend three years following someone/planning to kill them just to be fooled by a decoy. But i think it would be cool to know why you think that (and already worked out that you were a muslim from your other posts )

lmao, did you make that up?

I think theres a song like that... But it says "Everybody look at your pants" instead. It was on the Simpsons once

 

[MoonlightSonata]

http://www.takefive.com.br/images/frustration_00.jpg

I tire of this and I've said what I have to say, so no more religious discussion for me.

 

[poloktim]

I think it's pretty funny people trying to argue the existance of God.

Why would we need to have faith in something we knew for certain existed? What sort of free will would we have if we knew for certain that God existed? I'm pretty sure everybody would be good little boys and girls so they could get into Heaven if humanity knew for certain that God existed, for fear of incurring His wrath and entering Hell upon death.

On the other hand, if we were required to have faith that He existed, and never know for sure (because of the constant quest for scientific knowledge), we'd be able to act a lot more freely than otherwise. We'd be able to take Pascal's wager and not be completely certain of the outcome. Our will is complete, alone. If God does exist, He knew what He was doing in distancing Himself from us, because not being certain gave us the freedom to do as we please.

On an interesting note, athiests complain that theists try to stop further scientific research. I think this is amusing as the Catholic Church has an order of priests who devote their lives to "finding the God in all His creation." The Jesuites are the Catholic Church's researching academics who do plenty of research in many different fields.

 

[withoutaface]

Everything is permissable... but not everything is beneficial I hardly think me speaking to you (or even making a decision) under the influence of any type of plant or chemical is beneficial

No... it is not just some feeling i get from reading a book that causes me to believe in God. It's not just wishful thinking that there must be something beyond this life that causes me to believe. What i "feel" has very little to do with it.

I believe that God has revealed himself very clearly through the person of Jesus Christ. I believe he is fully man and fully God. I believe that he died, but was raised from death three days after. Because this, he is no less capable of presenting himself as real to me as he did to the people 2000 years ago.

So yes, I have a personal relationship with the man, and inherently God, even if i don't get to see him. He is no less real to me than you, who i cant see, or my friends who I see every day. I guess the best way to explain that is that I am blind and I cant see my friend, but he speaks and he puts his hand on my shoulder and he does everything possible to let me know that he is still with me.

Have i been left all alone to believe in this person I cant see? After all how to I know that you are really who you claim to be? If you really wanted me to believe you, you would send someone who knows you intimately to assure me of who you are. And God has done EXACTLY the same thing for me.

In becoming a Christian I have recieved the Holy Spirit. This means that God is no longer an external person who can feel distant and far away! Instead, God himself has made his home in me! Every day I must die to myself so that the life of God may flow from me.

How do I know that God lives in me? Because his Spirit awakens mine to his presence. And I am so humbled by the fact that the perfect and living God has chosen to make my sinful human body his dwelling place.

My natural state is rebelling against God's will for my life and there is NO way i can change that myself. It is only possible for God to live in a perfect relationship with God. So through my life, I exhibit the life of Christ in this; I am now dead to my sin, my rebellion against God, and I am no longer it's slave.

Yes I still sin, but every day I do what it is impossible for me to humanly do. By the Spirit I put to death my sinful nature and am thus the perfect God sees me as perfect. It is not because I am better than anyone else that God chose to live in me... but because he did i now have a full and active relationship with him.

In short, through the Spirit God revealed to me that I am not good enough to save myself, but he is awesome enough to save me. He did this through the man Jesus Christ who is as real as you and my best friends, and that I now have a saving relationship with.

But believing in God because of Jesus is essentially believing in him because you read a book.

 

[veterandoggy]

http://www.takefive.com.br/images/frustration_00.jpg

I tire of this and I've said what I have to say, so no more religious discussion for me.

huh? then why did you start this thread?

 

[SashatheMan]

bananna man

 

[Wilmo]

But believing in God because of Jesus is essentially believing in him because you read a book.

Not really... i don't "need" to read the bible to be introduced to Jesus... but it's because I have met him that i read the bible in order to learn more about how he calls me to live.

 

[Not-That-Bright]

Not really... i don't "need" to read the bible to be introduced to Jesus... but it's because I have met him that i read the bible in order to learn more about how he calls me to live.

Oh, you met jesus did you?

 

[withoutaface]

Not really... i don't "need" to read the bible to be introduced to Jesus... but it's because I have met him that i read the bible in order to learn more about how he calls me to live.

Sigged .

 

[veterandoggy]

Sigged .

lol. id sig people but it can be a tad too cruel.

 

[SashatheMan]

.

 

[veterandoggy]

my parents gave me the keys to my religion sasha, but i was the one who in effect opened it to myself.

 

[SashatheMan]

my parents gave me the keys to my religion sasha, but i was the one who in effect opened it to myself.

moo

 

[veterandoggy]

well, i could have said that they are brainwashed and there is no hell anyway.

 

[SashatheMan]

well, i could have said that they are brainwashed and there is no hell anyway.

chances are you wouldnt , because at that young age, you seem to look up to your parents, and all their words are thought to be correct and should be followed.

 

[7th Sign]

god, karma, ghosts and reincarnation all happen...

I believe in hevan aswell...

 

[Wilmo]

what do u mean you met jesus?

Jesus was fully God and fully man. As such, he was a man FULL of the Holy Spirit. So each person that has recieved the Holy Spirit has been made like Jesus. It is through the Holy Spirit present in other christians that Christ is manifested. We are his body, and as such he can clearly be seen in the lives of Christians who are set apart for the Lord.

It takes a radically different group of people to show you the truth that is radically different from what you thought.

let me ask you this. Are your parents religious? did they read you the childrens bible when your younger? did they say god is real, at the age when you are learning and listening to every word of your parents.

My mum goes to church, but my dad goes to the beach. Both claim to be Christian, but as for the state of their relationship with God, that is between them and God. I would not classify them as religious (except maybe my mum).

I have absolutely no recollection of my parents ever trying to make me believe anything. In fact, I can remember several times in my life where they tried to discourage me from getting to into christianity.

All my brothers, who i respect greatly, all said they were christians and now claim that God does not exist and live lives very contrary to that of christians. This is not what I believe because everyone in my family believes it. I seriously had to consider if I had a real relationship with God or if it was just a phase.

To this day my family occasionally ask me if i still "enjoy doing all this church stuff" thinking that one day i might grow up and wake up to the real world. But this is not a phase. I have made a life long commitment to my best friend and that will never change.

majority of religious people are only religious because their parents are and they told them at a young age, that can greatly influence what you believe.

What do you mean by religious people and religious? Because there are so many people i know that have grown up in christian homes and are christian because their parents are. They've never had to think hard about whether they themselves follow christ, just that they go through the same motions their parents did.

But there are also so may people who I know who dont have that same background and their parents have had nothing to do with churches or anything like that. But through meeting christians at school or at work or somewhere else have come to have a relationship with him.

I agree that people whose parents have a faith are more likely to adopt that faith. BUT what matters is not your response to what your parents say, it is your response to what God says. That is independant of you're family background... it's all about your personal response

 

[withoutaface]

Jesus was fully God and fully man. As such, he was a man FULL of the Holy Spirit. So each person that has recieved the Holy Spirit has been made like Jesus. It is through the Holy Spirit present in other christians that Christ is manifested. We are his body, and as such he can clearly be seen in the lives of Christians who are set apart for the Lord.

So you claim that you cannot be a good person without being a Christian and that all Christians are good people?
What utter tripe.