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Does God Exist? (2 Viewers)

TruthIsOutThere

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God exists in those who believe and those who need it.

God does not exist to those who can accept the way the world is currently and have no problems having questions like "who created us?" or "what is the meaning of life?" unanswered.
 

§eraphim

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TruthIsOutThere said:
God exists in those who believe and those who need it.

God does not exist to those who can accept the way the world is currently and have no problems having questions like "who created us?" or "what is the meaning of life?" unanswered.
conclusion - God is a fictional character for the confused or curious:D
 
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TruthIsOutThere

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§eraphim said:
conclusion - God is a fictional character for the confused or curious:D
I wouldn't come to the conclusion that God is fictional, but there is no way to prove nor disprove his/her/its existence. Please don't say the bible presents strong evidence that Jesus is God. I have read the damn book. It was a good read, a nice collection of short stories but they are not scientific prove that Jesus is God or whatever. Same with other religions!
 

Pace Setter

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I'd say one of the main issues/problems with many religions and/or interpretation of them is the over-emphasis on words/blaspheme/language. Language was invented by humans, not god, correct? Yet so much seems to be forbidden in what we're allowed to say, what we have to say-in order to impress the divine being and to aid us in getting into heaven or a decent afterlife. Well I suggest that if one truly believes in god; no amount of swearing, blaspheme, or complaining will change the fact that he/she believes in god and hinder his/her advance into a paradise after death if there were to be one--and conversely, if one does not believe in god, no amount of praying, asking for forgiveness or crying will change the fact that he/she does not believe in god and may be destined for another life of torture/hell/etc.

For mine the whole "going to church", praying everyday, and saying "thanks" every time you eat something is a rubbish method of believing in some sort of creator like figure. If one truly believes in a creator and "does what he has planned," etc, --then no amount of words, time spent in an odd-looking building, and nothing else of that sort will change the fact that you do have faith in a creator. It seems to me as though many religions no longer (have they ever?)worship god/allah or some other kind of creator- they instead worship statues, buildings, and other human constructs like language. Far too much importance and effort has been placed on the teaching of language, rather than belief itself.
 

acmilan

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Pace Setter said:
I'd say one of the main issues/problems with many religions and/or interpretation of them is the over-emphasis on words/blaspheme/language. Language was invented by humans, not god, correct? Yet so much seems to be forbidden in what we're allowed to say, what we have to say-in order to impress the divine being and to aid us in getting into heaven or a decent afterlife. Well I suggest that if one truly believes in god; no amount of swearing, blaspheme, or complaining will change the fact that he/she believes in god and hinder his/her advance into a paradise after death if there were to be one--and conversely, if one does not believe in god, no amount of praying, asking for forgiveness or crying will change the fact that he/she does not believe in god and may be destined for another life of torture/hell/etc.
I dont know about the whol thing about language was invented by humans from a religious perspective, but i do know that God spoke to the first human, so my guess is from a religious view God invented the first language used. Theres not much that God said that we are not allowed to say. The main thing is never to use God's name in vain and never to make vows.

Pace Setter said:
For mine the whole "going to church", praying everyday, and saying "thanks" every time you eat something is a rubbish method of believing in some sort of creator like figure. If one truly believes in a creator and "does what he has planned," etc, --then no amount of words, time spent in an odd-looking building, and nothing else of that sort will change the fact that you do have faith in a creator.
I dont think the whole "going to church", praying everyday, and saying "thanks" every time you eat something was actually asked of by God, but is the human method of showing they are faithful to him. Remember that back in the old days every time you sinned you were required the make a sacrafice as a temporary covering of your sins, just as a single person sacrafices and animal to cover their sins, God sacraficed his son to cover humanities sins. Honestly, out of respect for God sending his son Jesus, I go to mass at Easter and Christmas. We regularly receive the Eucharist and confessed our sins whilst at school, but since im now finished i guess ill be going more regularly.

Pace Setter said:
It seems to me as though many religions no longer (have they ever?)worship god/allah or some other kind of creator- they instead worship statues, buildings, and other human constructs like language. Far too much importance and effort has been placed on the teaching of language, rather than belief itself.
I dont have a doubt that most religions that believe in one God have always worshiped only God and still do today. Sure there were times where people were led away to worship other idols, but thats when God appointed various people through history to lead the people back to God. Any person who follows the religion and worships statues, buildings and other human constructs is really breaking the commandment sent down by God.
 
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acmilan

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§eraphim said:
Hillsong is crappy commercialised tacky American evangelical shit. like all manipulative charismatic motivational speakers, its another great way to rip off the mindless worshippers with songs, flashing lights and other shiny things so that they dig deep and buy lots and lots of tacky merchandise.

christianity celebrates weakness.
I dont have a problem with the whole Pentecostal movement. Its a good and attractive way to celebrate, especially for younger generations. The youth are largely turning away from the old fashions Protestant denominations, as evident by their steady decrease in number in Australia. Because of this it has obtained a younger profile than most other denominations and is second only to Catholicism in terms of number of members in Australia. The main reason that I dont have a problem with them is because, after attending a service, it does seem like they have good intentions to spread good news. I dont think they charge, do they? The one I attended was free.
 

Xayma

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acmilan, don't you think God is a little arrogant. He specifies in which way we should live, and punishes us if we don't. He leaves too much evidence to hide himself so that only true believers will see Him in the afterlife. Yet throughout our lives we are taught to not accept things without evidence, in order to avoid being duped, in such a way punishing people for being believers without proof in this life.
 
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Jezzabelle

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he created you, designed you with a purpose, thus he knows wats best for you, and thats what he instructs you in. its not arrogant or selfish, its loving
 

Xayma

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So obviously it is best for a homosexual not to be a homosexual, but they were designed that way?

Sounds loving to me, for one to deny natural impulses.
 

acmilan

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Xayma said:
acmilan, don't you think God is a little arrogant. He specifies in which way we should live, and punishes us if we don't. He leaves too much evidence to hide himself so that only true believers will see Him in the afterlife. Yet throughout our lives we are taught to not accept things without evidence, in order to avoid being duped, in such a way punishing people for being believers without proof in this life.
Its a tough question, sometimes I go through stages where I even question what God wants and if he actually exists. He doesnt specify how to live every aspect of life. There are simple rules He sets, to worship only Him, love each other, honour your parents etc. Obviously he knew humanity will go against these rules because he also specified ways to repent and repair our relationship with him. Some accept him without one piece of evidence, whether He wants us to search for him or just accept Him without searching is up to the individual. Personally I believe that all that believe in a God believe in Him for a reason, not just because they have been told by other that they must believe.
 

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jezzabelle86 said:
he created you, designed you with a purpose, thus he knows wats best for you, and thats what he instructs you in. its not arrogant or selfish, its loving
you said it perfectly
 

Pace Setter

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acmilan said:
I dont know about the whol thing about language was invented by humans from a religious perspective, but i do know that God spoke to the first human, so my guess is from a religious view God invented the first language used. Theres not much that God said that we are not allowed to say. The main thing is never to use God's name in vain and never to make vows.
My question is what that and all future languages were designed for. I'd say it was for survival, rather than an accessory that could alter one's destiny. For instance, say you accidentally said something in a language you don't understand that tarnishes god's name. I'm not sure you could call that a sin or anything, especially when the person accidentally said it has been a seeker of god all his/her life. My point is that language is seen like a combination lock, one which would alter/determine your destiny if you got the right/wrong combination(group of words). Which is fine, except the "correct" and "incorrect" combinations are not determined by god-they're determined by priests and the like.


acmilan said:
I dont think the whole "going to church", praying everyday, and saying "thanks" every time you eat something was actually asked of by God, but is the human method of showing they are faithful to him.
I can see that. But why would you need to when you already are a seeker of god and everything else you do already supports that? If god didnt tell you to do it, what makes it (those actions/words) a sign that you have faith? I'd say that regardless of how faithful one is, those actions/words will not further demonstrate or accentuate faith to god.

I dont really belong to any religion, with one of the primary reasons being that most of them literally personify god by comparing god to other humans, whilst at the same time using the facade of language to say stuff like "god is divine, above humans, etc." Praying everyday; saying thanks before meals-in order to show faith to get a decent afterlife...it sounds a bit like when you get sick-i.e take medicine every morning and around meals in order to get better.

It's not as if there's literally a man on the other end of the line saying "Thanks mate, you did your duty today. Here's 5 points for praying today. Once you get to a million points you can come through the pearly gates." Isnt god supposed to be pure? Like the glimmer of hope at the bottom of Pandora's box? The tiny speck of light in the middle of all darkness? I'd think the only thing required in the belief of god is the shedding of all prejudices, values, traditions, ideals, etc in favour of the belief that if you keep yourself open to everything, everntually you'll find that glimmer of light amidst the darkness, so to speak. The fact that there is need of a church and prayer, neither of which were are actually a prerequisite to having faith in god (correct?), suggests to me that more importance has been placed on tradition and "what I know best," rather than an actual search for the creator/god--because let's face it, not many, if any of us knows what/where/ he/she/it is; there's no reason to assume that we do.

The main problem I see is that many religions adopt the "this is what god wants, he is here, and here is what we should do to try to impress him/her," instead of the "we obviously havent found god yet, so let's continue on our lengthy quest" attitude. The former attitude is very celebratory, as if god/allah/the creator has already rid the world of all evil, or at least the fact that with enough prayer and church attendance you have a viable route to paradise after death. The latter attitude suggests that we're all in a bit of a mess right now and should continue a perhaps never-ending quest with the faith that somewhere along that road you might find god.

I'm being over-repetitive here so I'll finish up with one of those "if" stories; If god decided to assume human form and decided to walk into a church in ragged clothing, he may tell them that he/she was god, that he/she never attended church or prayed because he/she was god himself, etc. I can almost guarantee that if he/she did that the more conventional priests would take him/her around and pray for forgiveness or something. I very much doubt any of them would believe a word he/she said. However, if god said the same to a real believer of god on the street, the outcome may be different. Again, I'm trying to illustrate the "I know best" attitude that's being adopted by a lot of the religions.
 

physician

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TruthIsOutThere said:
I wouldn't come to the conclusion that God is fictional, but there is no way to prove nor disprove his/her/its existence. Please don't say the bible presents strong evidence that Jesus is God. I have read the damn book. It was a good read, a nice collection of short stories but they are not scientific prove that Jesus is God or whatever. Same with other religions!
It's not the same with other religions, well at least with Islam. Firstly and formost, u can't find evidence that jesus is God because he's not, rather he was a prophet sent from God to man, in order to guide the poeple to the right path. He never said he was God, neither did he refer to himself as God........ In the holy book of a muslim .... the Quran... sent to Mohommad (peace be upon him) You can find actual scientific facts that prove God's existance, by proving that the Quran is the actual word of God, u prove that God exists. scientific facts that have only been known to man for ( well some less than 100 years) were allready mentioned in the Quran 1400 years ago, The female bee being the worker bee, Mountains being shaped like pegs, Facts about the cerebrum, and many many more.

Oh and by the way, i can give u verses from the bible that give evidenc that there will be a prophet after Jesus(peace be upon him), that is mohommad (peace be upon him? that is if anyone wants to here them...........If not, well thanx for being honest at least.........
 

acmilan

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Christians dont say Jesus is God, they say that he, along with God and the Holy Spirit form the sacred trinity.

As for evidence of God, the only physical evidence I can think of is the box that originally held the commandments passed down by God. In the Bible, God elaborately explains to the people how this box must be built, basically its coated in gold with two wings on the top. This box was stolen by a king of some civilisation in the middle east. It was then reclaimed by the people and is currently thought to be in a temple in one African country, Ethiopia I think. The problem is that this temple is so heavily guarded that if you even touch the fence you will be shot down no problem.
 

mz_purfect

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physician said:
It's not the same with other religions, well at least with Islam. Firstly and formost, u can't find evidence that jesus is God because he's not, rather he was a prophet sent from God to man, in order to guide the poeple to the right path. He never said he was God, neither did he refer to himself as God........ In the holy book of a muslim .... the Quran... sent to Mohommad (peace be upon him) You can find actual scientific facts that prove God's existance, by proving that the Quran is the actual word of God, u prove that God exists. scientific facts that have only been known to man for ( well some less than 100 years) were allready mentioned in the Quran 1400 years ago, The female bee being the worker bee, Mountains being shaped like pegs, Facts about the cerebrum, and many many more.

Oh and by the way, i can give u verses from the bible that give evidenc that there will be a prophet after Jesus(peace be upon him), that is mohommad (peace be upon him? that is if anyone wants to here them...........If not, well thanx for being honest at least.........
Yeah. another instance is the expansion of the universe which was stated in the Quran 1400 yrs ago, when such a fact was unimaginable.
God (ALLAH) says 'The heaven, We have built it with power, Verily We are expanding it' 51.47

This fact has only been recently proven by the general theory of relativity and is backed up by physics in the examination of the galactic spectrum; the regular movement towards the red section of their spectrum may by explained by the distancing of one galaxy from another. The Hubble telescope proved that the universe is expanding. You can check it out here:
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast25may99_1.htm
Or by just searchin in google.
 

Vezzellda

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physician said:
You can find actual scientific facts that prove God's existance, by proving that the Quran is the actual word of God, u prove that God exists. /QUOTE]

Um, i'm sorry, but how does this work? We can't use the bible's truthfulness as a prove of God's existence, so how can you use the Quran?
 

ramin_87

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yes God does exist and he loves everyone of us. We need to have faith in him and his power. It is sad that most of you are ignorant and very sceptical, but it is never too late to change.
 

acmilan

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eco_man said:
yes God does exist and he loves everyone of us. We need to have faith in him and his power. It is sad that most of you are ignorant and very sceptical, but it is never too late to change.
Thats the exact attitude that influences people's perception of religion for the worse
 

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