<p>Yes. I do believe in God, and believe that He is the most important thing in my life. And I’m staying that way, no matter what life throws at me. :)</p>
<p>You really need to read EVERY word in the Bible, then, and only then, will you be qualified to argue your positions. My last point in this thread, if there is a .000000000000000001 percent chance that you will enter hell for rejecting Jesus Christ as God, will you be taking it (the chance)? But of course, I was attracted to Jesus because He constantly draws me to doing good, never bad. So, I really dig the guy. And by having Him, I just happened to get hang with Him throughout eternity. His offer, to die in my place so I don’t have to, is a deal to good to pass up. // All of you please take care. Your souls are at stake. I know we have a sense of invincibility at our age and feel we can mock God. But, please realize that there just may be a day of judgement. I know my heart needs Jesus to soften it and conform it to His love. </p>
<p>Jesus, would you please continue to draw all who read this thread to your truth. Soften everyone’s heart and lure them by your love. Take good care of them God. Help them to see how amazing it can be to have a completely changed life, one filled with deep love, hope, and peace. Have them keep noticing you, Jesus, whether it be in noting how amazing their bodies have been put together, how you are so creative in developing the galaxies or even taking a close look at the amazing features of our eye color. Open their eyes to who you really are. Help them to keep “running into you” through television shows, their dreams, friends, or even miraculous happenings. Keep after them in the power of your loving Holy Spirit, Almighty God. Help them to become attracted to everything that is positive and good. That will make them run smack into you, the creator of good. And help them to be humble, that even though you have given them fine minds, that they would humble themselves and embrace the Creator of knowledge, instead of having faith in the knowledge that they have acquired. Let you be God and not knowledge. Thanks God for your patience and understanding, even when the evil one loves to encourage them to mock you. </p>
<p>Take care guys.</p>
<p>I wonder if the title of this thread is even referring to the Christian god. I think it’s also counter-productive to allow Christians to declare that they believe in “god” and assume we know who they’re talking about. That’s like acknowledging that there is only one, true god. It can even be deceptive. They think we believe the same because we acknowledge their one, true god. From now on, when someone says they believe in god, I’ll ask for clarification :). “You mean the Christian god?” Christianity has a big ego, and it’s time it realizes it is no different than any other religion…
Did you read every word of every other religion’s bible before you made your decision that you chose the “correct” one? I don’t have to read every word in Cindarella to know it’s just a fairy tale. Also, your little novel you wrote to your god just then is scary to me. The “evil one”? I should have been saying “paranoid schizophrenic” this whole time. I forgot about the paranoia…</p>
<p>I do believe in God and I don’t expect to change any opinions here but I’ll leave you with a thought. Do you really believe that the universe has been in existence for an infinite amount of time? What existed before the big bang? I don’t know, but if there wasn’t anything then there had to have been a higher power to create the big bang. And if there was something, anything, then you can keep tracing back in time until you hit the beginning. I just can’t believe that time and space and the laws of our universe either spontaneously existed out of nowhere at some point or have been existing for an infinite time.</p>
<p>I’m glad that you “think He is the most important thing in my life.”</p>
<p>This is typical of religious people - show off and proclaim how religious and great they are. Ooh, I am going to be God’s favorite and so forth and I am better than you (holier than thou).</p>
<p>As if you want to win brownie points from any Christians/ old people in the vicinity, that validation and brownie point system you were raised on and now crave. Like an unthinking dog, you learned what gets you patted on the head so now you do it on autopilot. Why don’t you put a statue of jesus on your desk, his picture on the table, and his cross on your wall just like its sports memorabilia so you can act like Saint Peter himself while you hypocritically spite and compete with others.</p>
<p>Also, Pascal’s Wager i.e. why not believe in God because you are hedging your bets if he does exist---- is seriously flawed.</p>
<p>First of all, you can’t <em>will</em> yourself to believe in anything — I might believe there is a God just as soon as I believe I, a man, am a woman or gravity sends object flying upward into the night sky.</p>
<p>Secondly, there is a “cost” to believing he exists - living a fake and pandering existence on the astronomically infentisemal chance he does exist.</p>
<p>Finally ---- even if there is a God — I would rather rot in hell for eternity than believe that our actions and beliefs in this lifetime matter ding-dong to him, or are under any control of our own outside of our genetics and circumstances, or that the entire premise of the Bible or this afterlife reward system makes sense at all.</p>
<p>Besides, most religions don’t have a hell. Can’t pascals wager be, “Let’s hope the Jews are right?” The only point of that wager was that so cowardly agnostics could cling on to their last shreds of undignified hope and delusion to what they’ve already disproven: that God exists and/or that he cares.</p>
<p>And to sk8erbr0—</p>
<p>Any entity anywhere is either red, or it is not red.</p>
<p>The universe has either existed for an infinte amount of time (I think so) or it was spontaneously generated out of nowhere and nothing. This says nothing to the necessity of God or what caused it.</p>
<p>Really, time does stretch back into infinity. Because for any time, there can always be one second before it.</p>
<p>The term “universe” is misleading I think. What houses the universe? What is it in? What is beyond it? The great vast nothingness?</p>
<p>Well, I get the feeling the great vast nothingness, or the entity that houses the entity that houses our universe, or whatever the hell ---- well, that has existed for an infinite stretch of time. It’s really beyond human comprehension I suppose.</p>
<p>No, it doesn’t make sense.</p>
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<p>Then how did the higher power get there?</p>
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<p>He said God was the most important thing in his life. How in the world is that showing off or being holier than thou? He genuinely means it, and there’s nothing wrong with that.</p>
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<p>A true religious existence is not a fake and pandering one. </p>
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<p>The whole heaven as a reward system is a bit of a misconception, it’s deeper and more textured than that. And the picture of God you have isn’t the real thing.</p>
<p>@ gotakun
“…If you take a step back and observe the religious machine at work, it does exactly what I described. It takes hold in people’s lives. One way or another, they are convinced of the delusions, at which point it becomes dangerous to question the truthfulness of their beliefs, for fear of punishment, for fear of social disapproval. A goal is created that requires a lot of effort (studying, living a life free of sin, worshiping regularly), and I already discussed effort justification earlier. Much of actually practicing the religion is repetition of phrases, verbally or mentally, re-reading passages over and over; it’s all brainwashing. At this point, despite what they might think, followers (specifically, Christians) are no longer thinking for themselves. I honestly believe that. They are mindless tools, an army, if you will. Through social bullying or exploitation (such as in the case of naive children), they then set out to convert others to believe in the same delusions and repeat the cycle.”</p>
<p>Woah,woah,woah. Let’s not overgeneralize and say all Christians are mindless tools/an army…I think for the most part you are correct, but that’s if I give a loose definition of Christianity that encompasses the majority, especially American view of Christianity. If Christianity was lived out the way it is in their book, which I think some Christians do (but very few), saying they are a mindless army doesn’t really become appropriate. But yeah, for the most part I think you are right. Most “Christians” (at least in the states) are conservative, capitalist, gun-owning, war waging/supporting, robots who think that everyone who isn’t Christian cannot truly be content with their lives.</p>
<p>@peter parker
I guess I was more referring to the begging of time as in the spark that set our universe into motion with all its matter, laws, etc. I too think that space and time are infinite by themselves.</p>
<p>@applicannot
I don’t know, but as long as he’s there im content</p>
<p>God commanded the massacre of the Amelekites (referencing to a comment on the last page) because they were not at all people who had any interest in him at all. </p>
<p>It says “All who behave unrighteously are an abomination to the Lord your God. Remember what Amalek did to you [Israel] on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God” (Deuteronomy 25:16-18). </p>
<p>I believe God would’ve spared the Amalekites if there were at least 10 people who were believers. For example, in the example of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, God spared Lot and his family but destroyed the rest of the city for their wickedness.</p>
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<p>… Note that I didn’t ask for the reason God demanded genocide (because in my ethical system, there’s not much justification for genocide). I asked why I should worship a deity that demanded the genocide of a people, apparently because none of them worshiped him. I mean, since when is massacring people who didn’t submit to your rule suddenly become an act of LOVE? If a person did anything close to this, would you ever justify his actions? If a modern religious figure called for the extermination of a non-Christian people, what would you say?</p>
<p>@sk8rbr0
Christianity simplifies a concept that I believe is too complex to even imagine: the universe. Heck, the concept of even creating such a thing is too complex to imagine. What I’m saying is that I don’t believe there is any way for someone to say their god “created” the universe and even know what that means. No one can conceptualize how anything could even exist outside of the universe, let alone exist outside of it and then create it. The thoughts that go through people’s heads when they do try to conceptualize such a thing are undoubtedly the equivalent of how someone would think on high doses of psychadelic drugs. There is no reason to question the “origin” of the universe in a religious debate, despite the idiotic “belief” that a deity “created” it. It’s a nonsensical statement that people only think has validity because a fictional, nonsensical book says so.
Exactly.
I don’t think this is specific to American Christians or even modern-day Christianity. This has been going on since their bible was created… well, at least once it came to resemble what we know it to be today.</p>
<p>Nobody knows about the origin of the universe. But you can look around you and see “stuff” aka matter, energy etc. This “stuff” even used to be different back in time near the big bang but there was still something there. I just don’t believe that there has ALWAYS been some type of “stuff” in our universe/dimension whatever.</p>
<p>That “stuff” is the universe. It doesn’t exist separate from it. “Dimension” is a very specific word. We don’t live in a dimension.</p>
<p>If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with bull s. Right gotakun?</p>
<p>Sounds like a plea for ignorance if you ask me.</p>
<p>@xMas, profound.</p>
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I don’t know… What are you referring to? Then I’ll answer ;).</p>