Hi everyone!

It has been awhile since I posted in here, but I had to respond to this one. Getting back to the original question of why I believe in God is simple for me. I grew up in a household where my mother was really of no religion and my father had zealous religous beliefs, but was inactive in church. For a long-time, I grew up without religion, mainly because that was the way my mother wanted it.

Anyway, I have a deep faith in God. Why? Because I have two beautiful girls that are seven years apart, that I probably medically should not have. Another reason is because my baby, who is now six but at the time was just over a year, was discovered to have a mass on the side of her neck. Everyone thought for sure she had Hodgkin's. We were terrified and prayed a lot. The final diagnosis was a very rare (in my state alone only two cases a year are discovered, Tate's was the first that year) immune system disease that was taken care of in a 45 minute outpatient procedure without recurrence. She only has a very small scar on the underside of her neck, that when she is old enough can be removed. We were told she may have scarring over one-half of her face. You can't even see the tiny scar under her jaw-line. I have many more reasons to believe, these are my top two.

Some would love to say it was good luck and a good surgeon. I agree, but it also brings comfort to know God had a hand in it.

As for the organized church - no, I really do not believe in it. I believe man corrupts it. We all have free will to believe and practice whatever religion we choose, or not to choose. I feel as long as we live our lives trying to be the best we can and help those we can, no one can really go wrong.

There is only one God. Until I was 19, I believed in a creative force but felt no need to worship him/her/it. When I turned 19, I realised that the creator I believed in WAS the Christian God.

Does that makes sense?

Regards, PA

This was right after you got that nasty bump playing football, right? Just kidding, Mate. If you are happy with it, good on you!

I have studied the Bahgavad-gita, the book of Mormon, the works of Alistair Crowley, and (in smaller detail) the Koran. I studied Buddhism, Taoism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Judaism. I've studied what it means to be an Agnostic (I guess that's what I was before I became Christian), Nihilistic, Atheist, Hedonistic. I've studied the ancient gods (greek and Egyptian specifically).

Was there something specific you were trying to get at?

Regards, PA

So how do you know that christianity makes more sense than all other faiths if you have not studied all of them to the same detail? Did you study the ones you did before or after turning 19?

Some before, some after. Judaism, Wicca, Qabalah, Mormonism, a little of Islam, plus the Egyptian and Greek gods I all studied before I became Christian. I studied the other's after.

Good for you.
You are one in a billion.
I think his point was that's what everyone should do.
Unlucky for him, you were here to post.
But his point has merit.IMLO

This would only work if the person has a true open mind and lives with that religion as if it was his own. To have knowledge of a religion is not the same thing as understanding it.

very true, very true indeed.

Ah, and that is the rub, isn't it? If there is a god, then that god is either something or nothing. Since for there to be a god, that god has to be made out of something, however mysterious. It makes as much sense to say that the universe could "happen" from nothing as it does to say that "god" could have happened from nothing. So just how did this god happen to be? Did God always exist? If so, then the universe could have just as easily always existed, if any logic is to prevail.

I know there's a difference between knowledge and understanding, but I do the best I can do to know and learn what I can of other faiths/worldviews.

Would you prefer it if I were to stop looking at these faiths and shut myself up in my own little world?

Regards, PA

Righhhht. The Beauty of nature is just how we presieve beauty...it's opinionated. Also, the color is called pigments not divine holy dye.

My believes are as listed below:
No God
No Higher Being
The Universe was created by the Big bang and some sort of cosmic reaction
We reincarnate our Life energy which is transfered from the psysical form to another to give it, its life and distinct personality. Or perhaps what would explain ghosts is that our Mental form is stuck to walk this dimension of excistence to where we lived for the rest of eternity which wouldn't be as bad as dying forever.

It would take more than a lifetime to study EVERY religion and EVERY theory, so it's easier to find one that you see as true, and sticking with it. There's no way anyone can say they KNOW 100% that what they beleive is the only truth, because they're always another Theory or religion they did not study.


LAUGH OUT LOUD to people who say we beleive in God because we're afraid. Afraid of what? O_o..... I know plenty of people who beleive in God, and do not fear on going to hell, take gangsters for instance, always wearing Crosses, while cussing and doing drugs.

Or take Deists for example, we believe in the Creator but don't worry about going to Hell, because we know Hell is a pagan (yes we consider Christians to be pagans) mythological concept. I am sure members of other religions believe without fearing Hell, especially those that have no hell.

What is it Hell is too hot for me to be so cold.

As a christian I believe in Hell and wish to not go. But you can't take God's grace for granted. People sometimes pray for forgiveness after doing something wrong knowing they were going to do it. I just don't understand.

I have given people a welding test before. One asked me to hold his diploma (For welding) from a well known collage to hold on to while he ran a few beads. The next question from him was.....How do you turn the welder on?
He failed the test.
The moral of this true story is......A person can learn just about anything, but putting that knowledge to good use is a different matter.

No just never stop looking for better ways of putting your knowledge to good use my friend.

Because what you are used to? What we as humans know is harmless? Do you find beauty in twisters, or hurricanes? If you don't, Why is that? Maybe its because it causes harm. What doesn't cause harm could be considered a beauty. A baby is beautiful, So that could be called the beauty of nature. But a bumb on the street is considered the scum of nature to you, isn't it? Its all judgemental to what we humans find as beautiful.



A bacteria floating around the universe could have landed here isn't even eligible? Or maybe, Another species used a similar cloning process and mutated their embryos & changed our body system to interact with the gases on a selected planet, Then put us here? At least try and think outside of the box, and not be focused on a religion that has as much proof as the Egyptian religion.

It depends on how you percieve "really".

*Yew is a land in the game Ultima*, you were talking about Jews right?

(Without being taught anything)? Taught to believe? What are you talking about man.

Is it because you were afraid ( you might be excluded from your society, or otherwise)?
No...man....the point is to function in society. @How is it someone teaches you to be afraid of being in society to function through a religion?

Taught you?

Because a book says so?

maybe he means you taught yourself. Not learning how others do it just you.

Ok and what about the complexity of nature? Look at your own body. A very nice example of good enginering......

Rather complex, isn't it? Just coincidence that is happens that way?

Sure thats possible. But even if we are brought here bij an alien life form nature (including the universe) is still very very beautifull and complex. I don't known whether man has been born on this planet.......

I was raised atheist
however, there is just a feeling inside me
that feels there is a light form, being whatever you call it
with all their crew watching over us. Things have just happend to me personally
that makes me feel the way I feel.

hklmvm: Do you think god is complex?

I look at it like this.


Let's say there's a hunted house. And there's a ghost in the house. No one would ever beleive it's there if it never made itself present. You can't see it, you can't hear it, you can't feal it, you can't measure it(SOMETIMES you can, but most of the time you can't untill it's being active) but it's there. Kind of like God, he's there, he just never made himself present to us.

My ex-girlfriend's sister's house was haunted. Sometimes it was like nothing was there at all, you couldn't see the ghost, hear it, feel it, etc... But it was there. So is it really impossible for God to exist? No.....

God is real. Very real. Who is god? We do not know. But we think maybe he looks like Charlton Heston.

Or maybe Charlton Heston is the Devil.

Impossible...no...more unlikely than unicorns...yes. REason it would be impossible for a higher being to excist is that it would require and another ....and another....and another...just wouldn't add up.

I don't believe in god!

Christians need to stop spending money on Churches and all of that junk and invest into something usefull...like food pantreys and clinics...help their own kind not some religious legend. Because I'm sure if we had a god that loved us, he would rather us helping each other than worshipping his prefection.

Yea, God told me that you didn't!

LOL, made me smile Moe!

You should collect all Christians addresses and send a copy of your statement!

Im serious about that. I'm not saying they should stop worshipping their diety...just saying if they really want to make their god happy...they should help EACH OTHER not him. If he is o'powerful and o'perfect like the Bible states he is...he's going to do fine on his own.

Why the "need" to stick with anything?
Are we that afraid of being alone?

Just wouldn't add up if he existed in our universe and therefore was restricted to our physics(IE: the way time works for us). We see it as everything must have a beggining and an end. We are restricted to time, God is not. Why you ask? Meh... He created time.

Twisters and hurricane's are amazing. Terrible! But amazing.

How can you talk about gods existence in absolutes when you just said theres basically no way of proving his existence?



What do you define as god?



Did he? Can you prove it? Hell, if your a christian, you wouldnt even be able to use scripture to back that up.

too true. although i think He would want just a little worshipping, too.

Was everything created by God?

BTW:Yes! Where does it say God created time?

The Bible tells us, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Science now confirms that time, space and matter had a beginning. The Law of Causation states that everything that has a beginning has a cause. Since everyone now agrees that the universe had a beginning, everyone should agree that the universe had a cause. However, many reject this argument for Divine causation, because they say the same rationale should apply to the Designer that created the universe. They reason, "if the Law of Causation requires that God created everything, then, based on that same Law, who created God?"

Einstein's theory of general relativity, which is now widely accepted and supported by observable evidence, established that time, space and matter all had a beginning and are all linked together. The dimension of time itself began with the rest of the universe. If God created the entire universe, He created time and the laws that apply to time. Therefore, He is not defined by or limited by the dimensions and laws He created. If God is the cause of everything we see in the four dimensions of time and space, God, by definition, is outside our four physical dimensions. The Bible tells us that God is the eternal, self-existing, uncreated Creator of the universe. As the Creator of time, God is outside time. In fact, God transcends the past, present and future all at once. Therefore, God had no beginning in time (as we see it), and God didn't need a cause (as we understand it).




It's not impossible for something to exist without you being able to proove it. A ghost that never makes itself present for instance. Even a ghost that does make itself present every now and then cant be seen felt or heard at times even though it dwells in the house.

And I see no mention of time. On the other hand, it took god 6 days to create everything, this shows that god seems to be ruled by time.



Arent you rejecting the whole BB theory with your story... but trying to use parts of it to support your argument?

You're still far from it, btw. Theres no mention of time being created by god... for all you know, there could have been something else that created time, or time could have existed first, permitting god to create the rest of the heavens.



But the same thing you just wrote there could be used to support the idea that god isnt needed.

Btw, reference a few quotes up for what I wrote about god being subject to time.



But if you're unable to prove it, you cant talk as if it's been proven.

BB? Oh and there's a ghost in your pants.




God created the heavens and earth in the beginning, that was before the first day began. On the first day he created Day, Night and Morning.


Time was created when god created the Heavens and the Earth(universe) as mentioned in my last post. So no, it does not show that he is ruled by time.


And if you mean Big Bang(It just popped in my head, I'm mad tired) then how am I going against the BB theory? No one knows HOW God created the universe, who's to say he didn't start the big bang from nothing?



Saying something is possible is not speaking as if it's proven. O_o.... :: steals the drugs from you, runs off and does them ::

Im just interested in posting my part, And not debating the same old Creationist vs Noncreationist crap that litterally has thousands of pages of waste forum space clogged up.
I believe in some form of a higher being, yes. Wether it actively participates, Or even is aware of our existence is beyond me. Its something I cannot confirm, I can merely state that we are but infantile in our understanding of the universe. What to us no seems so massive its unexplorable may be nothing more than a island amongst the oceans.
Hence there is not enough information available to come to any logical conclusion. However, To many things in the universe or "Coincidental" and defy the laws of probability. So one must conclude there is some unknown force at work here.

It doesnt say that at all.



But it took god 6 days to create the world, and he rested on the 7th... That shows a progression in time.



I might be mixing you up with someone else, but dont you believe in the litteral 6 days?



Didnt you argue before that it was impossible for the big bang to appear from nothing?



And thats why I'm not complaining about people who say something is possible, but about people who say their belief is proven.

Not God is the cause. If God doesn't even exist, then it cannot start from anything. What I ment by God creating it from nothing, is that God is the cause and can create it from nothing.

I posted this in a different thread but it will fit in good here as well:

"The tragedy of young-earth creationism is that it takes a relatively recent and extreme view of Genesis, applies to it an unjustified scientific gloss, and then asks sincere and well-meaning seekers to swallow this whole, despite the massive discordance with decades of scientific evidence from multiple disciplines. Is it any wonder that many sadly turn away from faith concluding that they cannot believe in a God who asks for an abandonment of logic and reason?Francis S. Collins, Director National Human Genome Research Institute, writing in Faith and the Human Genome"

But then couldnt you agree that it is just as possible that something unintelligent, unconcious, not something living, could exist and also cause it? If god can do it, it simply shows that its possible.

Btw, in your case, you're saying god is creating it from nothing which you have argued is impossible (except for god , ahh the lack of logic). In my case, it is not being created from nothing, but from itsself.

What is also "Illogic" is how Athiests mainly agree nothing can be created from nothing- but then full support the Big Bang Theory when that "rock" came from....nothing! Hmmm double standard?