Sorry if this topic has been dealt with before, there are 97 pages in the Spirituality, Religion and Beliefs section and I didn't feel like going through them all I have some questions that are troubling me and I am starting to think of God as a great big joke. (I am Christian btw)

1) Is God All Powerfull? I have asked a priest this and he said "yes", but when I asked an atheist friend he just said "Can God create a stone he cannot lift"...I have been thinking bout that for quite a time and still can't seem to come up with an answer

2) Was there a time before God? Was there a time when there wasn't a God? Has he always been here?

3) How was God "made"? How did he appear? Did he just become God from nothingness? I mean it had to start somewhere?

4) With so many different religions, which should I believe in? I mean with so many different religions and views, and everyone thinking they are right, which is truly the correct one? If one is correct, does that automatically mean the others are wrong?

I know some answers will be "Faith", but I would really want some answers and opinions on there questions. They have been bugging me for a while.

1) It is no good asking an Atheist, not because he is an Atheist, but because he does not believe in God in the first place, therefore in his eyes there is nothing that is "all powerful" in the first place.

2) If God were made, who made Him? lol mind-boggling isn't it, it is in the same ilk as asking where does space end - it doesn't, because if it did, what is on the other side?

3) This is the same as "where does space end", it doesn't end and nor does it start, if it did, what is on the other side. It is certainly too mind-boggling for me, in fact if I think about it too much I feel like eating a shop-load of choccie!!!

4) If you are not sure which religion to believe in, hold fire until you decide which, if any, are right for you. Not everyone belongs to a religion, for some people a religion isn't even needed. The main thing you need to discover is what you believe in yourself. All religions have their own ways, but some people can find this limiting.

Yes when I think about #2 and #3 my brain goes fuzzy and I need to go watch TV or do some other stuff to make my brain get away from the subject. It is just something we can't explain too well, or more like we can't explain at all.

first you have to ask yourself, if 1 and 2 are relevent. and the answer is not really, because one, yes HE could make a stone he could not lift, however he could then create a device that would allow him to lift it, so the answer is both yes and no. and it does not matter where GOD came from. HE is there, HE created us and it is to him that we must answer.

as for the other two, the bible has a good answer, "If you seek ME you shall find ME, if you search with all your heart" if you truly seek HIM from an ernest desire to know HIM, HE will make himself known to you, and will guide you to the truth. and there is the matter of faith- "for those that come to GOD must believe that HE is, and HE rewards those who diligently(continuously, without stopping) seek HIM"

1.) I believe the correct answer to the question "Can God create a stone he cannot lift" is this: Yes God can create a stone he cannot lift but he would he would lift it anyways.

2.) The subject of Time is tricky. Depending on who you talk to the concept of Time only exists in our reality. The full concept of infinity cannot be comprehended by the human mind.

3.) The full concept of Nothingness and something coming out of nothing is also hard for our little brains to understand.

4.) Why choose a religion at all? Believe in what you want to believe.

The first three questions are not relevent to the religion, they don't really matter. Those questions cannot be accuretly answered by anybody. We cannot fully comprehend God's power, knowledge, or existence because basically our minds
are not capable of understanding them.

Or...God isn't all powerful nor all knowing and hasn't existed forever...or he just plain never existed at all.

My believe is God is not all powerful. I believe he is very powerful, but not all powerful. I don't believe he is all knowing either.



I believe there was a time before God.



I don't know how God came into being. The best I can figure out is he evolved into being from the Dao.



I can't tell you which religion is for you. You have to pick the one that makes the most sense to you.

All the religious texts could be wrong. How do we really know what the truth is? How do we know the truth is even in a religious text?

There can only be one truth. So if the truth is even out there the other religions would have to be wrong.

is there any way to prove to a blind man the sky is blue? if that blind man has never saw the sky how would he know..nor would it matter .kinda like asking someone who does not believe in the existence of god.. it does not matter to them. if one Believes in the exstence of God then that is the beging to understanding him and his ways.. gotta read his word and pray...Seek Ye 1st the Kingdom of Heaven and all other things will be added unto you....already saw it posted seek him first with your whole heart ..you committe yourself to him he will give revelation and understanding...if you dwell upon the things that cause confusion you will just be confused but if you read his word and pray you will hold the answers to your questions...

as for what to believe if you read the bible and believe in it...john 17:17 thy word is truth...seek what teaches his word and lives accordingly by it..

as someone said... it's a yes and no answer... God could but why would He? and even if He did, He could then make Himself strong enough to lift it... so that question is absolutely not relevant to anything ever...



as someone pointed out... time is relative... you can be having a boring day and your day goes slow... while someone else is having a blast and the day speeds by... as you get deeper into the study of time... you realize time in space actually moves slower than time on earth... if you haven't heard the theory about the two astronauts... you should check it out...

and if you really want to understand the context of eternity... think about dreams... while you may go through days at a time in a dream... you may have only slept for an hour or so... same thing with going through hours worth of dream time and only nodding off for a few minutes...

time is an interesting study... you should check it out...



find the beginning and ending of a perfect circle and you will have your answer about God's beginning and ending...



i believe every religion has a little bit right... what is hard to do is seperate tradition from the actual belief in God...
personally i don't go to church because i don't like the traditions that have nothing to do with God...

although i consider myself Christian... i believe in EVERY single god and goddess ever mentioned...
i don't believe they are gods and goddesses but fallen angels impersonating other things to get people to worship them... that's just my belief though...
personally... i say pray about it...

Religion is taken from each bible--> written by men (in their own interpretations) thru history in forms of codes/laws of conduct, a manuscript on how we should live, moral rights and wrongs according to whichever God that is being represented...This is based on opinions/or translations- this would be the BIBLE...Each religion looks at their own bible and translates according to their understanding.. this becomes their religous belief. This does NOT justify God's intentions are his ( Supremem being) on the whole. Nor does it justify your purpose for being brought into this world-- This is man's mere conception of God, only, the bible, and religion. God is not religious. God does not represent religion. Only thru personal spiritual awareness- intrapersonal connection, that is not written, & nor can it be taught- is where you find your answers to your creator & your purpose. It's not in the form of the book, it's in the form of private prayers & that personal relationship b/t you and your master that you find your answers.

I've had that happen, I could through hours of sleep and it'd feel like a few minutes, but there have been times when I have been sleep for like ten minutes and it felt like years.

Before I answer any of these I can tell you with absolute certainty that you will find better answers to these questions by reading and researching different religions and not by asking people on internet message boards.

1) God is ALL powerful. God is infinite and he exists in a realm of infinity but he is also an individual person with his own free will. God cannot and should not ever be tested and just because you can come up with a seemingly paradoxical question in no way means God does not exist. Infact the question isn't a paradox at all because God can do anything. It's sad and funny at the same time when a finite being thinks he can somehow out smart a being with infinite wisdom and intelligence.

2) There was never a time before God because where God exists there is no such thing as time. He exists in a realm of infinity. God sees the beginning from the end.

3) God was not made, he just was. If anything I'd say that everything in the universe has a balance such as hot and cold. God is the antithesis to nothingness therefor he is everythingness.

4) There is no difference between most of the worlds religions as they all lead to the same place but just in different ways. There isn't only one path to truth. There are many truths and many paths but there is only one final destination. God lives within us all and we are ALL his children no matter what our skin color or sex or anything. You do not need to pray by going to church as the church is not the house of God. The human body is the true house of God.

If you truly want to know about God you will look into the life of Jesus as he is the closest thing to God. Jesus is basically our older brother and is literally billions of years old himself and has had a very long and close relationship with God and actually built this entire galaxy we live in.

I suggest reading both bibles front to back and also another book that is very informative about God is the Urantia book which I am currently reading myself.

www.urantia.org the entire book is free online and the first 600 or so pages all describe the characteristics and attributes of God and the book is also written by angelic type beings.

I suggest go into a private room, close the door, and have a one on one talk with the LORD. It's rather simple, and it goes a long way. :}

very well put...

i never heard of the urantia book... but i'm going to check that out myself...

and you should copyright the word "everythingness" it is great and someone is going to steal it...

yeah it's crazy how sleep works... but i find it to be the easiest way to explain time veriation because almost everyone has experienced it...

God should be bigger than the universe to spin the galaxies.
Or the universe was spinning God.

DING WE HAVE A WINNER, good reply, actually a couple good replies to this

I think the real answer to the question's are what you want to believe, No one can answer these's cause we don't have the power to see into the past or the ablitiy to fully understand the power of God....I guess thats why they call it blind faith...You just have to believe what your heart tells you to be the truth....

Im Christian too!



God is all and all is God. In fact there is no all for God to be. God alone just exists. God is the stone it creates and can or cannot lift. The question is why would God need to lift a stone? The universe is always perfect and as it should be. God needs do nothing. God and its creation are one and the same.



Time is a mental construct. It doesnt actually exist. The universe or God is eternal and eternity has no beginning or end and to attribute any of these qualities to eternity would mean that it isnt eternity.



God and the universe are one and the same. God is eternal hence God is beyond cause and effect. There was no beginning to God and there is no end. God is us also. God is pure consciousness and this consciousness pervades everything in creation and non-creation.



Actually in essence all the different religions are the same. They all teach man about man's real identity which can be known only if he discard his ignorance or detach from his ego. Here are a few quotes that articulate the point well on how all religions are in truth one:

All religions are approaches to a single truth. --Sri Aurobindo

God has no religion. ---Mahatma Gandhi

Many a doctrine is like a wondow pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.--- Kahlil Gibran

Truth is one; only It is called by different names. All people are seeking the same Truth; the variance is due to climate, temperament, and name. A lake has many ghats. From one ghat the Hindus take water in jars and call it 'jal'. From another ghat the Mussalmāns take water in leather bags and call it 'pāni'. From a third the Christians take the same thing and call it 'water'. Suppose someone says that the thing is not 'jal' but 'pāni', or that it is not 'pāni' but 'water', or that it is not 'water' but 'jal', It would indeed be ridiculous. But this very thing is at the root of the friction among sects, their misunderstandings and quarrels. This is why people injure and kill one another, and shed blood, in the name of religion. But this is not good. Everyone is going toward God. They will all realize Him if they have sincerity and longing of heart. ----Sri RamaKrishna(p. 423)

One should not think, 'My religion alone is the right path and other religions are false.' God can be realized by means of all paths. It is enough to have sincere yearning for God. Infinite are the paths and infinite the opinions. (page 158)

---Sri RamaKrishna

The sect of lovers is distinct from all others;
Lovers have a religion and a faith all their own.

--Jalal-uddin Rumi



Faith is essential. But faith does not exclude independent thinking.

Faith must be enforced by reason. . . .when faith becomes blind it dies. ----Mahatma Gandhi

If we were truly made in His image, apply yourself to all the questions.

1. Man could make a unliftable rock, yet if he asserted himself he would find a way to lift it.
2. Was there a time before you?
3. How were you made. Not physicaly, but spiritualy. Atoms and DNA are a blank canvas and expierience goes only so far. Where did you come from?
4. You will either believe or you won't. If someone has to tell you what faith to follow, chances are you wont you will always just pay it lip service.

I don't believe in God, so please feel free to throw my 'answers' in the bin.

Lee, maybe you believed in God before you got thrown into MKULTRA???

I don't know what you will get from that. If you don't even know which religion is the truth then you don't even know if your praying the proper way. Who's prayer do you use? God rarely ever talks back to people. Only television evangelists claim to have heard God speak. So most likely God won't tell you which religion to practice.

You will just have to do some research on religions and pick the one that makes the most sense to you. No person really knows which religion is the truth. We don't know if any of them are true. People may have faith in thier religious beliefs but that doesn't mean thier true. People can have faith in something that is false. People just pick the religion that makes the most sense to them.

Nobody can tell you which religion is right for you. You have to make that decision for yourself.

Why do people feel they should have a religion? Do you really feel that weak? Why can't you have your own beliefs? I just don't understand how somebody can believe 100% everything a religion tells them..no questions. something that was essentially written by man so long ago. Each to their own I guess... I prefer to work things out for myself.

Actually Jim88, there are entire Christian denominations based on silence and one to one communication with God through Christ. It's akin to closing the door and frankly it is profound. Is it right? It is for me, but may not be for everyone since in my practice there are no ministers or churches and no one to tell me how to pray, I don't even really call it praying. Ive never particularly bothered with what is "true" and what isn't. Frankly, there's truth in most religions (although there are a few practices that make me cringe, only because they insight violence).

God talks to me, not me to him, I merely wait and listen, it might not be what I want to hear, but if I think about it, it's right for that moment in my life.

I believe in the power of prayer myself. I pray. I believe God listens to our prayers, but I've never heard him talk back to me when I'm praying. Most people haven't. He rarely does that. Nobody is going to find out which is the true religion by praying. God won't tell them which religion is the truth. He has left it up to us to figure it out.

God has created many religions. I believe most religions were created by God. I believe there is some wisdom in other religions. I don't know if there is truth in most of them. That sounds like more of a New Age belief than a Christian belief. New Agers believe all religions lead to God. I thought Christians believed Christianity was the only way.

There is only one universe so there can only be one that truely explains the universe we live in. If any of the religions truely explain the universe we live in then one of them has to be the true religion and the rest of them have to be false religions. There can only be one true religion.

Actually, that's where you'd be wrong, it's actually a very OLD denomination and nothing new aged about it and no one would deny that it's anything but Christian. The denomination was estabished just after ther reformation. And no, I'm not a Unitarian Universalist--although it's quite old as well (several of the US Constitution signers were Universalists).

I'm a convinced member of the Religious Society of Friends aka Quakers.

My school was originally run by Quakers, the society of friends it's the oldest school in Northern Ireland I think, 1774. Link

Oh very cool StoneAgeQueen! I'd imagine as religious schools go, they were pretty laid back. Although there are some schisms of Quakerism that are more traditionally Protestant than others (mostly in the UK). But, I'd imagine that you would have found a great deal of equality, pacifism, activism and social responsibility being stressed during your time there. Us Quakers are huge on education in general so it wouldn't surprise me that it would be one of the older schools in N. Ireland. Most people don't even realize that Cornell and Johns Hopkins Universities in the USA are Quaker schools. haha

I see so your a Christian but you believe there is truth in most religions. Every other Christian I have ever met thought Christianity was the true religion and all other religions were false. You're more openminded than other Christians apparently.

It's not really a matter of openmindedness, it's more a matter that everyone has the ability to hear Gods Word, that Word comes from the light within, (something established in the Gospel of John). Jesus made no distinction regarding anyone's denomination, church, or creed, only that we are to treat each other as equals and realize that God is in everyone. Jesus was not a big fan of religion and dogma.

Yeah it was a good school MissMelsWell very relaxed and laid back. it was integrated, something which was very good in northern ireland. We actually had boarders that came there from all over the world.

One's personal beliefs are one's religion. There is a vast difference between one's personal faith and an orthodox institutionalized religion. The essence of all religions encourages love, compassion, free-thinking etc.

Hi Escaperer,

These questions exist have been answered many times by many different people. While each of the answers to these questions may reveal something about the viewpoints of the poster, the answers alone are many times contradictory so they will probably leave even more confused than you were before. The acceptance of an answer will also show how your mind views the world and therin is the doorway to the truth you seek.

As a christian, you have a peconcieved notion of the world and sometimes a preconcieved notion of what a christian supposedly accepts as truth. Take this into consideration when reviewing all the answers you recieve.

1) Is God All Powerfull? I have asked a priest this and he said "yes", but when I asked an atheist friend he just said "Can God create a stone he cannot lift"...I have been thinking bout that for quite a time and still can't seem to come up with an answer

2) Was there a time before God? Was there a time when there wasn't a God? Has he always been here?

3) How was God "made"? How did he appear? Did he just become God from nothingness? I mean it had to start somewhere?

I decided to group this 1st set of questions, since they are in essence all related in many ways to one another.

What we are actually dealing with here, are Gods charactristics as a Divine Being. In other words we are dealing with Omnipotence, Omnipresence and Omniscience.

When dealing with these issues it is important to 1st look at what type of world we are living in. The universe as we percieve it is called the Space-Time Continuum. So called because we see our world in a 4D perspective. Space, being the X, Y, and Z axis which in effect create our 3 Dimensional world and then a linear T function for time.

So we see our world as 3 dimensional but percieve as having 4 dimensions when we include the passage of time, which is linear in nature. We cannot jump thrigh time we have to live through each second to get to the next and we can never go back.

This conceptual universe which forms the world we live in is called "The Space Time Continuum".

For a more detailed perspective, see:

1. Wikipedia: Space-time Continuum

2. Spacetime

Now let us look at this from a different perspective.

1 Dimensional being
Consider a 1-dimensional being, living on a line, it can only go backward and forward. Now, to make that being's universe infinite but yet finite, we simply mess around in the 2nd dimension and make the line a circle. For the 1-dimensional being it is still a line because it has no knowledge of the 2nd dimension and thus, it does not know it isn't actually following a line but is in fact in an infinite loop or circle.

2 Dimensional being
The same scenario would hold true for the 2-dimensional being if you make that circle a sphere. The 2-dimensional being would think his universe is infinite while a higher dimensional being would recognize that it is clearly not. That leads to the idea that our 3-dimensional perspective of the universe might actually be 'fake'. We are actually in a finite universe, yet it appears infinite from our perspective.

A 2 dimensional being can only percieve things in those two dimensions (x, y axis). If we draw a circle on a piece of paper and we theoretically put a 2 dimensional being within that circle in a 2 dimensional world, that being would be trapped because he would literally have an unclimable wall surrounding him on all sides (the circle we drew).

We as 3 dimensional beings can see a way out of that circle that is not available to the 2 dimensional being because we can always reach inside and free that being. That would in effect make us godlike in that 2 dimensional beings thoughts

3 Dimensional being
If we extrapolate from this analogy, we can see that we ourselves are limited by a 3 dimensional universe (x, y, z axis). We can also seemingly experience a fourth dimensional part of this 3 dimensional world which to our senses we call time. That is why we call this plane of physical existence, the space time continuum.

How this universe would actually look to a 4-dimensional being is beyond our capability to fully comprehend, as we are not yet on a level where we can interact effectively with the 4th dimension, even though we are aware of it and are influenced by it.


Now, if God exists in a higher order dimension, he cannot only manipulate space and time but all matter in that lower dimension, he is above and outside of space-time but can be anywhere within it at will. This is why we have the concepts of omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence. They are characteristics of a higher order dimensional existence to our own.

Yet just as a 2 dimensional being cannot identify our presence because he is limited to 2 dimensions, we cannot prove the existence of God who is part of a higher order of existence. We are essintially and simply limited to our 3 dimensional universe.

Now, can God create a stone he cannot lift?

The error of the question is in our perception of God and the stone. A stone as we know it is created by matter. Even if all the matter of the universe was used to create such a stone, God would still be able to lift it because he created all matter. Since God can be said to exist outside of the spce-time continuum but still interact and be a part of it at will, one cannot ask this question unless we either reduce God to a merely physical level which undermines the concept of the question or we are able to concieve of a higher dimensional world, which God inhabits, which is unanswerable to human thought anyway since we cannot think outside of our 4 dimensional structural concept.

Was there a time before God?

Again this unanswerable due to the same limitations as the above. God is above and outside time, although he can manipulate and control it at will. In our sense of him it is why we came up with the word "eternal".

How was God "made"? How did he appear? Did he just become God from nothingness? I mean it had to start somewhere?

Again, this is unanswerable because of our limitations in existing within the space-time continuum. From our perspective there was never a beginning for God. "Beginning" is a linear time function ad cannot be applied to higher dimensions without a significant change in concept. Imagine, if you were able to change your relative time at will, how would you know what the beginning was? You would be living the present, past and future at the same time.



The following questions only have answers depending on your perspective of the world. Since you state that you are a christian, why don't you start there and see how it goes.

So, you're saying that Jews and Muslims don't believe their religion is the one true religion?

LOL..I've no idea what 'MKULTRA' means, but no doubt you're right.

1) Well if he isn't physical could he really touch something in the physical? Then again he's all powerful. I'm going to have to give you a no on that question. There is no stone too big.

2) God has always been here, or at least that's what my religion says. I know it's hard to imagine.

3) If he has always been here then he had no beginning.

4) But that't the beauty of it. There isn't just one. You have a choice.