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Has everyone asked God to reveal himself?


spartan max2

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Odd thread title, but I suspect this is a expierence many people have, so I'm curious.

I have some religious friends and religious family. I've been told (in the past, no one trys with me anymore lol) to try "praying to God to ask him to show himself to you". 

So naturally I did that. I did that for a while, multiple times in my life, and obviously nonething ever happened.

But my question is, has every atheist here also done that at some point in your life?

I suspect that this is common "advice" and a common expierence people have where religious people tell you to just pray for God to show and then, as open people, we try and of course nonething happens. 

 

And also to the Christians, have you done this? And what actually happened that you felt like was a supernatural being "showing" itself to you.

 

 

Edited by spartan max2
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9 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

I have some religious friends and religious family. I've been told (in the past, no one trys with me anymore lol) to try "praying to God to ask him to show himself to you". 

So naturally I did that. I did that for a while, multiple times in my life, and obviously nonething ever happened...

If you're an atheist and don't like Jesus, God must have refused to take your call..

Jesus said "Whoever rejects me rejects God” (Luke 10:16)

but keep trying and maybe one day you'll get through..:D

"Come near to God and he will come near to you" (James 4:8)

Jesus said- "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (John 14:23)

 

 

 

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Yup. 

I've tried to "talk"/pray/contact god many, many times.

Never heard, saw, felt or observed any definitive answers or signs.

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11 minutes ago, Crikey said:

If you're an atheist and don't like Jesus, God must have refused to take your call..

Jesus said "Whoever rejects me rejects God” (Luke 10:16)

but keep trying and maybe one day you'll get through..:D

"Come near to God and he will come near to you" (James 4:8)

Jesus said- "Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them" (John 14:23)

 

 

 

And how has it been answered for you? When you have "prayed for God to reveal himself to you". 

If you don't mind answering the thread question.

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19 minutes ago, spartan max2 said:

And how has it been answered for you? When you have "prayed for God to reveal himself to you". 

If you don't mind answering the thread question.

God sort of "grew on me"..:D

It all began when I was in my teens and chronically depressed, first at my awful school and later at my awful first job, and thought "surely there must be more to life than this?"..Then I began remembering half-forgotten bits from the bible that said the world was a worthless mess and it cheered me up, so maybe God was inserting them into my head to let me know he'd got my back?..Later I began taking an interest in the Bible looking for more "ammunition" that backed me up and I found plenty, and the rest is history, I just kept feeling stronger and stronger over the years..:D

 

 

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1 hour ago, spartan max2 said:

"praying to God to ask him to show himself to you". 

I can't see how God could show Himself if He is not something physical in most people's view. Perhaps an unusual sign but that is something interpretable so you'd be back where you started with the question.

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Did when I was a Christian.  Nothing happened.

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As a non believer I would have no reason too,   I have never and would never ask the question as I already know the answer. 

Note I do not even think there could be one, hence no question asked from my point. 

I have asked believers who try to tell me there is a god to come up with something other than what is in their heads / heart and man written novel, but nothing has ever been brought forth other than what they believe.

 

 

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4 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

I suspect that this is common "advice" and a common expierence people have where religious people tell you to just pray for God to show and then, as open people, we try and of course nonething happens. 

Not sure this is what you're looking for, but "causal prayer" that God might show up is one thing. There are religious groups that make a technology of the thing, a life style.

Tanya Luhrmann, now of Stanford, is an anthropologist-psychologist who's studied the religious tech extensively. Her graduate work was with UK witches. Later, she got interested in Christian movements like "Vineyard churches," and noticed that the Vineyarders used pretty much the same methods to cultivate a "felt presence" of God as the witches used for their purposes. Luhrmann has also taught Stanford undergraduates to cultivate the "felt presence" of Leland Stanford, Jr with similar methods as the witches and Vineyarders, with similar results.

https://uncertaintist.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/tulpas-the-latest-thinking-about-thought-forms-from-stanford/

The piece gives an overview, and the links to supporting material are current.

Didn't meet God (druids, Leland Stanford, ...)? You're doing it wrong :)

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4 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

So naturally I did that. I did that for a while, multiple times in my life, and obviously nonething ever happened.

But my question is, has every atheist here also done that at some point in your life?

O heck yeah.

Gotta remember though that Christians don't have a lock on god and the supernatural.  There are a lot of different traditions.

I doubt that asking for it is enough; you gotta work at it and put yourself in the right frame of mind.

Then it can happen.

You may not see a god that looks like George Burns, or Morgan Freeman or Whoopi Goldberg. you might only hear a voice or feel a presence.

It might make you feel good or scare the bejeezus out of you.  I have experienced both of those things.

At that point, you choose to be a true believer or analyze your experience.  I have only been a true believer for a few minutes at a time, then my rational explanatory self regains control.

When you analyze your experience, you cannot prove that it was anything outside your own mind. It may be a part of your brain that you do not normally access, but still something inside your own skull.   There are ways to do that which don't rely on faith or belief.

No matter, if you learn something about yourself through being terrified or feeling love and grace, you are better off than you were.  Even as an atheist, you might want to connect with parts of your brain that don't normally offer access to the conscious mind.

 

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Yes I've asked God and a bunch of other god's to reveal themselves. Nadda. 

Did the whole prayer/rituals/spells things. Nothing more than confirmation bias. So I was duly disappointed. As for the 'paranormal' aspect of it. Nothing once you begin to look at the psychological nuts and bolts of it all. 

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I was never broken, I simply refused to toe the world's line and was expelled from school for not trying..."I think you'd be happier at another school" said the headmaster, and I thought "too bloody true mate"..:D

You can be a little goody two shoes and be teacher's pet if you like but include me out..

"Jesus saved you from the empty way of life handed you by your forefathers" (1 Peter 1:18 )

"Don't conform to the pattern of this world" (Romans 12:2)

"You died with Christ from this world, so don't keep submitting to its rules" (Col 2:20)

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6 hours ago, freetoroam said:

As a non believer I would have no reason too,   I have never and would never ask the question as I already know the answer. 

Note I do not even think there could be one, hence no question asked from my point. 

I have asked believers who try to tell me there is a god to come up with something other than what is in their heads / heart and man written novel, but nothing has ever been brought forth other than what they believe.

 

 

That's interesting, were you born in an atheist house-hold?

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5 hours ago, Crikey said:

I was never broken

That's not what you said before.

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1 hour ago, spartan max2 said:

That's interesting, were you born in an atheist house-hold?

My mother is not religious, but her family are Catholics. My father was not religious at all. 

I took an interest in the idea around the beliefs, but never got in my head that there is a god. 

I love nature and that we have evolved on this planet and still are evolving, a god does not fit into that. 

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God and other deities were created, in my opinion, to explain away things we simply weren't able to comprehend throughout history. With the advent of science and a better understanding of our universe in general, the concept of a God or creator is now obsolete. 

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46 minutes ago, Not Your Huckleberry said:

God and other deities were created, in my opinion, to explain away things we simply weren't able to comprehend throughout history. With the advent of science and a better understanding of our universe in general, the concept of a God or creator is now obsolete. 

I think thanks to the last 20 years Neuroscience has changed the god game, as far as I am concerned god is an oxytocin rush. 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, Scudbuster said:

I've never bothered to ask a god to reveal himself. As Huck pointed out, this concept is obsolete. 

 Heck, those folks living in the middle east were petrified of everything. They were damn happy just to have the sun come up in the morning - that was an every day miracle to them. 

So no wonder they invented "gods" to keep their version of the perceived "good times" rolling along. How many goats can I sacrifice today oh great Sun God...? Whatever it takes to make you happy.

I've said this before, but in my book those guys were the original "flat earth" boys, not a collective ounce of scientific observation and analysis among them all.......so they dreamt up gods to make sense of it all. Not blaming them, I might very well have done the same thing had I lived back then.

Some expressions that raise my eyebrows are the adult bible quoter’s as if they replaced one authority figure with another. Or quote but don’t interpret what it means to them, 

It reminds me of the time when a kid needs to leave home and get their own experiences, like they are to old to be living at home and saying my mom (god) said blah blah blah....

Geez, if a person doesn’t have a moral base as an adult...do they really need to quote the Bible all day?

 

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1 hour ago, Not Your Huckleberry said:

God and other deities were created, in my opinion, to explain away things we simply weren't able to comprehend throughout history. With the advent of science and a better understanding of our universe in general, the concept of a God or creator is now obsolete. 

It's only obsolete for thinkers, there are plenty of people who want someone else to tell them what to think and how to be "a good person" so religion is not really obsolete.

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38 minutes ago, Sherapy said:

Some expressions that raise my eyebrows are the adult bible quoter’s as if they replaced one authority figure with another. Or quote but don’t interpret what it means to them, 

It reminds me of the time when a kid needs to leave home and get their own experiences, like they are to old to be living at home and saying my mom (god) said blah blah blah....

Geez, if a person doesn’t have a moral base as an adult...do they really need to quote the Bible all day?

 

Yes, they do.  Zombies don't have a thought of their own.

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15 hours ago, spartan max2 said:

Odd thread title, but I suspect this is a expierence many people have, so I'm curious.

I have some religious friends and religious family. I've been told (in the past, no one trys with me anymore lol) to try "praying to God to ask him to show himself to you". 

So naturally I did that. I did that for a while, multiple times in my life, and obviously nonething ever happened.

But my question is, has every atheist here also done that at some point in your life?

I suspect that this is common "advice" and a common expierence people have where religious people tell you to just pray for God to show and then, as open people, we try and of course nonething happens. 

 

And also to the Christians, have you done this? And what actually happened that you felt like was a supernatural being "showing" itself to you.

 

 

When I was child I was taught that god would not manifest in human or spiritual form. However, when God had something to communicate to us individually it would be something that would occur during our daily lives, but that it would be obvious that he was making his presence known. Along with this It would be obvious that the occurrence was some form of Devine intervention. This never happened to me, in fact spiritually I never felt gods presence in my life or most importantly in my heart.

This is was not caused by a lack of trying on my part, because as a child I would seek his guidance through prayer, but no matter how hard I tried my prayers were never answered in either a positive or negative way. As I grew I turned away from the Christian beleif system that I had been raised with, until finally I completely turned my back to it. While my experience certainly isn't unique, it is why I stopped believing, and it is also why I began to base my beliefs on Karma based beliefs.

Peace

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2 hours ago, Sherapy said:

as far as I am concerned god is an oxytocin rush. 

 

Have you considered the possibility that this is why anything real, does not concern itself with you?

 

 

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14 minutes ago, Tuco's Gas said:

This has been exactly my experience and current mindset as well.

It's why I started to practice Buddhism, in Buddhism you focus your energy on correcting your personal problems without seeking help from an omnipotent Deity. In Buddhism you and you alone are responsible for your actions, and only you can find the happyness and contentment you seek by changing the way you approach life through mental conditioning. So in essence you are given all the information you need to make the changes necessary to find a path that leads to an enlightened way of living your life.

Peace

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47 minutes ago, Will Due said:

 

Have you considered the possibility that this is why anything real, does not concern itself with you?

 

 

If you don't mind answering the thread question. I honestly want the Christian perspective to this question because I'm curious.

The Christian UM members seem to be responding to people but ignoring the question. 

Quote

And also to the Christians, have you done this? And what actually happened that you felt like was a supernatural being "showing" itself to you.

 

 

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