Does GOD Not Existed? - Page 8

its not really "closing your eyes to suffering" but more, opening them to the possibilty of their being something greater, something beyond our comprehension. our comprehension of "suffering" may not even be "suffering" at all.

or maybe im just insane

I don't believe that God does these things personaly. It is his program he has put in place that does these things. I believe God can intercede, and so can we. Jesus said and if you had the faith of a mustard seed, you could tell a mountain to turn over and it will. Art Bell on After Dark did an experiment. A hurrican was heading twords the coast and he asked all his listeners to concentrate on preventing a desaster. The path of the hurricane was redirected. Many believe that it is our attitudes about things that cause things to happen. On the flip side of that, I believe that if you ask God, God may intercede. Prayer and meditation are two very powerful forms of religious activity. Were two or more are gathered in my name, that makes it even more powerful. You might ask - why don't we just live in a perfect world. Genesis tells that we did in the beginning, and we blew it. The Gnositcs however believed that it was necessary inorder for us to realize our full potential.

I'm sorry - this thread is for non believers. Just ignore me.

if Faith isn't arbitrary I don't know what is.

Natural disasters are caused by God. Or at least, God has the power to stop them but chooses not to.

"I'm sorry - this thread is for non believers. Just ignore me."
I think the poster wanted for believers and non-believers to discuss the issue so, there's nothing wrong!

Our ancestors blew it, I can't believe God would make us pay for their mistakes. I can't even believe God would make Adam and Eve knowing they would blow it (he is all knowing after all)

Faith is definitely arbitrary, but it is faith that gives some people comfort.
We had the chance for a perfect world. But man had to give that up for a little taste of immortality. Like i said before, man created his own problems, starting from the first sin. In the end, it is believed in Christianity that God WILL ultimately wipe out humanity and start over by creating a new Heaven and Earth. So in the end, you get your wish DumbTeen. God will eventually destroy us all, everyone but the pure of heart. All but his believers will be left behind. If man had not sinned, we would not live in such a time and place with conditions such as war. We blew it, and we need to blame ourselves, not God.
((im out for the night. i'll be back on tomorrow))

I do not wish for our destruction!
If anything I wish that our decisions could be made rationally, without emotion and arbitrariness.

I do not deny that belief in God can bring comfort, but unless God has acted in your life, that belief is arbitrary.

man's decisions can be mad without emotion, as most of mine are. We decide to let our emotion take control of us sometimes.
Oh, and it seems that you believe in God, you just dont worship Him. correct me if Im wrong.

No I don't believe. If I sometimes sound like I do believe, I probably mean 'if there's a God then... blah'.
With emotions, we must abandon them for all important decisions. When we live normal live our actions can be passionate, stupid, opinionated and bigotted because they don't matter. But when we fight, when our leaders make decisions emotions and arbitrary decisions must be kept out of it.

which proves that decisions can be made without emotion.

quote:

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If anything I wish that our decisions could be made rationally, without emotion and arbitrariness.

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you proved yourself wrong.
but of course, who is to say what is an important decision? Whats important to you may not be important to me.

"you proved yourself wrong. "
Well thank you! I didn't know my emotional statements were that important


An important decision? Obviously it depends on the person, but any decision which is important to anyone, is effectively important (if we go by the rule that one person matters as much as another).

If we didn't cede to emotion, American soldiers wouldn't be torturing Iraqis and Israelis and Palestians wouldn't be at each others throats right now.

i never said that we always made decisions without emotion. I said it was possible. meaning most of them do involve emotional involvement.
And one person has never mattered as much as another. this would mean that it wouldnt matter who we made president, because each person matters more. And we wouldnt see the president any different from an ordinary citizen.
And yes, your emotional opinions mean the world to me.

Let's get a few things straight, DT......

God creates, and God can take away. His choice in the matter. NO matter what you think is right has no conclusive stance with God. In other words, take it or leave it, but but do NOT expect God to persevere in patience with a world of ingrates, pagans, and disbelievers.

As humans do spring house cleaning, so might God. Destroy them, and sort their souls.

He RECLAIMS lives.....so he has that perorgative. Ya have no say in the matter, tootsie.

If ya choose to not believe, so be it, then be prepared for your eternity. I see you have been warned, taught, and counseled in many ways.

You have no one to blame in the end.


And there is nothing done on earth among men that is not involving emotions......even the psychopathetic unfeeling, no conscience killers have emotions....it is called deep rage.

"In other words, take it or leave it, but but do NOT expect God to persevere in patience with a world of ingrates, pagans, and disbelievers."
Then this is hardly an all good God. The god you describe is one who has chosen to give crap evidence of Himself to us and then blames us and damns us to eternal hell.

All Good indeed.

No, this is too self contradictory for me, belief in God in one thing, but the one you described is messed up beyond belief.

"You have no one to blame in the end."
Actually I do, I can blame God for not giving us a rational reason to believe in Him. Or alternatively, I can blame god for not showing his work in my life.
Either way, as belief is NOT a choice, I can't really be blamed (I can probably be blamed for not being as good as I should be, but that's a different matter).

"And there is nothing done on earth among men that is not involving emotions......even the psychopathetic unfeeling, no conscience killers have emotions....it is called deep rage. "
Of course, but I think that when it comes to important decisions we must try to remove emotion and arbitrariness from them. Take gay civils rights, there is no reason beyond religion to not have gay marriage (and the Federal state has NO RIGHT to interfere in religious freedom). Take Israel's war against the Palestinian people, America's support for Israel is emotional (mainly because the president wants the Jewish votes in America). And take terrorism : it is simply an emotion pushed to the extreme.

We must purge arbitrariness and emotion from us when we do important things.

being as closed-minded as we both are, i'll just end this thread to stop any discrepancies.

When we try to imagine God, unfortunately we think of our selves and make God into something we might be, jelouse, vengeful, etc. We really don't know what God is.

But I don't believe in the "Common beliefs" I say I don't know because they say they do know, and I know they don't. Unfortunately they look down on me as someone lost and astray. But if they only knew what they don't know.

There are different terms for seeing God in different ways. I'm not familiar with all these terms and don't know what camp I fall into. I see God as best as my little pea brain can understand. Its not perfect, I'm probebly wrong, but I don't think God really cares, and knows we see as best as we can.

I hope this helps. The ice age this earth was to pass through has already gone. Why? When I studied environmental science in school, the green house effect was supposed to destroy this earth in the early 70s, it didn't. why? There may have been three times in your lifetime that a nuclear holocost was to destroy most if not all of the earth, it didn't. why? And when I worked at AOL, I was greeted one morning by a friend who said, I didn't used to believe in God, but I just found out that Mars is starting to warm up, there must be a god.

I hope you find something more than yourself to believe in, it's a lonely world, and even if you find a mate, you can be alone, and you will come to know more and more, humanity is not so humane. I don't know how I can survive without prayer, even though I haven't a clue what I'm praying to, but I believe it is God, and I believe I am being heard.