God and Religion

[Hlleonard]

There is (or was) not sure of the name, a physicist who was also a member of the clergy but as to that being the norm... Folks like Hawking who played the game for years pretending to go along with those who believe but eventually came out with his actual feeling about the matter..

[waterdog101]

There is nothing in the logical world that leads to a belief in the supernatural.. People debate this endlessly, there is a reason most scientific minds don't accept a supernatural origin of all we see.. Faith is a great thing for those who have it but just because you believe doesn't make it so..

like I said earlier, I'm an opened minded guy, down through the years of my life, like most other folks I have given life and where we came from a lot of thought, I looked at it like this, I came from my Mother, she came from her Mother, right on back to where the Bible says God made the world and everything in it. he made the first woman, I could easy enough see that. in my mind it was hard for me to get a grip on something coming from nothing, like the " Big Bang " you can't have a big bang unless you already have gas, dirt, rock, water and so on. there has to be something to make the Big Bang, so I asked myself, where did the materials come from that made the big bang. so I thought a greater power had to form the materials that made the big bang. so God must have made everything that the world exist of. looking back on nothing comes from nothing, in my mind everything has to start from something. so I can't see a big bang, without materials that were made by a supernatural power. it did trouble me for years, about God. I can backtrack and see that I was born of woman, my Mother came from a woman, back to Gods creation Eve and Adam. I asked myself where did God come from, I wanted to think God was like me he had to come from something, but if he came from something he wouldn't be God, he has no beginning or end, he is supernatural and just exist. I have excepted this, it is the only thing that makes sense to me.

[Hlleonard]

like I said earlier, I'm an opened minded guy, down through the years of my life, like most other folks I have given life and where we came from a lot of thought, I looked at it like this, I came from my Mother, she came from her Mother, right on back to where the Bible says God made the world and everything in it. he made the first woman, I could easy enough see that. in my mind it was hard for me to get a grip on something coming from nothing, like the " Big Bang " you can't have a big bang unless you already have gas, dirt, rock, water and so on. there has to be something to make the Big Bang, so I asked myself, where did the materials come from that made the big bang. so I thought a greater power had to form the materials that made the big bang. so God must have made everything that the world exist of. looking back on nothing comes from nothing, in my mind everything has to start from something. so I can't see a big bang, without materials that were made by a supernatural power. it did trouble me for years, about God. I can backtrack and see that I was born of woman, my Mother came from a woman, back to Gods creation Eve and Adam. I asked myself where did God come from, I wanted to think God was like me he had to come from something, but if he came from something he wouldn't be God, he has no beginning or end, he is supernatural and just exist. I have excepted this, it is the only thing that makes sense to me.

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I think there is something like 98% of the US population who agrees with you in that there has to be a supernatural origin... I have heard most arguments concerning the unlikelihood of something coming from nothing and I have to admit it sounds like a stretch but it seems to me the creation as laid out in genesis is doing just that with the exception of having a supernatural component... I just simply cannot accept anything supernatural as an actual happening, witches, demons, ghost and a hoard of others seem to fit in with a belief in a supernatural creator.. There isn't a shred of evidence to substantiate the existence of a god or a jesus as is told in the new testament, there are historical writings that say there was a man whom was said to be a leader of the jews and whose name was jesus and who was crucified by the romans but nothing to substantiate the legand that lead to the writing of the new testament..

[know1]

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I think there is something like 98% of the US population who agrees with you in that there has to be a supernatural origin... I have heard most arguments concerning the unlikelihood of something coming from nothing and I have to admit it sounds like a stretch but it seems to me the creation as laid out in genesis is doing just that with the exception of having a supernatural component... I just simply cannot accept anything supernatural as an actual happening, witches, demons, ghost and a hoard of others seem to fit in with a belief in a supernatural creator.. There isn't a shred of evidence to substantiate the existence of a god or a jesus as is told in the new testament, there are historical writings that say there was a man whom was said to be a leader of the jews and whose name was jesus and who was crucified by the romans but nothing to substantiate the legand that lead to the writing of the new testament..

Just because human logic can't comprehend God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist. It's pretty small minded to say that God doesn't exist just because you don't understand everything about how God works.

[MrSplitshot]

There is a God, who has no beginning and no end. He just exists, because He does, or because we don't yet know all of the backstory. He created the universe and all within it. If the "Big Bang" happened after that, fine, but God got the ball rolling so to speak.

All of that is very much supernatural. Therefore, if you believe in that, it's not inconceivable to believe in Jesus as God incarnate, the resurrection, and the stories written in the Bible. All of that is pretty supernatural too.

I have doubts...I question, because of how supernatural it is...maybe one day I won't...but that's the setup that I try to put my faith in. I go with it, hoping one day something will cause me to believe without a doubt.

I heard a song one time called "Those Crazy Christians" by Brad Paisley that I found touching. There's a lyric at the end that kind of hit me: "Those crazy Christians. They look to Heaven their whole lives and I think 'What if they're wrong?' But, what if they're right?"

[Hlleonard]

Just because human logic can't comprehend God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist. It's pretty small minded to say that God doesn't exist just because you don't understand everything about how God works.

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Just because human logic can't comprehend God, doesn't mean God doesn't exist
No sir it does not but it seems logic was used in the reasoning as to why there had to be a god.

Small minded?.... simply because someone doesn't believe as you do?..
There is absolutely no reason beyond faith to believe in a diety
The supernatural is simply unacceptable to some of us,
I know several people who claim to be atheist and to my knowledge none have referred to anybody
by a name such as small minded, for some reason these kinds of judgments seem to be used by those who profess a belief in gods and such.. Why is that?... it seems to be against your teachings but alas, there it is..

[sweetwater]

Along the line of what mrsplitshot was saying I can see no reason why creationism and evolutionism cannot go hand in hand. The bible says God created the heavens and the earth in six days but it does not say how long one of God's days is. Assuming one of God's days is about two billion of our years long and with modern science placing the age of the universe at 13.8 billon years and the earth at about 4.5 billion years the math comes fairly close to giving credence to both beliefs. The scientific estimated age of the universe comes from the Big Bang Theory which is just that, a theory which I have my doubts about. Also, several Christian ministries promote the idea that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, which they say comes from the Bible. In reality though, the Bible makes no claim as to the age of the earth or the universe.

[waterdog101]

Along the line of what mrsplitshot was saying I can see no reason why creationism and evolutionism cannot go hand in hand. The bible says God created the heavens and the earth in six days but it does not say how long one of God's days is. Assuming one of God's days is about two billion of our years long and with modern science placing the age of the universe at 13.8 billon years and the earth at about 4.5 billion years the math comes fairly close to giving credence to both beliefs. The scientific estimated age of the universe comes from the Big Bang Theory which is just that, a theory which I have my doubts about. Also, several Christian ministries promote the idea that the earth is less than 10,000 years old, which they say comes from the Bible. In reality though, the Bible makes no claim as to the age of the earth or the universe.

2 Peter ch3 verse 8

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

[DJD]

Splitshot, I am in the same boat as you, I go back and forth between believing, and then thinking an asteroid hit this earth billions of years ago, and life sprung from that, and we have evolved to what we are now. I still pray, I still try to live my life in a way that if there is a god, I am hopeful to be judged good enough to enter the pearly gates, I look at the ten commandments as rules to live by.....sometimes, I can almost feel the lord inside of me, and then sometimes, when I see children dying of cancer, or being raped and killed, I wonder if there was a god, would he allow this to happen, I was told one time by a Baptist preacher that without suffering there would be no compassion.....I just don't buy that. I do know that something happened to my wife and I that I cannot explain, other than it was the good lord protecting us....I was driving down bardstown road towards mt. Washington, doing about 65 miles an hour, and the light turned red, I was cruising pretty good, and had to hit the brakes really hard to stop, and for some reason, and to this day my wife and I cannot figure it out, I swerved in the other lane, never looked back, never looked over, just for some reason, I abruptly switched lanes, and as soon as I stopped a dollar store semi went by me doing about 80, if I would of not gotten over, I know we would of both been dead, he had nowhere else to go except the back end of my vehicle. I swear to this day, I never looked back, I didn't know he was there, and I still don't know why I switched lanes, other than someone up there didn't want me dead yet, and made me switch lanes, its just something I would ever do, espically without looking over to see if there was a car in the other lane, but I did it, and I am alive today because of it.....

I have a few stories that I can't explain and every one of them was after a loved one died. Do loved ones come back after they die to say things are ok? Well I believe it but others have said I was just so emotional and my subconscious made me see things...not sure but I'll go with I talked to my dad after he died because it felt real and I sure felt better after the visit.

i have been cursed with terrible nightmares of feeling something evil is on or around me my whole life while sleeping. I talked with my pastor (at the time) and he explained it was a spiritual war over my soul....well since I was ready to stop those dreams or events I followed his advice and he added me to his prayer group and of course I prayed myself and they would pretty much stop. Now if I go for a week or two and don't pray, seek God or just sit and read from the bible I start getting those feelings at night again. I'm a believer of God which means there is a Devil so again I go with what my Pastor said and I have been a part of several small groups, men's groups men's BSF (bible study fellowship) at church (when I would go regularly) and we would talk and I wasn't the only one who dealt with this...it was nice to hear others explain what was going on with them and how they dealt with it.

I can see if someone who either doesn't believe or on the fence about God hears things like this they can shake their head and just write it off as bull or whatever and quite honestly that's how I was until things started changing for me 20 years ago when I confronted some of these "demons".

[Hlleonard]

[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#000000]And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.[/COLOR][/FONT]

[FONT=Helvetica Neue, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#000000]Explanation?... This seems pretty straight forward, not sure how anybody can get anything except a 24 hour day from this... [/COLOR][/FONT]

[Hlleonard]

Guys, A long time age I felt as you guys do but occurrences since then caused me to question that feeling and caused me to realize if there was a creator he/she was a very cruel entity and that is bolstered by what is written in the old testament... After a few years it made no sense to me and since then has only made less sense... There are so many contradictions in the bible that it is impossible to believe any of it is true... Have talked to those who say their belief comes not from the bible but from somewhere else... There is no other source for a belief in the christian god other than the bible and what is passed down from the older generation which influenced a persons life. If you were raised a christian you are likely a christian, if you were raised a muslim you are likely to be a muslim and so on but ask a christian about the only true god he will tell you, ask a muslim the same and he will tell you, all cannot be right... There is one reason you believe and that is because you were taught by those who preceded you, there is no logical reason... Religion is a fascinating subject of discussion but inevitable there are those who feel their belief is being attacked because there are no answers to questions of faith.. We tend to struggle for explanations where there are none..

[sweetwater]

2 Peter ch3 verse 8

But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Peter 3:8 is The Apostle Peter (Saint Peter) referring to Moses' prayer for mercy and grace written in Psalm 90:4 which says "For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night." The Apostle’s meaning in Peter 3:8 is thought to be in substance and meaning that in one day God could do the work of a thousand years; therefore he is not slow and he is always able and ready to fulfill his promises; and a thousand years is no more of a delay to the eternal God than one day is to us.