What does God directly give you?

@ believers.

Let’s take a moment to reflect.

What does God directly give you?
What sort of feeling does God give you?
Please describe what it is like for you to receive this.

What God can give you directly…
Is there any other way that you can get this, or have ever got this?

he gave me an amazing brain, and almost a complete lack of tragedy in my life. i cant thank him enough for that.

and regardless of whether or not he exists, when i think about how great and lucky i am, and i think about thanking whoever is responsible, i get spine shivers. not every time i think about it, but if im in the middle of listening to handel, or if some kind of miraculous coincidence happens that reminds me of it and im drunk, huge spine tingles.

i dont know that spine tingles are god talking to me, but they feel damn good and they make me happy. what else would anyone want in return for this prayer-like feeling of thankfulness?

i want to know what uccisore and bob have to say.

Thank’s for sharing that with me.

I now think that your “God” is all of your good status/potential, and though in the second person, you’ve somehow developed a humane relationship with some incomprehendable things in your environment?..

I’m happy for you.

My problem was that I wanted absolute, real facts and understanding of “God”. Realism and God don’t mix well, do they? My hunger for truth, starved my faith.

But still… at times… I leave that door open. I pray for guidance.

“God” gives me something above and beyond what I am and have, but I’m so “unholy” and “imperfect” that I can’t keep up this super state of mind that “He” Gives me… It just wears off.

…I’ve changed allot, but many months ago I thought that I had finally really gotten close to God, and had overcome the barriers and misunderstandings… And then, I found myself instead.

Much like philosophies of the mind and the body being seporate, a person can easily seporate himself from himself. He can judge one part of himself, misunderstand it, deprive it, or worship it…
So, that’s what I think “God” really is now.

I expect something nice from Bob,
but I don’t know uccisore.

You already know. Rain, sun, Hunger, fullfillment, Pain, peace, Strife, everything there is. God provides them all, and I'm sure you know what they all feel like. 
Is there some [i]further[/i] experience, something uniquely 'goddish' that the atheist is missing out on? Sure. But that's a small, trifling thing that, as you are right to hint, isn't a lot different than what you can get from the right mushroom or rock show. 

Eh, it’s a game that’s played with loaded dice from the start. You look at everything in the world, the pleasures, the pain, etc. and assume all that has nothing to do with God, then expect to find him in some ‘special feeling’ resulting from a half-hearted prayer. Not faulting you, that’s really the way of the world.

If it didn’t wear off, you wouldn’t notice it, and you’d just be a skeptic again. That’s another problem with ‘looking for God’. If the greatest evidences of Him were things you can’t help but overlook- free-will and sit-coms, then what could you do?

Hi Dan,

I would first of all agree with Uccisore that it is difficult to find something that isn’t a gift of God, even though I experience the external as something set in motion. The greatest gift of all, however, is the ability to appreciate it and work with it. This is where the inward experience comes into it’s own. The Mystery we call ‘God’ gives me the ability to use both my senses and the contemplative counterparts that help me gain a perspective I would otherwise have missed.

Scripture and inspirational writings help me concentrate and access the reality behind the superficial, they help me “read between the lines” and often show me a different, conjecturally divine point of view that is sometimes opposed to my perception. This also gives me a sense of direction, purpose, and goals which may never have occurred to me. The search for God reveals to me who my fellow man, my fellow creature and what the nature of my existence is.

Mostly it is the feeling of awe and amazement. Occasionally, I find myself touched by a glancing feeling of intimateness, when it as though clouds of mist part and a picture becomes clear, but fades again, leaving me gasping. Everyday life seems to swallow up such experiences, but you notice that something has remained, albeit a fleeting memory.

We often wish for something tangible, something that we can grasp and hold on to. But it is often like the story that Rainer Maria Rilke once told about children who decided that a thimble should represent God, and that they should share the responsibility of carrying God with them. Each day another member of the group was given the thimble in a ritual befitting the task. You could see how this responsibility changed them, how they walked upright and proud when ‘God’ was under their protection. One day though, after the initial effects wore off, it became suddenly apparent that ‘God’ had been lost and after hours of searching they gave up.

I think that just because we find symbols or even objects that represent God, it doesn’t help us if it only means we have him in our pockets. The Mystery or the Ineffable must become an integral part of our lives, with relevance for the everyday occurrences that employ our senses and mind. The “feeling” is secondary to the importance of God’s relevance in our lives, which explains why the Torah would have Israel contemplate the word of God in the daytime and at night, with “phylacteries” containing strips of parchment inscribed with quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures, strapped to the forehead and to the left arm.

From what I understand, this hasn’t always had the effect it should have had, but it has helped Judaism survive for nearly six thousand years.

Shalom

After debating evangelical christians I have come to the conclusion that the whole misunderstanding between believers and not is based on CONTRASTING SUBJECTIVE EXPERIENCES. The believer calls out a magic formula like repentance, is graced by god by receiving an absolute 100 % faith in him and the believer is thus saved.

This could be seen as if the believer lives inside a computer simulation, calls out a magic instruction and his mind becomes hardwired into believing the “Son of Man” and becoming saved. If the believer backslides, he calls out the instruction again and the hardwiring is reinforced. If he looses his faith the hardwiring “was never there or was too weak”.

Now no amount of logical debate or anything on earth will change the believers hardwired mind, so the skeptic tries to convince the beliver that god is a fairytale and fails and can’t figure out why. Because the beliver is convinved that his subjective-metaphysical experience of repentance-broken in front of the cross which is real for him, is real in absolute terms. But it is just his own personal experience that gets confused with the outside objective reality.

Why is the Son of Man also called the Son of God ? Because we are Man and God is our Son, hence Man is God, this is the real secret of the bible.

@Uccisore
God is all things to you?
After all, this designer had a reason for creating all things?
Then truth and lies, love and hate, subjective and objective, all belong to He. The one who has contradicted Himself in all things, the Creator, and also the “Truth”?

@Bob
Your premise and theory mean nothing, compared to how you use them. I’m glad for you; I would only guess that you could make good out of any religious membership.

@nameta9
Congadulations, you have the “truth” that the Christians thought that you were blind to. The shoe is on the other foot, because of the way they walk, but not the direction?

“Truth does not exist”. Now this sentence is self denying , if it is true than it is false so which is it ? The fundie will turn the table on me and say “you, non believer are hardwired to not believe, we are hardwired correctly”. So which is it ? This is just the tip of the iceberg, because then given N minds each hardwired differently, each has an absolute truth as seen from that mind, so they are all equivalent, are all true within each mind so what the fundies wanted to defeat, namely relativism, went out the door to come back through the window.

So then all truths are within a neutral space of non truth, so I can imagine in the future, a mind manipulating machine that makes minds believe there are no atoms, or that atoms are small elvis presleys playing, and that mind will always be convinced of this no matter what you say or do or demonstrate. So is that mind “wrong” ? No, because all minds are correct within their reference system, there being no truth at all. This means that all possible religions, ideas and any concept of reality are all equally true no matter how wild, thus the concept of truth is a false concept.

Didn’t the Christ say search and you will find ?

Dan~

He provides all things. I’m no pantheist.

I imagine so.

The existence of opposites is not a contradiction. That the world has black in it, and also has white in it, is not a contradiction. But, you and I have discussed this before. After all, take God out of the picture, and these things all still exist. Can science contradict itself? In fact, I would say that a cold, mechnical law of physics creating opposites and apparent ‘contradictions’ is much less likely than an active, creative Mind doing the same.

what does god directly give me?

I know:

patience to read topics like this.

“what does god directly give you?”

nothing,i am the creator and i am my own creation,and im not an atheist.

“what sort of feeling does god give you?”

none,my parents lied,i got over it,and now im moving on.

“Please describe what it is like for you to receive this”

well “this” reffering to my situation,im quite happy i uphold the Godless truth.

“Is there any other way that you can get this, or have ever got this?”

why should i be furthur brainwahsed? i’m already representing stupid and evil self-destructive america,no offense.

“he gave me an amazing brain, and almost a complete lack of tragedy in my life. i cant thank him enough for that.”

you really believe that,pitty on your soul,your creation principle gave you a brain,not a Word.

“and regardless of whether or not he exists, when i think about how great and lucky i am, and i think about thanking whoever is responsible, i get spine shivers. not every time i think about it, but if im in the middle of listening to handel, or if some kind of miraculous coincidence happens that reminds me of it and im drunk, huge spine tingles.”

“He” exists as a Word,if you failed to notice at sunday school he wasn’t there with you. no such thing as Luck. your responsible for yourself not God. your spine shivers because you fear the Truth that i’m giving. i suggest you stop getting drunk,religion is the only true drug,no need to drink about what you want to forget,unless it is that exact drug.

“i dont know that spine tingles are god talking to me, but they feel damn good and they make me happy. what else would anyone want in return for this prayer-like feeling of thankfulness?”

words don’t talk,they are the brainwashing illusionists of your mind enslavery placed inside books made FROM nature. humanity corrupts itself and you enjoy it. thankfulness is for those who know the truth and are happy to know it.

“i want to know what uccisore and bob have to say”

not alot,dont worry.

“The existence of opposites is not a contradiction.”

but they themselves contradict the single God.

“That the world has black in it, and also has white in it, is not a contradiction.”

right,white represents midday,black represents midnight.
two of the 4 24 race days that contradict word-god singularity brotherhood.

“After all, take God out of the picture, and these things all still exist.”

thats right,remember the Cubic Creation Pirnciple.

“Can science contradict itself? In fact, I would say that a cold, mechnical law of physics creating opposites and apparent ‘contradictions’ is much less likely than an active, creative Mind doing the same”

science doesn’t Contradict itself,but Opposites do manage to De-god religous thought.

you know not the Truth you where educated religous lies and depend on them.
your patience comes from genes and a good personality,God has no Role in your life.

no… the Son of man is also called the Son of God because he was God’s son in the sense that even though he is God, he was sent out as another… piece of God, if you will, though not really separate. He’s called the Son of man because he was born to mankind in the symbol of a man. hence, Son of God, Son of man.

to answer the original question, i believe God directly, first and foremost, gives me a sense of peace. it is the foundation upon which i become receptive to other teachings He has to offer me. when i am stressed out or i am on the verge of losing it, i seem to inevitably come across something that alleviates all of my stress or sadness or all of the million things that cross my mind every second of every day. when i can take what He gives me and use it to calm down then i immediately become much happier and i am suddenly able to think straight again.

i don’t believe i have ever gotten this feeling any other way besides having God stop me for two seconds to allow me to do so. i can’t think of another way it could happen off the top of my head.

but dan, it seems like you’re searching for a definitive answer on the nature of God and what He has to offer. but no religion will be able to give you a complete answer on the topic, because no religion is sure. God is like a puzzle, that was taken apart by men thousands of years ago and everyone with a piece looked at it and tried to make as much sense out of the fraction of an image on their piece of the puzzle as they could. then they used that knowledge to teach others about God. but without the whole puzzle, it becomes impossible to tell what the full image is.

i consider myself to be christian because i believe they have made more sense of their puzzle piece than a lot of other religions, or possibly they have collected together more pieces than other religions over the years. but they still do not have the entire puzzle so they do not know what God looks like. while i wish to point out that i am not supporting athiests’ arguments or anyone else’s arguments about christianity, i will be the first to admit that a lot of what we think we know about God is speculation. it’s impossible for it to be anything else. and it’s part of our nature to be curious and to try and learn as much about Him as possible. With only a few pieces of the whole puzzle though, God becomes unfathomable. so no one will be able to answer all of your questions about God, and you must answer many of them yourself. this is where wisdom is useful, and it’s one of the reasons i believe God so rewarded Salomon in the Bible for asking God for wisdom to begin with. God was fully aware that we would always try to assume as much about the finalized puzzle as possible, so He praised wisdom as one of the highest virtures there is, knowing it would hold many of the keys we looked so desperately for.

two words define you:
word worshipper

The bible must be read and understood LITERALLY, all else is a fabrication of FALSE PROHPETS AND ANTICHRISTS. And most of all you must be guided by the holy spirit when reading and understanding Scripture.

IF THE CHRIST IS SON OF MAN

IF THE CHRIST IS SON OF GOD

LOGIC DICTATES MAN IS EQUAL TO GOD.

MAN IS GOD.

ALL ELSE IS A FABRICATION, A LIE, AN ANTICHRIST LIE, SATAN’S LIE!

YOU ALL LISTEN TO THE GOAT.

if man was god then what would be the use of creating religion in the first place? yet those religions have stayed around for thousands of years.

Go ahead and let this man create just a small thing. Just a Bee or a fly.

Donnie Darko Fan:

Eh? Why? A single God can’t create both light and dark, or birds and gravity, or whatever example you want?

Oh, nevermind.