That’s interesting. The mechanism of religion, embedded within the psyche. Prayers become a reflex, like me sneezing in bright sunlight.
Did it ever help ?
No, not that I can tell. Then again, maybe it’s the reason I am still alive!
well I’m one of the few outside the “nearly all people” you’re mentioning. everyday, He’s just as real to me as anyone else. but that’s just me. I somewhat understand where you’re coming from, but it’s not happened to me. ever. well, whatever.
Uh oh, I feel a bit of an athiest statement coming on with this metaphor.
Ready? Here it is. What the African is seeing is a creation of man, just like GOD! If by miracles you mean nature being manipulated by man…sure you call it miracles I will call it science.
Funny, I was gonna say the same thing to you in regards to your faith. I accept I may be wrong but do you?
You know it’s funny to hear “what if’s” about Christians…as if we don’t have them. It only seems to me that atheist think it’s dumb to believe what Christians do so in a sense we’re just lost, or brainwashed…well I think the same thing about atheist/agnostics. You can be brainwashed by friends, influences, the media. You’ve heard saying’s all through your life and you choose to just believe them instead of finding your own answers. I wake up sometimes and wonder if God’s real…sure I think we all do, but the next day I realize I’m blaming God for something wrong in my life and then asking for forgiveness out of fear. I went two weeks hating church and not believing one verse I sang…but I still believed God existed. No matter what happens to me in my life I will always believe in God, What would change that? Nothing has yet…and I don’t believe anything ever will.
Just as we have no proof for you to understand God, only testimonies, you have no proof Against God, only that it’s stupid because it’s what you’ve been taught by someone inside the mortal spectrum who is fallible.
I’d like to hear a good argument against God for once…I just get the easy ones from stubborn unbelievers who are too lazy to answer there own stupid assumptions.
No, the jet flying is a mircale to the african because he doesn’t understand how metal objects can possibly fly. Just as you don’t believe the miracles in the bible are true, maybe God knows something about science we don’t. That is what I meant.
Sure I accept I may be wrong, why wouldn’t anyone? Not trying to bring on pascals wager but hey, I’ll at least be insured.
OK. Perhaps he does. This does not mean that people did not manipulate Science or lie in the Bible. Since it was not written by God how could they know for sure?
The problem with Pascal’s wager is two fold in my mind.
1.) If you believe in it just to believe in it does that mean God would want you?
2.) Which God do you allign with? There are and have been thousands of God/gods. So do you just worship them all and hope you get lucky? Or do you stick by one and find out you guessed the wrong one?
Yes, if we’re to discuss god(s) you’ll have to start by specifiying which one.
I speak of one God and that’s the only God I believe exists. Why does it matter what my religion is? I believe in the God that created this universe and sent his son/himself to die on a cross for our sin debt, that God.
To your first question Satori…I have no idea, and I’m not afraid to admit that. I’m sure it wouldn’t please God to only want him so you can get a passage from hell…but once you get saved you don’t look at it that way, you look at it as if you want to please God and do his will, and yes heaven is a given. But that’s all I can say about that thus far.
To your second, I don’t think that really matters…my percentage of being right still has a percentage…engaging in nothing is 0%. So I’m still better off. Regardless any God who’s a God at all, and that loves us, is going to understand many people will never get all the information, so as long as you love God and believe in him, this God should alllow you to go to heaven…why would he not allow you to be with him if you wanted to? I don’t believe in following rules to get to heaven as you may believe Christians do. Works don’t get you there, rules our just guidelines so that we may live a better life as God would want us to live.
ehhh. This is tinkering on my worst threads list. Along with “Does God read Books” and “Why are Atheists nice to people”.
But it’s not that bad. So i’ll answer it.
Well, no. Since I dont believe in a God I would not pray for forgivness since 1) According to Your bible God only forgives you if you are sincere and I would NOT be sincere. and 2) God didint help my black anscestors when they were being raped on plantations. Can any christian rationalize slavery? Blacks did NOT…EVER Reject jesus christ as a whole. Whereas you have the holocaust in which christians claim Jews deserved it for Judaisim. Which rejects Christ(I guess).
So Why would God let an entire race suffer and then save one person (namely me) from getting decapitated. hmm? come on now.
Come on christians. Rationalize slavery. I need a good laugh.
Good things should NOT happen to good people. According to the bible. Because all faithful SERVANTS (cough cough slaves) to God will be protected and yada yada yada.
Not to even mention the stupidty of “God being a fair God”. What kind of bullshit is that? What about children born with no eyes? Is that fair? What about feet? Legs? What about the mentally retarded children who live thier lives getting humiliated. God you christians make me sick. Start another crusade you sick bastards.
I heard a whisper of Pascal’s wager and I always find it so very interesting that some religious people (not necessarily you Club29, though you did bring it up) seem to feel as if Pascal’s wager is some sort of brilliant insight that means we should all start believing in god.
Pascal’s wager is anachronistic at best, just plain blind at worst. It sets up an artificial dichotomy between believing in god and not believing in god. Put in those terms, the wager seems like a good bet. But if we add some other gods to the wager, it falls apart. What if there was a god who didn’t care if we believed and we wouldn’t be punished for not believing? How does Pascal’s wager handle this situation?
Another reason why I have never found Pascal’s wager to be at all convincing is because it presupposes that there is a god which could (or would) impose eternal damnation. I believe there is no god, therefore, how could I accept the possibility of there being a god who could impose this punishment on me?
cheers,
gemty
Jesus never said it wouldn’t happen! He never told us we would be completely at ease, that the world would treat us with kindness. With the idea that Jesus was perfect, look what happened to Him! The greatest man to ever walk the face of this earth received the lowest treatment, being beaten, cursed, nailed to a cross, and today, called false.
And if we make you sick, excuse me! Do you expect Christians to be perfect? If I told you that you made me sick, what would that mean to you? And define “fair”. Do you think it’s fair that Christians get persecuted DAILY over in parts of China and Asia? But do you hear any grief from us about it? Yes, life can be tough, whether you’re blind, deaf, retarded, or diseased - but Jesus said He would never forsake us - all we have to do is trust in Him! Is that so hard? Or is everybody too proud to do something like that? Fine! But go have a pity party somewhere else, because we offered people hope and freedom.
This is coming from we “sick bastards” - and I thought name-calling was an elementary idea. Sheesh. Grow up already.
You don’t even know him…so how can you say that? For all we know he could have been some street pimp who was going to get arrested and “changed” his ways.
Yes, they do. Turn around is fair play since Christianity ad Imperialism have destroyed large portions of Eastern culture and religion. We hear about how tough it is to convert other people around the world. Fine, then perhaps you should cease the struggle and let them be.
Yes, it is hard to trust someone whom you have never met with your eternity.
Mucius quote - Ha ! I’ve got you, you’re a Presbyterian. Or a Calvinist, nonetheless.
Nah not me mate, I’m label-free, I don’t need Organised Religion to do my thinking for me 
“We don’t need no steenkin’ badges” - bandido in Treasure of the Sierra Madre
When Brit hardman gangster and murderer Ron Kray lay dying of a heart attack in a prison hospital, medics later reported that he cried out to his dead mum…
I suppose people mellow a bit like that when they know the Grim Reapers about to walk in the door and get 'em…
Anyway good luck Ron mate, but it’d probably have been a better call to cry out to Jesus…
“whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”
(Acts 2:21)
Would God answer anyway???
No he wouldnt, because he doesnt exist.
Do you exist?
If my head was to be whacked off, I would ask for God before I would ask for Old Phil!
Atheists, I think the message here is clear. Stay away from Al Quaeda. Should Zarqawi’s replacement ask you to inspect his saw, proceed with caution.
I dunno. If you asked for Old Phil there’d be at least some chance of him showing up.