God Vs. Something Else

[Austinmania3]

im not saying i dont believe in him but with the way things go either he hates me or he is testing my faith hardcore

[SnKMaddog]

Here's part of the problem though.  We as a people are very selfish by nature, so when we ask God for something in prayer, we only recognize him if he gives us exactly what we want.  People tell me all the time "God hardly ever answers my prayers".  Here's my answer to that: God ALWAYS answers prayers.  But he doesn't always give the answer that we desire.

God doesn't hate you guys.  Life is full of situations, both good and bad.  But my faith enables me to have a positive outcome from any situation, even if I end up getting totally screwed.  Trials give me a chance to learn how to act or react in a given situation, and I have the opportunity to become a better person because of it. 

All you who are calling yourselves Atheists, whatever you decide on is okay.  To each their own.  But I want you to realize that science and Christianity DO NOT disagree.  The only major disagreement between them is Macro-evolution (Darwinism) verses Micro-evolution/Creationism (Christianity).  I have spent countless weeks of my life studying both Creation and Macro-evolution from a scientific standpoint, and I have to tell you all that the theory that Charles Darwin promoted has some HUGE holes in it.  So huge that it would actually take far more faith for me to believe in Macro-evolution than it does for me to believe in God.

If you study Charles Darwin, you will find that he came to the same exact conclusion: There is a God, and he created the earth.  Did Darwin believe as I do that God is actively involved in all of our lives?  No.  Did he still believe in some sort of Macro-evolution?  Yes.  But he flat out confessed that his findings were flawed, and that his original intent had been only to disprove the existence of God.  But he realized that he couldn't.  Something had to intelligently start the earth as we know it. 

I'm not accusing any of you of anything.  I'm not calling you stupid.  I'm not even trying to convince you that I'm right and you're wrong.  But what I hope that the above post does is make you guys think about it, and then research the crap out of this subject with an open mind.  And if you come to the same conclusion that you already have, thats fine.  But maybe you've been mislead or maybe you overlooked something in the past.  Who knows?

Anyone with questions about any of this can reach me via PM.

[Casper]

Here's part of the problem though.  We as a people are very selfish by nature, so when we ask God for something in prayer, we only recognize him if he gives us exactly what we want.  People tell me all the time "God hardly ever answers my prayers".  Here's my answer to that: God ALWAYS answers prayers.  But he doesn't always give the answer that we desire.

God doesn't hate you guys.  Life is full of situations, both good and bad.  But my faith enables me to have a positive outcome from any situation, even if I end up getting totally screwed.  Trials give me a chance to learn how to act or react in a given situation, and I have the opportunity to become a better person because of it. 

All you who are calling yourselves Atheists, whatever you decide on is okay.  To each their own.  But I want you to realize that science and Christianity DO NOT disagree.  The only major disagreement between them is Macro-evolution (Darwinism) verses Micro-evolution/Creationism (Christianity).  I have spent countless weeks of my life studying both Creation and Macro-evolution from a scientific standpoint, and I have to tell you all that the theory that Charles Darwin promoted has some HUGE holes in it.  So huge that it would actually take far more faith for me to believe in Macro-evolution than it does for me to believe in God.

If you study Charles Darwin, you will find that he came to the same exact conclusion: There is a God, and he created the earth.  Did Darwin believe as I do that God is actively involved in all of our lives?  No.  Did he still believe in some sort of Macro-evolution?  Yes.  But he flat out confessed that his findings were flawed, and that his original intent had been only to disprove the existence of God.  But he realized that he couldn't.  Something had to intelligently start the earth as we know it. 

I'm not accusing any of you of anything.  I'm not calling you stupid.  I'm not even trying to convince you that I'm right and you're wrong.  But what I hope that the above post does is make you guys think about it, and then research the crap out of this subject with an open mind.  And if you come to the same conclusion that you already have, thats fine.  But maybe you've been mislead or maybe you overlooked something in the past.  Who knows?

Anyone with questions about any of this can reach me via PM.

Ive heard a lot of people talk about darwins theory having major issues, but nobody has actually told me what they were. And im not trying to belittle christianity with this, please dont take it like that. But you say it takes more faith to believe in macro-evolution because it has holes, and yet the bible, while mostly based on true events, has no possible way of being proven in the older books, off of which the whole religion is based heavily upon. People have done extensive studies on a lot of the stories of the bible, and found explanations of them. For example, the red sea was suspected to actually be translated wrong. Historians think it was meant to be reed sea, which suggests it was a small lake. Im not too sure of the details, but i remember seeing this on the history channel. They researched it and moses and his people could have gotten to jerusalem through another route. There was a lake there and it had a wierd geological phenomenon that the tides or the ground or something changed once in a while and it made a sort of bridge across it. Even the whole book of... ok i dont remember the name. sorry. lol. but the part where god sends locusts and kills the firstborn of every family, etc, was explained, all events related to an earthquake. It did seem too coincidental to be trrue, but then again, we have been on earth for quite a while. Things like this are going to happen, and the people of that time period who couldnt explain it said it had to be an all powerful being. Im rambling a bit at this point, which i often do while talking about this sort of thing. lol. Anyway... Im certainly going to look into darwins theory, and those holes you were talking about  haha sry about the super long post 

[Casper]

And that's something I've thought about. I honestly wish I could believe. I could die happily and live on. But if you think about it, ceasing to exist is heaven. There isn't any more pain, no more suffering... Everything is over. It's comforting to me. It may seem wierd, but eternal life scares the hell out of me. It means this will never be over. I will always be alive. Even in paradise, I wouldn't want to live forever.
And for the chaos thing: look at our universe. Everything around us is chaos. And yet, things coallesse, take shape, and order emerges from the chaos. Everything, given enough time, will reach some sort of organization. Put 10000 people on an empty continent. They wil form towns and communities and government. Everything works like this. The only
way for chaos to stay chaos is for it to sustain it's own randomness somehow. And even that could be considered a form of organization. Sry if i'm not making too much sense. I'm tired and having trouble puttin all my thoughts onto words. Lol

[Dj_Menthol]

Atheist.

[Argo]

atheism ftw

[[L33Kd]Rena Ryuugu]

I'm really glad everyone here's mature enough not to flame. Hard to find mature religious conversations, yo.

[Casper]

I'm really glad everyone here's mature enough not to flame. Hard to find mature religious conversations, yo.

haha yea these usually turn into massive threads of flame I'm proud of the maturity level here too
gotta love 1up <33333 lol

[TheJuggernaut2k]

haha :p

[BourBon]

Doesn't benefit anyone to be close-minded to other people's opinions.

[Casper]

Doesn't benefit anyone to be close-minded to other people's opinions.

So true. I believe what i posted near the beginning, but anything could exist. God could have created the laws of physics and left no evidence of his existence for all we know. The only thing im 100% sure about is that anything could have created us

[Poe]

I believe in God.
I don't look for any scientific proof of his existence because it seems that a major part of Christianity is faith. It wouldn't make sense to me if God gave anyone specific and undeniable proof. Of course, many people see love and hope and the trees and our human bodies as proof. Many do not. I don't know.
I don't pray often. I get angry. My life has been really, really difficult.
It's a struggle sometimes to believe in anything at all, let alone an "all powerful being". But I do anyway. And I work at being better. Even though things don't go my way I still know I'm working towards something better.
I just have never seen definite proof for God or definite proof to disprove him.


No matter what anyone believes I still love you guyz!

[Poe]

I believe in God.
I don't look for any scientific proof of his existence because it seems that a major part of Christianity is faith. It wouldn't make sense to me if God gave anyone specific and undeniable proof. Of course, many people see love and hope and the trees and our human bodies as proof. Many do not. I don't know.
I don't pray often. I get angry. My life has been really, really difficult.
It's a struggle sometimes to believe in anything at all, let alone an "all powerful being". But I do anyway. And I work at being better. Even though things don't go my way I still know I'm working towards something better.
I just have never seen definite proof for God or definite proof to disprove him.


No matter what anyone believes I still love you guyz!

Nice Poe, keeping an open mind is probably the most important thing and I am glad you can use something like spirituality to get you through the day during the rougher times, I wish the best for you.

Thank you. I've found that my belief in God has been what has saved me many times. And my faith in him. I will always think that God is the right and only way to something greater than this life... and I will always push for him first. I fail. All the time. And I'm weak. But I'm human... and I want to believe in a loving God.
I'll never condemn anyone, though. That's not my place. I try not to judge. I just slowly work at being more. Because alone I am just like everyone else, which to me is a problem. I want to be more joyful and more productive and more caring and more honest. That will take time, yes... but it's the price I'll pay for heaven.
I keep an open mind but I finally know what I believe. Science molded my beliefs for a long time but I had an amazing physics teacher and chemistry teacher (who was taking a break from building bombs for the government, which was weird) who showed me that I can believe in science and my faith. So, I do. I keep my science and my God.
But, at the end of the day I just want to be able to say that I showed someone love. 

[Casper]

So first of all, i need to say this. please, nobody get angry or offensive in how they present their views. Dont try to make anyone mad, because you will just look like a jerk. Ive always been interested in this kind of thing, and what people believe, I personally believe in existiential nihilism, the belief that we are just another anomaly in the universe, and that human life is meaningless. However, most people believe different things. Post your views or arguments, because im very curious in what all of you believe 

Remember, i dont want this topic closed down. BE POLITE!!!! lol

I follow existentialism but I am not a nihilist. I do not understand how life can be meaningless, can you provide some resources or insight to this belief? It does not make sense - life is what we make of it and if you want to get down to the bare basics, like some sort of biological machine, then it is the continuation of the specie - survival. Try telling your cells they serve no purpose lol, they would say "F*** you, we are just trying to survive". I would not disagree that we are an anomaly, I am not sure what the numbers are , in terms of probability and the chance of getting a planet like earth when looking at what else is out there, off the top of my head but the suitable conditions to support the evolution of life, as we know it, are very specific and we lucked out.

Well one thing ive always strongly believed is that the number 1 instinct is survival and reproduction. Look closely at anything you do. It all stems back to either survival, reproduction, or pleasure. Survival and reproduction are base instincts. With pleasure, ive always seen it like training animals. we get rewarded for doing things our body likes. I really dont have resources or anything, its just based on the proof ive seen of science and not of religion. And "anomalies" like us are bound to happen quite a bit. If the universe is infinite, or even as large as currently thought, theres going to be a lot of life. Our way of life based on DNA and things like that could be incredibly different than anything else, though. In fact, it is extremely rare to find a planet like ours. However, ours isnt the only kind of conceivable life. There are molecules called prions (i think thats what they are called), and they cause disease among deer by replicating through reactions in the deer. If 1 molecule can create life, or near life, then life cant be as rare as we think. Life on another planet could be based on the gases and minerals on that planet, and have whole other subprocesses within the ecosystem. Instead of predators and such, all the creatures could feed off of minerals, or filter gases out of the air. If life of other kinds is on other planets, why is ours the creation of a god? Why would ours be any different?

[Poe]

Well one thing ive always strongly believed is that the number 1 instinct is survival and reproduction. Look closely at anything you do. It all stems back to either survival, reproduction, or pleasure. Survival and reproduction are base instincts. With pleasure, ive always seen it like training animals. we get rewarded for doing things our body likes. I really dont have resources or anything, its just based on the proof ive seen of science and not of religion.

I believe in God and definitely believe we are born with basic instincts. Totally. Survival, reproduction and pleasure. Yes. Those things, and many others, we are all born with. But things like that are things Christians believe in also.
I don't think Christianity has to go against science. I love science and I think it goes hand in hand with my faith in a God.