Does God exist? (21 Viewers)

[Enteebee]

http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/25/1511252

I've seen it... I believe it's in a large part a performance to present his situation in an overly positive light. He doesn't want to wallow in self-pity and that's good, but when faced with the prospect of your own death I think it's okay to have a little self-pity. It's a private thing, not something I'd exactly want to tell people about if I was suffering, not something which I'd want to lecture/write a book about for my kids to see, I would want them to see a happy optimistic person. Good on him for living his life out as best he could. I can't know the private mind of such a person, maybe he was truly unworried by the prospect of dying... I feel a certain sense of performance in his lecture though and I generally think it'd be fairly natural for people to be upset.

 

[*TRUE*]

I am an atheist. There is no god. There is no afterlife. One day soon, really in just the blink of an eye, I will be gone. Fairly soon after that all memory of me will be gone. The universe will carry on but even something as large as our solar system eventually will be swallowed in the death of our sun. And I'm not happy about this. What I would really like is to live forever, or at least until I get bored of it, preferably as fit and healthy 20-something-year-old. Failing that I would settle for some type of heaven. But I can't. And I don't like the thought that I can't. No-one does, even those of you whom claim to not fear death must accept that you wish you could continue living (until you get bored etc). No matter who you are and what you believe, everyone has the same thought - they want to live.

I know I will one day cease and, deep down, I have to admit I am scared about it in some way. But I know there is nothing I can do about. And if there is nothing I can do about it, why should I worry about it? OK, so one day I will be dead. But I'm not now, and since I'm alive now I might as well live. The fear is there but I accept it and don't let it rule me.

The religious way is the coward's way. No matter how much people believe in gods and souls and afterlives, behind it all is the fear that one day they will cease to be. Instead of facing the fear head on and accepting it for what it is, instead they come up with endless stories about how the thing they are scared of is not really there. Eventually, in many cases, the fear takes over their whole life and they must accept every new thing, no matter how small, no matter how silly, that provides temporary relief from the realisation that death is always ahead of them.

I prefer my way. There is no point dwelling in the past or the future. Forget the troubles of the past because they are behind you. Ignore the troubles of the future because they might never come. Take life as it comes and enjoy what you have simply because you have it.



Well... one can lead to the other, perhaps it's just not necessarily true. I think the more extreme the negative emotions are though the more likely you are to fear things which bring them on. I.e. I don't fear falling over and grazing my knee, but if someone looks like they're about to stab me I fear the pain of a knife going into me. I can't think of many extreme examples of negative emotions that wouldn't also be accompanied by fear... i.e. there is a threshold which needs to be met in terms of the strength of these emotions before they start to manifest what I'd call fear.

Parts of that made me laugh.

 

[ang3l]

While I'm preparing my anti-thesis to moonlights anithesis, i thought I'd respond to what's going on here already.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the person is idiotic. Ignorant is more what i'm thinking.

Is it fair to say that because I've never been to China and experienced being there that China does not exist? It certainly doesnt exist for me. But if i were to meet some Chinese people or even people who had been to China, could i still ignore the fact that China might just be there?

In the same way, your argument that God does not exist for you seems a bit silly. Would God cease to exist because you have never seen him or experienced his presence before? What if God were to send someone to you, like an angel... or even just someone who he has revealed himself to and can testify to his presence? Could you still ignore the the fact that God might just be real?


Say I went to China one day, and then i was put on trial for rebelling against the authority of the country. Would my defence hold up if i were to say "I shouldnt be blamed for rebelling against the Chinese authority because i didn't believe that China even existed let alone had any power!" I sincerely doubt it. And what if the Judge were to say "How can you not have know China existed?! You have seen Chinese people before! You have met people who have BEEN to China. China will exist whether you like it or not!" What excuse can I have?

Likewise... What if one day you were to stand before God in judgement because you are guilty of rebelling against him? Could you argue that you shouldnt be held accountable because you didn't know God existed and that you were rebelling against him? And what if he were to reply "How can you not know that I exist?! Have I not sent people to you who come from me, who know me and have experienced my presence, to warn you that I do exist. How can you claim that I did not make myself known to you?!" What excuse will there be?


So i guess what i will try to argue in the future is that it is not up to me to prove to you wether or not God exists. Because if God exists, which i am convinced that he does, he will not cease to exist just because you do not believe that he exists. But I stand before you as a child of God, through the redemption of Christ Jesus, to say God has revealed himself to me and I have felt his presence and I am absolutely convinced of his existance. Whether you believe that or not does not change a thing.

My only hope is that through the words that I say and through the life that I live you may see me and say "There is a man who has been changed by the presence of God!" And through this I pray that God may reveal his existance to you.

Good example, pretty much summed up what I would have said in a more concise and articulate manner of course

 

[ang3l]

ive got a question about christianity/monotheistic gods. Ive never really understood this, im sure christians must have some sort of answer for it since it seems like such an obvious problem.

Firstly, God is omniscient. He knows everything, he is outside of time. he knows the past and the future.

Secondly, I have free choice to accept god or not. My future is not pre-determined, I can make my own decisions.

But how can I have a free choice if god already knows what Im going to do? God knows the future, he surely must know what I am going to do and if he does then I wouldnt have free choice. If he doesnt know what Im going to do, then he isnt much of a god.

That's a philosophical question.

God does know what you're going to do in the future, but he wants you to witness it yourself, otherwise everyone accused of transgressing will use the excuse of not having 'freewill'.

 

[Slidey]

Oh god, she's replying to every post from the start. Kill it with fiiiiire.

 

[ang3l]

Oh god, she's replying to every post from the start. Kill it with fiiiiire.

haha I'm sorry if that bothers you. I didn't realise there are 626 pages lol

 

[squeenie]

Parts of that made me laugh.

Laugh? In what way?

For me, that made me feel somewhat vunerable. Our time here in this world is limited, therefore we should make the most of what we have here and now.

We don't know what's there on the other side (if there is anything). So I want to live so that I will pass on with no regrets, and so if there isn't anything there when I get to the other side, I'll at least have the knowledge that I lived out my life to the best of my ability.

 

[*TRUE*]

Laugh? In what way?

For me, that made me feel somewhat vunerable. Our time here in this world is limited, therefore we should make the most of what we have here and now.

We don't know what's there on the other side (if there is anything). So I want to live so that I will pass on with no regrets, and so if there isn't anything there when I get to the other side, I'll at least have the knowledge that I lived out my life to the best of my ability.

Oh that comment was made impulsively
Just because i was reading NTB's posts a fair bit today...and i thought they were a little out of character for him in a way.

 

[squeenie]

Oh that comment was made impulsively
Just because i was reading NTB's posts a fair bit today...and i thought they were a little out of character for him in a way.

I think everyone goes a little out of character when they get serious like that. I mean, I do. And then people back off and say stuff like "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Christine?!"

... And then I silently laugh to myself.

 

[*TRUE*]

I think everyone goes a little out of character when they get serious like that. I mean, I do. And then people back off and say stuff like "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Christine?!"

... And then I silently laugh to myself.

Yes. Im a very...how you say , gracious (?) person , but when im really passionate i sometimes get very assertive and people tend to freak out...including me sometimes,lol. I dont think i have been like that on here though...

 

[Enteebee]

Oh that comment was made impulsively
Just because i was reading NTB's posts a fair bit today...and i thought they were a little out of character for him in a way.

What sort of a character do you think I have?

 

[Enteebee]

hey i do believe God exists but that's not only because i'm Christian. The proof of God's existence can be seen everywhere, from a larger scope of the human anatomy to a smaller scope of, let's say, a leaf.
also here's an anology: a wooden stool needs a creator and cannot come out spontaneously from nothing, let alone this amazing universe and the complex science behind it.
hope that helped =)

ps: if this argument came up earlier, then great! sorry i'm too tired to read the other posts atm =P

- If our universe can't come from nothing, why can God?
- The big bang seems to suggest that our universe has, in some form, always existed at time=0, then time began around 18 billion years ago and since then it has changed form. To ask what came before time=0 is illogical because "before" is a concept rooted in time.

 

[*TRUE*]

hey thanks for that! that has kinda helped

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You nut

 

[Will Shakespear]

No, because it's a creationist lie, LOL!

 

[emytaylor164]

- If our universe can't come from nothing, why can God?
- The big bang seems to suggest that our universe has, in some form, always existed at time=0, then time began around 18 billion years ago and since then it has changed form. To ask what came before time=0 is illogical because "before" is a concept rooted in time.

God created the earth he does not need to abide by its rules e.g. something from nothing. just like time, God created time he does not need to abide by times rules.

 

[Enteebee]

God created the earth he does not need to abide by its rules e.g. something from nothing? just like time, God created time he does not need to abide by times rules.

There's no 'rules' the universe needs to abide by either, we just observe these 'rules' and suppose they're reality. You can conceive God as being something which doesn't need to obey our rules no better than I can conceive the universe in such a way.

i don't let my dog eat chocolate because i know it can kill the dog. The dog on the other hand thinks i'm unjust and unreasonable but then i know more than the dog does. this is like God and man, we have a wrong perception of Him simply because we work on totally different levels and understanding.

We might very well be wrong but we are doing the best we can. Say we are the dog and the best our rationality can lead us to is that our owner is unjust... it doesn't make sense for a dog to throw away this limited rationality and just go along with whatever, I mean what reason does he have for not attacking you if he is to abandon even his most basic rationality and claim it's unimportant?

but people didn't include in science textbooks that Darwin actually rebuked his theory in the very end. Did you know that?

Because we have good science textbooks, it's wrong and even if it were right it would have no bearing on his theory. Who told you that?

 

[*TRUE*]

Butterscotch 91 , i think you should check your private messages

 

[^CoSMic DoRiS^^]

you're welcome, i'm glad it did
you may not know this or may have heard this cliched phrase many times, but God loves you so much, beyond words can describe, and nothing can make Him love you less!
and when people ask me to prove it, well... just trust Him and His Word!
That's all for now, best of wishes for the future. Tata!

Where did all the people who lived before Christianity go when they died?

I seriously want to know the answer to this from a religious perspective. Christianity hasn't been around forever...

Also, lots of Christians say if you die without knowing Christ you're headed for hell. What happens if you live alone in some jungle somewhere and have never heard of religion, period, let alone Jesus. Surely God can't be all "lol too bad" and send you to hell anyway, right?

 

[emytaylor164]

Would there be any argument or evidence presented that would cause you not to believe in god?

no

 

[Will Shakespear]

no

Jesus' body?