Do You Believe In God?

Well I dont think I picked religion on a rational thought. I didnt think there was a god for many years. I was suicidal and hated everything and especially myself. My catholic upbringing didnt help either. I started feeling as many do "Why if there is a god is he not here right now when everything is going wrong?" I guess it was more or less I didnt want to believe. I went to college last year and two of my friends were in a car accident involving a semi. If you saw the car neither of them should have lived. I cried so hard when I found out and spent the night in Kristin my friends dorm. Sarah (her roomate and on the XC team with me) called Rachel and Robin and Amber and Jenna and they all came and we all prayed for Jan to live. She suffered minor injuries for the most part and a few broken ribs. I still didnt believe after all of that. Zack told me his story and I began thinking more about it. I believed he was there but I didnt and couldnt figure out why I was if he wasnt going to help me. I found my dad this summer, and I finally got to meet him. I didnt know anything or what he was going to say when I called but I called and it was great. I told my best friend on an IM and her away message was the "Footprints" poem. I suddenly realized I had been getting it all wrong. He was helping me, even when I thought he wasnt there. There is no rational reasoning here. Its just faith. The same faith that moves you to get up and go to work with the confidence you still have a job. And even though none of us can prove it, its our belief. I think of it like this... "Theres someone or something out there watching me in everything I do and helping me along. Wether its my ancestors, like native americans believed or the gods as the greeks believed. Its there. whatever it is." Its not anything proveable. Its feelings and trust and hope and faith.

To the Christians reading this: i hope it encourages you.

To the non-Christians: i hope it helps you understand Christianity a little better.

well, like i said before, i'm a Southern Baptist Christian. but i'm not perfect. no one is; no one is gonna do everything the way they should (according to their religion). i don't pray as much as i should, nor do i read my Bible as much as i know i should. so when my faith is weak, it's no wonder why. i've been neglecting God, and when we neglect him, of course we won't be able to be as strong as we should and he can't change us if we won't let him. the Christian faith is a relationship, it's not just a belief. it's one thing to believe something; but it's a completely different thing to live that thing out in the course of your life. i'm sure that people of all beliefs question the validity of their religion; everyone questions their faith. but what determines the strength of that faith is how tightly they cling to it, how much it affects their daily lives. if you don't cultivate that relationship, it will not grow, and you can be pulled from it at the slightest tug.

it seems that most people who bash Christianity are always trying to make the argument that God wouldn't allow all the suffering in the world, but if they read the Bible they'd know that God has a plan for everything, and that bad things make us appreciate the good things. and he allows good things to happen to people who don't believe in him b/c he loves everyone, not just those who love him, only, he calls Christians his children b/c we choose to acknowledge and thank him for his presence by living for him. also, non-believers criticize what they don't even understand. and they pound on Christians and call us hypocrites when we sin and they argue when we can't prove God's existance, but that's not fair, b/c no one can prove God's existance, and they can't prove that he doesn't exist, but we have more evidence that he DOES exist than they have that he DOESN'T. i'd like to hear one of them defend their belief, instead of trying to disprove the existance of ours. and i'm not all non-believers do these things, just like i'm not saying that all Christians believe and act the same way, b/c nobody likes to be stereotyped.

anyway, God doesn't expect us to be perfect, he only expects us to try. he loves us so much, and if we give him the chance to a positive affect in our life, he definitely will. but not every miracle comes overnight, and everyone knows that life isn't easy or fair, no one ever told us it would be. but nothing worth having comes easy, so don't give up on God when times get tough. he promises to help us through anything and everything we go through. so try him whole-heartedly before you decide that he's not real. but nothing is free either; he has terms and conditions, too. we must follows his teaching and keep his commands (which, honestly, other than due to peer-pressure, aren't hard at all). and again, he doesn't expect us to be perfect, he just expects us to try. ;-)

jay

I'm admittedly agnostic... I feel that there's no proof one way or another about the existence of God. Furthermore, we truly don't have any ability to determine whether there is some all-powerful being guiding things or not. We can believe there is, but realistically, we have no proof.

I could just as easily prove that even a "miracle" was (1) random chance, (2) the very real manifestation of many minds' wills working together at a point of crisis, (3) the presence of a divine being watching over us, or (4) the conjoining of several lines of scientific phenomena at the right moment. We simply don't have the ability to truly, unequivocably proof one thing or another at this point in our society.

But I definitely think anyone choosing to diminish any such being powerful enough to create the universe into a masculine or feminine image is being very arrogant and overly anthropomorphic.

The universe is a really big place... if there is an active being that created all of us, it's also terribly arrogant to believe that It's any more concerned with our daily lives than It is with the birth or death of a sun.

When you throw in how many different translations of the Bible there have been, the tossing of controversial texts at the Council of Nicea, the systematic and violent stamping out of alternative choices of religion by Christianity, and/or the adoption of some of the deities of such religions as saints within the Church, it makes it rather easy to question the modern legitimacy of any Christian thought.

And it's not just Christianity... every other religion in the world--large and small--has similarly been altered, shifted, redefined for political or economic purposes, etc., over the millenia. So how does one really know the truth in the modern day?

Simple: you have to think and analyze for yourself, not just take what's spooned out to you by ambitious politicos and church figures whose survival in leadership and affluence depends on people not questioning the truth and/or motives behind their preachings.

Well said Miles, well said.

I would say though that yes, although linking such human and simple terms as male or female with a God is slighly limiting. It's not totally without some rational to it, for almost everything in the universe has a split nature to it...light and dark, positive and negative nutrons...male/female etc.

However,I think God is a DJ. : )

Yo Edea, i've studied thebible, i was raised Roman Catholic...been a choir singer, alter boy etc etc.

So i know the bible pretty well, and it still seems irrational, full of contradictions, and socially harmful theories and beliefs.

Lets put aside the issue of God. The Bible, in my opinion, is nothing more than a story book, full of voilence, sex and purposely ambiguous and vague rules and wise words...with the exception of the ten commandments...which i could rip to pieces without much effort, it's all so weakly descibed and laid out that no one knows which interpretation to believe! Yet you guys are living your lives by the words of the truth, which is in fact the 15th edition truth which keeps changing to match the times [ only years later...wow thats some truth!]

I know i sound harsh, but as i've been involved with cult counselling in Edinburgh [ scotland ] where i live,and to put it bluntly...religion is the cause of so much pain and suffering...and i'm not just talking about in a historical sense. It's outdated, socially redundent and unfortunately part of the superstructure.

It's time for some new beliefs. Christianity is a cult, albiet a large well known one. It is no different from Scientology or Krishna Consciousness.

Lets move on eh?

Well I agree with Kevin that the bible is a story book. I like to read it though. Sometimes It makes me feel better so I think I'll continue to read. I dont believe it though. I believe what I feel. :-)

Ah Kendra, that would be the Mystery of faith...which is what the church used to say to the poor mal-informed peasant folk to stop them questioning the state of the world and Gods lack of action about it.

My how things have changed eh?

Ha!

I actually admire people of faith, even if it's in something i don't believe in...in fact i think i might just have more respect for people who believe in something as irrational as Christianity...cause given how unbalanced it is they must have to have extreme faith just to get through each day.

"I live my life based a book of doctored lies and warped truths, the institution that controls the book i base my life on, kills people, causes massive social upheaval with it's discrimination against gays, woman and anyone who has "impure" thoughts...oh yeah and the supreme diety i'm supposed to be dedicating my life to has never been seen, can't be comprehended by mere mortals and strikes people down for making mistakes....gee i love my religion"

Ok, a slightly baised view...but i still don't hear anyone coming back at me with some rational thoughts..except that it's all about feelings and faith.

feelings? Pah! Give me a Vulcan anyday!

Bold effort.