Who here believes in god?

I believe in God, but not only that I am one of His own. I beleive we are known as Christians. lol.

I dont

this was what I am talking about

Isn't it strange that the ones on here denouncing God seem to be the ones that are confused and the true believers like myself don't need to ask questions because we know that Jesus has entered our hearts and promised us life everlasting .Jesus died on the cross at Calvary and shed his blood that we could be saved and spend our lives in Total happiness for Eternity and come the judgement day which is I believe not too far away those that don't except the word of our Lord will perish for ever in a life of turmoil
God bless you all
Love to all my brothers and sisters in Christ.
And i will pray for all those that cannot or will not accept Christ

I am a Hardcore Christian. I LOVE God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
as you can tell by my poems! lol whew..Hes my life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God is within the Soul. It is not an external concept. It arises from within, and gains Beauty as we grow. God exists in everyone's souls.

I was once asked this question
If a tree falls in a forest and there is no-one around at the time does anyone hear it

Well let me tell you this

God hears it

Taylor
I will say a special prayer for you and hope that you find true happiness in your life
John

Yo John boy,

i'll say a non denominational prayer for you ok...it sounds like you need it. Oh and don't be bashing people who are asking questions of faith. Just because Lucifer got chucked out of paradise for disgreeing with God and questioning his methods, doesn't mean everyone who asks questions is unholy. I believe that even Jesus himself asked his father if it must be so that he would have to die. Questioning things is good.

I think it's great so many of you have faith in a higher power, because lets face it, in the world we live in it's very hard to accept responsibility for the way things are. Much easier by far to cede that responsibility over to the influence of Satan and his minions.

I mean, God forbid we actually acknowledge that it is only us mere mortal men and women who are the sole creators of all good and evil in the world. Even as a point of view. Jesus died on the cross for us according to the bible, so that we might be free from sin and have a fresh start, thus allowing us to choose freely for ourselves and embrace God, or not..is this not so?

Why then do you think, would we be put in a position[seeing as God controls everything] where we are under the influence of a very powerful being[Satan]?. It doesn't make our actions free does it? Can someone make a free choice if they are being influenced? I don't think so.

Just a few thoughts.

"Jesus died on the cross for us according to the bible, so that we might be free from sin and have a fresh start, thus allowing us to choose freely for ourselves and embrace God, or not..is this not so?"

thats nearly right Jesus did die on the cross that we WOULD be free from sin ,but only if we lived our lives for him and accepted him as our saviour....
Hope this answers your Question
And for once I agree with Taylor "Questioning things is good"
But believing in God is a matter of faith and it's only ignorance if you don't understand or have a lack of knowledge...
Peace

Taylor
I will say a special prayer for you and hope that you find true happiness in your life
John
Are you as surprised I am, that anyone could see denomination in this statement

Again John, how can Jesus or any God say we are free to choose between right and wrong...and then attach punishments and influences to those actions?

Do you agree or not that a person cannot be called free if he or she is being influenced?

And with that line of thought, the notion that we are sinners takes on a whole new outlook.

Ps, i didn't ask any questions in my last post that needed answering mate.

They are not so much punishments Kevin it just means that come the day of judgement some will be left out and not allowed to join in Eternal life...

Do you agree or not that a person cannot be called free if he or she is being influenced?

Yes I do agree that not one person is free from influence We just have to resist the temptations that Satan puts before us

Yes we are all sinners but God is a very forgiving person thats why he sent his son Jesus Christ to Die on the cross so that we All can be saved if we believe in him

Peace and Love brother Kevin

‘Again John, how can Jesus or any God say we are free to choose between right and wrong...and then attach punishments and influences to those actions’?
If I understand the story of ‘Adam and Eve’ as an ‘inspired massage’ of spiritual guidance, or obedience to spiritual laws, I see a choice.
’Do you agree or not that a person cannot be called free if he or she is being influenced?
I was influenced by the sun’s rising but I chose to get out of bed I was not forced’
’And with that line of thought, the notion that we are sinners takes on a whole new outlook’

In our own little mental world we can imagine that we must follow our nature which leads to the survival of the fittest. The religious leaders of the time of Jesus only succeed in killing Jesus not his true message of love, peace, and forgiveness. Any time any group singles out a group or individual to hate they are not following His Spiritual teachings

'Questioning things is good'. I have a question for the scientist. I have noticed a lot of sad and depressed writings on this site. Can biologist study clinical depression? There are a large number of facilities that treat chemically dependent people with spiritual steps which they believe restores the chemically imbalanced to a more natural chemistry. Do biologist or medical doctors acknowledge that the emotions can trigger chemical release?
Can your spirit affect the way you deal with natural emotion?

Thankyou apathetic soul it seems logical

'Any method that they are convinced will work, will help them'. You seemed to have decribed faith. but science will not claim that as its own for obvious reasons . People who believe in God consider faith to be among the highest virtures
But LOVE is the highest. Can science measure LOVE?

John, please don't be offended by this, but i think you are being a tad naive. It's very much a "believe or die" philosophy with christianity and it's offshoots and no one can say otherwise.

Believe in God or suffer in hell. For at the end of the day, when all is said and done...if you aren't baptised, then no matter how much of a good life you lead, according to the laws of the bible, you cannot enter Heaven. A few drops of metaphoric water seperate the saved from the damned. This is the kind of simple illogical philosophy that keeps many a person away from organised faith. Do you guys understand how these kinds of things look to us? Faith i know is not logical, many of you have said it and i understand that having been in love many times in my young life. What i don't get is your faith in the bible. Because it is so at odds with the God i know that i am lost for words as to how you can reconcile the two in your minds.

I understand you guys think we non believers need guidance and assistance to find God again...but some of us haven't ever lost him...we just have our own personal connection which has nothing to do with the bible. I don't quote scripture to my cause, i just talk from my heart and mind...and to be honest i really don't like it when anyone tries to convince me of the word of God with bible quotes as i don't feel like i'm communicating with people who are sure of their faith, except through quotes, which are not their thoughts.

Peace and all that though eh. Many roads up the mountain you hippies.

I do!

thank you again apathitic soul
but I don't believe anyone creates a cure through a placebo effect. If you read the information on many drugs they are tested with placebo sugar pills to seperate the placebo effect from therapeutic medicine. The experts say there is no cure, but depression, and addiction can be controled. I do believe in spiritual healings

I remember a while back i got involved with a Reiki group. I was really curious about it and went on a weekend thing where i recieved some training and was attuned to the level of Reiki 1 by a man who was a Reiki master.

After a few weeks he asked me to get up at his Reiki group and heal people, and for one night i did...and i gotta say it was very interesting when people thought i was this high powered healer they'd never met before who had the confidence of the master. They would lie down and explain how ill they'd been, or how depressed or whatever...i'd put my hands over them for 30 minutes and suddenly they'd feel great...and describe all these amazing sensations they'd felt during the treatment.

The clincher is that i wasn't doing anything most of the time because i was so nervous i couldn't even focus or relax enough to allow the energy to flow...i didn't feel anything except embarassment...but these people truely believe i was healing them regardless.

There is something to faith healing, but only in terms of each person being able to heal themselves through psychological means.

Michael D, you made an error in your computations. You wrote 62 instead of 64, which in turn has significant subsequent miscalculations. Please correct them, if you may.

thankyou they are corrected what did you think of the riddle?

A very good riddle Michael. I love Mathematics, sorry I had to be pedantic. Despite that minor error, it was a very intriguing riddle.

one veriable I fould in ones geneology is the
great's can hold more than one title

edit
I am indeed impressed with the highly evolved brains of the apes. As I stated earlier there is another approach to this debate. None have commented on the fact that there are many Christians who do not have a problem with the thought that God works in mysterious ways and that Genesis was inspired by mans natural curiosity as to his origin. I have always sympathized with Charles Darwin. I believe he was a seeker of the truth. I spent eight years in a catholic school and I suppose many of you are wondering if when they washed my brain, did they wax it too.?I have read many books on philosophy. The Christians of the medieval times, would have been horrified by this discussion. I do not deny that religion has been used as a political tool. Even long before the authorities of the time of Jesus used it to crucify Him. I am not saying religion is not being used today. I am a philosopher. I am writing this In the year of our Lord 2OO4 DEC 28. I know I am going to appear pompous to Kevin and Nookie. But truth is always good no matter if you were accidentally evolved from a single celled life form. Or you were created in the image and likeness of God. You would be a fool to deny that Jesus has changed the course of history but that does not prove he is God. It is interesting to note that, God is rarely spelled with a capital g by those whom doubt. But the words such as PROOF have been accented. I don’t mean to be offensive. But Kevin in his passion to prove that he is nothing more than a highly evolved ape requested that we not detract from the original topic by admitting that some things by nature, are beyond mans understanding. Nookie professes he can not believe in what he can’t understand. He seemed to have a problem with always was and always will be. I would be interested in what he believes about the scientific theory that matter nor energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So doesn’t that mean that every thing that is, always was and always will be. It is nice to know that everything in an infinite universe can be explained by mathematics, or better yet the random firing of the neurons in an accidentally evolved apes brain. I want to finish with a bio-clock challenge, bear with be if you think it is too simple. We all have a mother and father our mother had a mother and father. And our father had a mother and father. Let me illustrate

Two parents
Four grand parents
Eight great grand parents
Sixteen great great grand parents
Thirty two great great great grand parents
Notice the number doubles every generation.
Now let's say on average a generation is 20 years
Let's take a finite number of years say 6000
Let's say 6000years =300 generations
1st=1
2nd=2
3rd=4
4th=8
5th=16
6th=32
7th=64
8th=128
9th=256
10th=512
11th=1024
12th=2048
13th=4096
14th=8192
15th=16384
16th=32768
17th=65536
18th=131072
19th=262144
20th=524288

Oh my, this is a predicament, if I use this logic to find out how many ancestors I have had since Adam and Eve, don’t I need to find a way to decrease these numbers?524288 is only the number of people it took to suffer and die from the time of Christ, that is how many parents it took to make it possible for me to think about this? The problem only gets more complicated if I try to go back farther so never mind

I believe in god. I know he's up there watching over us. Everything happens for a reason.

Just believe.

Ah Micheal, let me correct you on a few presumtions you made about my thinking.

First off i never said that humans are nothing but highly evolved apes, that is your sarcasm, not mine. I believe in evolution as a theory over and above creationism and yes i think we came from apes or something very similar. But we are different now. Mock the ape idea all you like, you won't win any brownie points from me.

Next up is the limitations placed upon human understanding by the bible. Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall Jesus ever saying to his desciples "there's no point in me explaining this to you, you'd never understand". How much would God suck if he couldn't explain himself? You think it would be within the powers of an all knowing deity to explain things eh? Answer me that one and i'll give you a cookie.

Also, who ever said evolution was an accident? And that the advancement of the human species happened at random? Natural selection is not an accident Micheal...it is a logical process that can be easily explained to a child. So no room there for accidents..only natural growth and change, something i hope you don't mind me saying the Catholic church isn't very fond of.

Quantum physics. Well, you gotta love it. Whilst i find it interesting, it's the most theorectical branch of science. Quite in line i believe with evolution, so it suprises me you would use it's findings to your cause in any way. And in fairness, all they are finding out is what mystics, and i mean the none catholic mystics have been saying for thousands of years, and i mean more than 2000 years. Stuff about how we are all one energy condensed to different vibrational frequencies.

It's all old news to me mate.

‘First off i never said that humans are nothing but highly evolved apes, that is your sarcasm, not mine. I believe in evolution as a theory over and above creationism and yes i think we came from apes or something very similar. But we are different now. Mock the ape idea all you like, you won't win any brownie points from me.’
Well excuse me! If anyone were to read this topic and did not know better they would think that the Almighty was being mocked

God has been called nonexistent
Created by man
A tap dancer
Not logical
Too powerful
Not powerful enough
A placebo
The father of the entire universe has been mocked
But that does not give me the right to mock your ancestors

‘Next up is the limitations placed upon human understanding by the bible. Maybe it's just me, but I don't recall Jesus ever saying to his desciples "there's no point in me explaining this to you, you'd never understand". How much would God suck if he couldn't explain himself? You think it would be within the powers of an all knowing deity to explain things eh? Answer me that one and i'll give you a cookie.’

If I may quote your response to my very first post
’Yo micheal, nice words brother...most beautiful.

One thing i picked up was the words of your Grandfather saying that he believes in God and not churches and bibles [ did i get that mostly right? ] thing is, everything we know about God comes from the bible...fact. We may claim to have personal experience of God, but no one can deny our understanding of God comes from a book written entirely by men, who at the time of it's many variations, totally controlled society through the words they wrote into the bible, and of course the way they taught it to the illiterate masses. Only recently has the church lost much of it's power over the minds of common people.’

’So to me, it's madness for anyone to say they believe in the Christian God but not the bible he comes from...it's like knowing the comic book batman is fake...but still believing batman himself is real and kicking ass in Gotham City’..
answer I think we agree that our understanding of God is a personal thing

’Also, who ever said evolution was an accident? And that the advancement of the human species happened at random? Natural selection is not an accident Micheal...it is a logical process that can be easily explained to a child. So no room there for accidents..only natural growth and change, something i hope you don't mind me saying the Catholic church isn't very fond of.’ Amen Kevin I agree even though the last pope believed that evolution was proven, and revoked Galileo’s condemnation the church authorities have been slow in the past. I did have a poor understanding of what the evolutionary theory stated until Alasdair explained it in this discussion
’Hi Michael,
Evolutionary theory doesn't say that life came about by accident. It says that the variations that come about in life is random, but the mechanism that sifts through it(natural selection) is anything but random. Here's an example...if you take a jar full of sand and shake it up, the sand will "by accident" be mixed up by the water. However, if you leave this jar by itself for a few minutes, all the sand will have sunk to the bottom..."by accident" ! Point being, a non random filter(gravity in this case) will produce order from randomness.

Quantum physics. Well, you gotta love it. Whilst i find it interesting, it's the most theorectical branch of science. Quite in line i believe with evolution, so it suprises me you would use it's findings to your cause in any way. And in fairness, all they are finding out is what mystics, and i mean the none catholic mystics have been saying for thousands of years, and i mean more than 2000 years. Stuff about how we are all one energy condensed to different vibrational frequencies.

Kevin it surprises me that you think I believe the catholic authorities have never made a mistake. My mother would be proud that many people view me as a childish conservative catholic. I find it hard to view myself that way. ‘We are all one energy condensed to different vibrational frequencies’. Is that not another form of unity in diversity?

What is the source of intelligence?

Is this topic done now

Either you believe or you don't

I believe and none of your arguments mean a thing
to me

I'm agnostic....I need no convincing from anyone. It's all about faith. When mine starts to build up, something destroys it again.

We should just let this one die down...

( )_( )
(='.'=)
(")-(") Arrivederci!

Atomics right. It's all in your heart.

I believe that the actual religion of christianity is not pure, nor is any other religion. I believe that there IS a higher power watching us, and inside of us. Remember also that the bible didn't just come from a holy aura in the sky, it was re-written over and over and over again by humans. Remember that in Greece Zues and the other Gods and Goddesses where invisioned as real. Now they are portrayed as fantasy. Why? Because they were from the imagination of people, and the era of belief in them changed. It will be the same for christianity and every other religion. The truth is we will never know what the real higher power is, nor shall we while we are of flesh and bone.

But that's just me. As previously said, it's all in your heart.

For those who believe there is no proof necessary
For those who do not believe there is no proof possible

Yo Mike.

I'm still interested in you answering my question.

Namely where in the bible does Jesus Christ say that there are some things that we humans are not supposed to understand. Or more importantly, when does he ever say that to his desciples?

I'm still interested in you answering my question.

’Namely where in the bible does Jesus Christ say that there are some things that we humans are not supposed to understand. Or more importantly, when does he ever say that to his desciples?’

In Mathew 16/7 Jesus read the minds of the disciples, and ask do you not understand
I don’t believe that Jesus believed that they did. He asked them did they remember when he multiplied the loaves. Jesus understood that they did not understand, but He acted as if they were supposed to and ask also do you not have faith. C.S. Lewis wrote a book entitled ‘Miracles; were he discussed the natural, the supernatural and the unnatural
I believe it is human nature to search for a logical explanation when and if we witness a miracle. Thomas Aquinas divides understanding into two categories natural understanding a supernatural understanding which is a gift of the Holy Spirit.
My faith is not as strong as I would like it to be. When the Medical Doctors told me it would take a miracle for my sister to be removed from the life support I prepared for a death, which has not occurred. It seems the disciples were witnessing many supernatural healings and events that logic could not explain. I don’t believe Jesus said we were not supposed to understand. The sublime theme of His mission suggested that if we had faith miracles could be worked through us

I received a very disturbing phone call from my niece. She told me my sister Debbie was in Centennial hospital, and that the doctors believed she had a ruptured brain aneurysm. Her heart had stopped beating in the emergency room of a local hospital, where she was resuscitated, and placed on a life support system. She was then transported in an ambulance to Centennial hospital.
The doctors there said that she was having seizures, and if they could not stabilize her within twenty- four hours there would be no use in keeping her on the life support. I had followed the progress of at least a dozen attempts to save a victim of a ruptured brain aneurysm, and they had all failed. A few years before I had lost my niece, after they had her on the life support following a ruptured brain aneurysm. The situation looked so hopeless that all I could do was to begin the normal grieving process. I can remember wondering how her daughter had composed herself so well, while she did what I was going to have to do, that is to inform the rest of the family. As I repeated what my niece had told me. I could hardly believe the words, which I could barely speak. I went to church that morning with my sister Pat, who is one of my six sisters. I saw a member of the prayer group of which I was a member, and told her about it. She had taken on the task of a prayer line, years before. She assured me she would put Debbie on the prayer line. But I was still preparing myself for the loss, I knew God could bring her back. But if it was God's will that she go on to her eternal birth, I was going to miss her. We went to the hospital that night, thinking we could console the even closer family members. We got a little spark of hope when Debbie's husband updated us, on what the doctors where saying. The doctors no longer believed that she had an aneurysm. Our hope was then quickly dampened by his next words,' 'The doctors are not offering much hope'. In fact four doctors agreed it would take a miracle for her to survive. As best I could understand, the seizures were prolonged, and so severe, even under maximum sedation, they feared that her brain was badly damaged. I went into the intensive care unit to see her. I could see no movement except what the respirator was providing. None, of the nurses, were noticing any significant response. We were not seeing any response for the rest of the day. On the second day of the crisis, her daughters tell the nurses they think she squeezed their hands as each of them had held one of her hands. The nurses tell them it is probably just a reflex action, as if to say, don't get your hopes up

On the third day, they are still noticing an increase in response, but the official statement from the caregivers is no change. The fourth day the doctors say they think she is trying to focus, and are offering the first signs of hope. They said they are going to back off the sedatives at the risk of the seizures recurring, to see if she could breathe a little on her own. On the fifth day, she is trying to talk, and manages to form the words, 'What happened'. She appears to be trying to tell a story. She seems frustrated because she can't talk with the breathing tube in her mouth. On the sixth day my sister Debbie is off of the respirator and talking. She is beginning to remember the events in the emergency room. She said she remembers them saying that her heart had stopped, and she said to herself, Oh Shit! She had imagined that she left the hospital twice. After hearing of this miraculous change from where she was at just days earlier, I had to witness this miracle myself. I drove to Nashville alone because every one else was either tied up, or sick. When I went into the intensive care unit, I stood in awe, and wonder, as I watched my sister trying to solve the first problem at hand. Just days before this, the doctors were running test to see if there was activity in her brain, and were not happy with the results. The problem she was trying to solve was a drainage tube in her throat, which she found to be a little uncomfortable. She apparently had thought out a plan to remove it, even though her arms were restrained. She was maneuvering the tube with her tongue and teeth. She quickly noticed me and laughed. She said 'I'm trying to get this tube out'. Then she laughed again after thinking a moment, and said, 'I guess I'm not supposed to'. I was overwhelmed with joy. The smile, that I thought, I would miss forever, was returned to earth. She asked me how I was doing. 'Then she said; you ain't going to believe what I'm going to tell you'! Perhaps she had forgotten that I am a poet full of imagination She said, she had left the hospital many times. I know she did not take her body with her because she was attached the dozens of tubes I.V's and such.

Sounds like she went OBE'ing...which is amazing and really quite common for people in hospital.

Pity the Catholic church condems the practice as Satanic, being linked to Witchcraft and such.

Does your sister have green eyes?

I believe in God!