Does God Exist?

Your reason for believing in God is just that you think it's your best bet? If I were God, I'm not sure I would let you in the gate.

Well if that were the case it would be a good thing for me that your not God then. But no, that's not why I believe in God. Sorry to disappoint ya!

I'm guessing you mean the God of Abraham, right?

You said that's your theory. (?)

This reminds me of the 'pointless' thread.

I mean the God that took me... someone that no one saw any hope in because of the circumstances of my life, and turned what should have destroyed me into something beautiful, productive, with hope and peace. That's the God I'm talking about!

Yeah that's my theory echi. Indeed it is.

Then why ya here JB? Wouldn't wanna waste your time.. ya know... :wink:

You mean this isn't the pointless thread? (Crap, did I get lost again?)

echi... don't let the door hit ya on the way out! (waves enthusiastically)

I think 'your' theory was first coined by christian apologist Blaise Pascal.
The problem with 'pascals wager' is that it only really works if you apply it to all forms of worship that threaten a negative consequence for not believing.
Leaving one in the awkward position of trying to follow multiple religions simultaneously to avoid their respective punishments. As you might imagine, this would be problematic.

Does God exist?
No.

Some say yes, some say no.
True.

Here's my theory:

I believe in God. I have my reasons as to why. I wouldn't be here right now if there wasn't a God.
No, not true. You wouldn't be here if your parents never had sex. God had nothing to do with your birth or the birth of everybody that ever lived on this planet.

So... when it's all said and done for those who have believed in God. who have done their best to serve Him, and lived the life He called them to live, if there is no God we have lost nothing.
Sorry to disappoint you, but your "belief" has nothing to do with reality. Can you honestly tell me how many actually lived the life they were called upon to live?


We lived a happy life.
You have lived a life that you think was a happy one. Do all christians live a happy life?

We helped other people.
Do you truly believe nonchristians do not help other people?

We believed in something that gave us hope.
Hope is a nebulous thing when you devote your life on a book written two thousand years ago with questionable authors, translations, and revisions. But, hey, we all make our own decisions.

So what... we die and become nothing.
That's true; there's nothing to prove otherwise.


But if there is a God we will go to heaven and meet our Maker, who loved us as we believed He did.
"..if there is a God..." is the big 64,000 dollar question. Nothing other than the bible says so.

On the other hand those who don't believe in God stand to lose everything.
How can we "...stand to lose everything" if we die and become nothing?


Maybe they lived a happy life.
Yes, I have lived a pretty happy, productive, previledged, and satisfying life. If I had to guess, I'd say it has been better than eighty percent of humans on this earth.

Maybe they helped other people.
Yes, but what has this got to do with anything?


Maybe they even had hope in something that kept them going from day to day. How many times did that thing they hoped for disappoint them though?
Do you mean to tell me that christians don't have disappointments? Wow, that's a new revelation for me! LOL

I'm happy to say that God has never disappointed me.
Isn't that grand, but is that true of all christians?

When it's all said and done if God doesn't exist, no big deal, they die and become nothing.
I expect as much.

However... if God does exist, their fate is sealed. They will not go to heaven, they will die having missed the chance to know true unconditional love. They will spend all eternity in hell separated from the One who created them. How sad.
Do you fear spending eternity in hell? Ofcoarse you do. You would not otherwise be so brain-washed with utter fear.

So... That's my theory and I'm stickin to it!
Good for you, but you need to learn about a) reality, b) logic, c) common sense, d) truth, e) science, and f) where you came from. !

hephzibah,

Girl, I'm right there with you. If it had not been for the the love of Jesus Christ I probably wouldn't be here today.

He picked me up and gave me a new life. Though I have made many changes in my life due to His influence, I still have a long way to go. I stumble sometimes but He picks me up every time and walks with me.

Others may not understand it and that's ok. I know that I'm going to heaven and I have nothing but the promises of Jesus to look forward to.

Good thread! Welcome to A2K!

You don't think that, I dunno, maybe it was you who did that?

Given all the choices we have to choose from for 'God', I wasn't quit sure which one you meant. I still think you're talking about El, but who knows? You might have found a personal diety. I tend to think the Amerindians were closer than anyone regarding divinity. From a pantheistic standpoint I think God probably exists, but it isn't the same one you're thinking of.

Oh, c'mon, now... take 'er easy there, gal.

Reflecting Pascal's Wager, you say, haphzibah, that "those who don't believe in God stand to lose everything".
What about the reverse? Those who focus on an afterlife, the greater reality of another world, lose out on the joy of a free, inquiring, unbridled mind. I can't imagine living with a closed, dogma-ruled mind. THAT would be to "lose everything."

Borrowed from another thread on a2k:


The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience
Why don't Christians live what they preach?

In spite of the renewal movement's proud claims to miraculous transformation, the polls showed that members of the movement divorced their spouses just as often as their secular neighbors. They beat their wives as often as their neighbors. They were almost as materialistic and even more racist than their pagan friends. The hard-core skeptics smiled in cynical amusement at this blatant hypocrisy. The general population was puzzled and disgusted. Many of the renewal movement's leaders simply stepped up the tempo of their now enormously successful, highly sophisticated promotional programs. Others wept.
This, alas, is roughly the situation of Western or at least American evangelicalism today.

"Scandalous behavior is rapidly destroying American Christianity. By their daily activity, most "Christians" regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex, and self-fulfillment.

The findings in numerous national polls conducted by highly respected pollsters like The Gallup Organization and The Barna Group are simply shocking. "Gallup and Barna," laments evangelical theologian Michael Horton, "hand us survey after survey demonstrating that evangelical Christians are as likely to embrace lifestyles every bit as hedonistic, materialistic, self-centered, and sexually immoral as the world in general."! Divorce is more common among "born-again" Christians than in the general American population. Only 6 percent of evangelicals tithe. White evangelicals are the most likely people to object to neighbors of another race. Josh McDowell has pointed out that the sexual promiscuity of evangelical youth is only a little less outrageous than that of their nonevangelical peers.

Alan Wolfe, famous contemporary scholar and director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, has just published a penetrating study of American religious life. Evangelicals figure prominently in his book. His evaluation? Today's evangelicalism, Wolfe says, exhibits "so strong a desire to copy the culture of hotel chains and popular music that it loses what religious distinctiveness it once had.". Wolfe argues, "The truth is there is increasingly little difference between an essentially secular activity like the popular entertainment industry and the bring-'em-in-at-any-cost efforts of evangelical megachurches."

It is not surprising that George Barna concludes, "Every day, the church is becoming more like the world it allegedly seeks to change.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2005/001/3.8.html

Is there an echo in here?

Cicerone Imposter Wrote:

[quote]So... That's my theory and I'm stickin to it!
Good for you, but you need to learn about a) reality, b) logic, c) common sense, d) truth, e) science, and f) where you came from. ! [/quote]

You need to learn about:

a) respect for others who have beliefs that differ from yours;
b) reality;
c) faith;
d) the simple truth;
e) how to be respectful to people who are different than you (I think you call that bigotry, right?)
f) well, you get the picture
g) to use your own words and let people know what you think and not someone on the internet