WANTING to Believe in God

by dobby 52 Replies latest jw friends

  • Unclepenn1
    Unclepenn1

    >>>You're right SaintSatan, when Uncle Penn said, "Please don't!", my mind goes "Why not? What's there to hide?" It's like the WTS all over again. "Please don't study religious literature!" "Please don't read Crisis of Conscience(almost done now!)" "Please don't take post-secondary education!" Please don't THINK, for G*d's sake

    I didnt mean anything like that. I meant, please don't build your view of God on a bunch of subjective and mostly contradictory experiences. Some people see a tunnel, some people say they went to hell, some people say they hovered over their bodies, some say they saw relatives, Some say they saw no one, some say they saw Jesus and on and on. My point was, please, if you are looking for God, don't base any of it on what people think happened to them when they were not concious. It makes no sense.

    Penn

  • LittleToe
    LittleToe

    Just to throw another few pennies into the debate:

    Religious experience varies considerably.
    Content of visions vary considerably.
    NDE vary considerably.
    Each man and woman's road varies considerably.

    Just because our experience proves to be radically different from others, is no basis on writing off anothers experience.

    Someone stated to me, recently, that "God meets us at our point of need".
    I thought that was rather profound, and had a ring of truth.

    Further, if we lack faith that God can work in a certain way, or give us a specific experience, maybe He just won't use that channel.
    Generally people in a particular area, or church, tend to have similar views. Hence, if a church disregards visions, maybe visions will be infrequent and not talked about when they do occur.

    Just on that point about faith, though, because I don't want to be misrepresented; Just because something doesn't happen, that we ask for, gives no reason to believe that the cause is lack of faith. Sometimes God just doesn't answer in the way we want, and we can be such petulant children, at times.

    Is now a good time to throw Astral Projection into the picture?

  • Sirona
    Sirona

    What a great thread!

    I believe in God. This is based on my own experiences and those of others that I trust.

    From being little, I've seen spirits. I've seen them appear and disappear before my very eyes. OK, so some people could say I hallucinated. There has been one occasion at least where the ghost told me something that I couldn't have possibly known and I gave the message to the intended person. Even this scenario could be said to be "tapping in" to some sort of energy, not a deceased person. Actually regarding energy...I have seen that too. At a concert I noticed an aura of violence around a person and warned my friend to move away (the person was standing with his back to us and he was not showing any signs of violence at that time). Later that evening he actually started a fight with someone near him.

    IMO, if there are energies which allow predictions to be made about the future, if spirits can "appear", if there can be time-lapses, if auras can be seen and interpreted, then I think that the idea of God as energy or a supreme power is not so silly.

    We can all look at God how we wish. Personally, I like to consider God in human terms as a Goddess and a God. This gives me a sense of understanding about the nature of God. IMO it doesn't matter to God and there is no requirement to "give" God anything.

    Sirona

    ** http://www.religioustolerance.org **

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