I believe in God because I have experienced love! As they say, God is Love, and Vice Versa.
Why do you believe???
by truthseeker1 39 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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mr party
for me, i'm always trying to figure that out. and so has evreyone before me,and will come after me. so i guess i'm in line too. sorry ((mr moe))/.
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SYN
Believe in God?
WHICH ONE?
If "God" (the tribal Christian one I'm talking about in this instance) would just do one little act to show his presence, I'd believe. But not a moment before. Don't give me any of that "you don't have faith" nonsense either. I've never had faith - I suppose I'm a broken person in that respect, a sub-human, as some religious people would have me believe. It all just seems so vague and ethereal to me, really. I need hard facts, and hard evidence.
The closest I've ever come to divinity was once when I was skin-diving off the coast of Eastern South Africa in the warm waters of the Indian Ocean near a small coastal reef - a stately school of fish meandered past, the movements of thousands of fish in perfect synchronization. That was my first, and only, taste of divinity. The curve of a sea-shell, the taste of a woman, all of these things have something behind them. My inclination is more of a Pagan one really, that there is some sort of driving force for all life that we as yet don't understand, see? That is the sort of thing one can see with your own eyes.
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Dizzy Cat
Thats a hard question, obviously, and very searching .
Hmmm ... 60% of the time I believe in the existance of GOD. Albeit my GOD is not exactly the GOD that I thought it was originally. It has transformed from an all caring/sharing entity, to one that I see as being an emotionless state, that dictates in higher mathematic formula, that somehow weaves curious physical forms out of pure energy (don't ask - I can't even understand my mind most of the time).
I believe that we as humans carry a distinct and clear spiritual essense to oursleves, that allows us great insight into the world around us and within limits we are allowed to extend a unique creative ability.
Now ... 40% of the time, I think, phuk that and leg it! I run screaming from any belief in a GOD and hide under a rock.
I think I need tablets - STRONG ONES !!!
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JT
With a thread like this - it is always good to have a different prospective on matters:
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WASHINGTON, DCThe six-millennia-old sky-father deity Yahweh, worshiped by Christians, Muslims and Jews alike for His alleged all-knowing compassion and vast benevolence toward humanity, refused comment following Monday's announcement that the U.S. Justice Department will investigate allegations of failure on His part to provide for His approximately 3.5 billion human followers.
The Lord (above) is the subject of a massive U.S. Justice Department inquisition.
According to Justice Department officials, on more than 70 trillion documented occasions, the Lord has failed to provide for dutiful worshippers, allowing them to go without Providence in times of great need and showing little if any of the celebrated deity's much-touted "boundless love."The list of Justice Department allegations ranges from the mundane, such as the Lord's reported September 1995 refusal to see to it that Terre Haute, IN, Presbyterian Joyce Halstrom receives a new set of drapes for her anniversary, to the catastrophic, such as last year's Mexico City earthquake, in which God allowed an estimated 150,000 devout Catholics to be crushed to death under tons of debris.
"These are very serious charges," U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said. "I can assure you that our department will investigate them fully."
The allegations directly contradict over 6,000 years of extravagant claims by the Lord's prophets of "miracle" cures and other forms of all-encompassing heavenly grace.
Immediately following the Justice Department announcement, many of the Lord's top earthly representatives fled into hiding, including Pope John Paul II, New York's Cardinal O'Connor, and Rabbi Menachem Schindler, president of the World Orthodox Jewish Congress.
In Rome, an unruly mob surrounded the Panamanian Embassy, where many believe the Pope is currently hiding out and seeking asylum. These reports, however, remain unsubstantiated as of press time.
The Lord did not respond to a federal subpoena ordering him to appear before the investigative commission, and refused to speak to reporters on this or any subject throughout the week.
Efforts on the part of law-enforcement authorities to contact the alleged supreme being via the intercessionary medium of prayer have been equally unsuccessful.
One of the areas in which the Lord has been the most negligent, the Justice Department claims, is in providing His followers with adequate access to education: Fundamentalist Christians remain, after thousands of years, among the least educated groups in the world, ranking below pro-wrestling enthusiasts and carnival workers.
Claims of an eternal "life after death" also remain unconfirmed by deceased believers from around the globe.
"It's sad to think of the abusive treatment people have received at the hands of their so-called protector," U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said, "especially when you think about all those countless hours they spent in houses of worship rejoicing and loudly bearing thanks and praise."
The senator noted that, with over 450,000 hymns and songs written about Him, the Lord ranks among the most praised entities ever.
If the charges prove true, the Lord could face up to 3,100 years in jail and/or fines totalling $50 trillion. He would also be forced to return all gratitude and thanks paid to Him by followers, backdated to the dawn of civilization.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, many believers remain loyal to the embattled deity. "I know it seems like the worst thing ever," said Lynette Maddox, a Flatwoods, KY, manicurist and mother of nine, "but we just have to trust that it's all part of God's plan."
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JT
It has often been said that believing in God requires of it's believers to jump all kinds of Hoops --to make sense out of what is clearly foolishness, but then again some folks like Hoop Jumping I guess:
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For example this is how the JW try to explain what is clearly other folks getting the shaft for one dude
i would be interested to know how do other faiths explain this text
*** w69 3/15 191 Questions from Readers ***
As a punishment for this sin Jehovah brought three days of pestilence that killed 70,000 Israelites. (2 Sam. 24:12-16) Was that unjust? Were 70,000 innocent people dying for the kings error? The Bible plainly shows that we all are sinners deserving of death; it is only by Gods undeserved kindness that we live. (Rom. 3:23; 6:23; Lam. 3:22, 23) So those who died had no special "right" to life. Additionally, can any human today say for sure that those 70,000 were not guilty of some serious sin not mentioned in the historical record?*** Rbi8 2 Samuel 24:17 ***
17 And David proceeded to say to Jehovah, when he saw the angel that was striking the people down, yes, he proceeded to say: "Here it is I that have sinned and it is I that have done wrong; but these sheepwhat have they done? Let your hand, please, come upon me and upon the house of my father." -
JT
There are those who feel that if there is a god he likesto play Jokes on his kids just for the he!! of it. Awhile back Farkel provided an interesting Breakdown of how this Joke was played on man based on the most recent information provided from the manual of god called the bible, all refs are based on the bible by the way:
once again just a different prospective on matters
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Human Misery For Dum*ies
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Posted by Farkel [Keflar] on August 26, 2000 at 13:50:21 {hOVTmOYbDkjc7.1TE24IvhKqcjatLo}:
WARNING!! Those of you with tender religious sensibilities should NOT read this post. Only those of you with the thickest of skins should proceed. This is going to get ugly
God gets bored. He decides to make some creatures to keep him company. After a while, they all get bored, too. God says, "Hey lets make some mortal creatures and mess them all up." They all agree that is a good idea, so God creates two humans.
"First thing we have to do is give them a test they couldnt possibly pass, and then mess them up when they fail it," God declares. So God says (in effect) to the two humans, "Look, you both are pretty stupid, but theres a tree over there that will give you all the knowledge of good and bad that you need to know. Theres only one minor problem. The day you eat from it, Ill kill you."
So the couple obeyed him. After a while, God becomes bored again, and says, "Theyre NOT eating from that tree. What should I do? This is boring." One of his companions says, "Why dont you trick them into eating from it?" God says, "Good idea! Let it be done." One of the companions decided that he could trick one of them by using a talking animal, so he picked a snake. One of the other companions said, "You moron! Snakes dont even have vocal cords!" The first one replies, "No problem. Ill use ventriloquism. Theyre pretty dumb. Theyll think it is actually the snake that is talking."
So the "talking" snake tricks the woman and the woman convinces the man to also eat from the tree. When they both discovered they were then in deep doo-doo with God, they declared, "Hey, we have SEX organs! We never noticed we had them before! Its embarrassing to have SEX organs! Wed better cover ourselves up and hide from God." They were a REALLY stupid couple.
So God says, "First, Ill screw up the snake by knocking off his legs." And God knocked off the snakes legs. A companion said, "Ok, God, I guess you have to keep your word and kill that couple right now." God replies, "Heck, no! It took a long time to make them. I think Ill let them be miserable for, say hundreds of years. Ill make the woman be miserable when she gives birth, Ill make them sweat and be in pain when they work, and Ill kick them out of the garden. I get to watch them get old, worn-out and die in pain. Then, Ill make ALL of their children and childrens children miserable. That should be FUN to watch! Later on, well get some guy to write that my days are 1,000 years long. No one will know the difference."
After a while God says, "I have to have a way to let these humans know that I really enjoy killing, so I think Ill have those two guys Cain and Abel offer up something for me. The one that doesnt kill anything is going to be the one that suffers." Cain didnt kill anything, so he suffered. Abel killed something and thought that by so doing that he wouldnt have to suffer. He was wrong. Cain killed him. God thought the whole show was hilarious.
God gets bored again. "I think Ill kill the entire planet, except for a few folks," he said. And he did. As soon as the leader of the survivors got of the Ark, he killed something to show his gratitude for God killing everyone on the planet except him and his family.
Later on this guy named "Nimrod" went around killing all sorts of creatures and humans and he became legendary. Nothing bad happened to him, except God got bored and let him die. God says to one of his companions, "Even though I think Nimrod was a pretty cool guy, let somebody write that I didnt like him. I dont want those stupid humans to know what kind of a show we really have going on up here."
God gets bored just about the time a bunch of people decide to erect a high-rise building. God says, "I think Ill kill them all." The companions plead with him, "Dont do that! With all this killing its going to take forever to get that earth populated." God say, "Ok, but Im still going to screw them up by giving them a whole bunch of different languages to speak. You guys take care of it, but theres only a couple of details: 1) Make sure that only two people are able to speak each language, and make sure one is a male and the other is a female. 2) If a man is short, fat and ugly, make sure his companion is tall, skinny and beautiful, and vice-versa. That way at least ONE of each couple will be miserable." And it was done, and God had a ball watching those tiny bands of wretched humans who had to start all over again in building their lives, families and cultures.
God again gets bored and tries all sorts of things for entertainment. He tries to get this guy named Abraham to kill his son, and Abraham almost did it. God promises to "bless" Abrahams offspring for nearly killing his son, and Abraham believed him. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Was that ever a clever ruse! Abraham had no idea what was in store for his offspring: hundreds and hundreds of years of forced slavery, zillions of skirmishes and wars, and of course, God personally doing tons of killing to that "blessed" offspring over the millennia to come. "Ill bet that stupid Abraham would be shocked to know Im gonna allow 6,000,000 of his offspring to starve to death, get gassed to death and die in all sorts of horrible ways," God snarled.
Got gets bored yet again and decides to make a bet with one of his companions: "See that guy Job down there? Mess him up. Give him boils and kill his wife and kids. Have all his friends turn on him." God wins the bet, and Job gets the booby prize: a new wife who turns out to be a total nag, and new kids who are lazy and stupid.
"See that guy named Lot down there?", God asks. Make his three daughters seduce him into having sex with them, and then later on, have someone write how "righteous" he was. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, by the way, kill is wife, too. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
One day one of his companions report to God that some teen-aged boys are teasing one of his prophets because hes bald. "KILL THEM," God orders. "Get a bunch of bears to rip them to shreds." And so it was done.
As the centuries pass, the killings and human misery keep compounding, but God is still bored. "Make a bunch of nasty viruses," he tells a companion. "I want to see some juicy pestilences. I want MILLIONS to die in the shortest possible time."
After about 4,000 years of all this fun, God finds out that the people are beginning to get wise to his games, and God comes up with a clever plan to come out smelling like a rose: "Im going to kill my firstborn son," he said. "Thats horrible!" he was told. "That will even make you look worse than you do now."
God replied, "Dont worry, Ive got it all figured out. You keep forgetting how stupid those humans really are. Heres the plan: Im going to have some words written that make it look like I was the good guy through all of this, and that it was mans fault for the misery theyre in. Im going to have them think Ill "save them" from all this misery by having my Son get killed. Watch! Theyll buy every word of it!"
God almost has remorse over what is about to do, but then his son says things like "blessed are the merciful and they will be shown mercy," and "take my yoke. It is kindly and light."
"That DOES it," God shouts. "Im gonna kill now for sure! How DARE he say things like that?"
So God has his son killed and makes sure the son suffers a whole bunch before he dies. The companions say to him, "Well, God you did promise those humans that once your son died that a "ransom" was fully paid and that they would be delivered from the death and miserable situation you put them into in the first place. Are you going to keep that promise now?"
"Are you kidding?", God replied. The fun is just beginning. Weve got the Black Plague and a half-dozen major World Wars coming up. There are hundreds of millions of more people to kill. The best part is that those people who believed that I killed my son to deliver them from their misery are going to be the people who do most of the killing in my name in the future! Those humans are simply a pack of idiots. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this could be so much fun."
And the "fun" continues to this very day, and the joke is on us...
Farkel
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scootergirl
I believe in a Higher Power because of "miracles" in my life. Granted, maybe they are just miracles by my definition....but my beliefs ground me, make me whole. I do not "proclaim" my faith to anyone......never try to convert anyone to my beliefs. My spiritual recovery hasn't been the destination but the journey. It works for me and that is all that matters. Believing gives me strength, gives me hope. Believing gives me reasons and gives me direction.
And the comment about knowing love.....I can relate and can agree.
Edited by - scootergirl on 13 July 2002 10:7:42
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willy_think
I believe in God because I have seen no evidence showing me I should abandon the law of cause and effect.
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JanH
WIlly,
I believe in God because I have seen no evidence showing me I should abandon the law of cause and effect.
What is the cause of God, then?
- Jan