If you pray sincerely and admit you are a sinner and accept Christ as your savior you can have the Holy Spirit come into your life.
I used to do this everyday. When I was being abused, I used to pray incessantly for God to help me. I read the Bible constantly, I tried to be a really good kid, and I prayed all of the time. This was the saddest point of my life.
Now that I have renounced my faith in God, my life has become so much better. It is easier for me to know that there IS NOT a God sitting there watching me be abused and not helping me; because there is no God.
I used to think that it'll all be over soon and then I'll be in paradise. Now I know better. I help others because I want to, not because I book says to.
I have often wondered, what if? I figure if there is a God, he'll see that I am a decent person. In the mean time I will continue leading my life the best way I can without worrying about an unknown spirit entity judging everything I do.
Athiest here: It's left me a better person.....I know that I am responsible for my own life, and the only way that I'm going to be happy is through my own actions, and not relying on some God to help me. It eliminates a whole lot of religous complication, I think. I'm much happier.
I still believe in God. I still believe that Jesus Christ is my Lord and savior. Just because the JWs are wrong about some things doesn't mean God doesn't exist.
As a matter of fact, I think they do have an accurate understanding of the book of Job. No matter which Bible you go to, it's pretty much the same story. Job was a good guy who believed in God. Satan challenged God that Job would blasphemize him if his life wasn't so great. But Job always believed in God, and was eventually blessed with more than he had previously.
I guess sometimes God doesn't always fix problems immediately. But sooner or later, he will help his people.
Turn to Jesus. He saves. You don't need to go through any organization, group, or religion to reach him.
I guess sometimes God doesn't always fix problems immediately. But sooner or later, he will help his people.
Turn to Jesus. He saves.
When, how, and why did this happen to you or others? Do you have some experience to relate? Otherwise, being 'saved', and seeing proof of the problems God has 'fixed' is all conjecture and dreaming.
No offense, Hamster. I'm just trying to reconcile a God who answers little prayers like winning the lottery (as I've read in some news stories), and ignoring others (like the poor people who prayed to God in the concentration camps, and were ignored)
Do you see the disparity there? God answers people who are not needy, and rejects people who faithfully asks for life, just life? I just don't get it.
I don't know of anyone who has cast off the myth of the Biblical God and not become a much happier, more fulfilled person.
Sure, believers can be happy, but in my opinion are still saddled with a huge weight of ancient myth that does nothing except make them feel good in the same way that pretending and then making oneself believe in The Tooth Fairy can make a child happy about losing teeth. In other words, it's a hapiness based on unreality, and that, to me, is the ultimate foolishness for an intelligent adult.
I have struggled with evolution/creation and the presence/absence of a higher being for quite some time. It finally has all come together recently, partially due to my testing certain things that I still clung to. See, a short while back when I learned there was no God and I discovered how it was life on earth came to be in teh first place, it caused a bad low spot, and I started going back to belief in a higher power. After a while, it is very hard to keep hanging onto something that is just not logical.
Has it made my life better? Yes and no. I want to be healthier now. I will never start smoking again, and I will try to live each day to it's fullest. But on the other hand, the entire concept of death upsets me.
People cling to God and Religion for 2 reasons:
1. Denial of the inevitability of death
2. To explain why we got here
Evolution explains how we got here, but it makes death an very cold reality to face.
Just because the JWs are wrong about some things doesn't mean God doesn't exist.
I don't think anyone would disagree with this. Even after I left the JWs I still believed in God. But since I was now allowed to explore, I did. This is when I started researching the bible and finding too many inaccuracies and things that were just plain wrong (IMO).
I guess sometimes God doesn't always fix problems immediately.
And even though he can act immediately to protect innocent children he doesn't. It's weird because many here believe that JWs are evil for protecting pedophiles, but ultimately your God does too. As long as they are alive they get to do what they love most, hurting countless children, and you aren't mad that God allows this, but are mad when imperfect men do?
Turn to Jesus. He saves.
If you need to believe that, then more power to ya. ----- Anyway, let's not get into this on this thread. You can start a new one and we can debate .
In other words, it's a hapiness based on unreality, and that, to me, is the ultimate foolishness for an intelligent adult.
A happiness based on reality? The Bible is noted for its historical accuracy, and not just by JWs. I live in Kansas, and I've heard they have found shark bones around here. That means at one time, it had to be underwater(Noah's flood).
As for why God answers some prayers and ignores others, I can't answer that fully. I do know that Jesus did warn his followers that they would be persecuted and ridiculed. He never promised them a rich, American dream lifestyle. Maybe the people who prayed to God and won the lottery was just chance. As for the concentration camps, the Nazis were eventually defeated and exposed at the Nuremberg(sp?) trials, were they not?
