Does God exist?

Because it simply isn't that simple. Some people like it as simple as that but others would prefer complexity. It all boils down to how one person perceives his own life.

 

Explain to me why people who don't believe in god because of never having felt the same as people who do believe, should be punished by going to hell?

That is the one thing I never get and it makes me believe even more that religion is purely man made with no higher power involved.

 

I'm not quite sure why you're asking me that since I don't believe in any God or hell or heaven or them 72 virgins. Angelic or Gerinja might be able to answer that question for you.

 

Sorry, I assumed you had the answer when you made that first reply.

 

No worries. My point was just that the debate with religion against non-believers will never end. As long as 'God' is still hiding up their in the clouds, people will still argue, debate, and in worst cases, kill each other because no one can prove that God does exist.

 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church on salvation for non-Christians:

"Those who, through no fault of their own, do not know the Gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation."

 

So Christianity's God is Zeus! Dang, I should have known. Oh and Buddhists doesn't have Gods so they don't see God with a sincere heart.

 

You'd be surprised to know how much Christianity had picked up from Romans. Monogamy, for example. And Christmas.

 

God is the only judge! He will make the decision on who will be going to hell or not.
See, believing in God is not enough (even the devil and demons believe). it's only the first step towards salvation and eternal life. Making a commitment with Jesus and following His standards is what will save you from hell.

If you have heard the gospel, then its like God knocking at the door of your heart. you can either open the door of your heart and let Him in, or close the door on Him and not let Him in.

If you have heard the gospel, you have heard God's voice by way of His people. you can either come to the Lord, or reject the Lord. but the Lord won't force Himself to you, and so He will not force you to enter heaven against your will.

But do not think that you can reject Jesus, and still think you deserve heaven.

Faith comes by listening to the word of God. If you are lacking faith, you can gain when you hear the word of God. but if you already set your mind on disinterest then, i'm afraid to say that you might not be searching for answers, only quarrel.

 

If there is a higher, universal power, it is beyond our scope to imagine or comprehend it at this point in our evolution. I stress at this point.

Here's something I've never heard anyone say (though I haven't read through the whole thread)... The story of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic "God", as described in Genesis, is actually the story of the development of humanity's ability to conceptualize. Just substitute "the mind" for "God", and the story makes a lot of sense in a historical way.

Each "day" of Genesis 1 represents some aspect of life on earth of which humans became conceptually aware, recognizing the self-regulating, natural processes that govern the planet. Light and dark. Sky and ground. Ground and water. Seed and plant. Animal and offspring. And God creating Man in His Own Image: recognizing that other people are people just like us.

And then in Genesis 2, when Man is formed out of the ground, humanity is lifted out of a life in harmony with the earth, and he starts naming stuff, and he makes a woman out of his rib (patriarchy), and he has two options: the tree of life, by which he has been comfortably sustained in perpetuity, or the tree of knowledge, by which he'll have to figure stuff out for himself.

And of course, the woman can't resist the allure of the subtle, long snake...and the man goes along with whatever his woman tells him. The snake introduces questions. And once you start questioning things, you can't turn back.

I figured this out after learning how to interpret poetry and literature at University. Remember that the Jews told stories to explain things and teach lessons.

Faith is faith. Ultimately, it comes down to believing in yourself, in your ability to handle what comes your way. I can't get behind any idea of faith that involves surrendering your will as an individual, unique human being. The age of homogenization is about to end. We're not the same people we were a few thousand years ago.

 

The funny thing - sorry, not funny, i mean repulsive and disgusting thing - about the catholic church is that until very recently they believed that unbaptised children who died spent eternity in limbo, And these gruesome old virgins told this filth to grieving parents. For centuries, thousands of parents who lost a baby shortly after birth were told "hey, guess what. you're going to heaven, but your kid is spending eternity on the edge of hell".

The pope very recently retracted this abhorrent concept from their doctrine. But guess what, he's ready to be infallible all over again.

How can you possibly sit there and claim that the teaching of this death cult are in any way moral? How are you not ashamed to be defending such poisonous beliefs?

 

Thanks for the link!

 

Sorry, but telling people what happens to dead children according to the religion is very much a "context in which the dogma applies". He was telling parents, parents who believed him, that their children were in limbo, according to catholicism, and that it was all their fault. This guy is utter filth and you'd do well not to defend such an abhorrent thing, it doesn't show you in a particularly good light. Well, when i say it doesn't show you in a good light, what i mean is it exposes just have poisonous your character has become as a result of your belief in fairytales.

And even if catholics are to believe that he can be wrong on aspects of his religion, why are they listening to him? I could have told you that limbo is made up bollocks long before he did, and he's supposed to be an expert.

 

The atmosphere here is so serious.

I think Karma is. It is as simple as this, " What you do will go back to you."

 

Does it matter if there is a god or not?

To me what matters is what we do with the time we have here.

 

I've many doubts about a true religion but am sure that God does exist.

 

Yes God exists in many people's heads, but that's about it really!

 

And you know that because you're omniscient . Right ?

 

God exists. He is everywhere and knows everything. He can either decide to give you traffic or he can give your webpage no traffic. Being nice to him doesn't get you anywhere.

 

because their preachers like money, and they want you to do what they say. See, it was easy