Do you believe in God?

[fenris]

I don´t believe in God .. God is a myth.... nobody believes in people you can´t see....

I believe in the great goddess ... she is real.. not a myth... but nobody can see her... ...moment.. :eek:

that confuses me .....

[ManicReptile21]

I personally don't believe in god. I attended church for 17 years, born and raised into the religion and not once did i ever sense any sort of feedback. No direct answers and most definitely no help. So if he is alive he must be some cranky who would never extend his hand out to a gay artist who begged for assistance that only he could provide. Instead i worship this picture of a hot dog i drew. Sausage god forever as this picture gives me more hope than some invisible loser does.

[sonofthemanse]

Lilitu, I don't mean to be the forum evangelist but here are some points for you to think about (from a Christian perspective - sorry if you've heard all this before!):

1. No, you don't deserve a relationship with God. I don't deserve one. Nobody deserves it. We are all bad people & deserve to be punished (i.e. death & Hell). But that's the beauty of Christianity. God loves us infinitely so that He sent His son (the most precious thing He has) to die in our place and to allow us to have a relationship with God - not only that, but to become a child of God with the assurance of living with Him in Heaven for ever.

2. You certainly don't need to know everything to have this relationship! Please read this:
Jesus Walks on the Water - Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Note that Peter didn't know everything about the situation; all he knew was that it was Jesus on the water. He didn't know if he'd be able to walk on water or not, but he just simply stepped out of the boat having faith that Jesus would take care of him. What we need is faith, not knowledge! God will show us what we need to know.

If you've any questions, please don't hesitate to ask (that applies to everyone!) Also if anyone has a bone to pick with what I've posted, I'd equally love to hear from you. Thanks for reading.

[pellaz]

worshiping a god
going to church and prayer

will never take the place of having real friends and family in the REAL WORLD (get a life)

[Rikki]

What exactly is the real world?

[Bowyn Aerrow]

In my early 20's I was so enamored by the idea of Church and God and the Collar I went a head and did seminary and various schooling and ministry work to get a demon... Erm - D.Min = Doctorate of Ministry.

I discovered a lot of inconvenient truths through that process. Aside from the many myth-truths that Church passes off as 'reality' and aside from the small fact that the English Bible is translated from the Latin Vulgate which has been transcribed (not really translated) from earlier works that were carefully picked out of over 600 sacred writings that the pre-Romanized Christians believed in, I also discovered that I had little faith in God but a huge faith in the church.

Then I discovered I was gay, then as I struggled with my desires and growing love for a man I discovered that the men of the Church who I placed so much store in were really a bunch of hypocrites and man-whores.

I lost my faith of the Church. Then started gaining faith in God.

It wasn't an easy road to take to discover God.

In my own personal life I have many examples of God Working. No I didn't get everything I wanted, I have, however, gotten everything I needed.

For a spell I relied heavily on drugs and alcohol. I reached the point where I returned to the Church to gut myself on the pews. I asked God to take everything away, all of the bad stuff he didn't like in me.

He took away the addiction, he took away the lies, the deceits, the 'stolen' things. No, not all at once, it took a bit of time.

I was left with a very different life and I was given a long term relationship which I firmly believe is Blessed by God. Considering the type of relationships I had before, what I have now is heavenly. No not 100% perfect, about 90% perfect.

I have a faith in God. No not so much the God that the street Christians push off and tell you judges you and condemns you for little crap.

I do not have a religion. Religion is condemned 5 times out of the 6 times it is mentioned i the bible, and the last tie it is mentioned it is modified by the world 'perfect'. Man's organizations he calls regions are far from perfect.:tongue:

[WaltHitman]

Deus est veritas. God is true.

[Lilitu]

Lilitu, I don't mean to be the forum evangelist but here are some points for you to think about (from a Christian perspective - sorry if you've heard all this before!):

1. No, you don't deserve a relationship with God. I don't deserve one. Nobody deserves it. We are all bad people & deserve to be punished (i.e. death & Hell). But that's the beauty of Christianity. God loves us infinitely so that He sent His son (the most precious thing He has) to die in our place and to allow us to have a relationship with God - not only that, but to become a child of God with the assurance of living with Him in Heaven for ever.

2. You certainly don't need to know everything to have this relationship! Please read this:
Jesus Walks on the Water - Matthew 14:22-33
22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear.
27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”
29 “Come,” he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”
31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”
Note that Peter didn't know everything about the situation; all he knew was that it was Jesus on the water. He didn't know if he'd be able to walk on water or not, but he just simply stepped out of the boat having faith that Jesus would take care of him. What we need is faith, not knowledge! God will show us what we need to know.

If you've any questions, please don't hesitate to ask (that applies to everyone!) Also if anyone has a bone to pick with what I've posted, I'd equally love to hear from you. Thanks for reading.

Thanks That was interesting to read, it was nice to have that kind of perspective. I think hesitation is the biggest issue of mine.

[Rikki]

Son of the manse where does your certainty come from? To tell everyone person on the planet, most whom you do not know, that they do not deserve a relationship with their creator, that they deserve to be punished in hell for being bad people?

Flawed we may be but that is acceptable and ok. For those who do good in life for themselves and others - how would they feel to then be told what you have just told us? Indeed, to share such judgemental, destructive and damning words with anyone, is that not in itself the "bad" of which you speak?

I do not see the beauty in that.

[Zet]

"Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace"


I find religion facinating but No, I don't believe in anything except The strange force around is called life .