Why do you believe in God?

Originally posted by zonetripper2065
reply to post by U4ea82

 

odd experiences ya know?

I do. I know that I haven't had any huge experiences but simply looking at what I have in my life now, all the good things, they feel like a gift. I can't look at my children and deny the existence of a creator.

reply to post by U4ea82


yeah, somthing like that. all life mass and non life mass is in constant connection with each other binded by energy this i know and nothing else

Originally posted by 3l3v3n
I know everybody else thinks differently. To each his own =) Hope you find what you are looking for.

I think what's important is knowing that others think differently and still being secure in what we believe. It's the foundation of faith really, which you seem to have an abundance of

Originally posted by U4ea82
I read somewhere once, and I wish I could remember where, that act of questioning God, can in fact be him leading us to him. Sort of as if he was saying "Hey, I'm right here. You just need to pay attention."

That may have a LOT of truth to it...

I had an incredible supernatural encounter as a non-Christian when I opened a Bible sitting on a table in my parents house. I was given instantaneous knowledge that the book I was looking at was written by God. I KNEW this. I knew absolutely NOTHING about what the Bible was.

I was given instantaneous knowledge that the book I was looking at was written by GOD. I KNEW this.

The reason this was so supernatural was because not only was I NOT a believer, I knew absolutely NOTHING about what the Bible was. I was raised as a total heathen.

When that experience happened, it was as if I met God face to face but it was only in the form of supernatural knowledge that was instantly uploaded into my spirit. It was the first of several Divine encounters over many years.

I was so profoundly affected by it that I thought I needed to go out and buy a Bible exactly like the one I just looked at.

I had no idea at the time that all Bibles were basically the same, I just thought that this one was somehow had miraculous capabilities.

This was the first miracle of many that I experienced over the years.

At least two others on ATS have had similar experiences:

Originally posted by Joecroft
I had a spiritual experience while reading Jesus words in the bible and I believe I received the Holy Spirit, and this is why I now believe in him. I did not have any Christian upbringing at all, and therefore I don’t belong to any church denomination.

Originally posted by Rustami
thanks for reminding me of what I consider an important detail - He spoke at the exact moment I began to open a Gideon New Testament, which I think was "written" in the 80's??

reply to post by U4ea82


for instance what, how and why energy binds us i dont know. only that it does

reply to post by Murgatroid



That's amazing. I have to admit, I've never read the Bible. It wasn't something that was ever even discussed when I was a child. To this day, I'm not sure if my parents believe in God. As an adult, I wish that I had had a bit more exposure to faith and religion but I didn't, so, I'm trying to gain that now.

reply to post by U4ea82

I can't look at my children and deny the existence of a creator.

In a very similar vein, I felt very loved by God when I found out I was pregnant. The depth of this joy I couldn't explain in a million years.

OP you mentioned that you haven't had a personal experience with God.

Always remember that God desires a personal experience with US as well...

Many are having supernatural encounters with Him:

reply to post by U4ea82

Why do you believe in God? Do you believe in God in the traditional sense, or do you have a differing vision of him or her?

I think of "God" as a way to think of what is out there, but is sort of making the many into a singular, in order to simplify how we would address whatever that is.
The creator does not exist. It did, back when something need to be created, but has better things to do now, like live in this creation, such as what we are doing right now.
I do not remember a time when I did not believe in God and it may because I remembered and then remembered remembering. I still remember remembering God from before I was born but had it sort of boosted during this life by revealing Himself now and then.

For myself, my true faith in God began with a simple question, "Why?"

I was reading a book on the history of Greek Mathematics, and while I was working through some theorem or another, I suddenly stopped and said to myself "Why? Why is this correct? What is the basis of truth in this mathematical proposition?" That really bugged me, and then I started thinking about the laws of physics, and that just compounded the problem.

Well, the hole went pretty deep, but when all was said and done, I emerged a theistic skeptic, which is a position that pretty well insures that everyone will hate you, lol.

I am a Christian because Christianity is the most reasonable of all the religions that I surveyed (limited, I admit, to Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism.)

reply to post by U4ea82


Dear U4ea82,

Thank you for your kind words. I kept my original response to God in general as I didn't want to get into specific religions, though I myself am a Christian. I had been an agnostic for a decade and decided to study the different religions rather than just what I grew up with. If you are interested in different religions then I think the place to begin is with the history of the religions, where it came from and whether or not it has been accurate in it's predictions. A good book on Christianity is "Evidence that demands a verdict". I don't know which is the best history of Islam or Buddhism; but, maybe someone from those religions can recommend some. Best wishes.

reply to post by U4ea82


Go look in a mirror. What do you see? You see your image. Is it you? No, it's a representation of you. You are not the image. Imagine that you can now put your consciousness in the reflection and then look at yourself from either side at the same time. Who are you now? You are you and you are you in the image. What keeps you from being on the side of the image now?

Genesis 1:27

27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Do you recognize yourself yet?

The image is where you are. God created us INSIDE His image and also we are His image. He is the one in the mirror looking from both sides. You are the image only looking from within the mirror. You cannot see Him, yet he can see Himself and you as well.

1 Corinthians 13

12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Do you see yourself yet? God knows you, but you do not know him. You are fully known, yet he is partially know, as in a dimly lit mirror. The reason you and I cannot fathom something from nothing is because God is Eternal. Eternal means at rest and everything that can be. Eternal denotes not changing or moving states. We, on the other hand, can only conceive and conceptualize moving things that are finite.

God is infinite, so there can not be a finite number of infinite things. Just as God is infinite, we are finite, therefore, we will end. There cannot be an infinite amount of finite things. Time is the same. So is our reality. We are multiplicity out of unity. God is unity that gives us multiplicity of Himself in an image.

We are the Image of God and we are in an Image. This means that you will wake one day on the other side where you actually are. Again, are you the image or are you the real you when looking in a mirror? God created you as artificial. How did he do it? He used WORD. Word is information.

An acorn has a 75 foot oak tree enfolded into it. Is the acorn the oak tree or is the oak tree the acorn? Neither. Those are the images of the archetype. What is our archetype?

1 Colossians 1:

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Jesus is the Son of God, the Living Word. God expressed Himself into the image as one of us to save us from the image. We must be Holy to return. The only way to do this is to be returned to the Word and brought back to the Eternal where we began. The experience here is to refine us behind the image so that when we enter the kingdom of God, we are like Christ. To be Christ-like, we fulfill the law or we allow Christ to be our sacrifice.

John 1

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

DNA is Word in an image. So are my words here. So are you in the image. Who knows what we are outside the image. We need to love God to find out.

How can I demonstrate this? Go to the link in my signature and I have articles expressing my view of God and why I believe in detail. It's like a book and reflects my journey to seek God by knocking on the door of the image. Remember. You knocked and God answered.

reply to post by U4ea82


Now that you are thoroughly confused, consider what the veil between the image and God is. Read a thread I did an hour ago: LINK

Originally posted by U4ea82
I've reached a point in my life where I've begun to question things, specifically, God and the nature of faith. I believe in a creator, though I'm not really sure who he (or she) is. I have a hard time looking at the world around me and attributing it's beauty to a mere cosmic accident. However, I don't feel like I have any personal experience with God, no grand epiphany that made me KNOW that he existed. I've just always felt it in my heart.

Which leads me to my question : Why do you believe in God? Do you believe in God in the traditional sense, or do you have a differing vision of him or her?


Now please remember, I'm asking those who DO believe in God. If you don't believe, that's a perfectly valid opinion to which you are certainly entitled but, please, don't derail the thread trying to convince those who do believe that there is no God. Please be respectful of others and their faith.

U4ea82,

many thanks for posting you thread when you did. I was on the verge of posting something quite similar.

I myself am an agnostic atheist....I don't believe in an omnipotent deity, and I believe that the existence of any deity is unknown and unknowable...

I do not believe in a "God" per se...but perhaps there is some higher power? I just don't know...

And please, don't reply to me with quotes from your bible. The bible is a fiction book written by men many many years ago...not written by your God...

Originally posted by edaced4
I myself am an agnostic atheist

There is no such thing, it is a creation of milquetoast atheists, who don't want to defend their irrational views.

You either know, or you don't know, of the existence of God.

If you know that he doesn't exist, you are an atheist.

If you don't know whether he exists or not, you are an agnostic.

If you want to claim "I don't believe that God exists", you are an agnostic, not an atheist, since the latter is a positive position.

reply to post by U4ea82


Think of it this way: something cannot come from nothing, so this something never came from anything, it has always been. There is no beginning or end. The universe is like the theistic god, something that has never needed a creator because it has always been.

The universe is the creator and it is the closest thing you will find to a 'god'.

Originally posted by 3NL1GHT3N3D1
reply to post by U4ea82

 

Think of it this way: something cannot come from nothing, so this something never came from anything, it has always been. There is no beginning or end.

But Cosmology demonstrates that there is an end, so what are we to make of the beginning? Source (respond here if you don't understand how an ever-expanding Universe poses problems for your claims.)

reply to post by adjensen


I've already explained this to you once, if our universe does not fit with the big bounce theory, it is possible that our universe is within a black hole, and every black hole contains a universe.

The center of a black hole falls into a singularity, our universe expanded from a singularity. It is possible that the two are connected somehow. The reason the laws of physics do not apply at the center of a black hole is because it leads to another universe separate from our laws of physics.

Originally posted by 3NL1GHT3N3D1
reply to post by adjensen

 

I've already explained this, if our universe does not fit with the big bounce theory, it is possible that our universe is within a black hole, and every black hole contains a universe.

The center of a black hole falls into a singularity, our universe expanded from a singularity. It is possible that the two are connected somehow. The reason the laws of physics do not apply at the center of a black hole is because it leads to another universe separate from our laws of physics.

I hate to swipe a meme from a fellow ATS member that I respect, but...



You are so far out in left field, as regards the subject matter of your own thread, I really have to wonder what is your problem. Black holes? Kinda irrelevant to what I was asking.

reply to post by adjensen


Not exactly, if our universe is inside a black hole that means that every black hole contains a universe. Every universe within a black hole contains billions of its own black holes and each one of those black holes contains a separate universe with billions of its own black holes and so on forever.

That means there was never a beginning and there will never be an end to the multiverse. Our particular universe may have an end, but the multiverse never ends because black holes are constantly being made in every universe.

It may be a hard pill to swallow but if you spend more than 5 seconds thinking about it, it will click.

If the big bounce does not apply, replace 'universe' with 'multiverse' in my original post.