How I know God exists.

Originally posted by randyvs
Polytheism shouldn't make sense to anyone with any sense then. I suppose that would be more accurate.

Neither should theism. See, it doesn't make it true just because it's my opinion.

Originally posted by randyvs
There is only room in existence for one God. If that doesn't make sense to you then there's a whole pile of nonsense waiting for you.

Again, it's merely your opinion. I can say the same about atheism. Does that make it true?

Originally posted by randyvs
That's all I have to say about it with hope that you don't want to drag this on and on and on as you usually do ?

Nah, I can stop here.

reply to post by randyvs


I'm not in the mood to pick a fight. I just wanted to make a point, and used the common term "I think it's safe to say......."

Looking for common ground. I have found that many self proclaimed Christians in this thread have denounced that "guy" as NOT being the GOD that they are "hearing and feeling."

I agree with that. Do you?

Originally posted by windword
Looking for common ground. I have found that many self proclaimed Christians in this thread have denounced that "guy" as NOT being the GOD that they are "hearing and feeling."

I agree with that. Do you?

I have found that one's god usually feels the exact same way as the believer does about all issues. It's interesting.

reply to post by Hydroman


Exactly! We get the god that we summon.

Originally posted by windword
reply to post by Hydroman

 

Exactly! We get the god that we summon.

God isn't summoned..
You don't know god.

So if God is what you are, yours is Lost?

I think you guys think only about things, and no things... God is neither of those two.

reply to post by CudiTheKid


I'd recommend you do some reading up yourself. Mental ilness is a know fact, some people experience things which aren't there. They're called hallucinations. When people claim to experience things which the majority of us don't it's easy to see why we might conclude that the person making claims of divine knowledge might just be hallucinating. How would we know ?

As for hearing voices, well the brain is a complicated thing. I remember reading about a french woman who over a period of years taught a part of her brain to reply to maths questions she asked herself so to her subjective experience she heard a voice telling her the answer. I tried looking for a link but can't find it.

Originally posted by dominicus
in reply to OP iSHRED,
I too have had the Holy Spirit experience and it was an ego death, upon many more to come, it was electric, ecstatic, mystical, enlightening.......

But your train of thought on "Knowing that God exists" will fall on deaf ears for the most part.

I'm an ex-Atheist and know exactly how "they" think, because I used to have all the sam harris and richard dawkins and all the other pop atheist books and smooth witted attacks and arguments to attack anyone who wasn't an atheist. I made many cry as well, destroying their faith with Logic.

They will tell you it's a subjective experience.

They don't count subjectivity as something that needs to be studied and held in high regard. Yet all people operate in existence through subjectivity, and consciousness itself is in its scientific infancy of study ...something once held taboo.

I know where you are coming from.

It's going to come down to those who experience God and those who don't

As one who has experienced this, I am able to recognize it when other people speak of it. Those who haven’t experienced can only imagine it by the sadly inadequate ways that us experiencers try to describe what is truly indescribable.

What I find baffling is when someone who has experienced it attributes it to some aspect of Christianity, or to some aspect of any organized religion at all. Like you and the OP calling it the Holy Spirit for instance. After my experience, it took me several months to even find the right words to even come close to describing what I had felt. And the Holy Spirit was not one of them, even having grown up in Christianity my whole life.

In all fairness the human language is limited. I realize it just comes down to semantics. I tried to consider that what I experienced was the Holy Spirit. Yet as I began reading through the Bible, I cannot even remotely reconcile what I experienced to the words in that book. And then I could only ask myself, why am I trying to pin a label on this, why am I trying to define what is truly indefinable, why am I trying to put God in a box?

That indescribable light, that “electric, ecstatic, mystical, enlightening” “death of the ego”, was so far above and beyond any religion. God transcends all religion. Whenever anyone tries to tell me that I need to accept Jesus in order to be saved from hell, it is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Because of what I experienced I know such dogma is a human construct and has no basis in Reality. If anything, it is Love that saves. And the only thing you need saving from is yourself. But I will confess that that is my truth based on my experience with becoming one with God, and I will not expect others to agree with me because they have not experienced what I did.

If such an experience really is so enlightening, I would expect that the experiencers would recognize that there are many paths to God, and all roads eventually lead Home. To experience this enlightening and then to revert back to insisting there is only one way, I have to question their interpretation of this experience. Because it did the exact opposite for me, making me realize there is not just one way but infinite ways. If believing in Jesus helps make you a good person, then more power to you. But an enlightened being would not be so arrogant to believe that their truth should be everyone else’s truth.

I do know that the reason I experienced what I did was so that I can help others have hope, help them realize that they too can have direct knowledge of God if they seek with a sincere heart. When asked if I believe in God, my response is always no. I don’t believe, I know. And so can you.

reply to post by Eladria


My only regret in reading your post is that I am not able to award applause. Bravo for that post, bravo. I always appreciate hearing (or reading, as it were) from someone who doesn't try to apply human definitions to an entirely inhuman concept. It's a breath of fresh air.

Truly, I believe that in our search for perfection, for freedom from the fears that are continually instilled in our species, we have forgotten how perfect we really are. The perfection we dream of is the true hell, because only imperfection gives us the opportunity to learn. And what are we here for, if not to learn?

It saddens me to think of this miraculous species demonizing itself for the exact flaws that makes us so wonderful. We are able to question our ability to question, wonder at our tendency to wonder. Is this not beautiful, to see the dust of stars coalesce into self-awareness? In us, the universe has become aware of itself.

In my opinion, that's part of what it is to be godly: awareness. Awareness of not just the possibilities of being whole, but the possibilities of NOT being whole. That, in my mind, is one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring truths a human being can grasp.

reply to post by Eladria


Maybe we are taking the acceptance of Christ in a literal sense when it's the message he means for us to accept and not Christ the man! In other words believe in the message and not so much the messanger! There are many that think they accept Christ but in truth have no idea of the concepts that made him the benevolent, loving and just man he was! This is in the same way there are those that read/preach the bible but only take those messages that promote their agenda! This is one of the main reasons why I don't go to Church nor do I believe in their hypocrasy. It seems to me we as human beings say to be religious loving people but we ignore the strife of our nameless, faceless brothers and sisters around the world! We strive for our needs in this materialistic world and think we can do whatever evil we want but as long as we accept Christ as our savior even in damning the messages he brings we will be fine in the afterness of what death has to offer! We are all hypocrites in one degree or another and we need to accept this before we can bring change to ourselves and the world! There are over 2 billion supposed christians but every year the world descends further into madness, hypocrasy, destruction, war, corruption and mayham! Why is this? Why does it seem that the message has failed to bring the change required to end the hardships of those in this world? What are we waiting for? What is God waiting for? I'm not sure of any of these questions but one reason why could be there are those that are waiting to be saved instead of bringing the change required to save ourselves! Not only that there are those evangical christians using their influence to try and speed up the return of Christ! This is almost comical and if it did'nt bring so much pain it would be! The arrogance of men to think they can choose the time of Christs return! these are the same people who believe in necessary evil! those same people who judge others! This Dogma is responsable for influencing our world and though they believe they are bringing about the changes necessary for
the kingdom of God to rein on earth, at what cost is this acceptable? Evil reins evil and cannot be used to bring about benevolence! Only through kindness, acceptance, understanding, forgiveness, education, truth and love can we spread the light of Gods world without first destroying all that is good to bring Gods judgement! Once most of us choose evil, God will rein his judgement on us and I feel we are heading down this road now and God help us if we don't choose a better path!

reply to post by nosacrificenofreedom


That isn't what Eladria was talking about. In fact, your post is a perfect example of some of the things she claims is wrong with modern Christianity.

reply to post by windword

I agree with that. Do you?

I didn't think you wanted to pick a fight Win. I just thought something might have happen to soften you up a bit.
Fat chance of that huh ? Anyway you prolly know Me well enough to know that I don't buy in to that way of thinking.

The God of the Bible is God.

I'll never turn from that. There are very good reasons in my view for Gods wrath and for me or you to judge the truth of those actions ? Or any member of the human race for that matter ? Is the biggest joke a man could ever fool himself with.. Writing from your point of view, if the God of the Bible is real ? ( Which at the very least must admit to the possibility ) Then you are attempting to Judge an intelligence that quite simply dwarfs your own.
If that makes sense to you have at it. I'll have no part in it. Very Taboo !

Exactly! We get the god that we summon.

Ya right ! No you can summon demons. God can't be summoned like some Genie ( demon ) in a bottle.

reply to post by randyvs


Then prove it. If you have such good reasons, give them to us. Prove to us that your "God" exists precisely as dictated by your precious Bible, and is the biggest and baddest in all the universe. That's what this thread is about, right? How we know "God" exists? Then prove it.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


I don't have to prove it or anything to you. I leave that to him.

reply to post by randyvs



I can find NO reason to accept that guy, from the Old Testament to be THE GOD. Every bit of my being tells me he is not.

Ya right ! No you can summon demons. God can't be summoned like some Genie ( demon ) in a bottle.

Exactly!

Those Israelites, who were in a lathered fervor, dancing around the fire and making their golden calf, weren't looking for a loving savior. They wanted blood, and were ready to kill Moses, blaming him for their desert predicament.

What they got was a God of wrath and judgement who ordered the Israelites to break the very 10 Commandments that they adopted. www.abovetopsecret.com...

The ONE GOD doesn't order war and plunder, while nature has provided everything we need.

reply to post by windword


As I said Win. I already know you can't find anything and I know I can't possibly change that. Besides you don't even believe in the NT either so what's your point ?

reply to post by randyvs

I don't have to prove it or anything to you. I leave that to him.

Then you have no reason to post on this thread, do you? This thread is about proving the existence of the Christian god, and you clearly have no desire to do so, as you just stated. So you are posting just to post. Or maybe you're trolling.

If you're going to post, try to contribute in an educative manner. And I'm not talking dogmatic sycophancy, either.

reply to post by AfterInfinity


You're funny. You long to be a Dictator ? God forbid you ever become a Mod.

reply to post by randyvs


So you're not taking any of this seriously? That's good to know. Here I thought I was supposed to have an intelligent conversation with you...

But then again, considering the nature of the thread...yeah, I guess I should have sat down and thought about that. But you know me - I jump in head first!

Originally posted by windword


Those Israelites, who were in a lathered fervor, dancing around the fire and making their golden calf, weren't looking for a loving savior. They wanted blood, and were ready to kill Moses, blaming him for their desert predicament.

Your post really got me thinking!
So, they were PO'd at Moses for their predicament, and probably ready to kill.

Moses had to think of something, so he did some rock carving, said that god carved those words, then the evidence is smashed to bits. Now the people think he is gods right hand man and they spare him.

The people had to be appeased, so he plotted a plan to save his own butt and credibility..

reply to post by AfterInfinity


No one could possibly take you seriously. You're all over the place with insults and twisted thinking of every kind. I think you 're funny. Get it ! I have zero interest in engaging you. So give it up. Dogmatic Sycophancy .
You seem to let your big fantastic edumacation get right in the way of you learning a damn thing so. Who would want to reason with a know it all ?