Can someone please give me a reason to believe in a personal god

[Immortal Wombat]

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
I forgot to mention the most notable part of the game: most of us are NPCs.

QFT.

[Capt Dizle]

I came to a point in my life at which this was of paramount importance to me. I studied the Bible and tried to open my mind to the possibilities. I attend services at various churches and I had an experience one day.

I believe I was touched and changed by a supernatural force, the Holy Spirit. I have no proof of it. I can only say that it changed me and gave me peace.

This happen after many moons of reading and studying scripture, and not just Christian texts, but writings from other religions.

All of the sorts of questions that people have, in trying to reconcile the world we live in and the teachings of Christ, I had.

I was a sceptic of the first order, but I searched and I opened my mind. And I had an experience.

Since, I have often questioned myself, but never God or the larger scheme of our common lives.

My beliefs are simple. I believe God exists in reality, not as a philosophy. I believe he loves us. I believe he wants us to love him. I believe the world is as it is because we had to have such an environment in which to exercise our free will. We must have a world in which we can choose to use our abilities to do good or evil, and one in which good and evil can impact all of us equally, regardless of our behavior and beliefs. Otherwise, our regard for God would be tainted by our environment. It is important to remember that God could have created us as dumb as tree stumps and programed us to love and worship him. But what value would that represent?

We are created in God's image and are worthy to both love him and be loved by him. The stamp of approval, so to speak, of our love of God is based on this, that in a world of good and evil, and with our free will, we look to God, we repent of evil, we deem ourselves unworthy as we are in the flesh, and we search for him to lift us from the pit of human shortcomings.

The message of Jesus is simple and beautiful but difficult to grasp while we hold to the very human traits of logic and vanity. God sent Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin so that we could be redeemed from the sin of the flesh and receive the gift of life. The shed blood of Christ paid for our sins, so that we might be clean and restored to the family of God. And all we have to do is have faith in that, and then the Holy Spirit will come to us and we will be saved. Sealed, against all eternity.

But that is hard to accept. Faith, without proof.

Jesus said, "Suffer not the little children to come to me, for such shall inherit the Kingdom of God." Pardon if the quote is off, but the gist is there. Children have faith in their fathers love naturally, without requiring scientific proof. And this is how we must find God. And, if we open our hearts and minds, we will find that he has been there all along, waiting and yearning for us as much as we yearn for him.

But if we, in our human vanity require proof of him, we shall find him not. We cannot find a path to the knowledge of God on our terms, but on his alone, for God is after all, God. We must humble ourselves to him and love him as well and is this not very difficult? Do we not expect to treat as equals to all? Well, we are not the Father but the children of God. We cannot expect God to come to terms with us, we must come to terms with God. It is difficult to surrender and place our trust in that which we cannot see nor feel.

But, if you seek God in truth he will come to you, as he did to me. And he will give you peace, and you will not fear death. Those of us who have been touched and sealed by the Holy Spirit are not so much different than others in the view of this world, as we still live here, and in the flesh, which shall always fail, but our souls no longer belong to this world.

This is my testimony. God is real and He loves me and I love him and I will be with Him. You can as well, if you seek, ye shall find.

[Mr. Harley]

Taoism.

[DaShi]

"You see, if you really want to rid yourself of all suffering, you should believe that there is a god. Whether or not you truly believe that he exists, you can be sure that God is always by your side."

[chequita guevara]

Re: Can someone please give me a reason to believe in a personal god

Because you're afraid to cease to exist. That's the only reason, and it's not valid.

[trev]

God did create a perfect world with perfect humans who had free will. It is because Humankind has exercised this free will in destructive ways that the planet earth is now far less than perfect. God does intervene to improve the circumstances that are present in his creation now, but only in response to requests that humankind makes of him. As many Christians as well as the remainder of the world generally neglect to request God to intervene and improve things, he does not often intervene to fix things up. At no stage during our life on earth will God intervene except by request because he will not interfere in our free will. But those who freely choose him, He will intervene to help at their request, He will give them a peace of mind and spirit, He will cleanse the guilt from their lives and remold them into a new creation that will be in harmony with a future universe that God has promised to create when this one is finally destroyed. For these reasons and many others it is good to believe in a personal God and his Son Jesus Christ who was crucified and died so that we could be cleansed from the sin and guilt that has resulted from the exercise of our free will

[Urban Ranger]

If there were a god, why would said being needs you to believe in it? If there were no god, what good does it do you by believing in it?

[Berzerker]

Because cavemen couldn't figure out why a mountain blew up and invented god to explain it. One of them was your ancestor...

[DRoseDARs]

Originally posted by shawnmmcc
Taoism.

Go on...

[DaShi]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
If there were a god, why would said being needs you to believe in it?

Maybe he/she/it doesn't. But it would be nice, if you did.

If there were no god, what good does it do you by believing in it?

"You see, if you really want to rid yourself of all suffering, you should believe that there is a god. Whether or not you truly believe that he exists, you can be sure that God is always by your side."

[Lazerus]

*tries to remember the quote along the lines of better to believe and be wrong then to not believe and find out others are right.


Damn NPC's ! do i get to give God a dumb quest to complete thats in riddle and takes him ages to figure out then i reward him with some piece of junk ?

[MosesPresley]

God is an atheist.

[beingofone]

That question is Epicurus and Hume all rolled into one.

What we feel God would or would not do is a prejudice (preconceived idea) if it is not based in logic or testing. If we reason it out with solid logic, it appears to remain a 'bias' but it is no longer a prejudice.

God cannot make Himself nonexistent and then create Himself out of nothing again. In other words he can't make Himself exist and not exist at the same time.
If you could not make comparisons (good/evil light/dark) - there would be no existence or reality at all.
There is no possible world that would be perfect according to this set of questionings. There might be better and better worlds ad infinitum? It is like saying the world is to crowded for perfect cities.

In every case time seems to show us where we put our attention. What is manifested in our lives is a reflection.
"The still mind of the sage is the mirror of heaven and earth, the glass of all things."
- Chuang-tzu
Fear and mistrust are from the imaginings of the mind. The thoughts of fear are projections from interpretations of reality.

As children fear the darkness and as we mature we fill the darkness with light and understanding, the unknown becomes known. There are no victims, only the creative manufacture of projected belief into experience creating the world around us.
It creates the individual colored perception of hell on earth that so many experience in their lives, and feel a victim to. That great oppressive power of darkness that tosses those around as it wishes. It vanishes in the light of high awareness.

Life is a choice. We do know what is real when we listen with the heart. No matter what age, belief, or life experience the Ascendant is always present and the connection to our omniscient Self is always alive and well. For any action whatever, there is always some other or consequent action that produces greater value.

The frustration that one experiences in trying to solve a difficult problem is outweighed by the satisfaction of arriving at a solution, and therefore that the world is a better place because forgivness is a requirement for truly being alive and whole. Without suffering injustice and darkness, I would never know the peace of compassion or agape 'infinte transcendant love).

My question to you sir - why have you suffered in your life?

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by ajbera
Sometimes I wonder if faith has a genetic component. Like a conscience, some people are just born without it.

You may be closer than you think. Some scientists think it has to do with the temporal lobes. Specifically, the sensitivity of the temporal lobes, to electromagnetic waves I presume.

[johncmcleod]

I came to a point in my life at which this was of paramount importance to me. I studied the Bible and tried to open my mind to the possibilities. I attend services at various churches and I had an experience one day.

I believe I was touched and changed by a supernatural force, the Holy Spirit. I have no proof of it. I can only say that it changed me and gave me peace.

This happen after many moons of reading and studying scripture, and not just Christian texts, but writings from other religions.

All of the sorts of questions that people have, in trying to reconcile the world we live in and the teachings of Christ, I had.

I was a sceptic of the first order, but I searched and I opened my mind. And I had an experience.

I too believe strongly that experience in such complex matters as these. But what if you don't experience God? That wouldn't give one any reason to believe. And I've read some about the biology of spirituality, and such an experience could be explained scientifically without difficulty. So it gives me little reason to believe.

Since, I have often questioned myself, but never God or the larger scheme of our common lives.

My beliefs are simple. I believe God exists in reality, not as a philosophy. I believe he loves us. I believe he wants us to love him. I believe the world is as it is because we had to have such an environment in which to exercise our free will. We must have a world in which we can choose to use our abilities to do good or evil, and one in which good and evil can impact all of us equally, regardless of our behavior and beliefs. Otherwise, our regard for God would be tainted by our environment. It is important to remember that God could have created us as dumb as tree stumps and programed us to love and worship him. But what value would that represent?

Why does God want us to love him? He is an omniscient, perfect being. He wouldn't need love from lowly humans like us. And why would God love us? He is an omniscient being, we are flawed, carbon based machines. Love is a human emotion, an evolutionary mechanism that is prevalent in many forms in some species. Because it is so powerful to humans, it makes sense that we apply it to what is higher than us. And still, the problem with these rules and properties that you have stated (such as the problem of dumb stumps) is that if God created the universe, he created these properties. The fact that a dumb stump isn't as good as love by free choice would exist because God made the universe to be that way. He is the omniscient creator, he sets the rules. If he wanted to, he could have made it so free will didn't matter and that dumb, programmed stumps was the way to go. He could have made a perfect universe, and he didn't. You also said that good and evil impact us equally. I disagree. That seems a simplified, dualistic view of an irrational, absurd world. I don't think it is so black and white. Humans are too complex, and evil and good have very different effects on people. It isn't a scale, where 5 good is equal to 5 bad.

We are created in God's image and are worthy to both love him and be loved by him. The stamp of approval, so to speak, of our love of God is based on this, that in a world of good and evil, and with our free will, we look to God, we repent of evil, we deem ourselves unworthy as we are in the flesh, and we search for him to lift us from the pit of human shortcomings.

But we evolved. And we are flawed individuals. So how did God create us? You can say God created the first single celled organisms, but since then nature has been on its own. There is no evidence to show any divine intervention in the evolutionary process. And there isn't anything special about humans. The only difference is our superior brainpower (however, dolphins have quite a brain too and can actually do many things that only humans can) and our ability to create a new lifestyle. But since we're the ones writing the history, we say we are the chosen ones.

And if the flesh is imperfect, than why the hell did God create it? If he was perfect, why would he create something imperfect?

The message of Jesus is simple and beautiful but difficult to grasp while we hold to the very human traits of logic and vanity. God sent Jesus as a sacrifice for our sin so that we could be redeemed from the sin of the flesh and receive the gift of life. The shed blood of Christ paid for our sins, so that we might be clean and restored to the family of God. And all we have to do is have faith in that, and then the Holy Spirit will come to us and we will be saved. Sealed, against all eternity.

But that is hard to accept. Faith, without proof.

Jesus said, "Suffer not the little children to come to me, for such shall inherit the Kingdom of God." Pardon if the quote is off, but the gist is there. Children have faith in their fathers love naturally, without requiring scientific proof. And this is how we must find God. And, if we open our hearts and minds, we will find that he has been there all along, waiting and yearning for us as much as we yearn for him.

But if we, in our human vanity require proof of him, we shall find him not. We cannot find a path to the knowledge of God on our terms, but on his alone, for God is after all, God. We must humble ourselves to him and love him as well and is this not very difficult? Do we not expect to treat as equals to all? Well, we are not the Father but the children of God. We cannot expect God to come to terms with us, we must come to terms with God. It is difficult to surrender and place our trust in that which we cannot see nor feel.

But, if you seek God in truth he will come to you, as he did to me. And he will give you peace, and you will not fear death. Those of us who have been touched and sealed by the Holy Spirit are not so much different than others in the view of this world, as we still live here, and in the flesh, which shall always fail, but our souls no longer belong to this world.

This is my testimony. God is real and He loves me and I love him and I will be with Him. You can as well, if you seek, ye shall find.

I'm sorry. I've been looking and haven't found reason to believe. Children at least feel their parents' love. They have reason to believe.

And BTW, why do you refer to God as the 'Father'? What would make him male rather than female? If he is omniscient, he wouldn't have a gender.

God did create a perfect world with perfect humans who had free will. It is because Humankind has exercised this free will in destructive ways that the planet earth is now far less than perfect. God does intervene to improve the circumstances that are present in his creation now, but only in response to requests that humankind makes of him. As many Christians as well as the remainder of the world generally neglect to request God to intervene and improve things, he does not often intervene to fix things up. At no stage during our life on earth will God intervene except by request because he will not interfere in our free will. But those who freely choose him, He will intervene to help at their request, He will give them a peace of mind and spirit, He will cleanse the guilt from their lives and remold them into a new creation that will be in harmony with a future universe that God has promised to create when this one is finally destroyed. For these reasons and many others it is good to believe in a personal God and his Son Jesus Christ who was crucified and died so that we could be cleansed from the sin and guilt that has resulted from the exercise of our free will

It wasn't free choice, as stated in my first post. Humans are very evil. God gave them free choice along with selfish desires. The other part is crap. Millions asked for intervention during World War 2, and it wasn't granted. And ships with missionaries sank just as often as ships without them, even though the missionary ships had prayer and their side. If God wanted to, he could make the world a much better place, and could have made it a better place to begin with. All of it is flawed. Even our ecosystem is flawed, ie the pain and suffering the hunted have to go through to feed the hunters. The world is too imperfect for a personal God.

As for as the science goes, there is some literature out there, such as Why God Won't Go Away. But to put things in short, spirituality is real and can be explained by science. Not that that necessarily means it is purely something involving the material world. But humans also are wired to have the tendency to believe in a God.

I'll write more in the next post, responding to beingofone.