Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Mighty kind of you, Robin, despite the fact that people often know when they are lost and I doubt anyone is actually asking you for directions UNLESS you are able to convince them they are actually lost when in fact they are not. Imagine me going down to Times Square and telling people they are lost because where they really need to be is in Trafalgar Square in England. I'm sure I would get those New York stares.
Well, I've been doing martial arts for over 25 years, along with meditation and yoga, and I can assure you that whatever 'god' you think you met was all a figment of your imagination.
I spent the next 3+ decades since that experience testing my experiences in meditation, studying and learning everything I could about science, theology, philosophy and religious exegesis. THAT is the basis for my certainty. If you did not achieve bio-feedback level of control over your autonomic nervous system . . . you have not truly meditated through the altered states under conscious control.
Quote:
So don't go off into your tedious, pedantic ranty bit about how my "Creator-God" is "Nature" because it just won't wash.
Denial is a powerful defense . . . I have no intention of trying to break through it with those of your persuasion. It is the lurkers who are truly sincere seekers of the truth that I hope to aid along their path. I don't have all the answers . . . but I have a great many of them. I also have the evidentiary basis to refute the puerile claims of those who have only superficially examined their reality and are primarily in abreaction to the religious nutjobs and societally coercive nonsense of religion. If it was God's intent to have us be coerced . . . He could have done a far better job of it than to assign it to human beings! We are each individually responsible and the captains of our own fates. Being forced by religion or worldly or eternal punishments is useless to our achievement of the proper consciousness. Peace.
Excuse me , I'm a new guy here,so bear with me.
I have a very real relationship with the Lord, I recieve His guidance and intervention in my life all the time .
There are several factors that isolate one from God , and only a few that make the connection.
This relationship does not require an education in theology , actually the reverse is true. Often times it is the preloaded information that distorts every thing God would teach us .
But let me make a few things clear .
Though there are charictoristics in human terms similiar to this relationship , there are many differences as well . God is Spirit. Eternal, He is present wether you want him to be or not.
He sees through you like glass including your thoughts, and behaviours, and motivations.
That said, He views every situation as an individual , what they are and what they are capable of given more or less of what ever it takes to inspire them.
God would like your attention, but He is not one to force Him self. On the other hand ,an abuser is unlikely to recieve any thing from God at all, simply because their lust (not just for sex)(it can also be religious theology) is the thing they worship, and unless one is willing to seperate them selves from that, all they might achieve is religion, but nothing much better than that.
God is a person not a man made machine of our own design, that is why so many back away, they have no control of God, when they discover this. Religioous people love the bible because it is something they can fondle manipulate like the pharesees of Jesus time, no different.
They attempt to box God into their own picture and that is an insult to His intelligence and all that He has invested.
Jesus provided that when He left , He would send the Holy spirit to replace Him , and He did. The Holy spirit has been here ever sense teaching those that honestly and eernestly would listen, the rest , well Jesus said, "it is a narrow way and only a few will find it" ,,,,it is only the Holy spirit that can show it , not man's theology.
this is what I have learned.
I use alot of Bible translations including Hebrew and Greek Literal interpritations, Strongs Concordance, Archeological Study Bible, Apologetics Study Bible and much more.
I used to load up on all of those things too to RE-enforce my beliefs as opposed to CRITICALLY analyzing them, but now I wonder WHY the alleged great god of the universe needs me to depend on all of those things just to get me to comprehend him and his [alleged] book.
I used to load up on all of those things too to RE-enforce my beliefs as opposed to CRITICALLY analyzing them, but now I wonder WHY the alleged great god of the universe needs me to depend on all of those things just to get me to comprehend him and his [alleged] book.
Yeah, you'd think 'god' would be capable of speaking any language accurately.
Well, I've been doing martial arts for over 25 years, along with meditation and yoga, and I can assure you that whatever 'god' you think you met was all a figment of your imagination.
So don't go off into your tedious, pedantic ranty bit about how my "Creator-God" is "Nature" because it just won't wash.
Wait a minute...in one post you say that you believe what you believe and to leave you alone. Fine, I can understand that but to say that God is a figment of his or mine imagination is just your opinion. How can you possible know what God has done in our lives. You couldn't because you don't believe.
I find it interesting how upset that you get we "Christians" to turn you to God but aren't you doing the same thing in the opposite direction? Why do you care so much what we think? You really think you are going to change us? There are many reasons we believe but unless you are open to it you will never understand.
I honestly don't know whether I agree with you or not. For a very long time, I've felt as if some people were just genetically wired to believe in God and some were wired not to. That's over-simplifying it, I realize, but that's the general idea. I seriously don't think I could possibly convince myself there is no God, no matter how hard I were to try. I'm equally certain that there are probably a lot of atheists who would have just as hard a time convincing themselves that there is a God. I don't see belief or lack of belief as resulting from stubbornness, at least not in a great many cases. I think it's just a very deep-seated conviction on both sides that can't always be explained.
My personal experience proves differently. For 40+ years I was a staunch believer in God. I questioned and doubted many of the things I was taught about God but I never once doubted that God existed. In the past year that has completely changed and I sincerely cannot bring myself to believe that a God exists, not because of anything that happened but simply because it doesn't make sense to me any more.
I didn't let go of my belief system easily, let me tell you. And I consider myself agnostic, not atheist, since I'm not sure anyone can ever know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the phsycial world is all there is. But, my mindset is obviously completely different now than it was previously, when I entertained absolutely no doubt whatsoever that God existed. So was I rewired?
Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinD69
I do and I seek to help those who are lost.
Robin, I think there are many people who are "lost" in this world, many of whom believe in God, including many, many Christians. Hopefully you have more to offer those people than a set of doctrines they must believe in order to not be damned to hell by a god who supposedly loves them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by InsaneInDaMembrane
I used to load up on all of those things too to RE-enforce my beliefs as opposed to CRITICALLY analyzing them, but now I wonder WHY the alleged great god of the universe needs me to depend on all of those things just to get me to comprehend him and his [alleged] book.
Exactly. I was a bible studier extrordinaire. I couldn't get enough of all the various bible study tools. And it was amazing to me that all the other people who were just as avid in their studying of not only the Christian bible, but all the other "holy" books, were all being convinced of very different (and contradictory) things about God.
Yeah, you'd think 'god' would be capable of speaking any language accurately.
Seriously! There are sooooooo many objections that can be made in regards to a case AGAINST faith in the Jewish/Christian god it's hard to keep count. This is just one of them. I mean, think about it...for the 3 so-called monotheistic religions, ALL of them were "revealed" to mere, mortal men who then came off their mountains to tell the rest of us what THEIR god wants for the rest of us. I pass crazy people daily on the streets of New York claiming they know god, are god or speak for god. Hardly a person pays such people any attention and KNOW that they are a few fries short of a happy meal.
My personal experience proves differently. For 40+ years I was a staunch believer in God. I questioned and doubted many of the things I was taught about God but I never once doubted that God existed. In the past year that has completely changed and I sincerely cannot bring myself to believe that a God exists, not because of anything that happened but simply because it doesn't make sense to me any more.
I didn't let go of my belief system easily, let me tell you. And I consider myself agnostic, not atheist, since I'm not sure anyone can ever know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the phsycial world is all there is. But, my mindset is obviously completely different now than it was previously, when I entertained absolutely no doubt whatsoever that God existed. So was I rewired?
Robin, I think there are many people who are "lost" in this world, many of whom believe in God, including many, many Christians. Hopefully you have more to offer those people than a set of doctrines they must believe in order to not be damned to hell by a god who supposedly loves them.
Exactly. I was a bible studier extrordinaire. I couldn't get enough of all the various bible study tools. And it was amazing to me that all the other people who were just as avid in their studying of not only the Christian bible, but all the other "holy" books, were all being convinced of very different (and contradictory) things about God.
Why don't you consider yourself an atheist? Since you currently have no belief in any god, then by definition, you are an atheist. You are agnostic when it comes to "knowledge" about god (that we can't know), but you are atheist in regards to whether or not you have a belief in god despite "not knowing".
Agnosticism does not address "belief", it addresses "knowledge". On the spectrum of belief there are only 2 choices. You either have a belief in god, or you don't. There is no fence sitting. Let's say someone asked you the question "do you believe in god."? If you cannot answer affirmatively "yes, I believe in god", then you are by definition an atheist in regards to belief. You still can claim that you do not "know" whether or not god exists (agnostic), but you additionally would currently be without a belief in one (atheist). That doesn't mean that you don't think gods are "possible", just that you do not currently actively believe in any particular god. All agnostics either have a belief in god (theist/deist) or they don't (atheist). You don't have to choose to be an atheist, or purposely claim the title of atheist, to be one by definition. Sort of like being bald.....
Wait a minute...in one post you say that you believe what you believe and to leave you alone. Fine, I can understand that but to say that God is a figment of his or mine imagination is just your opinion. How can you possible know what God has done in our lives. You couldn't because you don't believe.
The point with that is the fact that christians are intrusive in other people's lives. I can't go into Wal-mart or the grocery store without being solicited by some christian religious organization. They knock on my door. They leave flyers on my vehicle. They send out email spam. In the USA, there's a constant barrage of christians trying to convert people. People who just want you to cut it out and keep it to yourself. That's what I mean when I suggest that I want you people to leave us alone. We've heard your message, I doubt there's anyone in the USA and for that matter, the majority of the globe that hasn't. So enough already.
As far as god being a figment of your imagination, it is. If you can say to me "God exists, hallelujah praise him!" then I am certainly allowed to respond with what I think, which is -- you're imagining things, he doesn't exist.
Quote:
I find it interesting how upset that you get we "Christians" to turn you to God but aren't you doing the same thing in the opposite direction? Why do you care so much what we think? You really think you are going to change us? There are many reasons we believe but unless you are open to it you will never understand.
Nope. I've said time and time again that I don't give a good god-damn what you believe as long as you keep it to yourself and as long as the religious right stops trying to insert their horribly biased and bigoted dogma into our laws.
Anti-gay laws, measures to restrict my reproductive rights, disallowing stores to be open on Sundays, forcing creationism into science classes...all of these things and more are what I detest. If christians and other religious groups would mind their own business, allow secular government to be for ALL the people and not just the ones that believe in the same things you do, then you'd hear nary a peep from me and I daresay from any other atheist out there about what you believe. We just don't care, as long as it doesn't affect us.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
