How Much Do You Doubt God's Existence?

[PureX]

With the way things are going, I'm definitely doubting that there's anyone "out there" who cares at all.

Maybe we're looking in the wrong place. Maybe the God we need to find is "in here", not "out there".

If this keeps up, I might as well be an atheist. Ain't no prayers being answered for me. Pray, make offerings and hope, and get knocked right back down again. Doesn't make a difference at all.

I don't think prayer works that way. I think we need to pray for the wisdom, and the courage, and the perseverance to do what we need to do to get where we need to go.

 

[muhammad_isa]

Sure, Mutation - Wikipedia, DNA damage (naturally occurring) - Wikipedia, DNA damage theory of aging - Wikipedia, Triple-stranded DNA - Wikipedia

I think most of us know that dna is involved .. but how/why did the mechanism itself evolve?

 

[Revoltingest]

If you don't believe in God or gods are you 100% certain there is no God(s)? 90%, 70%?

My certainty of no God (or other gods) is 100% +/-.0000000000001%
After all, I can't prove anything about the issue.

 

[PureX]

I have wisdom, courage and perseverance already. I don't need to pray for that anymore. The fact that I haven't killed myself yet shows that I have those things. Sometimes you need some actual help, you know. People need something called money to survive in this world. I have none, so I don't get to eat or pay bills. Praying ain't going to make food magically appear anyway.

I'm fed up with it.

Sounds like you need a job. There must be places where you live that can help you with that.

 

[PureX]

Yeah, no ****. Tell me something I don't ****ing know. And there is no help, just so you know. Been there, done that, still trying to figure it out.

Perhaps you should be praying for calm. Being angry won't help at all. It just makes the mind run back and forth over it's resentments.

 

[Trailblazer]

And there is no help, just so you know. Been there, done that, still trying to figure it out.

My problems are different from yours, but people always think there is help. The fact is that sometimes there is no help.
I have nobody who really cares. so I am still trying to figure it out by myself, since I have nobody to help me.
I believe that God cares, and God works through people who help me with certain things, but ultimately I am alone in this world.

 

[PureX]

I have wisdom, courage and perseverance already. I don't need to pray for that anymore. The fact that I haven't killed myself yet shows that I have those things. Sometimes you need some actual help, you know. People need something called money to survive in this world. I have none, so I don't get to eat or pay bills. Praying ain't going to make food magically appear anyway.

I'm fed up with it.

Go someplace that sells food, and ask them if you can do anything for them in exchange for some food. Sweep a sidewalk, wash a window. Whatever they might need in exchange for a sandwich. How can it hurt?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

With the way things are going, I'm definitely doubting that there's anyone "out there" who cares at all. If this keeps up, I might as well be an atheist. Ain't no prayers being answered for me. Pray, make offerings and hope, and get knocked right back down again. Doesn't make a difference at all.

I know that our situations in life are different, but I understand how you feel because I feel the same way about prayer. In my opinion, praying to God is like praying to a brick wall. You get exactly the same results—nothing. That is how I feel as a former devout Christian who dedicated forty years of my life to God through prayer, worship, Bible study, church ministries, street preaching, and evangelism, only to end up heartbroken, depressed, and disillusioned.

 

[YoursTrue]

I don't think prayer works that way. I think we need to pray for the wisdom, and the courage, and the perseverance to do what we need to do to get where we need to go.

Interesting thought, thank you PureX. I'm thinking, too, we can pray like Jesus said, "Let YOUR will take place..." So it appears there is a better, greater will than ours. How do you feel about that?

 

[YoursTrue]

Perhaps you should be praying for calm. Being angry won't help at all. It just makes the mind run back and forth over it's resentments.

I pray for calm a lot, because I can easily get upset because people in business or on the phone don't want to answer properly, always rushing, not giving accurate information. So I have to pray for self-control and restraint. (Here, too. I come from a very outspoken background, so I have to work on it.)
“The fruitage of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, mildness, self-control.”—Gal. 5:22, 23

 

[YoursTrue]

As far as I can remember, yes.

I've never seen anything myself that ever even hinted to me that God might be real.

This is in contrast to other "supernatural" things: when I was 11 or 12, I convinced myself for a while that I had psychic abilities; as a teenager, for a while I was sure that I seen a ghost on a couple of occasions. When it came to gods, I haven't even had that much.

I don't remember ever feeling like God is part of the explanation for how things are, or that my understanding of the world would be better if I assumed God existed.

The only thing that ever suggested to me that God might be real are other people who have seemed really sure that God is real.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[PureX]

Interesting thought, thank you PureX. I'm thinking, too, we can pray like Jesus said, "Let YOUR will take place..." So it appears there is a better, greater will than ours. How do you feel about that?

That's a good prayer for when we need to get out of our own way. When we are our own worst enemy. But that's not always the case. Sometimes we're just up against it, and we need to figure out how to deal with it. We need to figure out where the help is, and how to ask for it.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Evil to meet him?

No. It's "evil" of believers to threaten skeptics for questioning Christian dogma. Typically, this occurs when the believer is told that that the unbeliever doesn't see a reason to believe that dogma. He is then told that he'll be sorry in a veiled threat of some post-mortem meeting wherein he'll be judged and punished for his skepticism. The believer, if he addresses his terroristic message at all, will say that it is a warning made lovingly, constructively, and caringly, but it's not. It's resentment. It's frustration.

Only if you got the wrong message.

The message of Christianity is to submit and obey or suffer. The believer will tell you otherwise - call it a religion of love, and the offer of salvation a great gift from a loving god who made sacrifices for man, but that's just fluff. In the end, it's about the threat of salvation versus perdition and the solution to this invented problem is to cleanse oneself of sin by submitting to the alleged commands of an intolerant god or else.

I know you don't like that, but can you falsify the claim, that is, demonstrate where it is wrong. I don't mean just disagree and state what you believe or prefer others to believe, but to demonstrate why the claim I made is wrong. You can't do it. Why? Because one can't falsify a correct statement.

When I see His hands and His side, I see love and not fear.

This is why I reject and condemn the Christian version of love. I just saw Forrest Gump again, and Forrest says, "I'm not a smart man but I know what love is." Me, too, and that is not it. Love has nothing to do with torture. I love my wife and she loves me. The relationship does not involve puncturing holes in hands or torso. It is not about suffering.

I always wondered why you sound so angry.

More passive-aggression. He doesn't ever sound angry.

When you run out of ideas, you seem to like to turn to threat or an insult.

 

[Kfox]

No one defines God. No one can.

The most anyone can do is define how they imagine God being.

Atheists imagine that God doesn't exist. But that position is just as imaginary as any theist's conception of God.

For me, atheism is not about whether God exists or not, but about not calling anything God.

 

[YoursTrue]

That's a good prayer for when we need to get out of our own way. When we are our own worst enemy. But that's not always the case. Sometimes we're just up against it, and we need to figure out how to deal with it. We need to figure out where the help is, and how to ask for it.

that certainly is one way. Things happen that we cannot control. Or there is stress. We may need to ask for help to endure as peacefully as possible. But then it would be good to know who we are asking of. That is one reason why I have come to understand better and believe what the Bible says. But! warning -- I cannot account for everything...
Here is a scripture I just turned to, which is very interesting, I think. When Jesus was confronted by the Devil there was a VERY INTERESTING conversation --
Luke 4:5 So he [the Devil] brought him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in an instant of time. 6 Then the Devil said to him: “I will give you all this authority and their glory, because it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish."
And Jesus refused to agree to what the Devil wanted him to do. So -- what I am saying here is that these persons, including the Devil and Jesus are specifically discussed in the Bible. You might want to read more of the account at Luke chapter 4.

 

[PureX]

For me, atheism is not about whether God exists or not, but about not calling anything God.

Well, that's just silly. "God" is only a word. A label for a big meta-mystery. The only real problem with it is that we also use it to refer to the many ways we humans choose to ENVISION that mystery. And that causes a whole lot of confusion and disagreement.

But there are lots of words that are like that. Words that refer to such a big category of thought, experience, and conceptualization that it's impossible to know what exactly these words mean when they're being used by an individual person. "Art" is one of these. So is "science". So is "justice". And there are many others. Words that refer to such a huge array of ideas and possibilities that they have become almost meaningless to us by themselves. And the only way to determine what is being meant by them is to ask the specific person, specifically, what they mean.

Yet even then, there will be a lot of people that don't even know themselves what they mean, specifically, by the use of these words. Or they just arenpt able to articulate it for us. So it's an ongoing conundrum.

 

[Godobeyer]

And what stops him from doing that if he so desires? Hinduism has 'avataras'.

Because he don't need to.Bigger than you imagine.
I have a question for you, Why God shape him-self only on earth?
We should find examples idols on other orbits and planets.

 

[Godobeyer]

Catholicism created Limbo for infants who died since they couldn't accept Jesus as savior. But that turned out to be very unpopular, so they got rid of it and now claim the same thing.

The fear of death and oblivion is one reason why religions are so popular, as they promise an afterlife. I find this immoral and exploitive.

I never asked for God to show himself in any shape. I expect a God to act in a way that is consistent with what believers claim, namely that God is moral and loving. I find nothing loving about a world where children get sick and die. Or even mothers of children die of cancers. What we observe is a world that behaves exactly as if no God exists in the way most believers say and believe.

For kids, if God is responsible so it's not your business.(not mean insulting buddy) just for explain my view.
If natural is responsible so blame evolution, which not perfect yet.

 

[Spice]

@Saint Frankenstein
I have wisdom, courage and perseverance already. I don't need to pray for that anymore. The fact that I haven't killed myself yet shows that I have those things. Sometimes you need some actual help, you know. People need something called money to survive in this world. I have none, so I don't get to eat or pay bills. Praying ain't going to make food magically appear anyway.

************
Without question you will get more rejections than jobs, but being someone who could use a Handi-man at this very moment, and having been one who hired a Handi-man often in the past (one with prison tats on his neck), put yourself out there and respectfully present yourself as someone who is willing to do "day-work."

Be honest about your abilities while at the same time selling yourself as a dependable Handi-man. It's spring here, and there are plenty of folks looking for one-time maintenance when most yard care companies want contracts.

Right now, I'd hire the right "stranger" on a one day trial basis, and if the worker had a pace and quality-of-job I found reasonable, I'd make an offer of more work in areas such as: clearing a ditch for proper drainage, painting porch railings, cleaning exterior house trim, interior car cleaning, etc.

My ex-husband has been over retirement age for years, but he still stays busy doing this kind of work and more. And at his age he's rather slow!

You're in a tough spot. I've been there. Both of my sons have been there. Many, many people have these hiccups. And I wish you strength of mind, body, and patience!

 

[F1fan]

No one defines God. No one can.

Then no one can make any claims about it.

The most anyone can do is define how they imagine God being.

Which is what atheists acknowledge and point out to believers.

Atheists imagine that God doesn't exist.

We have been over this. No. Atheists aren't imagining anything about Gods. All atheists do is respond to what others claim about a God or gods. Oddly as you assert no one can define what these gods are that they claim exists, or believe exists.

But that position is just as imaginary as any theist's conception of God.

It's what you imagine, and get wrong. Over and over again, you get this wrong.