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Theists: Does God Exist?
- Thread starter Rival
- Start date
Yes of course.
osgart
Nothing my eye, Something for sure
What I like about Theists is when they push against the boundaries of the unknown in the areas of logic and reason. There's a profound frontier that they are exploring that I hope doesn't go up in ashes.
What can be known by logic and reason with experience alone? Are there incomprehensible truths that lay just beyond the current reach of human efforts and knowledge?
I appreciate theists who don't fall back on doctrines and dogmas in search of the possibilities of what can be known. But it takes science to challenge things.
What can be known by logic and reason with experience alone? Are there incomprehensible truths that lay just beyond the current reach of human efforts and knowledge?
I appreciate theists who don't fall back on doctrines and dogmas in search of the possibilities of what can be known. But it takes science to challenge things.
Redneck Mystic
Active Member
If people lived in my skin, they would know God, or something much bigger and smarter than them, exists. I have had several friends who knew, and I’m still in regular contact with two of them. One of them was in grave medical straits very recently, and out of nowhere a doctor showed up who seemed to have the skills to help him somewhat. After meeting with my friend, the doctor had a dream that convinced him to do all he could to help my friend, and the doctor told the hospital about his dream, and and he and the hospital reduced their fees 90 percent. The surgeries were done and so far seem to be successful.
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Redneck Mystic
Active Member
I was raised first in a Southern Baptist sect, then in an Episcopal sect. By college, I had drifted away from church stuff. I got up each morning and faced the day, and it was pretty rough going most of the time. In early 1987, my 45th year, I knew the New Age and a geographic move were not working. Feeling out of rope and bright ideas, andI had failed in every way a man could fail, I prayed one morning, “Dear God, I do not wish to die like this, failed.” I paused, said, “I offer my life to human service.” A few tears came to my eyes, I went about my day.
Around ten days later, in the wee hours, sleeping beside my new girlfriend in her home, I woke up and saw two whitish shift-shaped etheric beings hovering above me in the darkness, looking down at me. Although I saw no wings, I assumed they were angels. I heard, “This will push you to your limits, but you asked for it and we are going to give it to you? I remembered the prayer.. I saw a white flash and was physically jolted by something electrical. It happened again, and again. I was shaking all over, sweating. The beings faded out. My new girlfriend asked me what was going on? I asked her what she had heard and seen? She said saw my body lurching. I asked if she had seen or heard the angels? She said, no. I told her what had happened. She said, “Let’s go back to sleep, you strange man.”
My life began to change, slowly. My first stint at looking inward, pointing the finger at me, instead of elsewhere, had begun in earnest.
My first stint. There would be many seasons of being stood before a mirror looking at me. The seasons would never cease.
I was steered, pushed, shoved, carried, dragged, yanked, spanked, clobbered, mangled, lifted up, corrected, redirected, sometimes encouraged, by beings far greater and smarter than me in my dreams, feelings, body sensations, ahas, voices I sometimes heard, visions, what I sometimes heard, saw, felt. Except for dreaming, it was brand new.
I saw and felt all sorts of phenomena, good, bad, ugly, beautiful, horrible, magnificent. I sometimes screwed up so bad that I was sure the Devil had claimed me, but then something happened to let me know I still was being looked after.
I experienced a 4-year dark night of the soul, 1991-1995, after being told by the same voice in my sleep one night, “With respect to St. John of the Cross, you haven’t seen anything yet,” and I was engulfed in pure, black, raw Evil, and I woke up, terrified.
The year before, a friend of my 3rd wife, they both were licensed clinical social workers, suggested I read up on St. John of the Cross. I wentI to a local bookstore and found one book about St. John of the Cross. by a Spaniard poetry professor named Antonio T. de Nicholas. I read St. John of the Cross: Alchemist of the Soul in about two days.
That’s how I learned about Christendom’s straight arrow saints Juan de la Cruz, a diminutive monk in a Carmelite monastery somewhere in Spain, who used a secret ritual and ignored all phenomenon, any one of which could have been the Devil in disguise, to go straight into God and was remade, for which was persecuted as a heretic by his own church, and was killed.
De Nichola’s book contained Juan’s commentaries, in which he described a dark night of the soul, which was awful, but doable. For some, that was the end of it. For others, there was a much hard dark night, in which there was no light and woe be unto anyone it befell, who was not in a safe place and being helped by people who understood what was going on.
After that dream, I entered what would be a 4 year dark night of the soul, during which
the heavens opened to me, and I came to view the many phenomena as parts of myself returning to me.
In 1997, I entered a 16-month black night of the soul, which arrived over two days’ time, There was no light. I felt totally cut off from God, and plottied my suicide daily. It was made worse by antidepressants and antipsychotic pills a psychiatrist prescribed. I learned the pills were addictive, when I tried to quit them cold turkey.
The black night began to lift when I separated from my 4th wife, for whom attending church was very important. I was able to wean from the pills by cutting the dosage ¼ a week. I felt angels helping me wean. I started dreaming again.
Then, began a time of extremely intense not of this world internal healing and instruction, which paled all that had come before. I was shown up close and personal that Evil and Lucifer are very real, and I had a demonic twin, and everyone has a demonic twin, and Jesus in the Gospel had a demonic twin, and part of the journey is coming to terms with that.
In early 2000, I was sent back into the world, to experience many variations of what living on this world had to offer. The. good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the horrible and the magnificent. I did not know when I ever was not in church. I screwed up many times, and each time was picked back up and put back into a harness pulling a plow.
In 2010, I think, I had a number of email discussions with Antonio T. de Nicholas. II felt he was gifted, and perhaps he had experienced the dark night but not the black night.
I paint this with a very large brush stroke.
Each person is unique, and thus there is no cookie cutter that stamps out lookalikes.
A poem that came as fast as I could write in my journal in the spring of 1995 still seems to sum up the big scheme.
Earth
the sacred prism
through which souls are refracted
into their elemental parts,
purified in Holy Fire,
then one-forged
and sent on their way
to not even God knows where,
simply because they are all
unique emanations of God,
Evolving…
For anyone is interested in more details, the free internet library, archive.com, funded and run by colleges in America, carries quite a few of my digitized non-fiction books and three novels. Enter Sloan Bashinsky in the search space, press Enter, and icon links for my books come up. Click on an icon and the book can be read on any kind of internet device, for free, no ads, no soliciting. An angel-harnessed and driven younger friend who does the tech work fort the books me told me they are readable in 33 languages, including English, and average around 10,000 complete reads per month, per book.
I currently write at two Goggle blogspots, which will become books at archive.org. redneckmysticlawyerforpresident.blogspot.com (a spoof campaign), and grandfossil.blogspot.com, tales to my grandchildren.
I do not claim to be saved, enlightened, or special. My poop stinks just like everyone else’s. I tell Christians they are saved by Jesus to the extent they live as he lived and taught in the Gospels. I tell people that I don’t care what name they use for God. Something is out there. It has been out there a very long time, and it does not think like people think.
Around ten days later, in the wee hours, sleeping beside my new girlfriend in her home, I woke up and saw two whitish shift-shaped etheric beings hovering above me in the darkness, looking down at me. Although I saw no wings, I assumed they were angels. I heard, “This will push you to your limits, but you asked for it and we are going to give it to you? I remembered the prayer.. I saw a white flash and was physically jolted by something electrical. It happened again, and again. I was shaking all over, sweating. The beings faded out. My new girlfriend asked me what was going on? I asked her what she had heard and seen? She said saw my body lurching. I asked if she had seen or heard the angels? She said, no. I told her what had happened. She said, “Let’s go back to sleep, you strange man.”
My life began to change, slowly. My first stint at looking inward, pointing the finger at me, instead of elsewhere, had begun in earnest.
My first stint. There would be many seasons of being stood before a mirror looking at me. The seasons would never cease.
I was steered, pushed, shoved, carried, dragged, yanked, spanked, clobbered, mangled, lifted up, corrected, redirected, sometimes encouraged, by beings far greater and smarter than me in my dreams, feelings, body sensations, ahas, voices I sometimes heard, visions, what I sometimes heard, saw, felt. Except for dreaming, it was brand new.
I saw and felt all sorts of phenomena, good, bad, ugly, beautiful, horrible, magnificent. I sometimes screwed up so bad that I was sure the Devil had claimed me, but then something happened to let me know I still was being looked after.
I experienced a 4-year dark night of the soul, 1991-1995, after being told by the same voice in my sleep one night, “With respect to St. John of the Cross, you haven’t seen anything yet,” and I was engulfed in pure, black, raw Evil, and I woke up, terrified.
The year before, a friend of my 3rd wife, they both were licensed clinical social workers, suggested I read up on St. John of the Cross. I wentI to a local bookstore and found one book about St. John of the Cross. by a Spaniard poetry professor named Antonio T. de Nicholas. I read St. John of the Cross: Alchemist of the Soul in about two days.
That’s how I learned about Christendom’s straight arrow saints Juan de la Cruz, a diminutive monk in a Carmelite monastery somewhere in Spain, who used a secret ritual and ignored all phenomenon, any one of which could have been the Devil in disguise, to go straight into God and was remade, for which was persecuted as a heretic by his own church, and was killed.
De Nichola’s book contained Juan’s commentaries, in which he described a dark night of the soul, which was awful, but doable. For some, that was the end of it. For others, there was a much hard dark night, in which there was no light and woe be unto anyone it befell, who was not in a safe place and being helped by people who understood what was going on.
After that dream, I entered what would be a 4 year dark night of the soul, during which
the heavens opened to me, and I came to view the many phenomena as parts of myself returning to me.
In 1997, I entered a 16-month black night of the soul, which arrived over two days’ time, There was no light. I felt totally cut off from God, and plottied my suicide daily. It was made worse by antidepressants and antipsychotic pills a psychiatrist prescribed. I learned the pills were addictive, when I tried to quit them cold turkey.
The black night began to lift when I separated from my 4th wife, for whom attending church was very important. I was able to wean from the pills by cutting the dosage ¼ a week. I felt angels helping me wean. I started dreaming again.
Then, began a time of extremely intense not of this world internal healing and instruction, which paled all that had come before. I was shown up close and personal that Evil and Lucifer are very real, and I had a demonic twin, and everyone has a demonic twin, and Jesus in the Gospel had a demonic twin, and part of the journey is coming to terms with that.
In early 2000, I was sent back into the world, to experience many variations of what living on this world had to offer. The. good, the bad, the beautiful, the ugly, the horrible and the magnificent. I did not know when I ever was not in church. I screwed up many times, and each time was picked back up and put back into a harness pulling a plow.
In 2010, I think, I had a number of email discussions with Antonio T. de Nicholas. II felt he was gifted, and perhaps he had experienced the dark night but not the black night.
I paint this with a very large brush stroke.
Each person is unique, and thus there is no cookie cutter that stamps out lookalikes.
A poem that came as fast as I could write in my journal in the spring of 1995 still seems to sum up the big scheme.
Earth
the sacred prism
through which souls are refracted
into their elemental parts,
purified in Holy Fire,
then one-forged
and sent on their way
to not even God knows where,
simply because they are all
unique emanations of God,
Evolving…
For anyone is interested in more details, the free internet library, archive.com, funded and run by colleges in America, carries quite a few of my digitized non-fiction books and three novels. Enter Sloan Bashinsky in the search space, press Enter, and icon links for my books come up. Click on an icon and the book can be read on any kind of internet device, for free, no ads, no soliciting. An angel-harnessed and driven younger friend who does the tech work fort the books me told me they are readable in 33 languages, including English, and average around 10,000 complete reads per month, per book.
I currently write at two Goggle blogspots, which will become books at archive.org. redneckmysticlawyerforpresident.blogspot.com (a spoof campaign), and grandfossil.blogspot.com, tales to my grandchildren.
I do not claim to be saved, enlightened, or special. My poop stinks just like everyone else’s. I tell Christians they are saved by Jesus to the extent they live as he lived and taught in the Gospels. I tell people that I don’t care what name they use for God. Something is out there. It has been out there a very long time, and it does not think like people think.
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Absolutely Frank
Member
It's a secret.
firedragon
Veteran Member
Yes. God exists.
firedragon
Veteran Member
Which verse are you referring to?
IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
I think God exists. But why would you take my word for it?
I don't think some people got the question.
This appears contrary to some types of the Christian God whom man is supposed to be made in the image of in my view.
I Am Hugh
Researcher
I don't like the inaccurate or incomplete nature of the question. I would say does your God or the gods have to literally exist, and do they?
The word or subject of God and gods isn't as complicated as it's often made out to be, but the modern-day concept is just so convoluted. First of all, God, with an uppercase G is only significant in a couple ways. As a grammatical rule and as reverential capitalization.
Words like God and King are sometimes capitalized and sometimes not. For example, Charles is the king of the Brits. He isn't my King; he isn't my king but to the brits he is King. Jehovah is my God, but he isn't everyone's God. To me he is the God above all other gods, to some he is just a god. Of course, that rule doesn't apply exclusively to Jehovah, the Abrahamic God most common in some cultures. In other cultures, for example in Hindu cultures Brahma might be most commonly God. Contrary to many sources, grammatically God is considered a name. It isn't, actually, God has a name. Jehovah. The Romans, whose primary language was Classical Latin, didn't commonly use the term deus (God) as a name, preferring to use the specific name of the god referred to. It wasn't until the Christian Era began, when Late Latin was most commonly used that they would use the term as such.
But the first question you should consider before considering if God or Gods exist, is the question of whether or not it is necessary for them to literally exist to exist as gods. The answer to that question is no, they don't.
DNB
Christian
You're asking theists whether or not God exists?
Was your question rhetorical?
DNB
Christian
...obviouslyIf I didn't think so, I wouldn't be a theist.
PearlSeeker
Well-Known Member
Maybe it could be rephrased: Is God a being or Being itself?
The being of God is being-itself. The being of God cannot be understood as the existence of a being alongside others or above others. If God is a being, he is subject to the categories of finitude, especially to space and substance. Even if he is called the “highest being” in the sense of the “most perfect” and the “most powerful” being, this situation is not changed. When applied to God, superlatives become diminutives. They place him on the level of other beings while elevating him above all of them. Many theologians who have used the term “highest being” have known better. Actually they have described the highest as the absolute, as that which is on a level qualitatively different from the level of any being - even the highest being. Whenever infinite or unconditional power and meaning are attributed to the highest being, it has ceased to be a being and has become being-itself. Many confusions in the doctrine of God and many apologetic weaknesses could be avoided if God were understood first of all as being-itself or as the ground of being. The power of being is another way of expressing the same thing in a circumscribing phrase. Ever since the time of Plato it has been known - although it often has been disregarded, especially by the nominalists and their modern followers - that the concept of being as being, or being-itself, points to the power inherent in everything, the power of resisting nonbeing. Therefore, instead of saying that God is first of all being-itself, it is possible to say that he is the power of being in everything and above everything, the infinite power of being. (Paul Tillich)
Balthazzar
N. Germanic Descent
How could they not?
Balthazzar
N. Germanic Descent
Being God -
The substance from which every part within itself originates, increasing as itself, being existent to and through itself through the many parts that is itself, "God".
alf
Member
There is a god and there are gods.
How many changes do you experience while you are on earth?
They are gods!
And only one is the one while you were in the womb, the one who was not born, but still exists.
He is eternal, and all others come and go.
The whole story of god and gods is in your being, but your thinking comes from a state of existence, if you had "resurrected" all the heads of who you were, are and will be, there would be no questions about who or what god is. Everyone would you knew.
What I am writing is not something new, everything is in you and around you, but time does not allow you to take your mind out of it-time and look at yourself and your existence from a timeless state.
Balthazzar
N. Germanic Descent
firedragon
Veteran Member
Is there any evidence that this God character is for comfort and it seems like you claim it's a created figurehead for comfort? That's a positive claim you have made.