Do you believe in God?

[deaddevil]

What evidence would that be?

miracles are something that science cannot explain, also if they try to they come up with theories...by evidences I mean to say there are a lot of documented facts about things that happen but cannot be explained.
In catholic religion saints are canonised after miracles take place, just as an interpretation that god gives the consent to canonise.

[whitebus]

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.
--Voltaire

If we take knowledge (the forbidden fruit from the tree of life) and use it to explain everything around us we are still left with unanswered questions. One might take the sum of the unanswered questions and equate them with God. But then you are left with a very purposeless existence.

I think we as humans need to have a feeling of a higher purpose, and want to believe in the superiority of our species. It is this conflict that gives us rational thought.

Once you have tasted knowledge, you do not want it to end when you die, thus a natural belief in eternal life.

[DMG Online]

I believe in God, there's no rhyme or reason as to why, other then I trust and believe the story of christ. I was baptized when I was younger but I didn't start getting serious about my path with God until 2007. Every since then my life has changed for the better, miracles have happened for me, and he showed me that his existence is real even though I never doubted it. To understand why he is called different names you would need to understand the identity of the seven churches. There is only one true church that preaches the absolute truth of God because the other churches have fallen to sin in some way shape or form, so their truth is distorted to accommodate the message i.e. Jehovah's Witness. They kick people out of the church who sins and anyone who talks or associated with said person is kicked out of the church as well. This isn't the message of God, because Jesus even talked to and associated with a Prostitute, and the church is suppose to be a place of salvation for all sinners alike.

[Criptex]

But with so many other "Gods" out there, how do you know it's the right one? Are the other "Gods" wrong to believe in? Why should we pick just one "God"?

Why wouldn't I take the Bible literally either? I don't think it's code for anything else. I think it was meant to be taken literally. Just think of the demographic it had for it's time. It's not like they knew any better in the first place. They took the book at face value.

Well... First of all... the bible says:By their fruit you will recognize them. So... Why believe in Him?
Any "god" that promotes violence to other cultures or beliefs and is based in hatred... is not a good example to follow, and I know... you can tell me many verses in the bible where God sends or supports His people to go to war... but remember that in those years... war was the only way to conquer territory, etc... they didn't have diplomacy... and before Jesus died... the spirit of God was only in the Jews... Jews that believed in Him... and the other people was condemned to death... so when someone fought against Israel... they fought against Jehovah. but that ended in the beggining of the new testament. so... the fruits of God are... Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. so, with a principles like this.. plus the miracles that I've seen in my life and those around me... I think that for me, God is the best option. and the only one.. As you can see... many gods and religions born from a human thought... the necesity to praise something bigger than them... but I didn't reached my God... He reached me... because I was crazy!! with C! I did many many bad things... believe me.. and I didn't feel any necesity to praise any god... but one day... I touched my life... and since then my life is not the same.
But please don't get me wrong... I respect other people, cultures and religions... my best friend is a lebanese that believes in ala... because ala means god...so he says that is the same god, but when you go deeper.. it is not... and my other best friend is a salvadorean guy who believes in the virgen maria, and prays to her everytime he gets into his car, and you know what... those guys are exceptional people, so I think everybody is free to believe in what they want, I just tried to explain why I believe in Him.

[Kayos]

miracles are something that science cannot explain, also if they try to they come up with theories...by evidences I mean to say there are a lot of documented facts about things that happen but cannot be explained.
In catholic religion saints are canonised after miracles take place, just as an interpretation that god gives the consent to canonise.

That still doesn't prove anything. What evidence do you have any miracles happened?

Well... First of all... the bible says:By their fruit you will recognize them. So... Why believe in Him?
Any "god" that promotes violence to other cultures or beliefs and is based in hatred... is not a good example to follow,

Why isn't it a good example? Your "God" would be considered a mass murderer if you believe the story of Noah's Ark. It not only promoted violence but it carried out the deed it self. Yourself even stated that your "God" promoted wars, and regardless of diplomacy, it promoted violence in its name.

Your whole religion is here today due to violence in "Gods" name.

He reached me... because I was crazy!! with C! I did many many bad things... believe me.. and I didn't feel any necesity to praise any god... but one day... I touched my life... and since then my life is not the same.

So you've seen your "God"?

[Criptex]

haha... this forums are amazing!
First of all... I don't have a religion... now christians have like 10000 different denominations... and I don't have time to play that name... I think Jesus feels sad when he sees that now we have to belong to a certain denomitation to be his sons. and like i said before... God is love but he's also consuming fire... so the people in noah's age... lived under a time called time of the law... and if you do something wrong... you had to pay for it... and the earth was corrupted, so sadly... he had to destroy them. and tell me something... if God didn't create us... why He also has the right to destroy us? has any other god destroy something or create something without the intervention of a believer of him? the answer is no, because they don't have the power to touch something that doesn't belong to them. and they don't create life, so they can't destroy it...
but anyways... that happened once and He promise not to do it again... so that can't be a real argument about the character of God. and I don't think the real christians are here because of the violence... maybe you are confusing me with a catholic person... we are here because of very brave man, that even died for God, without saying nothing when they were tortured by people that believe that they were crazy... and we are here because of the mercy of God, at least that's why I am here.
and!!!!
for the last commentary... no... I haven't seen him, but you know what... the bible says... that those who believed without see... are the blessed ones... because we believe by faith... but when I say that he touched my life, I say that he made me feel the peace that exceeds every understanding... but that's something you have to feel by yourself, cuz otherwise, you won't believe :P.
and if I've seen miracles, the answer is yes, I have... just a little example... once I was in church... and I was a little depressed because my dad told me something by the phone... my dad is not with me since I have like 10.
but this one lady came to me and told me everything I was feeling, everything. and remind me parts of my childhood, and it was God speaking through her... and He told me that in those moments, He has right there beside me... and every single word was true... those where moments that nobody knew about except me... and I didn't remember them at that time... but she remind me everything like she was there... that's why I know it was Him... that lady doesn't know anything about me.

[Zangetsu]

you cant prove god, you can prove science

dont tell me the bible is proof any one can write a book thats a 1000 pages
besides the bible has been rewritten multiple times who says it still tells the true story hmm ?

[ichwar]

Let me go back a few posts here:

regarding genesis 1:1-31...
(i'm going to condense it a bit as i go through)
right in line 1, we have about a 9.2 billion year gap - that's a pretty long time of details to leave out - about 2/3 of the time since the big bang.

Actually, the Hebrew word that is used as day here is a literal 24 hour day. So, you really can't try and squeeze 9.2 billion years into 24 hours.

then, he seperates light from dark to make day and night... interesting, since by the genesis account, he still hasn't made the sun which is the source of light from which we determine day and night. it's also rather apparent that the author wasn't familiar with the fact that the earth is a globe, where day and night are determined by where on the planet you are...

As you said, there is no sun yet, so the only light that there was came from God. The only difference between night and day at that time was from the light that came from God, not the sun's light.

day 2 - he creates a firmament. the sky being a crystal dome over the earth was a popular belief during the bronze age - but it's not true.

What on earth does a firmament have to do with a crystal dome?
To prefent confusion, let me give you the dictionary definition of a firmament: The region of the air; the sky or heavens.
I just don't see how you can equate that with a crystal dome.

day 3 - he seperates the waters for dry land. geological evidence doesn't support the entire land being under water all at once ever. also this day, he creates the land plants (grass, herbs, and trees) which is completely inconsistent with the order life developed on earth. water plants and animals preceeded land plants by quite a bit.

What you claim to right is sheer speculation. How do you know the order of life developed on earth? You don't. Animals could never of survived with out plants. In the fossil record, we find from the very beginning, animals that lived entirely upon plants. Take for example the fossilized bee hive that was found recently. It supposedly dates back to the period before plants were ever created, but, how do bees live without plants? Answer me that one.

day 4 - and now he creates the sun moon and stars - which we also know is wrong. most stars are significantly older than earth, the sun is slightly older, and the moon formed at about the same time.

And, the assumption that is used to date stars is the speed of light. When a star is assigned an age, scientist, first find the distance of the star from the earth, then multiply that by the current speed of light. But there is an assumption that they are making when they do that. They assume that the speed of light has remained constant, a group of scientists, I forget their names, but I'll look it up if you want, recently found some good evidence to show that it is possible that the speed of light has been slowing down over time and infact, following the pattern that they observed, would of gone into infinity, (reached an infinite speed) about 6000 years ago, which is the time we also believe the eath was created.

Also, why couldn't God of set all the light in place, so that we would receive the light from the stars from the very first day, instead of having to wait 2 million light years to be able to see their light?

day 5 - now he makes water life (including whales) and birds. life was in the water long before it was on land. but birds and whales both evolved from land animals.

Oh ya? Really? Who says? Where are the intermediate fossil links between birds and whales and land animals?

day 6 - makes the land animals. this should be before the whales and birds (but after fish).

Again, you're basing this all on speculations, NOT fact.

So, I fail to see what point you are making here...
Edit:

you cant prove god, you can prove science

No, you can't prove science. Science is a method of making observations, and attempting to draw reasonable conclusions from them. Science can NOT prove anything. It's all conclusions and speculations.

besides the bible has been rewritten multiple times who says it still tells the true story hmm ?

We have many different sets of very old manuscripts,that all came from different parts of the world. Yet, they're all the same! With the poor means of communication that existed back then, it is TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE that all these different manuscripst would all turn out the same if someone tried to change them. They could only be identical if they were copied from a single source, and that source could only have been the original manuscripts, because that would of been the only one available to them all before they got scattered throughout the earth.

[Kayos]

haha... this forums are amazing!
First of all... I don't have a religion... now christians have like 10000 different denominations... and I don't have time to play that name... I think Jesus feels sad when he sees that now we have to belong to a certain denomitation to be his sons. and like i said before... God is love but he's also consuming fire... so the people in noah's age... lived under a time called time of the law... and if you do something wrong... you had to pay for it... and the earth was corrupted, so sadly... he had to destroy them.

It still doesn't change the fact that your "God" is just as violent as anyone elses. The world being different is irrelevant. Saying the world belongs to him is just a silly way of justifying what you believe.

that happened once and He promise not to do it again... so that can't be a real argument about the character of God.

To me a mass genocide is probably the worst conflict resolution known. It's like having a child. That child does some bad things like maybe kill a cat or something. A father sees the behavior of that child and thinks the kid is broken so he just murders him.


Also, not to be rude but your words are hard to follow. Could you please break your posts up into paragraphs when you move on to a new thought. It's hard to read a wall of text with no break when a new thought occurs.

[Zangetsu]

http://www.gotquestions.org/Does-God-exist.html

then let me rephrase my statement you cant see god, you can see examples of science

plus darwin has a strong theory