Why do you believe God exists and why?

[childeye 2]

I understand that is what you believe scripture to be saying about God. Other Christians may or may not define God the way you do.

I know you believe this is true. Please don't speak for other people.

Truth is authoritative not subjective. You won't find a single Christian that doesn't conform to Christ's sentiments concerning God, as pertains to the scriptural definitions of God as Love and God as the Creator of everything. That's a fact by definition of what it means to be in Christ and therefore a Christian, wherefore I can speak for all Christians concerning God being the Creator and God being Love/empathy. I suspect you probably know this to be true at least in the general.

Everything we think is true is a belief. We cannot know anything for certain. What we believe to be true is based on the evidence and how each of us individually evaluates that evidence. Until you can give convincing evidence that God exists I am afraid you cannot say belief (as you describe it) of Gods existence cannot be applied to God.

Any reasoning based on something false ends in a contradiction. For example, an epistemologist goes into a bar and sits down next to a professor of linguistics. He says to the professor, "Did you know that we don't actually know anything?". The professor replies, "So how could you know that?".

The mind reasons in fundamental dichotomies based on what it "sees" as true. Wherefore any reasoning based on something false ends in a contradiction. Truth has to exist as an axiom for that to happen. Thereby we are intrinsically endowed knowing that the moral Truth is to love others as we would want to be loved. From an objective standpoint, that/this Truth will never change nor cease to exist whether we believe/trust in love/God or we don't. As for the "existence" of a moral Spirit, we know that Love exists, preceding us and giving substantive meaning to life, even as it defines right and wrong for everyone.

That does not change anything. What are the reasons for the trust, what is it based on?

I'm just showing that the term "faith", according to scripture and not according to me, is not articulated as being akin to superstition.

The apostle Paul described faith as the evidence of things hoped for, not yet seen. The reason for this Trust/hope is because God/Creator is esteemed as trustworthy in His Character, which is revealed as Love/empathy. There can be no hope or trust in the Eternal without valuing empathy. When I examine the implications of the alternative, if we were to distrust the power that created us, then logically we would have to distrust ourselves.

If only one God actually exists then I agree. However, no one has given sufficient reasons to believe this is so.

Love/empathy exists. We all experience Love/empathy. It defines right and wrong for every sane person all over the world.

Everyone decides what they think god is for themselves. You don't get to decide that for others. Some Christians believe God to be a trinity some do not. A triune God and a non triune God cannot be the same God.

In the above statements you are qualifying God in a subjective view. That would be a strawman argument since I don't disagree that people have differing subjective views or definitions of God. It also therefore doesn't challenge the fact that objectively speaking, all Christians see God as the Creator.

This is actually not what I was asking. So Why do you?

It's a funny thing, since scripture implies that God reveals Himself through Christ so that no one can claim being saved according to their own discretion. According to scripture I was called according to His plan. My belief started out small. Usually I would answer the question of why I first believed/trusted in Christ, by saying that the words of Christ agreed with the word of God in my soul. And as the Spirit of his words began to live in me, my faith also grew. In this instance however, I will say that I now trust in Christ because that is where I find hope and Light and courage and Love in a dark world.

 

[Lost4words]

Then it has no value as an answer to my question. Thanks for the response.

As you are an atheist, i understand that.

God bless you

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Truth is authoritative not subjective. You won't find a single Christian that doesn't conform to Christ's sentiments concerning God, as pertains to the scriptural definitions of God as Love and God as the Creator of everything. That's a fact by definition of what it means to be in Christ and therefore a Christian, wherefore I can speak for all Christians concerning God being the Creator and God being Love/empathy. I suspect you probably know this to be true at least in the general.

You don't get to decide who is a Christian and who is not. You cannot possibly know that all people that call themselves Christians conform to these beliefs. Also, if all people calling themselves Christians do conform to these beliefs does not make them believing in the same god as I pointed out about the trinity.

Any reasoning based on something false ends in a contradiction.

Can you demonstrate this is true? People end up believing what is true by faulty logic all the time.

The mind reasons in fundamental dichotomies based on what it "sees" as true. Wherefore any reasoning based on something false ends in a contradiction. Truth has to exist as an axiom for that to happen.

I am not arguing against absolute truth. You need to demonstrate that your claim here is true.

Thereby we are intrinsically endowed knowing that the moral Truth is to love others as we would want to be loved. From an objective standpoint, that/this Truth will never change nor cease to exist whether we believe/trust in love/God or we don't. As for the "existence" of a moral Spirit, we know that Love exists, preceding us and giving substantive meaning to life, even as it defines right and wrong for everyone.

This is nonsense. Just assertions that sound lofty. Love does not define right and wrong for me so that is a false claim.

I'm just showing that the term "faith", according to scripture and not according to me, is not articulated as being akin to superstition.

Never said it was,

The apostle Paul described faith as the evidence of things hoped for, not yet seen.

Which means that we can use faith to believe anything is true which means it is useless to determine truth.

The reason for this Trust/hope is because God/Creator is esteemed as trustworthy in His Character, which is revealed as Love/empathy. There can be no hope or trust in the Eternal without valuing empathy. When I examine the implications of the alternative, if we were to distrust the power that created us, then logically we would have to distrust ourselves.

Show God exists, until then this is just assertion.

Love/empathy exists. We all experience Love/empathy. It defines right and wrong for every sane person all over the world.

No it does not. Love and empathy alone will not get you to the most moral choice. Reason and logic are needed.

In the above statements you are qualifying God in a subjective view. That would be a strawman argument since I don't disagree that people have differing subjective views or definitions of God. It also therefore doesn't challenge the fact that objectively speaking, all Christians see God as the Creator.

I disagree. All may see God as the creator but that does not mean they are following the same god concept. Muslims believe god is the creator as well, does that mean you are following the same god? No. Similar characteristics do not mean they are the same in all ways.

In this instance however, I will say that I now trust in Christ because that is where I find hope and Light and courage and Love in a dark world.

Thanks. Just wanted to know why you believed.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

As you are an atheist, i understand that.

God bless you

Why do you come to a thread asking specifically for reasons why people believe god exists and refuse to give your reasons?

May Allah bless you.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

[STAFF EDITED DELETED QUOTE]
Yeah, I have seen it. I am just curious what reasons will be given for belief here.

 

[muichimotsu]

The term God in scripture is an axiom meaning the source of the energy that created all things including time. This necessarily means that as an axiom God must exist for anything at all to exist. So it doesn't make sense to ask if one believes God exists when the term is an axiom and as such must exist.

When qualified as the Person of God, the term "God" in scripture is speaking to the moral/immoral revelation of God as the Spirit of empathy, and subsequently the cause and purpose of the creation. Hence when a person has faith this means that they trust in God, or hold God/empathy to be trustworthy.

Sorry, that's not how axioms remotely work, especially when you're tautologically and irrationally defining it into existence as something necessary and yet somehow outside of time, which is necessary for existence to be anything more than a static moment.

An axiom would be something more like that there is a world outside of what we perceive that exists independently (like a tree outside my house), object permanence effectively. If we don't hold that as an axiom, we can't really speak rationally about the world.

And no, god as a concept isn't remotely just the sense of anything like a creator necessarily, it can mean many things going back to ancient times when animism or shamanism was the dominant supernatural perspective

Creation already weasels in an extrinsic purpose for the universe without actually demonstrating that such a thing is the case, more question begging

Not sure how I remotely need to believe in god or God to recognize the value of empathy, but I'm also not sure how you'd even remotely make an argument for that.

 

[Lost4words]

Why do you come to a thread asking specifically for reasons why people believe god exists and refuse to give your reasons?

May Allah bless you.

I gave my reason but it wasnt enough for you. I understand my friend.

God bless you

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

I gave my reason but it wasnt enough for you. I understand my friend.

God bless you

You said you believed because of faith and then refused to define what faith is. You gave a non answer. You don't understand at all. Your answer is meaningless unless you define the term faith. I don't at all see why that is so hard if that is the real reason you believe.

 

[Lost4words]

You said you believed because of faith and then refused to define what faith is. You gave a non answer. You don't understand at all. Your answer is meaningless unless you define the term faith. I don't at all see why that is so hard if that is the real reason you believe.

Like Jesus said,

Matthew 18:3

3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

God bless you

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Like Jesus said,

Matthew 18:3

3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

God bless you

Ok great. Thanks. You are just another Christian that does not want a conversation but just throws one word and one verse answers without any explanation and then is condescending to the non believer because they don't understand your cryptic writings. Thanks for the comments.

 

[Lost4words]

Ok great. Thanks. You are just another Christian that does not want a conversation but just throws one word and one verse answers without any explanation and then is condescending to the non believer because they don't understand your cryptic writings. Thanks for the comments.

We have to be like a little child. Pure trust in God. Pure faith. I dont need big explanations or investigations into the meaning of faith. My faith. Its all rather simple really. Pure love of God.

God bless you my friend

 

[LightBearer]

How do you define faith?

I dont need to

Then it has no value as an answer to my question. Thanks for the response.

Actually, we do need to, so I will try to answer your question.

1 Peter 3: 15. “But sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone who demands of you a reason for the hope you have, but doing so with a mild temper and deep respect.”

Here is the bible’s own definition of faith.

Hebrews 11:1. “Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen.”

Bible faith is not credulity or credulous it is evidence based, solid evidence of an unseen realty.

To illustrate: Your walking along a beach, say, in Thailand. Suddenly, the ground is violently shaken, so much so that you are thrown to the ground. After about 30 seconds it stops, you stand up and see the tide with-drawing way out into the distance where you can no longer see it. You say to yourself, “Id better get to high ground and quickly", why? You know what's coming even though you can’t see it. The shaking ground, the with-drawing tide are the solid evidence of the unseen reality, the tsunami that is heading your way. That is bible based faith. It is the convincing evidence or evident demonstration of a realty we cannot see.


Stay safe and well,
LB

 

[SPF]

We cannot know anything for certain.

You sure about that? How do you know?

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

We have to be like a little child. Pure trust in God. Pure faith. I dont need big explanations or investigations into the meaning of faith. My faith. Its all rather simple really. Pure love of God.

Ok.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Actually, we do need to, so I will try to answer your question.

1 Peter 3: 15. “But sanctify the Christ as Lord in your hearts, always ready to make a defense before everyone who demands of you a reason for the hope you have, but doing so with a mild temper and deep respect.”

Here is the bible’s own definition of faith.

Hebrews 11:1. “Faith is the assured expectation of what is hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities that are not seen.”

Bible faith is not credulity or credulous it is evidence based, solid evidence of an unseen realty.

To illustrate: Your walking along a beach, say, in Thailand. Suddenly, the ground is violently shaken, so much so that you are thrown to the ground. After about 30 seconds it stops, you stand up and see the tide with-drawing way out into the distance where you can no longer see it. You say to yourself, “Id better get to high ground and quickly", why? You know what's coming even though you can’t see it. The shaking ground, the with-drawing tide are the solid evidence of the unseen reality, the tsunami that is heading your way. That is bible based faith. It is the convincing evidence or evident demonstration of a realty we cannot see. So that the unseen things we hope for are assured, because they are real.


Stay safe and well,
LB

Yet no one here has provided any "solid evidence of the unseen reality". Provide the evidence and I will have faith.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

You sure about that? How do you know?

I am 99% certain of it due to the possibility of solipsism. Until solipsism is refuted we cannot know anything with 100% certainty.

 

[SPF]

I am 99% certain of it due to the possibility of solipsism. Until solipsism is refuted we cannot know anything with 100% certainty.

So you know that we cannot know anything with 100% certainty?

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

So you know that we cannot know anything with 100% certainty?

I answered this already in my answer you quoted.

 

[SPF]

I answered this already in my answer you quoted.

Then you ought to stop contradicting yourself.

 

[Clizby WampusCat]

Then you ought to stop contradicting yourself.

Do you just want to play games?