Just a bunch of one sentence answers from me.
By no means is this an insult to your beliefs.
But was just wondering if any of you had ever questioned God?
I am not trying to convert you to athiesm at all and of course everyone is entitled to thier own beliefs.
Have you ever questioned Gods creation?
Do you believe in the Darwin theory?
I have questioned God all my life and I continue to do today. There is myriad of incomprehensible things that God does with our world that doesn't make sense to me. To name a few, why is my friend, the most devout Christian on the face of the earth, going through extreme suffering in the form of cancer for the past 5ive years? What good can come from this that can't come from him being healthy? These are questions that I ask God, and in time I find my answers. You see, Christianity doesn't say: "Close your eyes and believe." It says: "Go and see for yourself." You can try and figure out God and why He would permit evil in our world at all, and sometimes you find out answers and sometimes you don't. But all of those unanswered questions don't amount to anything at all when faced with the issue of whether or not I have faith (faith does not mean belief, it means trust) that Jesus is really the redeemer of souls, and has given me an open invitation to come with Him to heaven when I die.
About Darwin? I don't believe a thing about evolution through natural selection. I happen to be a young earth creationist, and can back myself up if necessary, but that is for another thread because I don't want to derail this one. Let it suffice that I have done an immense amount of research on this subject and have found enough evidence to counter old earth evolution and build up a case for a young earth.
Of course, I don't think that in order to be a Christian, you need to reject Darwin at all. The only thing that really matters is if you trust that Jesus has forgiven your sins or not.
What evidence do you feel there is for the presence of God? Or is it a personal feeling? How would you go aboutv trying to convince/convert someone to christianity?
I hope im not intruding i am just curious.
;-)
oh and yes i am an atheist.
The presence of God is not something to be obtained from rational thinking. If it was, than I would also be an atheist. That doesn't mean that everyone is like me. What I mean is, during my entire life, I have only ever heard God's words 2 times. I pray many times that God would make His will known to me, but unfortunately I am left in the dark when it comes to hearing God. Other people say that they see Him and hear Him in everything all the time. I wish I was like them.
But for a actual evidence for there being a creator god? That's easy. You can have an explosion that will create the universe, but you must then ask the necessary question: "What caused that explosion?" Furthermore, you must realize that if you throw a bomb in a scrapyard, you will not obtain an end result of a series of perfectly constructed automobiles. All you would get is a bigger mess. How then, can an explosion create a multitude of galaxies in perfect working order without defects? And how much more complicated is the universe or even a single cell than an automobile? Therefore, it's very rational to assume that there was some intelligent mind coordinating that explosion and making sure that every thing was exploded in perfect proportion that makes it possible for earth to sustain life.
Do you take the words literally from the bible or interperet them into modern living?
so many questions
hehe
I take the words of the bible literally when it is revealed that the words are not a parable. Jesus spoke in parables where He told a story in order to teach a lesson that He wanted people to learn. In those instances, I look at the bible and try to find out what it really means. But in other instances where it says that Jesus walked on water, Jonah was in the belly of a whale for 3 days, Job was really a righteous man who suffered because the devil wanted it to happen, 5,000 men + women and children were fed with 5ive loafs of bread and 3 fish, I take it literally. You would need to understand that God's original words have been preserved with 99.5% accuracy and all texts that have different wording in different manuscripts do not raise questions to any doctrine, and especially not the resurrection which all of Christianity holds as the biggest claim to his divinity. I can go into much more detail than that if you wish.
Ok then. What were the reasons for you becoming a christian? Was it how you were brought up or from experiences you have been through
If you would like, I have a very long testimony that I would love to share with you. Of course, it's entirely up to you if you want to read it or not. It can be found at this location.
http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?t=5446474
Bellicus, yes i am an atheist although i was baptised when i was about 1.
The reason i am asking is that i read a book a couple of months ago called 'Derren Brown Trick Of the Mind' although it is a book about illusion, suggestability and unconcious communication etc. The first chapters talks about when Derren was young and he was a devout christian and why he became an atheist
here are some snippets from the first chapter,
'The Bible is not History.
Coming to terms with this fact was a fiddly one for me, because I believed in God, Jesus and Satan (ish). And one aspect of believing those things and meeting once a week with like-minded people is that you are never really encouraged to study the facts and challense your own beliefs. I always imagined that challenging my beliefs might make them stronger.'
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'Picture, if you require a good vomiting, a whole herd of us being encouraged to display the Pentecostal gift of 'talking in tongues' by a self styled pastor, with the proviso that if we ceased babbling because we thought it silly then it was indeed the devil telling us to stop, envision as a secondry emetic,me telling a non Christian friend that i would pray for him unaware at how unspeakably patronizing an offer might sound'
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'For those of you who find this laughable (while talking about the churches dislike of psycic healin and new age movements etc), please don't think for a moment that plenty of modern churches don't confidently talk about of demons as real, if invisible, populating sinful enviroments such as student bedrooms and heavy metal shops.'
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'Part of this man's job a 'pastor' remember - was to convince, innocent people in his care that such things (demons/satan and the like) were true, so that they'd be frightened enough to cling more closely to the religion.'
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Derren then talks about show he saw as a late teen by a hypnotist and how he then became interested in peoples reaction to 'magic' illusion as they so wanted to believe it to be real. He then starts to do his own hypnosis shows.
'I was amazed to hear form my christian friends that i was ushering in demonic forces.'
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'I was confused if God created us then presumabley, the human mind is the pinnacle of creation. And i certainly know knew that i had a better idea of how hypnotism worked than these people, still you can't judge a religion on a few unpleasent people so i shrugged it off'
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'desperate people seeking easy answers are rarely intrested in being told those ideas are lies'
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'Some people may express thier affection for the notionof magical abilities or spiritual planes by embracing such ideas with no desire for evidence rather than thier own conviction'
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'Essentially one believes X so strongly that all evidence that does not support X is ignored, and all events that fit in with X are noticed and amplified'
'As a christian i started to think about this thouroughly, WAS I remembering prayers that had been answered and ignoring those that weren't? Or deciding they had been answered in a less obvious way?
It's a question i still ask intellegent christians today, because i would dearly love to hear a well informed answer'
There is a lot more that i could type but my fingers are starting to ache hehe
Basically the reason i am asking these questions is because i am curious after reading this book.
If that is a problem then i am deeply sorry and please do not feel the need to answer my questions as it is hardly vital that you do, i would just like opinions on my questions and these statements from christians and not an atheist.
These reasons for one particular man to turn away from Christianity are just that. His own reasons. He brings up many things like as you say: "desperate people seeking easy answers are rarely intrested in being told those ideas are lies" That may be true, but you must take into consideration those people who have no reason for being in any religion at all, and when trying to find the answer, they come up with the conclusion that God is real. Not because they are afraid of making the wrong that leads them to an eternal punishment, but because of their actual findings. One such person was Lee Strobal. When his wife converted to Christianity, he was furious and tried to put a stop to it. He spent years trying to prove to himself and his wife that Christianity just wasn't worth it. Not to devote one's time to, and certainly not something to believe in. For his wife, it was more of a heart issue, and for him, it was a question of finding if the evidence matched up with what the bible says. During these years of examination, he traveled the world to speak with renown biblical scholars, and tried to find out any flaws in Christianity that he could exploit. Over time, the scales started tipping and he was faced with the fact that all evidence pointed toward the Bible's claim that Jesus was God and died for the forgiveness of our sins, and rose from the dead 3 days later and was seen by many people before ascending to heaven. This man was not desperate and was looking for lies so that he could exploit it. The rest of the claims that Derren makes are those of one who wants the bible to be false, therefore claiming and embracing any possible explanation to hamper it's validity. I've seen it all before. These were things that I used to think too, before God came to me that night on Easter 04'. Things you should consider about Derren is, 1. Does he have anything to gain from writing this book? 2. Do his arguments fit the majority of people that he believes it does? 3. What personal circumstances brought Darren to these conclusions? 4. Is it possible that personal vendettas are clouding his judgment and his opposition against Christianity is not one of phchological matters, but of a personal matter? Could you ask any Christians that you might personally know about these claims that Derren brings up? If there is any in particular that you would like discuss with me, it is better to narrow it down rather flooding us with many things. That's a tactic that antireligious zealots like to do. They copy/paste (not saying that you do) a massive amount of text and say "Ha. I've won." When things are asked without flooding like you have done throughout this thread with the exception of your last post, it is much easier to relate with a person and answer any questions that really are heavy on your heart.
Let me know if there are any more questions you might have and we will be happy to answer them.
Welcome to christianforums.
I always knew there was a most likly chance of God. 90% of it I knew,(I honestly cant say I never doubted) not just because my family mentioned Him, I couldnt explain it God gave me faith from the begining. I know God is real not from blind faith but with the personal experiances I have with Him.
