Do you believe in God or a Higher Power of some kind?

~♥Little Miss - posted on 11/22/2012

*****Old thread, locking it. Feel free to start a new debate*****



~DM MoD Little Miss~

Desiree - posted on 11/22/2012

I believe completely that God exist I may not understand why things happen. I am not meant too either.

Barbara - posted on 11/20/2012

YES how else would you explain this world? I do hope that Peace will come. We all need to live together and love each other. No more WARS. Its 2012 and we all should know better!!!!!

Meghan - posted on 02/25/2011

have not read any of the previous posts.
My mom's mom was schizophrenic and her "out lit" was the church. My Grandmother felt that she was was a messenger of God and that the members of every church she involved herself with, were jealous because God chose her as a "messenger". She ended up killing herself "in the name of God." Religion is an emotional issue for my mother, but she raised us to accept and believe in whatever we felt was right for us and never once guided us away from religion. She took us to church if we felt we were interested, she took us to Christmas pageants-she basically encouraged us to develop our own spirituality. As an adult I realize that was probably really hard for her but I respect her SO much for it.
Generally I tend to veer more towards Karma. I want to live my life as a kind, thoughtful person. I refuse to throw my eggs in one basket. I work hard, I play hard, I teach my son the same rules I live by- to respect everything/one around him and move on from those who don't treat him the same. If there does happen to be a judgment day where I stand before a "God" that has so many different myths, faces, points of importance the one thing I can truly say is I did the best I could.

Stephanie - posted on 02/24/2011

Katie- I made 2 posts on your board last night telling you what happened! : )

I accidently logged in under my nieces facebook account and didnt realize it so I deleted it and posted it again under my account. Sorry for the confusion!

Nikkole - posted on 02/24/2011

I am a believer in GOD, i attend church on occasion, but me and my husband don't believe you MUST attend ONE church every Sunday to pray and speak about god! And to me a lot of churches today are just worried on how fancy there church is and a lot of Christians (not all) are very two faced and very pushy about converting others who believe different! My mother in law is like this and i can't stand it, its ONE thing to speak about god and his word its another to force it don someones throat not all Christians are like that!! I can't explain why i believe i just do and it makes me happy and doesn't hurt anyone else!


I also saw that post now twice with 2 different names

Vegemite - posted on 02/24/2011

oh ok that's why i asked before i assumed :)

~♥Little Miss - posted on 02/24/2011

I saw it too Kati, you are not going cuckoo!

Rosie - posted on 02/24/2011

somebody had posted earlier who didn't have a picture, and had the name aryan. her post in now gone, and in it's place (a few posts up) is now a post from stephanie hernandez saying the same thing. i'm now even more confused, lol! but yeah, it had nothing to do with you, that person had posted right before your post, so it made it look like i was talking to you after it was deleted.

Vegemite - posted on 02/24/2011

Who are you talking to Kati
Thank you Marina

Stephanie - posted on 02/24/2011

@Maria Hernandez-

You said: "he is in my heart and soul and he is always in the back of my mind whenever i do anything."

I am just curious if you implemented this strategy when you told me...and I quote..."I hope you get raped and murdered"?

This is not an attack- I am honestly curious how you think God would view this bc in my opinion you are being a hippocrit by talking about the Lord like you're living the gospel and then in private you are saying things like this. I think you are putting up a front.

~♥Little Miss - posted on 02/24/2011

Christine, that was a very nice way to put it. I am glad you got a chance to speak your mind on the issue.

Rosie - posted on 02/24/2011

and who exactly are you? i've looked back a couple pages and don't see anything like you've described? i'm confused...

Vegemite - posted on 02/23/2011

ok so i've read and skimmed through pages 1-8, I can't believe I've missed this.

Here's my take on God, religion, the Bible, science, whatever else and some of the things that have been said in this debate.



A bit of background on me: I was brought up Catholic as a teenager I rebelled and moved out of home at 13 (came and went over again). Got into drugs, stole to pay bills and sometimes spent nights on the streets. I'm now a Christian, I do not subscribe to any denomination as I don't like religion.

I read the Bible often mainly Psalms, Proverbs and red letters (words of Christ) in the New Testament. I'm not much into the Old Testament because Jesus came to free us from the oppression of the old ways and our sin. Which is why we were given a new way to live with love being the most important thing to have toward others.



I don't believe in forcing God and Christ onto people, if they ask questions I will answer and back my knowledge up with Scripture because then I'm not just using my words but God's too. I will tell people but the rest is up to them, Christ tells Christians to tell others about God, he didn't tell them to convert people to Christianity. That decision has to made by the individual and is between them and God only, unless they want to share.



There are so many things we cannot answer and with some of those I don't think we are supposed to know until we get to heaven, that's where faith comes in.



As far as creation, evolution and time lines go, I really don't know but here's what I think. God created our world and all that's in it. How long did that take? I'm not God so I can't answer that however 2 Peter 3:8 says "But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day."

If you want to take that on face value you have 6000 years to create, 1000 to rest, however many years before Christ, Christ's life around 32 years and 2011 years since his death plus the years before the new calender. That would be around 9043 years plus those missing ones what ever they amount to. So no one can argue about time lines that science puts on but carbon dating is inaccurate too.



I do find it very interesting that the faiths of Muslims, Christians and Jews come from the same God and want to learn more about that.



With the translation of the Bible it has been kept to a minimum the Bible transcripts were Greek, Hebrew and Aramaic. They were then translated to Latin and then from the Latin to other languages.



The Old Testament contains Tora ( the Five Books of Moses). The Old Testament contains 39 books written from approximately 1500 to 400 BC, and the New Testament contains 27 books written from approximately 40 to 90 AD. The Jewish Bible (Tanakh) is the same as the Christian Old Testament, except for its book arrangement. The original Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew, with some Aramaic, while the original New Testament was written in common Greek.



I believe in God and that Christ is my saviour, I try my best to live my life using good conscience and love as shown to me by God through Scripture, prayer and worship. I do screw up sometimes.



Thanks for referring me to this thread Marina

Jenni - posted on 02/18/2011

Veronica, I can't speak for everyone else... but I am geniunely trying to understand how one does arrive at the conclusion of God. IMO that's the only reason to debate religion, not to convert each other to the other side.

I must say I thoroughly enjoy your understanding of God and beliefs about him. So far for me, it's been the most 'logical' take on it for believers.

Nompumelelo - posted on 02/18/2011

I believe in God and every time when I need strenght I just go to my bedroom next to my dressing table (my altar )and pray and he will answer my prayers....

Veronica - posted on 02/17/2011

Wow - first - iris, thanks for clearing up my earlier garb -- i was simply observing similarities - obv. there are a ton of differences as well.

Anywho -- Im concluding that I believe. Science has its place -- but for me, so does God and his creation - and what I believe in, fills in the blanks. This will always be debated, probably forever. And honestly, I dont think fighting against each other is going to change anything. There will be those who dont believe, and those who do.
I believe my Lord is there and to me, that is what is important for me.

Isobel - posted on 02/17/2011

I believe that the Universe has always existed...that nobody "created it"...I don't see how that makes any less sense than saying that Somebody who has always existed must have created it...

I just don't understand why THIS PARTICULAR book holds the end all and be all for this group of people...why do they think the rest of the world is so stupid and unworthy that God wouldn't bother to send his word there.

Tibetan monks who have LITERALLY never hurt a fly and live in sacrifice all the days of their lives are going to burn because Jesus didn't make it to their mountain top? How does that one make sense?

Jenni - posted on 02/17/2011

Losing faith is like learning to swim by jumping into deep water. You're not sure if you're going to sink or float.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

And you can't argue with people like that...reason and logic are not their friends.

Cathy - posted on 02/17/2011

Had that discussion once with a Christian friend. When talking other religions, Greek, Norse, Roman Gods, she said they'd been proved as false gods. "What proof" I asked, " you can't prove or disprove a belief". I asked if she had proof of her God, her answer "I don't need proof, I have faith".

Jenni - posted on 02/17/2011

Ok :) haha That one flew right over my head :P

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

No, i agree with you and you are right. I was just trying to be funny.

Jenni - posted on 02/17/2011

I'm not getting what you're trying to say... Ancient civilizations existed 'within' that 6000 years.
I don't think there is a Christian out there that will say they didn't. Jesus was born 2000 years ago. It is documented in the old testament that these civilizations existed before Jesus came.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

Well, they don't think all ancient cultures existed (or aren't as old as we think), not if they interpret the bible literally and think that the world is only 6000 years old, contrary to evidence of course. I mean, something like 48% of Americans think that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. That just blows my mind. There's evidence that 10,000 years ago humans were farming and had structured societies...



But I was just being silly before...I agree with your original point. The virgin birth is one of the many stories that was around before the supposed birth of Christ. Other religions had used it as a story in their dogma.

Jenni - posted on 02/17/2011

Ancient cultures did exist before Jesus, even Christian will agree to that. They were the ones converting them in the crusades. ;)

Rather, what was left of them. They talk about them in the bible as well.... The Egyptians, Romans, Greek.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

Ancient people and thier beliefs didn't exist. The world is only 6000 years old, Jennifer. :)

Jenni - posted on 02/17/2011

I wanted to add something about an earlier post.
Heaven, hell, prophecy, daemon possession, sacrifice, initiation by baptism, communion with God through a holy meal, the Holy Spirit, monotheism, immortality of the soul, and many other "Christian" ideas all belonged to earlier, older Pagan faiths. They were simply part of ancient Mediterranean culture. Along with miracle working sons of God, born of a mortal woman, they were common elements of pre-Christian Pagan religion. Mithras had 'em. So did Dionysus, Attis, Osiris, and Orpheus. And more.

When Vespatian's spittle healed a blind man, we understand that as a myth.
When Apollonius of Tyana raised a girl from death, we understand that as a myth.
When Dionysus turned water into wine, we understand that as a myth. When Dionysus believers are filled with atay, the Spirit of God, we understand that as a myth.
When Romulus is described as the Son of God, born of a virgin, we understand that as a myth.
When Alexander the Great is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman, we understand that as a myth.
When Augustus is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal , we understand that as a myth. woman
When Dionysus is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman, we understand that as a myth.
When Scipio Africanus (Scipio Africanus, for Christ's sake) is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman, we understand that as a myth.
So how come when Jesus is described as the Son of God, born of a mortal woman, turning water into wine, raising girls from the dead, and healing blind men with his spittle and setting it up so His believers got eternal life in Heaven contemplating the unutterable, indescribable glory of God, and off to Hades—er, I mean Hell—for the bad folks...
how come that's not a myth?
And how come, in a culture with all those Sons of God, where miracles were science, where Heaven and Hell and God and eternal life and salvation were in the temples, in the philosophies, in the books, were dancing and howling in street festivals, how come we imagine Jesus and the stories about him developed all on their own, all by themselves, without picking up any of their stuff from the culture they sprang from, the culture full of the same sort of stuff?
By looking at what ancient people wrote about ancient religion. What the ancient evidence will show you is that ancient western culture had conventional ideas about Gods and their powers and place in the universe. Christianity adopted those ideas.

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/17/2011

Yes krista I got the math wrong. 6000, not 2000. Sorry!

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

See, I don't think your representation of science is correct. Like you said, it's all about perspective. I don't look at my beliefs as faith-based. It's not faith when it's supported by tangible evidence. When the results of scientific lab work can be recreated again and again to the same result to support a hypothesis, that's not faith, it's evidence. To be honest, it seems that a lot of creationists have chosen to reject reasonable ideas and logical thinking to cling to their spiritual beliefs in the wake of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. The purpose of science is to find evidence and present theories based on it. By turning yourself over to a religion you are able to just explain everything away with 'God did it'. Against such a point of view it becomes difficult to construct an argument. That's why I'm not trying to argue with you. You've obviously got your mind made up, we're at different ends of the spectrum and that's about it.

Krista - posted on 02/17/2011

Of course no human knew of god until some 2000 years ago, we weren't HERE before then!



We weren't? So there were absolutely NO people here until Jesus? No ancient Romans? No ancient Greeks? No Egyptians?



What about Adam and Eve and all those folks? I mean, if the Earth is 6000 years old, and if Adam and Eve were created during that 7 days, then um yeah...



Even using your own Bible as evidence, humanity has been here for 5999 years, 11 months, and twenty-some days.



And I have to correct myself, because humanity DID know about your god before then -- but it was the Jewish god, not the Christian one. It was your pissed-off Old Testament god. I'd forgotten about him -- and obviously, so did you.



And that we are arrogant enough to believe that we have even a single piece of the puzzle figured out on our own.



And yet you believe that religion, which is a man-made construct, has EVERY single answer.



No, that's not arrogant at all.

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/17/2011

Thanks Sara, I expected to hear that! Well I also saw an experiment that dated a mc donalds cheeseburger to be a few billion years old.
There's alot of circular reasoning in the dating sciences. Like they say this fossil has to be xMillion years old, therefore the rock it's in must be just as old, so now when they find the same rock anywhere else it's assumed to be that age, and anything fossilized in it is also that old.
I mean there's lots of unknowns and missing links in the dating processes and I've never found anything that sounded like fact.
There's alot of scientists who are christiians. And when you look at their data and evidence it all backs up the bible.
So really, to every question there's two sides. And you can usually find someone to proofs what you want to believe.
It's all faith, faith in evolution, faith in creation, faith in energy, faith in Jesus, faith in uncertainty.
We don't KNOW anything, but we choose to believe that which makes the most sense in our minds.
And there's evidence to support pretty much anything you want to believe.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

Well, I completely and utterly do not agree with you, so I guess we can just leave it at that! :)

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/17/2011

Krista

Of course no human knew of god until some 2000 years ago, we weren't HERE before then!



Looking at it with a closed mind, sure it sounds laughable, but if you look at it from gods side it's equally laughable to think that some humans actually believe that we just existed out of nowhere, and that we are somehow the superior race on this earth. And that we are arrogant enough to believe that we have even a single piece of the puzzle figured out on our own.



It's all in how you look at it, science looks so wonderful when your loyalties already lie there, but when you look at it from a side of believing in God then some science looks quite immature and irrational at times.



Besides, god created science, in our minds :)

And we learned alot from the bible in the early days, god even follows the laws of science he set up now past the days of the old testament.



You can try to understand, but if not, it will never make sense. That goes both ways.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

Laura, I certainly appreciate your straightforward answers in this, and I do not wish to argue with you in what I'm about to say, I just want to put it out there if that makes sense. I understand you have your faith and that you interpret the bible literally, but does it not give you pause to look at scientific evidence that concludes that the world is, indeed, 4.5 BILLION years old? It's not conjecture, or a theory, it's supported by actual evidence in the fossil record and geology. Certainly, I'm not trying to change your mind. You have your beliefs and i can respect that. I just have a hard time understanding how someone could continue to believe the earth is so young when there's so much evidence to show that it actually is quite old...

Krista - posted on 02/17/2011

I mean, people find it hard to accept that the Universe may have just been created from a single action like the big bang out of nowhere, but by that reasoning it should be equally hard to accept that a supernatural sky God just appeared one day and set all this into motion.

Excellent point, Sara. Religious folk are constantly picking holes in science because it hasn't found every single answer to everything.

But religion hasn't found any answers at all -- it's just made a bunch of stuff up and asked people to take that stuff on faith.

So why is it so laughable to think that the universe just, one day, WAS? And yet it's perfectly rational and sensible to believe that the Christian God always WAS (and yet not one frigging person knew about him until just about 2000 years ago...)

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/17/2011

Yes I do, but my husband and sister as well as a bunch in our church do not.
I take the bible literally, it says 7 days I believe 7 24hour days. I'm what we call a 'new earth' believer.
Then there's my hubby, sister and others who are 'old earth' believers. They believe god used evolution to create the world and that the 7 days were figurative, and could mean 7 million years or something.
There is one versebthat says 'one day in the eyes of man is like one thousand year in the eyes of god' so that verse makes some think that god used evolution to create the earth.
I like the verse that says 'believe with the faith of a child' and to me that means take the words at their meaning and don't try to manipulate it around too much.

So I do think the earth is quite young, but it's very split in my church and it's something our pastor encourages us not to argue over. He says it's not important in the relm of heaven and hell and shouldn't be something to divide the church over.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

But the bible only accounts for the world being 6000 years old. So if you believe that God created the earth and all it contains, do you also believe that the earth is only 6000 years old?

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/17/2011

We believe he always was and always will be.
Yeah, we can't actually comprehend that concept, but that's what Christians believe.
Just like we believe that we will also exist for eternity.
So I suppose some people could believe that energy always has been in existence, or the planets have always existed just like we believe god always existed. But the difference is I believe god is sentient, and omniscient, not just random gas etc.

Sara - posted on 02/17/2011

"Idk if they did or not, but even if scientists did recreate the big bang, the question of who caused it still remains :) "



Ok, so here's the REALLY big question...who/what created God if He does indeed exist? I mean, people find it hard to accept that the Universe may have just been created from a single action like the big bang out of nowhere, but by that reasoning it should be equally hard to accept that a supernatural sky God just appeared one day and set all this into motion.

Charlie - posted on 02/16/2011

Well I don't believe in "god" i believe in energy , I'm just saying it would make more sense if we ( as a people ) are going to give the higher power that is universal energy an identity or image it would make more sense that it be famale given that it gives birth to life .

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/16/2011

I personally believe god is neutral gender. But since the early humans were so male controlled it made sense to depict god as male, so they would be able to understand following him.
But, I think god has no gender. Jesus was male, but that's about as far as we can know.
Then again, maybe god is male and the holy spirit is female since god described eve as Adams helper. And later described the holy spirit as the helper......

Charlie - posted on 02/16/2011

depends on what they are made of some are made from gas and some are rock like our planet it is essentally energy pulling together a mass of dust particles or gas , the more it gathers the bigger the gravitational pull the newly formed planet has attracting more and more until rocks form , it can be quiet a violent event with many collisions , eventually millions of years later forming a planet ........I love science .



Therefore IMO energy is that which " gives birth "

and in that right if we are to assign a sex to that energy it makes sense that it is female .... the higher power or god should be a woman when people are manifesting the highest energy into a person or deity .

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/16/2011

Then how did the planets come to be?

Isobel - posted on 02/16/2011

since I believe the planets are alive in their own right...My guess would have to be "birth" still no conscious god for me ;)

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/16/2011

Idk if they did or not, but even if scientists did recreate the big bang, the question of who caused it still remains :)

Isobel - posted on 02/16/2011

I thought scientists had recreated the big bang...or was that just Angels and Demons?

Laura Zoey - posted on 02/16/2011

Not for me it isn't enough, I feel a need to know, so I searched until I was satisfied.

Marci - posted on 02/16/2011

Yes I most def do

Sara - posted on 02/16/2011

But just because we can form something as a question in our language doesn't mean that it makes any sense or deserves any sort of answer. Why am I here? How did we get here? Pointless questions if you ask me. We're here. We exist. That's not good enough?