"Why won't God heal amputees?"
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By the strength of your "logic", God is imaginary?
Just stop and consider for a few moments how ridiculous it is to even consider that God is defined and confined by the constraints of your logic. As if you can even begin to comprehend the nature of infinity and the intelligence behind it. You're simply demonstrating here the limitations of your own intellect, which is confined by pride and ego.
Let go of your pride and your ego, and you will take the first step toward truth.
The only hope I hold out for you is that you capitalized the word "God" while attempting to negate his existance through your sophomoric "logic".
As if to say "I don't really believe that God exists. But just in case....."
LOL!
This is confusing. I have been told all my life by preachers of many different churches that i simply must believe and repent and i am "in".
Now you are telling everybody that no matter what you do if God has not already chosen you you can not believe. This will come as a surprise to people who are members of most denominations in this country.
Of course you and all of your family are probably"choosen".
You think you have escaped belief simply because you think you are relying on logic and reason?
Atheism is a faith just like any other faith. It is founded on a belief, not
on fact or science. The word âatheismâ means âno belief.â However, atheists
actually do believe; it is just that they believe in ânothing.â They believe
that there is no God. In spite of all their claims to the contrary, atheists
must still rely upon the same resources for their convictions as do all
other believers: namely, their faith. The only difference is their faith is
directed towards nothing. They believe there is no âthingâ out there. No
God. No supernatural. No Devil. No purpose or meaning to life. Yet, they are
no more rational in their beliefs than Christians are in theirs. The
atheistâs lack of belief in God is simply an article of faith.
The problem atheists face is that you cannot prove that ânothingâ exists.
Nothing is the âabsenceâ of some-thing. It isnât a thing. It isnât there, so
you canât show it. You cannot prove ânothingâ is true. At most, you may find
nothing where you are looking, but it does not mean there isnât that thing
somewhere else! For the same reason, you cannot prove the non-existence of
God, because then youâd be trying to prove that ânothingâ exists, which
canât be done. In fact, even to be an atheist and believe that God isnât,
you must first assume that God is, or you have nothing to not believe in!
So, the idea of Godâs existence is necessary in order for anyone to not
believe in him. Atheists need God to have a faith that there is no God.
By all traditional definitions, God is not material. He canât be tasted,
touched, seen, or felt. He canât be measured or put under a microscope. You
cannot subject him to the scientific method, because you cannot measure by
material science that which is Spirit. God isnât earth, wind, or fire. He
isnât lightening or gravity or the vacuum of space. So, how on earth could
you âproveâ that God is not? All you can do is point to what you can see,
hear, or feel and say, âthat is not God,â or âI donât see him.â You may
speak of what you know, but you cannot really speak of what you do not know.
And if you donât know God, how can you speak about him at all, either for
good or ill?
The realm of our experience is so limited and finite, all we could hope to
say with any certainty is: âI havenât experienced God.â But just because we
havenât experienced God does not mean he does not exist. We are not
omniscient or omnipresent, so our experience is limited and tiny. All we
know is in our small realm. For us to assert then, that âthere is no Godâ
requires a tremendous leap of faith. Maybe it requires even more faith to
believe that there is no God than it does to believe that there is one.
Listen to the faith of the atheist: âI, from my limited and tiny dot of
existence on this small planet, am certain that there is no God. Even though
I have not experienced all the vastness of the universe, I am certain I am
right because I am so perceptive that I know what the rest of the universe
holds.â Sounds ridiculous, doesnât it? But that is just what the atheist is
asserting when he declares that there is no God. My question is always, âHow
on earth could he know?â The truth is, he canât. He is acting in faith. If
faith is your only evidence, then you might as well believe that He is as
believe that he isnât!
I realize that many people are driven to the conclusion of unbelief because
they are grieved over the evils of this world, or the death of loved ones,
or by a thousand other causes of private pain. I cannot answer the pain with
reasons why. It is beyond me. But the fact God does not put a stop to human
freedom or suffering proves nothing about whether he exists or not. At most,
we might wonder about his compassion, but his lack of action does not prove
his non-existence. For instance, if I choose not to go to work tomorrow, I
may be missing from my office and others may not see me, but it doesnât mean
Iâve ceased to exist. In the same way, we cannot prove Godâs non-existence
by his apparent inaction.
In the Old Testament, the Jews didnât even have a word for unbelief or
doubt. The word they used was lo-Amen, or âno Truth.â A person who doubted
or did not believe was a person who lacked the truth. It wasnât until the
Arabs came up with the number zero that we were able to take this nothing,
this lack of truth, and make it into a something. A zero is a symbol that
represents nothing, but we treat a zero as if it represents something real.
A zero represents the absence of something. In the same way, atheism is
built upon the zero, and so, we make atheism into something when it is not.
It has no reality in itself, but it pretends to be something. It can never
be proved and it can never be affirmed. It is the belief in nothing, or, as
the Bible says, it is the absence of the truth.
Atheism cannot exist without God, just as a lie cannot exist
without the Truth. The only difference, then, between the Christian and the
atheist is not their faith, but in what they believe. And Christians have a
better ground upon which to stand, for they have encountered the God of the
Universe. They base their faith on something, or rather should I say Someone
they have experienced; not on something they havenât. They have heard God
speak to them, so their faith is based in knowledge.
Right. And Easter-Bunny-Atheism cannot exist w/o the Easter Bunny. I love the logic. As long as someone doesn't believe in Thor, The God of Thunder, he must exist.
As an atheist, I do not believe in nothing. I believe in science, I believe in the laws of nature, I believe in truth, I believe in logic, I believe in common-sense. I believe in reality, not fantasy.
Thor-Pumpkin-Bunny
As an atheist, I do not believe in nothing. I believe in science, I believe in the laws of nature, I believe in truth, I believe in logic, I believe in common-sense. I believe in reality, not fantasy.
Thor-Pumpkin-Bunny
Notice, your last line is an ad hominem remark, not an argument. I told you, I won't engage in one-up-manship.
However, what you've been told is wrong. If God chooses you, you will believe. If he judges you, you will not be able to believe.
"And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God." John 3:19-21, RSV.
"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve." Jeremiah 17:10, NIV.
"All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." Luke 10:22, NRSV.
"And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away." Luke 1:50-53, RSV.
God has the right to judge the human heart, to see if it is bent towards evil; or if given the opportunity to walk in humility and love, the person woud cooperate with the Spirit and nature of God. If the person has no yearning within them to walk in humility and love towards others, then even seeing God's kindness, they would still reject Him. And so if He judges someone as bent towards evil and not desirous of change, then God has every right to judge that person and hide from him or her the truth of salvation. Faith is a gift. It isn't earned. It isn't merited. It isn't deserved. It is a gift of mercy which brings one to repentance for one's own participation in selfishness and evil.
Uh, oh, wait a minute. I'm pretty darn sure Jeffries doesn't believe in the Muslim God, or the Hindu God, or any of those other gods. Which of course means they must all exist. Every darn one of 'em.
Crimeny, this is getting complicated. Now I don't know which God I'm supposed to believe in, especially since if I choose to believe in one and not the others, then the others have to exist, because I don't believe in them.
As Barbarino used to say, I'm so confused!
H
Crimeny, this is getting complicated. Now I don't know which God I'm supposed to believe in, especially since if I choose to believe in one and not the others, then the others have to exist, because I don't believe in them.
As Barbarino used to say, I'm so confused!
H
You believe in Quantum physics even though the actions of electrons violate the laws of cause and effect? That electrons move from shell to shell without passing any point between and without the passage of time? That they appear here and then there without any time in between? You accept that as true even though you cannot experience it nor make sense of it. It defies common sense and Newtonian physics. There is much to reality that is not reducible to human understanding; but that doesn't mean it is fantasy. It just means the human mind and sense experience cannot grasp it.
The material world, you assert is true, but by definition, the material world is more space than atoms; yet you don't experience the world as space but as constant friction.
Einstein posited a 5th and 6th dimension that probably makes the narrow experience of our 4 dimensional universe seem quaint. Yet the common sense of natural laws is probably just as limited in terms of reality as Newtonian Laws are to Relativity.