Is there a god?
And if so, who or what is god?
So it goes....
JIM; Yes, there is. Submit the following for your consideration. WHY SOME MEN BELIEVE IN GODScientist-inventor Thomas Edison, when asked his view about whether there is a God, replied: “After years of watching the processes of nature, I cannot doubt the existence of a Supreme Intelligence. The existence of such a God can, to my mind, almost be proved from chemistry.” ------------------------------------- Sim: The above is odd, if not suspect. Consider, too, the following: Edison, Thomas"My mind is incapable of conceiving such a thing as a soul. I may be in error, and man may have a soul; but I simply do not believe it." [Thomas Edison, "Do We Live Again?"] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "All Bibles are man-made." [Thomas Edison] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "So far as religion of the day is concerned, it is a damned fake... Religion is all bunk." [Thomas Edison] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I have never seen the slightest scientific proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of future life for individuals, or of a personal God." [Thomas Alva Edison, "Columbian Magazine"] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I do not believe that any type of religion should ever be introduced into the public schools of the United States." [Thomas Edison, "Do We Live Again?"]
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Sim: Edison did not believe in any kind of personal God like that of Christianity. He was closer to a Thomas Paine, a quasi-deist view, usually denoting the "Supreme Intelligence" as Nature....but never the God of the Bible.
JIM: Man is but a creature of a Creator; therefore, man cannot learn about God by investigation of His creation alone, but he needs a special revelation. That special revelation is God’s Word, which has been given in the Scriptures.”
The answer as to who he is, provided in his written word, which requires study.
SIM: The Bible description of God involves the presentation of a Monster.
Mark Twain: "If there is a God, he's a thug.."
Thomas Paine: (paraphrased: "....it's (the Bible) is more the work of a devil than that of a God...."
The Bible is quite a horrible rendition, when honestly read, requires the moral person to fling it to the fireplace....
Allys: God is God and He is the most amazing, knowledgable, holy, beautiful and loving Being there ever has, is, or will be.
Sim: Assertions don't count for much, do they? Claims can be made about anything. At the end of the day, nothing but claims. These are the same kind of claims made about every kind of god that has been believed. Once upon a time, millions of people said much the same things about a Zeus/Jupiter. And?
Catlo:There is no proof that gods and goddesses exist, and there is no proof that they DON'T exist.
SIM: No proof for, no proof against = no problem.
What is a germane consideration is the "how likely" factor. How likely that the gods described by mankind throughout history have been real? Not very likely. In fact, highly unlikely.
It's a mystery "out there", and there is no indication that any clues to solve this mystery are available.
As things stand, that God exists cannot be proved in the way we can prove 'horses exist', or 'happiness exists'.
Even though I now believe God exists, and Jesus Christ existed as described in the Bible, this conviction has grown, taking years of gradual re-appraisal of 'everything', even though it had made perfect sense as an atheist - and in a sense this has happened against my will - to become a Christian would have been unthinkable. But 'God made himself known to me' as they say, bit by bit, like a slow thaw.
I couldn't make it happen quicker, or all at once (as has happened to many) - I had to let it sink in, in the time it took my particular mind took to acknowledge that maybe this or that was God's doing.
Many always have and always will dig their heels in and say 'no' to letting themselves experience this extraordinary new way of seeing things for even a moment, that keeps encouraging your mind to just allow the possibility that it may be 'true' - if you can get past the long-held resistance, the refusal to see 'a new-to-you reality' that had been there all the time. A bit like the fact that all men are equal - a racist will deny this with all his passion, because of the way he sees things - (whatever race he belongs to).
And it is so often when life 'goes wrong' that we have a change of heart, that brings us to our senses, and when things start to go right again. When we think we have lost something or everything that ever mattered to us, feel we have failed in what we had hoped for, we find this was only a glimpse of what life is about. If we're lucky we realise that it's not wealth or what other people think of us that matters - the only thing that truly matters, that saves each of us in the end, is love - to see everything around us is actually wonderful if we stop wanting it to be how we want it to be - and the sense of the unconditional love from God, who loves us whatever we are like or do, is so powerful.
The God of the Old Testament was appropriate to the understanding of the society of those days (maybe, I can only guess) - and came to an end with the birth of Jesus - who was born because the old way of trying to get people 'to be good' wasn't working. Then God became about only love, and explaining everything through the words of Jesus. The new covenant, or promise, that if we too can live with love as our prime impulse, with that intention at least (as our human nature always fails us, which God understands), then heaven on earth can at least stand a chance of realisation.
Better stop for now. Dinah
Dinah: As things stand, that God exists cannot be proved in the way we can prove 'horses exist', or 'happiness exists'.
Sim: This is the same scenario throughout the history of god beliefs. So many thousands, but yet none able to be substantiated. Meanwhile, the more astute learned that a decent and often handsome income could be derived from tapping into the superstitions. From the prophets, to the medicine men, to our own modern day pope and ilk, and to our Benny Hinn types, superstition exploitations have been golden.
The financial key is to keep the dog 'n pony show cornucopia alive and well. Start 'em young, keep those tall tales reinforced by family, peers and society-in-general, indoctrinate and inculcate fear and dread, and religions thrive.
Dinah: Even though I now believe God exists, and Jesus Christ existed as described in the Bible, this conviction has grown, taking years of gradual re-appraisal of 'everything', even though it had made perfect sense as an atheist
Sim: How often it is that a believer will claim to have once been an atheist. Why so? The main reason, I suspect, is that they feel it lends credibility to their conversion. However, the Achille's Heel to this sort of claim is that it is virtually impossible to go from free-thinking into the trapping jaws of superstition. The possibility of even being on the radar screen of reality is next to nil, if not nil.
I often wonder when this claim is made by believers, do they, like most believers do not, understand the core of agnostic/atheist? If they did, the "I was once an atheist" claim would not exist.
Dinah: ....and in a sense this has happened against my will - to become a Christian would have been unthinkable. But 'God made himself known to me' as they say, bit by bit, like a slow thaw.
SIM: Again, this "process" is wanting. In fact, it smacks of the usual claim of personal "revealing" by a personal god-type. It is, at its simplest core, imagination at work, no more, no less, and has its structure from the early exposures of dogma, and the reinforcements from all-around societal influences, overt or covert.
The imagination of an individual is one of the main reasons for so many ideas of what "God" is, when, of course, "God" is but a metaphor for that which cannot be addressed in a coherent thinking process.
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