Does God Exist?

[Ainin]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

God told me he didn't exist.

[Czechanada]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

It is better and infinitely more useful to ask what is the best flavour of ice cream cake.

[Ainin]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

It is better and infinitely more useful to ask what is the best flavour of ice cream cake.

Toffee.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

It is better and infinitely more useful to ask what is the best flavour of ice cream cake.

Vanilla ice cream cake, of course. And if you don't believe me, then you must be a heathen and you have to be converted to believe in such *nods*

[Agorya]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

It is better and infinitely more useful to ask what is the best flavour of ice cream cake.

Chocolate. I love chocolate.

[Abritus]

Yes.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

Yes.

Why?

[Abritus]

Yes.

Why?

Because he does he's God and he doesn't change.

[Ainin]

Why?

Because he does he's God and he doesn't change.

That makes no sense.

[Abritus]

Because he does he's God and he doesn't change.

That makes no sense.

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

[The USOT]

All or at least most of this is written in the Bible/Gospel. However, Bible/Gospel is written by humans and humans do make errors. What is there to say that this humans have faked that god existed?

The only evidence I need is the fact that I'm sitting here talking about Christianity. You see, soon after Jesus acceded, and when the early church was forming, the Romans appointed this guy named Nero to office. Now, Nero didn't like Christians. In fact, he hated them so much that he threw them unarmed into the Colosseum with wild animals just to watch them get torn apart, and covered other Christians in tar and used than to light his gardens. (For comparison, Mohammed had a huge army that followed him loyally, and kill anyone that didn't convert to Islam). If Christianity was just a lie, most people would have walked away, since the persecution. Plus, that was just the first of many oppressive leaders that killed Christians for sport. But here I am, talking to you about this while there are people in places like Saudi Arabia, where the mere mention of the name Jesus would most likely get you killed. So, I come to the conclusion that Jesus is real, since Christianity was able to survive such persecution.

That logic is highly flawed.

1) Persecution does not make one suddenly stop having a beleif. It was inherrantly easier to be a Communist supporter in the USSR than it was to be a Tsarist. People have beleifs which are often highly flawed which they are willing to die and suffer for, especially when it is so intrinsicly tied to their identity.
In a similar fashion, the implication is that everybody would have walked away from mohammad during the early days of Islam for the persecution they received when they were kicked out of Mecca, or that Islam would cease to exist in spain because of the persecution following the end of Al-Andalus. Its simply a wrong hypothesis.

2) Survivabilaty does not = truth. Zoroastrians have gone through far more persecution than Christians have over the millenia. Furthermore Hindu`s have been horribly opressed by Christian powers and at war with Islamic ones for centuries. Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Christianity all negate eachother, and yet all have equal validity by your standard for truth.

[Ainin]

That makes no sense.

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

Please, explain.

[Quiet-Riot]

No.

[Agorya]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

God told me he didn't exist.

if you're hearing voices in your head, then you need to see a psychiatrist.

[Dyakovo]

What the hell are you talking about? It's impossible to fully disprove the existence of the gods, therefore atheists are agnostics because they believe to an extent (however small it is) that there's a possibility a god may exist. This has nothing to do with being certain in your own beliefs.

What I mean is, why do you try so hard to lump togeather athists and agnostics? As I se it Athists are desided on not beliving in a god, were agnostics are undesided or belive in earth power or some other spiritual power.
I can understand you saying that Athists have Agnostic tendencies but to say that they ARE agnostic is were you put me off. Thats why I made the comperrason with christians being jews.

Ah, you don't know what Atheism or Agnosticism are...
Atheism: The lack of belief in a deity or deities.
Agnosticism: The position that something cannot be or is not known.

[Aldheim]

Probably not.

[Soldati Senza Confini]

That makes no sense.

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

I definitely should make sense. A claimed perfect being such as God must, by default, be perfectly capable of falling within the boundaries of reason.

[Abritus]

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

Please, explain.

His ways, wisdom and understanding are beyond mine too i cannot explain that and not everything should make sense to us to control and exploit because the world should not be taken for granted and also people today often think that rejecting a belief such as the one in God is a symptom of higher wisdom but im afraid that people are only fooling themselves and that they are 'TeH Smartsaz edgyest hipster atheist person thingu" or some other form of retardation and shander the Lord only to appear as semi-intellegent quasi-mofos on TV or Facebook or some other Teh super sacial wabsait.

[Hydronium]

The only evidence I need is the fact that I'm sitting here talking about Christianity.

And I sit here and talk to Jews, who have been even more persecuted, and don't believe that Jesus was the messiah.

And their religion was persecuted BY your religion - so their religion must be even truer than yours.

In reality, Christianity is just Judaism with Jesus. In fact, there are some three hundred Old Testament prophesies that point to Jesus. For example, in Zechariah 11:12-13 , it says:

And I said to them, “If you like, give me my wages, whatever I am worth; but only if you want to.” So they counted out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.

Now, The prophesy is fulfilled in Matthew 26:15:

and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver.

The Jews have a special place, as God's original people. (BTW: Christians don't persecute unless someone has gone in and changed something. The Crusades were an abomination of christian teaching, and Christianity barely spread.) The Bible prophesies that the Jews would be persecuted for the sins that the kingdoms of Samarian Israel and ancient Judah. Then, Israel would be restored. And Israel was restored. In reality, the few Jews that are left rarely rely solely on the Old Testament. Plus, Christianity went through more persecution than the Jews could ever dream of, and yet, Christianity is one of the world's largest religions.

[Tsuntion]

All or at least most of this is written in the Bible/Gospel. However, Bible/Gospel is written by humans and humans do make errors. What is there to say that this humans have faked that god existed?

The only evidence I need is the fact that I'm sitting here talking about Christianity. You see, soon after Jesus acceded, and when the early church was forming, the Romans appointed this guy named Nero to office. Now, Nero didn't like Christians. In fact, he hated them so much that he threw them unarmed into the Colosseum with wild animals just to watch them get torn apart, and covered other Christians in tar and used than to light his gardens. (For comparison, Mohammed had a huge army that followed him loyally, and kill anyone that didn't convert to Islam). If Christianity was just a lie, most people would have walked away, since the persecution. Plus, that was just the first of many oppressive leaders that killed Christians for sport. But here I am, talking to you about this while there are people in places like Saudi Arabia, where the mere mention of the name Jesus would most likely get you killed. So, I come to the conclusion that Jesus is real, since Christianity was able to survive such persecution.

Lots and lots of people have been persecuted for a wide variety of religious beliefs. Martyrdom is a core part of Sikhism. That doesn't mean that those beliefs are true.

People can believe a lie. They can imagine a god. They can die for something which is not real whilst believing it to be the truth -- and this unreality can survive after them, perpetuated by other people who accept it as real when it's not. It's sad, but it's true.

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

Yes. I believed in him for years. I was a Christian, having gotten saved at 10, and loved it. I enjoyed church, I prayed often, I wanted to read the Bible.... I asked that question and believed I heard a "yes".

I woke up early this year.

[Dyakovo]

Has anyone bothered to ask Him if He exists?

I have. Unsurprisingly, none of the fictional characters answered me.

[Shaggai]

The only evidence I need is the fact that I'm sitting here talking about Christianity. You see, soon after Jesus acceded, and when the early church was forming, the Romans appointed this guy named Nero to office. Now, Nero didn't like Christians. In fact, he hated them so much that he threw them unarmed into the Colosseum with wild animals just to watch them get torn apart, and covered other Christians in tar and used than to light his gardens. (For comparison, Mohammed had a huge army that followed him loyally, and kill anyone that didn't convert to Islam). If Christianity was just a lie, most people would have walked away, since the persecution. Plus, that was just the first of many oppressive leaders that killed Christians for sport. But here I am, talking to you about this while there are people in places like Saudi Arabia, where the mere mention of the name Jesus would most likely get you killed. So, I come to the conclusion that Jesus is real, since Christianity was able to survive such persecution.

That logic is highly flawed.

1) Persecution does not make one suddenly stop having a beleif. It was inherrantly easier to be a Communist supporter in the USSR than it was to be a Tsarist. People have beleifs which are often highly flawed which they are willing to die and suffer for, especially when it is so intrinsicly tied to their identity.
In a similar fashion, the implication is that everybody would have walked away from mohammad during the early days of Islam for the persecution they received when they were kicked out of Mecca, or that Islam would cease to exist in spain because of the persecution following the end of Al-Andalus. Its simply a wrong hypothesis.

2) Survivabilaty does not = truth. Zoroastrians have gone through far more persecution than Christians have over the millenia. Furthermore Hindu`s have been horribly opressed by Christian powers and at war with Islamic ones for centuries. Zoroastrianism, Hinduism and Christianity all negate eachother, and yet all have equal validity by your standard for truth.

Also, Islam wasn't a "convert or die" sort of thing. It was more "hey, we rule you now. You can keep your religion, but you'll need to pay a tax." It also believed that all believers were equal, which of course was pretty appealing to lower class people.

[Dyakovo]

Why?

Because he does he's God and he doesn't change.

So no verifiable evidence?

[Dyakovo]

That makes no sense.

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

Your magical sky faerie is on drugs?

[Abritus]

It shoudn't make sense to you for his ways are higher to yours.

I definitely should make sense. A claimed perfect being such as God must, by default, be perfectly capable of falling within the boundaries of reason.

Not your reason, his ways are higher than yours and every culture has a different perception of 'Reason'.