Does God Exist?

[keep-smiling]

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I've never understood why it's important that others believe what you believe. Faith is a personal thing, not collective.

That's fine.

As long as you don't try and make it a requirement that others support your faith to be equal members in your society.

Or use your faith as a justification to indulge in illegal or immoral behaviour.

Worry about yourself not imposing your will on others as you admonish me about not imposing my will on others as you attempt to impose your will upon me while I wasn’t imposing my will upon others.

Fair enough?

Good one, Ding.

Are you stalking me?

 

[harmonica]

The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.

Soon enough, you'll stand before Him, to be judged with what you've done with your life. You'll have the chance to tell Him, to His face, that He doesn't exist. I wonder if He'll find it amusing.

your post is more amusing

 

[harmonica]

The better question is: What benefit is in a belief in God?

The benefit is believing in Jesus as our Savior means you're not an atheist. That means you'll receive not only short-term happiness, but long-term joy. Otherwise, you end up as an unhappy negative person like our OP.

..there it is again--the theists thinking ''atheists'' are unhappy..hahahahahahhaha
....this is more proof of your bullshit

 

[Mindful]

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I've never understood why it's important that others believe what you believe. Faith is a personal thing, not collective.

That's fine.

As long as you don't try and make it a requirement that others support your faith to be equal members in your society.

Or use your faith as a justification to indulge in illegal or immoral behaviour.

Worry about yourself not imposing your will on others as you admonish me about not imposing my will on others as you attempt to impose your will upon me while I wasn’t imposing my will upon others.

Fair enough?

Good one, Ding.

Are you stalking me?

You stupid conceited prat. I don’t want to be anywhere near you.

 

[harmonica]

The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.

Wrong answer. Atheist are usually wrong.

Chick.com: This Was Your Life

Everything you have said or done will be played back at judgment. Will your name be in the Book of Life?

chick.com

Anyway, you can take it up with Jesus on Judgement Day.

....is that the Judgement Day you people have been predicting for THOUSANDS of years?

 

[ding]

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I've never understood why it's important that others believe what you believe. Faith is a personal thing, not collective.

That's fine.

As long as you don't try and make it a requirement that others support your faith to be equal members in your society.

Or use your faith as a justification to indulge in illegal or immoral behaviour.

Worry about yourself not imposing your will on others as you admonish me about not imposing my will on others as you attempt to impose your will upon me while I wasn’t imposing my will upon others.

Fair enough?

"i" or do you call it "j"?

Not sure what you are asking or trying to get at. You are free to call it anything you want.

 

[harmonica]

The better question is: What benefit is in a belief in God?

The benefit is believing in Jesus as our Savior means you're not an atheist. That means you'll receive not only short-term happiness, but long-term joy. Otherwise, you end up as an unhappy negative person like our OP.

..the only one unhappy is god because of your LIES
......you remind me of Reverend Willie Williams in the movie O GOD ...you are a SNAKE in disguise as a religious person

god is UNHAPPY

 

[harmonica]

The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.

Wrong answer. Atheist are usually wrong.

Chick.com: This Was Your Life

Everything you have said or done will be played back at judgment. Will your name be in the Book of Life?

chick.com

Anyway, you can take it up with Jesus on Judgement Day.

....is that the Judgement Day you people have been predicting for THOUSANDS of years?

Every day, every moment is judgement day for the person who reflects and is trying to become the best version of himself.

Judging others isn’t very helpful or useful to anyone.

I got that from scripture too, @alang.

ok Rev ''Slick'' Willie

 

[ding]

The better question is: What benefit is in a belief in God?

The benefit is believing in Jesus as our Savior means you're not an atheist. That means you'll receive not only short-term happiness, but long-term joy. Otherwise, you end up as an unhappy negative person like our OP.

..the only one unhappy is god because of your LIES
......you remind me of Reverend Willie Williams in the movie O GOD ...you are a SNAKE in disguise as a religious person

god is UNHAPPY

Judging others isn’t very helpful or useful to anyone.

I got from scriptures too, alang1216 and BreezeWood.

 

[gtopa1]

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I've never understood why it's important that others believe what you believe. Faith is a personal thing, not collective.

That's fine.

As long as you don't try and make it a requirement that others support your faith to be equal members in your society.

Or use your faith as a justification to indulge in illegal or immoral behaviour.

Worry about yourself not imposing your will on others as you admonish me about not imposing my will on others as you attempt to impose your will upon me while I wasn’t imposing my will upon others.

Fair enough?

Good one, Ding.

Are you stalking me?

Nah; LVat's doing that.

Greg

 

[Mindful]

Try to get your head around this:

God exists because He is a necessary being. In other words, He must exist because it is His nature to exist. Otherwise, He is not God. The Christian God is, by definition, eternal and immutable. This means He is without end and does not change. If He came into existence, then He would not be eternal nor immutable. So, God exists because He exists. It is like saying that He exists because that is what He does as God.

This might sound philosophically strange. But it really isn't. God either exists or He does not exist. If He does not exist, then nothing else can exist because He is the creator of the physical realm. He is the First Cause by which all things came into existence. There must be a First Cause.

Why does God exist? | CARM.org

 

[gtopa1]

Everyone has a different opinion on this.

I've never understood why it's important that others believe what you believe. Faith is a personal thing, not collective.

That's fine.

As long as you don't try and make it a requirement that others support your faith to be equal members in your society.

Or use your faith as a justification to indulge in illegal or immoral behaviour.

"Immoral" according to whom? What makes something "immoral?"

Greg

 

[gtopa1]

Try to get your head around this:

God exists because He is a necessary being. In other words, He must exist because it is His nature to exist. Otherwise, He is not God. The Christian God is, by definition, eternal and immutable. This means He is without end and does not change. If He came into existence, then He would not be eternal nor immutable. So, God exists because He exists. It is like saying that He exists because that is what He does as God.

This might sound philosophically strange. But it really isn't. God either exists or He does not exist. If He does not exist, then nothing else can exist because He is the creator of the physical realm. He is the First Cause by which all things came into existence. There must be a First Cause.

Why does God exist? | CARM.org

Interesting. I like how old Thomas puts it.

St. Thomas Aquinas: The Existence of God can be proved in five ways.

Argument Analysis of the Five Ways © 2016 Theodore Gracyk

The First Way: Argument from Motion Our senses prove that some things are in motion. Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion. Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion. Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another). Therefore nothing can move itself. Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else. The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God. The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world. Nothing exists prior to itself. Therefore nothing [in the world of things we perceive] is the efficient cause of itself. If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results (the effect). Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists. If the series of efficient causes extends ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no things existing now. That is plainly false (i.e., there are things existing now that came about through efficient causes). Therefore efficient causes do not extend ad infinitum into the past. Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of God. The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument) We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being i.e., contingent beings. Assume that every being is a contingent being. For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist. Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist. Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed. Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent beings into existence. Therefore, nothing would be in existence now. We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being. Therefore not every being is a contingent being. Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God. The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others. Predications of degree require reference to the “uttermost” case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest). The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus. Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God. The Fifth Way: Argument from Design We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance. Most natural things lack knowledge. But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God.

Aquinas: Five Ways to Prove that God exists -- The Arguments

Greg

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.

That depends on what is meant by ‘god,’ of course.

There is a ‘god’ as created by man, a religious concept.

But there is no ‘god’ as perceived by theists.

There is no extraterrestrial omnipotent deity that hears prayers, intercedes on the behalf of men, and issues edicts of religious dogma that must be obeyed lest transgressors suffer eternal damnation.

That ‘god’ does not exist.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

I consider this to be a meaningless question since it can never be definitively answered.

The better question is: What benefit is in a belief in God?

At it's best religion can acomplish miracles of human kindness and promote social cohesiveness better than any government. At it's worst you get inquisitions, child molestation and planes crashing into buildings.

It can be answered once there’s consensus as to what ‘god’ is.

 

[Indeependent]

The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.

Now we know you don’t exist.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

I guess I'm an agnostic, because like someone said above, who's to know for sure. One thing I am certain about is, I don't believe that a god that would create imperfect beings and then punish them eternally for being imperfect isn't worthy of worship.

In which case there is no ‘god’ as perceived by theists.

 

[Mindful]

In the early part of Book Two of the Guide of the Perplexed, Maimonides tries to prove that God exists. Historically, proofs of the existence of God have not played as important a role in Jewish philosophy as they have in Christian. From a Jewish perspective, it is as if a person who requires a proof to believe in God has missed the point of the religion. Still, there is no question that Judaism is committed to God’s existence, and Maimonides offers a number of arguments to show why this belief is compelling. The simplest of his arguments goes as follows.

The universe is not empty; we can at least be sure that the things we perceive with our senses exist. We can explain the existence of these things in one of three ways: (1) All things are eternal and exist necessarily, (2) Nothing is eternal and exists necessarily, (3) Some things are eternal and exist necessarily, some things not. According to Maimonides, the first explanation is obviously wrong: we see things come into existence at one moment, perish at another. The second case is also wrong. If nothing were permanent, it is conceivable that everything might perish and nothing take its place. Maimonides objects that the idea of an empty universe is absurd. So a necessary Being is needed to ensure that the universe does not become depleted.

 

[Mindful]

^ More on that:

God Exists, I'll Prove It To You | My Jewish Learning

Maimonides formulated his own proofs for the existence of God.

www.myjewishlearning.com

 

[gtopa1]

I consider this to be a meaningless question since it can never be definitively answered.

The better question is: What benefit is in a belief in God?

At it's best religion can acomplish miracles of human kindness and promote social cohesiveness better than any government. At it's worst you get inquisitions, child molestation and planes crashing into buildings.

It can be answered once there’s consensus as to what ‘god’ is.

It's only with consensus deniers that you can get progress.

Greg