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Posted on 1/18/15 at 12:31 pm to Vols&Shaft83
I just ate lunch and now I'm nauseous. Thanks.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 12:36 pm to CatFan81
quote:
just ate lunch and now I'm nauseous. Thanks.
Looked at your geoduck, eh?
Posted on 1/18/15 at 12:45 pm to Henry Jones Jr
quote:
One way to look at it IMO is that the universe has a beginning. How did it all start? It couldn't have all just appeared out of thin air. There had to be a source for it's beginning. Someone had to create the process that led to the big bang. It couldn't have just happened on it's own. The laws of gravity and physics that the universe has couldn't have just been a complete accident IMO. Everywhere you look in the universe, especially on Earth, just makes it hard to believe it was all one big "oops" to me.
You've laid out well the conundrum of creation. It invites, of course, the question: Who created the creator? Like the "endless mirror effect" the answer alludes to infinity.
Infinity is anathema to physics. Many a theory has met its end when the math led to infinity as the answer.
I think it's better to step out of the human box and think of existence without beginning or end. I say human box because the nature of our existence, or at least our perception of it, causes us to conclude that everything begins and ends. It's a false conclusion.
For example, we say that life begins at birth and ends at death. That isn't the case. Life "began" when chemical evolution on earth reached a level of complexity that it became self-sustaining. The "tree of life," of which you and I are parts, has been ongoing for about 3.8 billion orbits of the sun by earth. So you can say, quite truthfully, that you are about 3.8 billion years old.
Death? No such thing, considering this train of thought. The molecules and atoms used in a living creature are recycled over and over when its level of chemical complexity is no longer sustainable.
Another example: We say that a day has a beginning and an end. That a year begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st. Step out of the box, though, and look at earth from space and we just see sunlight bathing part of the planet with the rest being in shadow. It's a continuously changing movement as the earth rotates. There are no demarcations for time periods. When we watch the earth orbit the sun, again it's a continuous movement with no indications of time markers.
It is we who construct beginnings and endings. They're artificial. Nature doesn't observe them.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 1:09 pm to CrimsonChin
While I have been raised in a Christian home, it was basically implied that I make my own opinions and beliefs.
I'm only 20.
I've witnessed/read/heard a multitude of opinions arguments.
I've been through a # of tragedies, and I've witnessed others go through them.
My conclusion is this:
God is real, and He loves us more than our minds can comprehend. One of the greatest mistakes you can make in the journey to God is to try to place Him in your mind. Your world. Your rules. We're talking about a God unbound by time and space. He has unlimited power, and He knows all. Limiting Him to what conclusions we made ahead of time as humans in a physical world is foolish.
But as was already stated in this thread. It's all about faith. No one can be forced to believe. A person can make a convincing argument, but faith is the crux of the matter.
I'm only 20.
I've witnessed/read/heard a multitude of opinions arguments.
I've been through a # of tragedies, and I've witnessed others go through them.
My conclusion is this:
God is real, and He loves us more than our minds can comprehend. One of the greatest mistakes you can make in the journey to God is to try to place Him in your mind. Your world. Your rules. We're talking about a God unbound by time and space. He has unlimited power, and He knows all. Limiting Him to what conclusions we made ahead of time as humans in a physical world is foolish.
But as was already stated in this thread. It's all about faith. No one can be forced to believe. A person can make a convincing argument, but faith is the crux of the matter.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 1:19 pm to Kodar
The creator gave us the ability to understand things that no other living thing on Earth could ever hope to understand. He gave us science as he created us in his image. But, we are only an image ans can never have his understanding. We will continue to learn the mysteries that our brains have the potential to unravel. Science is awesome and God is more awesome for sharing it with his greatest creation. However, he let it be known long ago that there are mysteries of his creation that we will never come close to grasping.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 1:23 pm to Dick Leverage
That's convenient.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 1:37 pm to CrimsonChin
I look at it this way: the existence of God is so enormously irrational ... so thoroughly illogical ... that it must be true. So I believe.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 1:46 pm to cokebottleag
quote:
Its called faith, man. You have to do the legwork yourself.
Why should one just "have faith"?
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:11 pm to BluegrassBelle
quote:If you have no faith, what do you have?
Why should one just "have faith"?
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:12 pm to Kodar
What if God was one of us?
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:13 pm to Vols&Shaft83
quote:Idk how to take this since it's Shaft saying it
What if God was one of us?
I'll take a swing though I suppose. Actually, He was. Jesus, the Son of God who is a part of God, walked the earth as one of us.
This post was edited on 1/18/15 at 2:17 pm
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:14 pm to Kodar
Just a slob like one of us
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:15 pm to Vols&Shaft83
Love that song. Long time ago. God is a fat eoman named Bertha.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:25 pm to Kodar
An absence of a belief in God. I know a lot of people who function ok without that.
But like I asked, why just have faith? It's kind of a frustrating response for those who have maybe lost their faith.
But like I asked, why just have faith? It's kind of a frustrating response for those who have maybe lost their faith.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:26 pm to BluegrassBelle
My beliefs changed when I had kids.
Count me in as a believer now.
Still distrust organized religion but I absolutely believe.
Count me in as a believer now.
Still distrust organized religion but I absolutely believe.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:31 pm to Henry Jones Jr
quote:
One way to look at it IMO is that the universe has a beginning. How did it all start? It couldn't have all just appeared out of thin air. There had to be a source for it's beginning. Someone had to create the process that led to the big bang. It couldn't have just happened on it's own. The laws of gravity and physics that the universe has couldn't have just been a complete accident IMO. Everywhere you look in the universe, especially on Earth, just makes it hard to believe it was all one big "oops" to me.
This. Stephen Hawkings is a brilliant man. Maybe the most brilliant man of our time. But I can't understand how he can just come to the conclusion that everything came from a 'singularity' as he calls it and stop there. Well, where did this 'singularity' come from?
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:38 pm to BluegrassBelle
quote:That's an answer that varies. For me, I want to have a relationship with the God of all creation. I want to know the Author of Love. I want to know the One who shed his blood for me. I want to know the One who died so I could live. I do know Him, and I know He won't abandon me. Why do I know this? He promised, and God has never broken a promise. For me to have that relationship, I've got to believe and have faith.
But like I asked, why just have faith? It's kind of a frustrating response for those who have maybe lost their faith.
This post was edited on 1/18/15 at 2:41 pm
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:41 pm to BluegrassBelle
quote:
But like I asked, why just have faith? It's kind of a frustrating response for those who have maybe lost their faith.
For me it is how I made the change in my life from being a low life criminal and addict to a productive member of our society and a better person.
Posted on 1/18/15 at 2:57 pm to CNB
quote:Christianity is the only religion that recognizes sin as "the" problem, and it is the only religion that offers a solution to that problem.
What makes Christianity the "correct" one?
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