Evidence

[PearlSeeker]

Ah, but you didn't ask sincerely. God knows when you aren't sincere.

How can you know if you are sincere enough, you ask?

If you are sincere God will answer.

Ah! So many insincere people!

 

[muhammad_isa]

If you are sincere God will answer.

Yes, but not necessarily how you expect him to..

The best invocation is "My Lord, please grant me so and so, as long as you deem it good for me .. grant me patience and wisdom"

..and not "Please Lord, give me a Mercedes Benz", and then turn away from God because He wouldn't give you one.

 

[Trailblazer]

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

God did not say that. The person who wrote the OT said that God said that.
There is a world of difference between one and the other.
Just more of the anthropomorphisms of God in the OT.
If you want to believe that that's your prerogative, just count me out.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

you say theology is drivel, as if people would study it for many years, like they would study what is written on public toilet walls

I used your word, drivel. What I mean more literally is not academic or scholarship, not knowledge, not related to reality. You are probably aware of the medieval scholastics, who did things like that regarding how many angels could dance on the head of a pin, and then Bishop Ussher with his calculating the age of the earth using biblical genealogies and creation myths.

such as the existence of God, you mean?

Yes. I wouldn't be interested in opinions based in a belief in God since I don't hold that belief. And that's what I mean by theology. I understand that the word can be used to include the topics I excluded, which are secular and fit for academia.

I'll bet that you would have little interest in your horoscope except as amusement assuming that you don't believe astrology's basic tenet that the position of the stars at birth determine personalities and life arcs. This is analogous. No horoscope is meaningful for that reason, and the study of casting them isn't academic and doesn't belong in a university.

 

[Trailblazer]

And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

It is incredible to me how many people actually believe that God said that, if they don't believe it why are they giving the post a Like or a Winner?

It is incredible that people seem to believe that the OT is the actual Word of God, incredible.
I am glad I know better than to believe that. Logically, it cannot be the Word of God since it was written by ordinary men, it was not even written by any Prophets! The claim is that they were inspired by the Holy Spirit, but why should anyone believe that claim? Anyone can say they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

 

[PearlSeeker]

Anyone can say they were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And anyone can say he/she is a Messenger.

 

[Subduction Zone]

Yes, but not necessarily how you expect him to..

The best invocation is "My Lord, please grant me so and so, as long as you deem it good for me .. grant me patience and wisdom"

..and not "Please Lord, give me a Mercedes Benz", and then turn away from God because He wouldn't give you one.

But my friends all drive Porsches.

 

[Subduction Zone]

And anyone can say he/she is a Messenger.

And many people have. Quite a few of them had a very serious following too. Some ended very badly. Some inspired rather large cults.

 

[Alien826]

I did not check out that statistic. Perhaps people have wised up a bit? Perhaps more and more people know how important the test drive is.

"We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout
We've been talking 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out".

The problem is that the test drive has to be long enough to allow the hormones to subside. And living together is different from dating.

And then we have to be prepared to get out when everything is telling us it was all a mistake, even though putting up with it for another day is easier than going through months of discomfort.

(This message is brought to you from my life experience.)

 

[dybmh]

Yes if you see prayer as tapping into some kind of unintelligent "power", like the Force. But prayer is generally considered to be a conversation with God, which has its own problems as I said a few minutes ago.

What I'm wondering is: does the communication happen on a QM scale?

 

[Subduction Zone]

What I'm wondering is: does the communication happen on a QM scale?

I do not think that there is any evidence for this. I have seen the people that can do QM here (I can't) put such ideas down.

 

[dybmh]

We need to differentiate "need" and "want".

We need things that are essential to something, like survival, or even fulfilling wants. If I want to have steak for dinner every day, I need to get a better paying job. If I want to continue living, I need to keep breathing.

I would say that God could have no needs (if he is considered to be totally self sufficient), but demonstrably wants things, otherwise why do anything?

(This assumes various beliefs in and definitions of God, not my own views.)

I agree. There's at least one or two details which need to be ironed out on my proposal in order for it to be valid. I appreciate the feedback from you and the others.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

Ah, but you didn't ask sincerely. God knows when you aren't sincere.

How can you know if you are sincere enough, you ask?

If you are sincere God will answer.

I don't know how much more sincere I could have been in praying and pleading with God to protect me from being beaten to an inch of my life by my abusive mother, from being bullied and punched by my older brother, or from being bullied and harassed at school. I even cried out to God about being scared for my life, but God never bothered to answer my prayers and save me from the hellhole that I lived in during my childhood and teenage years. I endured abuse, neglect, bullying, and harassment until the age of 18, when I confronted my older brother and fought back to defend myself. I told him that I would call the police and press charges against him if he ever touched me again. It was that violent confrontation that also caught the attention of my abusive mother, and she never laid a hand on me again either. I eventually quit praying after realizing that praying to God was essentially like praying to a brick wall and expecting the wall to answer my prayers. However, as an adult and devout Christian, I tried desperately to cope with the PTSD I had developed as a result of the severe trauma I experienced while growing up. But, once again, God seemed uninterested in helping me, and I gradually began to lose hope and my faith. It took me a few years to free myself from the Christian indoctrination I had received throughout my life, but I eventually did. My life has significantly improved since I abandoned my Christian faith, and I am experiencing emotional healing and better mental health. I now practice Wicca and spiritualism, and that's been a positive experience for me too.

 

[Alien826]

..this is a common misunderstanding.
The fact that Almighty God knows what will happen in our future, does not negate th fact that we have free-will.
It is just that it is our choices that help to form the future.

One can come up with a whole heap of paradoxes about time to confuse .. our perception of the future as "not happened yet" is a perception. It is one that forms part of reality.
It doesn't necessarily mean that our perception of time is the only one possible.

That's not what I was saying. My point was that God does not need "test" us as he already knows the answer. By 'test", I mean an action designed to gain knowledge. Like, sticking your finger in water is a test if you are trying to find out if it is hot.

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

"We got married in a fever, hotter than a pepper sprout
We've been talking 'bout Jackson, ever since the fire went out".

The problem is that the test drive has to be long enough to allow the hormones to subside. And living together is different from dating.

And then we have to be prepared to get out when everything is telling us it was all a mistake, even though putting up with it for another day is easier than going through months of discomfort.

(This message is brought to you from my life experience.)

I'm sorry to hear that you've had such a rough time in your life, and I sincerely hope that you're okay now.

 

[muhammad_isa]

That's not what I was saying. My point was that God does not need "test" us as he already knows the answer..

How?

 

[Sgt. Pepper]

And many people have. Quite a few of them had a very serious following too. Some ended very badly. Some inspired rather large cults.

Such as David Karesh convincing his cult followers that he was Jesus, or Jim Jones convincing his cult followers to commit suicide.

 

[Alien826]

Yes, but not necessarily how you expect him to..

The best invocation is "My Lord, please grant me so and so, as long as you deem it good for me .. grant me patience and wisdom"

..and not "Please Lord, give me a Mercedes Benz", and then turn away from God because He wouldn't give you one.

Agreed, but the example was more along the lines of "I want to know if you exist. Do you?" It's the basis of that person's future belief. What does a refusal to answer tell us? I would suggest 1) God doesn't exist or 2) God doesn't want to be known. Either one would likely cause the seeker to give up. Is that what God wants?

 

[Trailblazer]

Well, simple question: if "Almighty God" has no needs, what did he need to create a universe -- or us -- for?

God did not need to create anything, God desired to create everything, including humans.

God created us out of His love for us.

3: O SON OF MAN! Veiled in My immemorial being and in the ancient eternity of My essence, I knew My love for thee; therefore I created thee, have engraved on thee Mine image and revealed to thee My beauty.

The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 4

 

[Trailblazer]

So the Bible is not true about God talking to humans? Or God created the universe but is not able to create certain vibrations in the air?

No, I do not believe the Bible is true where it says that God 'talked' to humans. Only humans talk to humans.
I believe that God can put thoughts in our head and inspire us through the Holy Spirit, but that is not talking.
It is our soul that hears God, not our physical ears.