So I did the math.....

[shrewsbury]

say you are right, does that take away from His teachings?
If you just look at the words we have of His, you can live and learn a lifetime free of hate, jealousy, a simple life that does not get intertwined with dogma, desire of riches, and you can be a great person. you are not required to go to church, eat a certain diet, marry only certain people, or be against anyone. you won't be branded, forced into a secret club, or have to think your right and everyone else is wrong.
perhaps you can find those things elsewhere, but religion and God are the most personal thing there is, make sure whatever you believe or don't believe is because of you and your understanding, not someone else.

[duane1969]

I like this post and I have no problem getting bashed. I am here to learn something new. First off I am no one special I am am very aware of that. Of the seven billion people on Earth about 6 billion of them should be ahead of me. Secondly, God can be all places at once. For God Time is non linear. It wouldn't be talking with me for 5 minutes then on to the next person and so on and so forth. I said in a previous post it would be selfish of me and an absolutely ridiculous request if he didn't have unlimited powers. God could talk to all seven billion people on this planet at the exact same time (unless you think that God's powers are limited, but that's a whole different topic). If you truly believe what you typed then why pray? How could God possibly hear prayers from billions of people every single day for thousands of years and why pray if you don't truly believe God is listening? If he can hear your prayers why not respond verbally?

To answer your question my answer is unfortunately no, God doesn't owe me anything or anybody alive anything. But I can't truly believe without something to grab on to. If God truly loves us all, why not show it? In my experiences people only believe in God because of the reward of Heaven and the fear of Hell and Death. There has to be a reward or a serious consequence for people to take it seriously? If it wasn't for Heaven and Hell nobody would take any religion seriously.




There are several people that I know who are religious that are very smart and also not smart at all. Same goes with people I know that are Atheist's. My comment to Shrewbury was a response to him saying that the answer is not given to you and what I meant to say was that some people that have strong faith do so because they are raised that way, not because they go out and seek the answers they desire and some people of faith do have the answers given to them and they choose to accept them as truth. Sorry for the confusion.

It wasn't intended as a bash. More of a joke.

My .02 is simple. Expecting God to prove himself/his existence to you is contradictory to the teachings of Christianity. The religion (as most are) is based on faith, not proof. If a deity proves he is real then your worship is not faith-based, it is proof-based. If you need proof to believe then you have failed the first test of organized religion.

[Wickabee]

It wasn't intended as a bash. More of a joke.

My .02 is simple. Expecting God to prove himself/his existence to you is contradictory to the teachings of Christianity. The religion (as most are) is based on faith, not proof. If a deity proves he is real then your worship is not faith-based, it is proof-based. If you need proof to believe then you have failed the first test of organized religion.

Proof based faith steals free will.

[Kosmo kards]

say you are right, does that take away from His teachings?
If you just look at the words we have of His, you can live and learn a lifetime free of hate, jealousy, a simple life that does not get intertwined with dogma, desire of riches, and you can be a great person. you are not required to go to church, eat a certain diet, marry only certain people, or be against anyone. you won't be branded, forced into a secret club, or have to think your right and everyone else is wrong.
perhaps you can find those things elsewhere, but religion and God are the most personal thing there is, make sure whatever you believe or don't believe is because of you and your understanding, not someone else.

The teachings of Jesus are amazing, but did anybody listen? 2000 years later and its money and material things that reign supreme. It was the biggest problem then and its the biggest problem now. Just look at the United States. Its nothing but a big blob of consumerism and shopping mall upon shopping mall. Who truly does God's work? The percentage is miniscule and its so unfortunate. Jesus only did things for others yet we only do things for ourselves. Who donates 100% of every paycheck they make. i don't. No people use their money for frivolous thinks like movies, video games, sports cards, guns, cellphone bill, cable and internet bill. The list goes on and on. And people who do donate only do so to make themselves feel better. I use to donate all the time, but then I stopped because I finally realized that I was only doing it to make myself feel better. A very difficult thing to admit because who wants to admit that? But it was true. I still donate on occasion, but not that much.

Also people only use religion for their own personal gain. People only pray for things they want and they only pray when they need something. Very few people pray when everything in their life is perfect. it's funny because when I was very religious I would only pray for others thinking that God would reward me for being so good and thoughtless (like he wouldn't have known the truth LOL). The sad truth is Christianity breeds laziness. To enter the kingdom of Heaven, all you gotta do is believe. There is no work involved. You don't have to work hard for it, be good and do good deeds to others and people like that. Its just given to you.

[mrveggieman]

Per the bible you are only required to donate 10% or your income but sadly most people don't even do that.

[Kosmo kards]

Per the bible you are only required to donate 10% or your income but sadly most people don't even do that.

10% is not a lot to give back. That's about what I donate now. I'll be honest though, I use to donate way more. Most people use that money for things they don't need.

[Kosmo kards]

Also I forget to mention that I personally have never understood being envious of others. It doesn't make me feel any better and quite frankly its always felt like a big waste of time to me. People forget that when it comes to wanting something, they are excited once they first get it and then after awhile they no longer want it. It just the thrill of buying something new and I am great with money because I understand that concept. I always make sure when I buy something that it is something I will still want 5 years from now. That's a big reason I collect sports cards (well one player), I can always re-sell them and my loss will be minimal.

[Wickabee]

Per the bible you are only required to donate 10% or your income but sadly most people don't even do that.

What scripture says that?

[Kosmo kards]

It wasn't intended as a bash. More of a joke.

My .02 is simple. Expecting God to prove himself/his existence to you is contradictory to the teachings of Christianity. The religion (as most are) is based on faith, not proof. If a deity proves he is real then your worship is not faith-based, it is proof-based. If you need proof to believe then you have failed the first test of organized religion.

A lot of people thought what you said. Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? Mr. Big shot over here thinks God should give him a house visit. You are a conservative and you question everything the Government does and you should . The Government shouldn't be allowed to do whatever the hell it feels like doing just because its the Government. My problem comes from as humans we question everything and to make decisions we require proof and to make decisions without proof is ignorance, but religion is the one topic that we are not allowed any sort of proof of any kind and its the one topic no one is allowed to question. It confuses me. Also I have a tough time understanding that if I don't take a blind leap of faith, I am not worthy and I deserve to burn in hell. I have a very difficult time with that.

[mrveggieman]

What scripture says that?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_verse...say_10_percent