God, are you out there?

applepie533 wrote:It's quite possibly one of the most frightening questions that you can ask a person of faith. Even as just a simple inquiry with no malicious intent or personal agenda involved. Just a question of possibility.

Is it POSSIBLE...that God doesn't exist?

This question doesn't frighten people of true faith, because we already know the answer.


Have we been deluded for the last few thousand years? Has all the bloodshed, all the wars, all the homophobia, all the cultish behavior pushed forward by certain fanatics...been based on a fairy tale? Has our POSITIVE beliefs, our love, our hope, our kindness to one another, our charity, our comforts and our connection...been the product of the belief in a supreme being that, as far as we know, was just made up by some talented writers centuries ago?

There is a pretty big population of Earth that truly believes that the Bible is the undeniable, authoritative word of God. To the point where they would not only DIE to defend it...but KILL to defend it. Some quote scripture on a daily basis, and it brings them comfort and joy to feel so loved. It's a faith that can't be broken. Not by any amount of argument. And they have every right to believe, I mean...there are soooo many unanswered questions out there. No one knows for sure. For all we know...the Bible might have gotten it right.

However...

Let's look at a few disturbing 'issues' with the Bible...

(If you want to keep your complete and unwaivering faith in the Good Book, you may not want to read this part.)

Haha, if this article was enough to convince me God isn't real, then my faith would be pretty pathetic.

While the stories and true symbolic beauty of the Bible is, undoubtedly, worth its weight in gold...that does not make it the truth. The morals and lessons told in the 'Three Little Pigs' or 'The Tortoise And The Hare' don't mean that those tales really happened either. It's been translated so many times that whatever the original story was, it's not the same story you're getting today. And it was writtn during a time where the ability to read and write was mostly practiced by teachers and monks. Not as common as it is today by a longshot. Which would mean that most of these stories were probably passed on from person to person through word of mouth, told and re-told, and then eventually written down. If there was a Jesus Christ...its highly unlikely that he looked like the mellowed out, neatly trimmed, California beauty that people wear in a locket around their neck. Go to that part of the world...nobody looks like that. And if they do, they're probably on vacation. His name wasn't even Jesus (I believe it was Yeshua, which got translated over time), and Christ refers to 'one who is annointed', it wasn't his last name. So if you've been praying to Jesus Christ all your life...chances are you've been dialing the wrong number. He didn't get the message...not that you'd be able to deliver it to him in Aramaic anyway. That doesn't mean he wasn't a real person...it just means that he may not be the person we imagined him to be.

Many of the stories in the Bible are parables (a story, often fictitious, that teaches a lesson). Some of them are clearly declared parables, while others you have to decide for yourself (for instance, Jonah and the whale, real story or parable?). This fact does not detract from the Bible's reality and that it is the word of God.

As for Jesus's appearance and name, I don't really see what point the author is making. It doesn't really matter what he looked like, and other cultures call Jesus different names too. Just because Jesus has multiple names doesn't mean he is nonexistent or won't hear us praying. God is omniscient, he knows when we are talking to Him.

Also, Biblical scholars, using the dates and events included in the Bible, have concluded that there was a gap of nearly 40 years between the Crucifixion...and the actual first gospels of the Bible itself. How accurate could those re-tellings be? If someone were to write a brand new story about the life of John F Kennedy, so long after his death, how close would that story be to the 'gospel truth' of who he was and what he did?

Now, this is an area of debate. Some believe that God guided the hands of those who wrote the Bible, and others believe that the Bible may not be exactly 100% accurate. After all, God allowed his word to be written by humans and we all know that humans make errors. God knows that.

Add to that the fact that there are MANY (and I mean MANY) stories that were written around that time in history, and some even centuries before the Bible was written that contain many of the exact same elements and stories and miracles that are told in the Bible. Virgin births of a savior, last suppers consisting of wine and bread, being betrayed for 30 pieces of silver, and resurrections three days after being crucified on a cross or on a tree, on top of a hill. All of these stories are about a prophet and teacher who's father was a God, who performed miracles, cast out demons, healed the sick, an ultimately ended up being killed by the very people they tried to save. It's also common for all of these stories to erase the adolescent years of their hero. It's birth, brief childhood, and then the return as an adult to fulfill their destiny.

The fact that there are similar stories just supports the argument that it really did happen!

If you were to read stories like Oedipus, Osiris, Horus, Baal, Hercules, Mithras, Dionysus, or Krishna....you might find that you're getting pretty much the same basic story with little variation. heck, you can get the whole 'Son of a God, virgin birth, destined to fulfill a great destiny' story out of "Clash of the Titans" if you wanted to. It doesn't mean you'd want to blow up an abortion clinic over it.

I don't see how these are similar at all, other than being the sons of a god. Most of these guys are either gods or war heroes in various mythologies...

If you were to write a vampire series of books...and you called it "Dusk"...and it had THAT many similarities to the "Twilight" series, even if you tweak the details a bit here and there...you would be sued (or maybe just laughed out of the bookstores). So why is this one story considered to be the truth? Why that one? Why not "Star Wars"? Luke Skywalker is a savior who took a journey and performed great acts of magic and sacrifice for the good of all mankind. Why not Neo from "The Matrix"? He was a savior who took a journey and performed great acts of magic and sacrifice for the good of all mankind. It seems silly now, but two thousand years from now, what will that civilization think of those stories and their credibility? Who knows, maybe they'll be worshipping John Lennon, or Michael Jackson, or 2Pac, for their sacrifices by the time the year 4011 rolls around. Maybe Sarah Palin will be made into a saint. It'll be a very different world by then, and the stories we have now aren't gonna be told in the same way.

First off, they didn't have movies or novels back then, or an entertainment industry for that matter. Since hardly anyone read, those who knew how to write didn't write stories for fun. They wrote down things that were important. I'm pretty sure any future civilisation will be able to tell that Star Wars was made for entertainment purposes.

So, if the Bible lacks the kind of concrete credibility that a huge percentage of Christians want (or maybe even 'need') it to have...and those scriptures are, by majority vote, our strongest connection to God...is it possible that it's all just made up? Is it possible that it's just another folk tale? A darn GOOD one, with a HUGE positive impact, I'm not denying that. But a folk tale nonetheless. And NOT just Christianity, but Jewish beliefs, Muslim beliefs, Buddhist beliefs as well. Scientologists believe in alien spirit possession...is that any less credible than the others? Did Buddah meditate under a tree for 40 years? Did Joseph Smith read the word of God off of gold plates with 'magic seer stones'? If just one of those stories is supposedly 'crazy', then they could ALL be considered crazy. Why not a deity with 8 arms and blue skin? Aren't we walking around telling the life story of 'Zombie Jesus and Friends'?

The scriptures are NOT our strongest connection to God. It is possible to have a PERSONAL relationship with Him, and that connection is stronger than anything you could possibly imagine. I have experienced a tiny fraction of God's love for me, and it is truly awesome! Think of how much your parents love you, then magnify that by a billion times. God loves each of us MORE than that! Our parents gave birth to us, but God created us! And He loves us! Sorry, getting a bit off topic there. On the matter of other religions such as Jews, Muslims, etc, most of them are based off of the same thing Christianity is based off of, and that is that God exists! Maybe God doesn't mind that people follow Him under different religions. Did anyone ever think of that? Believing in and having a personal relationship with God is more important than any religion.

What do you guys think? On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being total belief and faith that there is a God out there somewhere, and 10 being the 'athiest' approach) how farfetched is the concept of a divine being? Give it some thought. It just might be the biggest question of all.

I have given this much thought in the past, and my answer is 1, without a doubt.

(Just a note: I certainly don't want to offend our Christans here on the board. It's a question with 'two' answers. Yes or no. If you believe, please feel free to speak up and say you do. There's nothing wrong with it, I think it's awesome! So don't feel like anybody is jumping on an anti-religion bandwagon. K? Faith is a powerful thing, and it's something we should all keep close to our hearts, no matter what your beliefs are.)

Note: I did not write this. I give all the credit to the author Comicality ( The person who wrote this) and only posting this to find other's OPINIONS.

Archaon 5100 wrote:consider this then brainwashed masses

your god is the same as the muslim one why does he want you to kill each other

FlareonMaster wrote:Arch, no one will find that funny.

Demon Hunter wrote:Also, we're not brainwashed (at least I'm not). That's hard to understand unless you're actually a Christian. I never accepted what my parents taught me until I was older, I used to find it a waste of time. It was much more "fun" to be crude and do wrong things. It wasn't until I did some deep thinking in my rebellious state that I, as a sinful person, realized how much I needed God. It wasn't forced upon me by someone, though the saving wasn't any of my doing at the same time. I don't know some of the other people's views in this forums, but I believe the only thing you can do to become saved is submit to God to do the saving. God's standard is perfection, and that's nothing anyone can reach on their own. It's a good thing we don't have to work or buy our ways to heaven because none of us would make it.

Sorry for getting so preachy. I'm a fanatic but of a peace loving variety

Archaon 5100 wrote:

FlareonMaster wrote:Arch, no one will find that funny.

it's the truth otherwise we'd probably have another prophet like jesus and maybe then i might believe in mystical beardy space giant (i'll admit if god looks like that he's badass)

until then though you space giants in another castle

applepie533 wrote:Cj...my faith waas already pathetic before I'm afraid of dying and my arse will never get up to go to church...plus I'm probably going to heck if there is one...you already know why becuz I told you before but keep it a secret