its not my own personal religion, my 'reigion' is reinforced/guided/explained,, in the bible,,,,

Im all in favor of people gathering in acknowledgement/study of the truth,,,,and not having to go it alone if there are others who are in agreement

Agreed



I don't attribute such human failings to the creative force such as sex and anger or ruthless justice. The law of cause and effect is dispassionate causal justice and there is no anger in that at all.



Yes they are. I will exclude anger, sex and ruthless justice from the creative intelligence I see as "God."

Yours is your own personal version of Christianity. You just won't admit it. Most people have their own personal belief system which is a good thing. That means that they think for themselves and they are not totally brainwashed. I don't know why you are ashamed to admit that you think for yourself and have your own personal religion or version of Christianity. It just means you have a brain and can think for yourself.

lol

'shame' is not a part of it


of course I think for myself, Im not required to follow 'blindly' anywhere in the bible,,,thats a man made theory to make christians look like idiots

even the bible is 66 books with more than one perspective, and even though there are several perspectives, they strongly align with one another,,,

I am a unique individual, so of course I will have my own UNIQUE perspective , but that doesnt make me any more or less of a Christian than any other Christian,, so Im not 'ashamed' to continue gathering with them, relating to them, identifying as one of them, or studying with them.

Well then since you claim to believe in God but you will not claim Jehovah as that god I am going to have to view you as a heretic who denies Jehovah. Its off to the dungeons or a beheading for you.

Jehovah is a jealous God, that is probably why he let them (the Jews) murder Jesus.

At least the Jews still worship him. (I think) They don't worship Jesus though.

I do not speak the language of the Hebrews, I do not feel a requirement to use the names they may have used


Jehovah isnt in the bible, although YHWH is,,,,which is a translation of 'to be'

which God also refers to himself as 'I AM'


He also states that he is 'The Lord Thy God'

nowhere in the bible does God compel me to use a name besides God,,,,neither will man,,,


GOD suffices for me,,, my Heavenly Father, by any name, is still my Heavenly Father,,,

I don't know what Bible you are reading but I have seen Jehovah all over it.

If YHWH or Yahweh translates as "to be" which literally means to exist, then the definition of God is existence itself which means that we are all God.

Also we all say "I am."

As for your claim that "He states "I am the Lord thy God" I don't buy into that. Who heard him state that?

its the beginning of the ten commandments,,,

So nobody actually heard God say that.

as many as heard him say his name is 'yahweh', or 'jehovah' (possibly more, since its documented that he gave the ten commandments and that he spoke to moses)

ie,, noone in the present,, obviously,,,so its quite irrelevant

the question is about what I refer to him as and why I dont choose some other name,,,,,,

barring having heard a formal name from him personally, I call on him in the manner that works for me, the manner which I have come to learn from studying the bible

my father, in heaven,, or the lord my God,,,,

Im doubting He would be caught up in the pettiness of the translations as long as my heart is reaching out to HIM,,,,

"the difficulty is in defining what would be 'proof' to an atheist outside of God hiself speaking to them which they may still dismiss as a result of something else,,,, "

Actually I'm fairly sure if "god" was all the religious people believe him to be, that god talking to me directly wouldn't simply occur to me as "a result of something else" it would be an extremely spiritual experience that no one in their right mind could deny.

Sad to say, it's completely impossible to prove the non-existence of something like "god" because what the entire existence of "god" boils down to is a thought in people's minds. It is comparable to love because it is nothing more than a thought or way of thinking. So the only way that I could possibly prove to you that he does not exist is to alter the way you think and clearly that will never happen as you refuse to listen to logic and truth. So I can define perfectly what would be proof to you, but the definition is of non-existence as you have a mind that refuses to bend to see that truth. But I've been saying it since I was a kid, if the all powerful god wants to prove himself to me, DO IT ALREADY.

Oh also I've noticed that you seem to base your belief in "him" on all the beauty and structure and whatever that you see in this world, but what of all the chaos and destruction, the heinous acts and horrible deeds. It seems you hold a very convenient double standard, if something good happens it's god, if something bad happens it's our fault.

Lazarus102

Proof of God is in the Mirror.

Yahweh translates as "to be" and "to be" means to exist.

Therefore God is existence itself.

You exist.

That is proof of God.

to quote a beloved family member

"I cant reveal God to you, I can only share how He reveals himself to me'


Im quite logical and open to truth, no amount of condesention masked as self proclaimed superiority proves otherwise,,,

belief in or against God has no LOGIC behind it except the logic drawn drawn for all of us on our UNIQUE life experience,,,

and I Also notice that similarly, non believers tend to blame God for all the atrocity and not have much gratitude towards him for all the blessings and beauty,,,

So true.

Some atheists think they are so superior, and then again so do some believers.

Actually I hold no double standard, I know that when it comes right down to it, all the good and the bad that happens to us is our doing alone. The topic of this thread is to simply point out the conflict in the way religious people think. God did all of the good things in life, man did all of the bad. Much too convenient of a double standard. If god did all of the good things then you must also hold him accountable for the bad things. But from the same branch of reasoning, if god has no control over us and we do all of the good and the bad, then your entire supposed reason for believing in his existence goes out the window because all of the beauty and structure you see in this world is the work of man, not god and science can explain the rest.

And if you really think I'm being so condescending, then think about what you would think of me if I told you a pink flesh-eating bunny rabbit lives in my closet and whispers secrets to me in my sleep. I read it in a book, I feel that it's true and therefore it must be! Perhaps you'd just brush it off and say "well, that's his belief, who am I to judge?" well, what if I built a whole religion around it and started preaching it to you in person "have you heard of the pink flesh eating bunny rabbit, let me tell you about it, he talks to me!" and what if the pope of my new religion started coming to your bible studies and policing what you can or can't do(just like the actual pope interferes with medical science). Ya getting irritated yet? Well that's how I feel about religion.

something we agree on

if dozens of books were written about your bunny rabbit, and billions of people over thousands of years reinforced that same entitys existence

I probably would consider it,, just on one persons word and one book though,, probably not


and as far as God having control, that is a different issue, I can lay out flour, sugar, milk, and eggs in front of you,, but if you bake a wonderful cake or burn it,, is YOUR control

I may CHOOSE to intervene to assist you at some point or I may sit back and let you learn on your own

none of those things are inconsistent

God creates life, and nature, and then leaves the rest to us to proceeed with,,, there is nothing illogical in that,,,

He allows the circumstances which create both the good and evil that we experience, but the details are up to us as is the result,,,

Isn't it enough "proof" God does exist simply because of those in "opposition" to the possibility?

No.

The only reason there is opposition to the possibility is because there are so many people insisting that there is a God.... and they can't agree on what his name is or what he wants or anything at all.

I don't hate god because i don't accept he exist.I just don't see why people worship a mythological being or beings.
If someone ask me a hypothetical question like "Ok rob what would you consider god to be?" i would say minus the psychological part i would say god isn't a being god is energy and matter.This is weak because calling energy and matter god is lame but it's more like if a gun was pointed to my head answer.