How Did You Decide?

[Minor Axis]

Can you honestly answer these questions:

1. How did you become aware of your God?
Childhood Indoc?

2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Ancient book?

3. How did you decide that God is perfect? An assumption that the vast knowledge required to create all things as we know it equates to perfection?

4. How did you decide God is omnipotent? If a being is really really powerful, do you have the perspective to judge the limits of it's power? Can power be so vast that it's possible God exists in a hierarchy of powerful beings of which we no nothing?

5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance? Is it because God created you, God's power to destroy you or thoroughly mess up your spiritual life?

6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship? That is what church says as they collect your donations?

6. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
You might as well ask, how did you decide that mutual respect is important in every relationship you have except the relationship you have with God that relegates you to a slave with no rights to a contrary opinion? It's God's way or the highway.

My answers:
1. I'm not sure of a divine being who calls himself God.
2. I was taught as a child from the Bible.
3. I have no idea if God is perfect. First I have to decide if God exists, what God is and wants.
4. I don't know if God deserves my allegiance.
5. I have no idea why a all powerful and wise God would expect his children to grovel at his feet.
6. There is no exception for God. If the relationship is not mutually beneficial and respectful it's not a relationship worth having.

 

[dkwrtw]

1. How did you become aware of your God?
I read much of the bible and attended church in the early years of my life and based off what I read and heard determined that God(at least as he is described in the bible) isn't real

2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Well as I said I don't follow a god but I learned of the Christian God's expectations and rules from the bible, church and Television

3. How did you decide that God is perfect?
I decided no such thing

4. How did you decide God is omnipotent?
It makes sense that if there is a god that he would be omnipotent, I mean he did create EVERYTHING and is ALL KNOWING, correct?

5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance?
I owe nothing to no one

6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship?
because I've been told my entire life that one will go to hell if they don't obey and worship

6. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
Again I have decided no such thing, there is nothing in life that is BEYOND questioning.

 

[StanJon]

what God is u talking about.. because its clear u dont have an understanding of who or what God is. i dont understand why u guys keep asking questions if u have no intention of getting to know the creator... I see it like this, why waste ur time and energy if you are not trying to get to know him? u should live ur life and hope that in the end there is no God that will judge us all.

 

[dkwrtw]

what God is u talking about.. because its clear u dont have an understanding of who or what God is. i dont understand why u guys keep asking questions if u have no intention of getting to know the creator... I see it like this, why waste ur time and energy if you are not trying to get to know him? u should live ur life and hope that in the end there is no God that will judge us all.

What language is u speaking bro?

 

[KLD1019]

what God is u talking about.. because its clear u dont have an understanding of who or what God is. i dont understand why u guys keep asking questions if u have no intention of getting to know the creator... I see it like this, why waste ur time and energy if you are not trying to get to know him? u should live ur life and hope that in the end there is no God that will judge us all.

by asking and not believing, it shows one has an opened mind and passes no judgement on people who believes differently and accepts and respects that people do believe differently!

 

[Tim]

what God is u talking about.. because its clear u dont have an understanding of who or what God is. i dont understand why u guys keep asking questions if u have no intention of getting to know the creator... I see it like this, why waste ur time and energy if you are not trying to get to know him? u should live ur life and hope that in the end there is no God that will judge us all.

How on earth would you expect me to get to know the creator when it's completely a one sided conversation?

How can you get to know someone when it's 100% one sided? Or do I keep going until I hear voices in my head?

If I believe it enough, my dog will carry on conversations with me. That doesn't make him the creator, it just makes me delusional.

And if you have a personal relationship with God, I would love to hear about some of the conversations you guys have had.

 

[anathelia]

You can't literally speak to God, just like you can't speak to dead relatives or anything of the sort. I think God answers all your prayers, just not always the way you want.

I don't believe that I don't have the right to question God. I've questioned God on numerous occasions. But I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. The reason isn't always necessarily clear at the time. I do think God can be a little cruel. I find it hard to believe that he is "perfect" and "just". Bad things happen to good people plenty. But, in the long run, I believe it's for a reason. Whether it be a lesson or to open the doors to something bigger and better.

 

[BornReady]

All seven questions have the same answer for me... because my parents told me that was the way it was. They said it, I believed it hook, line and sinker.

My parents lost credibility with me once I realized how weird they are. My dad would spank my mom with a belt if she didn't obey him. My dad would go without sleep until he had hallucinations. Once he went into a clinic and told the doctor while patting him on the head, "the Holy Spirit will strike you dead if you don't give me some sleeping pills right now." The cops took him to a mental hospital. They drugged him and after he got some sleep he was back to his normal weird self. So they let him out. :willy_nilly:

As an adult, having lost faith in my parents, I began to question what they taught me. I took an intelligent look at the issue and came up with a big zero. There probably is no god. I'm certainly not going to talk to the wall just in case God's listening.

 

[Alien Allen]

How on earth would you expect me to get to know the creator when it's completely a one sided conversation?

How can you get to know someone when it's 100% one sided? Or do I keep going until I hear voices in my head?

If I believe it enough, my dog will carry on conversations with me. That doesn't make him the creator, it just makes me delusional.

And if you have a personal relationship with God, I would love to hear about some of the conversations you guys have had.

:thumbup

One of the few times I agree with you

 

[KimmyCharmeleon]

I don't believe in a god so these questions don't really apply to me.

 

[TommyTooter]

Can you honestly answer these questions:

1. How did you become aware of your God?
Childhood Indoc?

2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Ancient book?

3. How did you decide that God is perfect? An assumption that the vast knowledge required to create all things as we know it equates to perfection?

4. How did you decide God is omnipotent? If a being is really really powerful, do you have the perspective to judge the limits of it's power? Can power be so vast that it's possible God exists in a hierarchy of powerful beings of which we no nothing?

5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance? Is it because God created you, God's power to destroy you or thoroughly mess up your spiritual life?

6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship? That is what church says as they collect your donations?

6. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
You might as well ask, how did you decide that mutual respect is important in every relationship you have except the relationship you have with God that relegates you to a slave with no rights to a contrary opinion? It's God's way or the highway.

My answers:
1. I'm not sure of a divine being who calls himself God.
2. I was taught as a child from the Bible.
3. I have no idea if God is perfect. First I have to decide if God exists, what God is and wants.
4. I don't know if God deserves my allegiance.
5. I have no idea why a all powerful and wise God would expect his children to grovel at his feet.
6. There is no exception for God. If the relationship is not mutually beneficial and respectful it's not a relationship worth having.

My answers:
1. when i became aware of myself i also became aware of the divine presence within and without me.

2. it informed me directly.

3. i don't know that to be true. to attempt to characterize an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient entity is beyond the scope of my understanding. on the other hand, the god of my fathers, the demigod known in the scripture as YHVH, may not be so universally perfect.

he seems to have quite a temper and mete out some very severe punishment. my ancestor abraham questioned him about sodom and gomorrah. i've been questioning him since i was a child about the carnage in my lifetime and he says, 'surround yourself with ten righteous people with a good song and dance and you're on board'. same deal he made with abraham and same threat he made to noah. gonna fly away or burn.

if i'm right, and YHVH turns out to be the same cat as ZEUS, ODIN and head god of the rest of those pantheons whose fragmented knowlege has survived church/state ravagements and there is a shred of reality to any of it, i'll bet he's just a thrill a minute when the whole gang is on planet with us mortals. just thank your lucky stars there's some higher order beyond what's discernible in our frame.

4. i didn't decide so much as accept that whatever was the principal creative cause for what i can see and feel with my senses in the universe around me had to be all that and much more than puny human minds could conjure up to call it. that infinite principle cause is fissioned into very complex heirarchical organizations so incredible i'm amazed i got that out and if anybody picks it up.

5. i don't see it that way either. i am it. it is me, it is you, we are all one. i see one ineffable one that is pure love on one side and pure hate on the other and everything else in between. it blesses us with the gift of deluded self awareness, most reasonably for its own entertainment. i choose to live life loving living and have faith that my eternal self won't have too heavy a penance to do at the next step.

6. at this point, i'm befuddled. it's probably just me and maybe it's because of what the spirits that are helping me compose this are saying to me right now. i feel the presence of universal love and know the look, sound and feeling of hatred. i live here as a little onelet in the cosmic omelet. all that other stuff is thousands of years old and isn't relating to how i feel time, space, matter and energy flow through and around me.

i trust the link that my heart and other spheres have to that infinite whatever you want to call that is what is, was and ever will be to guide me with lovingkindness in return for my only doing the best i can with noble intent to uphold the covenant the lord YHVH made with my ancestor moses.

what more can any of us do and can anybody present a rational argument for doing less?

this is what i've been listening to while typing this spew. hope it wasn't too long. :flowers:

http://www.swnkacangi.com/contents/message/message_eng.html

 

[Minor Axis]

what God is u talking about.. because its clear u dont have an understanding of who or what God is. i dont understand why u guys keep asking questions if u have no intention of getting to know the creator... I see it like this, why waste ur time and energy if you are not trying to get to know him? u should live ur life and hope that in the end there is no God that will judge us all.

Stan,
The questions I've asked are the foundation of religion, especially for Christians. Why would you assume that the disbelievers don't want to know God? To want to get to know and understand the creator, you first have to become aware of the creator. Don't hold it against the people who don't see your God.

You can't literally speak to God, just like you can't speak to dead relatives or anything of the sort. I think God answers all your prayers, just not always the way you want.

I don't believe that I don't have the right to question God. I've questioned God on numerous occasions. But I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. The reason isn't always necessarily clear at the time. I do think God can be a little cruel. I find it hard to believe that he is "perfect" and "just". Bad things happen to good people plenty. But, in the long run, I believe it's for a reason. Whether it be a lesson or to open the doors to something bigger and better.

I am in tune with these feelings if God is described as the great unknown force that may play an important part in our existence.

All seven questions have the same answer for me... because my parents told me that was the way it was. They said it, I believed it hook, line and sinker.

My parents lost credibility with me once I realized how weird they are. My dad would spank my mom with a belt if she didn't obey him. My dad would go without sleep until he had hallucinations. Once he went into a clinic and told the doctor while patting him on the head, "the Holy Spirit will strike you dead if you don't give me some sleeping pills right now." The cops took him to a mental hospital. They drugged him and after he got some sleep he was back to his normal weird self. So they let him out. :willy_nilly:

As an adult, having lost faith in my parents, I began to question what they taught me. I took an intelligent look at the issue and came up with a big zero. There probably is no god. I'm certainly not going to talk to the wall just in case God's listening.

This may have been your challenge in life, surviving your father. It sounds like you survived and I am happy for you. There could be a quote "God". You'll just have to wait and see if and when it makes an appearance in your life.

 

[Minor Axis]

I don't believe in a god so these questions don't really apply to me.

How about the possibility of an intelligent force we can't comprehend, something that may give meaning to our lives?

My answers:
1. when i became aware of myself i also became aware of the divine presence within and without me.

2. it informed me directly.

3. i don't know that to be true. to attempt to characterize an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient entity is beyond the scope of my understanding. on the other hand, the god of my fathers, the demigod known in the scripture as YHVH, may not be so universally perfect.

he seems to have quite a temper and mete out some very severe punishment. my ancestor abraham questioned him about sodom and gomorrah. i've been questioning him since i was a child about the carnage in my lifetime and he says, 'surround yourself with ten righteous people with a good song and dance and you're on board'. same deal he made with abraham and same threat he made to noah. gonna fly away or burn.

if i'm right, and YHVH turns out to be the same cat as ZEUS, ODIN and head god of the rest of those pantheons whose fragmented knowlege has survived church/state ravagements and there is a shred of reality to any of it, i'll bet he's just a thrill a minute when the whole gang is on planet with us mortals. just thank your lucky stars there's some higher order beyond what's discernible in our frame.

4. i didn't decide so much as accept that whatever was the principal creative cause for what i can see and feel with my senses in the universe around me had to be all that and much more than puny human minds could conjure up to call it. that infinite principle cause is fissioned into very complex heirarchical organizations so incredible i'm amazed i got that out and if anybody picks it up.

5. i don't see it that way either. i am it. it is me, it is you, we are all one. i see one ineffable one that is pure love on one side and pure hate on the other and everything else in between. it blesses us with the gift of deluded self awareness, most reasonably for its own entertainment. i choose to live life loving living and have faith that my eternal self won't have too heavy a penance to do at the next step.

6. at this point, i'm befuddled. it's probably just me and maybe it's because of what the spirits that are helping me compose this are saying to me right now. i feel the presence of universal love and know the look, sound and feeling of hatred. i live here as a little onelet in the cosmic omelet. all that other stuff is thousands of years old and isn't relating to how i feel time, space, matter and energy flow through and around me.

i trust the link that my heart and other spheres have to that infinite whatever you want to call that is what is, was and ever will be to guide me with lovingkindness in return for my only doing the best i can with noble intent to uphold the covenant the lord YHVH made with my ancestor moses.

what more can any of us do and can anybody present a rational argument for doing less?

this is what i've been listening to while typing this spew. hope it wasn't too long. :flowers:

http://www.swnkacangi.com/contents/message/message_eng.html

Great answer, thanks for sharing!

I sense something, I don't know what it is. I won't talk to God any more than I would talk to the poinsettia plant by the fireplace. If there is God, then I have gone as far as I can go, and it is going to have make the next move. It's possible that we all don't need to be coddled by God in this life. If there is a haze over our eyes, and it is important, at some point the creator will allow us to see. I try to be a good person, but I do this for me, not for what might be expected of me. I do hope for continued existence/continuation of consciousness on the spiritual plane after passing from this physical world, but that remains to be seen.

 

[BornReady]

This may have been your challenge in life, surviving your father. It sounds like you survived and I am happy for you. There could be a quote "God". You'll just have to wait and see if and when it makes an appearance in your life.

I'm open to the possibility of God. In fact, the idea is appealing. A God who rights wrongs and looks after us. But the appeal of the idea only makes me more skeptical. It's easy to believe in something you want to be true. But, in reality, I don't see a god who is looking out for mankind. I think we're on our own, scary as that may be.

 

[Minor Axis]

I'm open to the possibility of God. In fact, the idea is appealing. A God who rights wrongs and looks after us. But the appeal of the idea only makes me more skeptical. It's easy to believe in something you want to be true. But, in reality, I don't see a god who is looking out for mankind. I think we're on our own, scary as that may be.

Existence on Earth is what the human race makes it. This does not preclude being looked after on a spiritual level while on Earth or possibly after your physical passing. The premise that God rewards the good and punishes the bad, if that happens, is some other time and place, not on this Earth if the reward is based on a favorable existence. Any divine reward that is received during this life is self realized or a reward applied to your spirit. The problem as always is deciding if this reward is something you worked out on your own, was handed to you by a divine force or a combination of the two.

 

[edgray]

1. How did you become aware of your God?
I went to Sunday School as a child, sung in the choir at church too. It all sounded as preposterous to me then as it does now.

2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Again from Sunday School.

3. How did you decide that God is perfect?
When I realised we can imagine anything to be perfect. The human imagination is a wonderful thing.

4. How did you decide God is omnipotent?
I never came to that conclusion.

5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance?
I didn't. I figured, if He does in fact exist, he would be forgiving enough to understand my reasons for not believing in him. Otherwise, He's not particularly nice and why would I pledge allegiance to someone who isn't very nice?

6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship?
Ok well clearly religion is a little different in the UK. I was Church of England, even the men of the cloth don't believe in that kind of nonsense. God in their eyes, isn't demanding. He's compassionate, super-intelligent and way above petty human emotions and demands.

6. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
I didn't. I think that's a very, very stupid idea.

 

[Minor Axis]

1. How did you become aware of your God?
I went to Sunday School as a child, sung in the choir at church too. It all sounded as preposterous to me then as it does now.

2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Again from Sunday School.

3. How did you decide that God is perfect?
When I realised we can imagine anything to be perfect. The human imagination is a wonderful thing.

4. How did you decide God is omnipotent?
I never came to that conclusion.

5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance?
I didn't. I figured, if He does in fact exist, he would be forgiving enough to understand my reasons for not believing in him. Otherwise, He's not particularly nice and why would I pledge allegiance to someone who isn't very nice?

6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship?
Ok well clearly religion is a little different in the UK. I was Church of England, even the men of the cloth don't believe in that kind of nonsense. God in their eyes, isn't demanding. He's compassionate, super-intelligent and way above petty human emotions and demands.

6. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
I didn't. I think that's a very, very stupid idea.

I like all of these answers, not that I am anyone who matters. I just realized I screwed up my numbers! Anyway, regarding the first #6, I think I am getting this notion from evangelical churches. According to religious sources, God may not require worship, and maybe he/she/it thinks worship is unbecoming? I do know that obedience to God's wishes are a requirement as stated by the church.

In your opinion, what level of disobedience is required to burn in Hell for eternity? Or do you not place much credence on the concept of Hell?

 

[darkcgi]

1. How did you become aware of your God?
I choose to believe, period.
2. How did you become aware of your God's expectations and rules?
Bible, and others preaching. We all know the difference between good and evil, light and dark.
3. How did you decide that God is perfect?
Science proves it. (example infinite universe)(Love)
4. How did you decide God is omnipotent?
We know there is unlimited knowledge to explore to no end.
I was taught in elementary school we came from monkeys.
Bible says we didn't. Science later discovers we could not have possible come from monkeys.
5. How did you decide you owe God your allegiance?
Everything I know exists because God made it so.
He gave his son to us to die a horrible death, to give us a chance to save our soles.
Image taking your son to a place where you knew he was going to be murdered.
6. How did you decide that God demands obedience and especially worship?
You can go to church everyday and give all your money but it doesn't make you
a great man in God's eyes.
Its what you believe in and how you treat everything that he has created with respect
7. How did you decide you don't have the right to question God?
I have questioned God and he has answered
If anyone thinks God doesn't answer is because they either get an answer they don't want or they are just plain not listening


and one final note
people misconceive what All this means
because man has twisted the mind of our children and stolen their innocence

Just try to believe what is real
Science
actions cause actions and reactions

man molests child
child grows up (chooses his actions but they are influenced or corrupt)
child now a man molests child

we suffer the sins of our fathers
we were designed to make our own choices
we all can make our own choices regardless off what we have been influenced by

happiness is the key to health

don't shield your heart when it falls, just build it bigger

 

[edgray]

I like all of these answers, not that I am anyone who matters. I just realized I screwed up my numbers! Anyway, regarding the first #6, I think I am getting this notion from evangelical churches. According to religious sources, God may not require worship, and maybe he/she/it thinks worship is unbecoming? I do know that obedience to God's wishes are a requirement as stated by the church.

In your opinion, what level of disobedience is required to burn in Hell for eternity? Or do you not place much credence on the concept of Hell?

Thanks.

I don't believe in Hell for the same reason I don't believe in God.

To me, an omnipotent God simply wouldn't allow Hell to exist. He would have no need for it.

We were never taught about Hell at Sunday School, btw.

 

[Peter Parka]

As an agnostic, It's really impossible for me to answer any of those questions, I think there probably isn't a god though I wouldn't completely rule it out without any definate proof. All the evidence so far about where we come from though has nothing at all in it to back up a god who made us.