Does "God" Exist?

[cortjezter]

someone who strongly believes the bible is a book of pure facts will never be changed, and it's not the intention of this thread to try and change someone's beliefs; i think we need to keep that in mind. it's a forum to share ideas and points of views, not to persuade anyone.

the truth is that in any of the bibles i have read in my day (strange there are so many 'versions' of what should be a one-version text...especially if it is 'factual'), that the bible isn't intended to be a book of facts necessarily. much of it consists of letters from one person to another, some of it are stories and parables, and some of it is intended to be historical in some sense. whether this historical content is accurate by today's standards is irrelevant... the bible is meant to give context to people's lives and help provide some guidance to help people live well together.

we will never know if the parts some people perceive as fact are completely true, exaggerated, or a fabrication altogether...or some mix thereof. some say it is the word of 'god', and it very well may be depending on how you look at it, but it remains a work of human hands, and therein lies its imperfection and possible unreliability. so to try and counter an argument of science based on something of such uncertainty is just not going to work. instead, it is full of many great and big ideas about life, humanity, etc.... much more effective to battle science, since science has no ground in any of those topics

just wanted to add some perspective, since the discussion seems to be stalling and becoming wholly unproductive. what a way to spend my 1000th post!

[Zidane]

So who here is Agnostic and who here is Atheist? Just wanna know.

[Zachalmighty]

So who here is Agnostic and who here is Atheist? Just wanna know.

Im agnostic. He could exist but I dont beleive at the moment he does, until I get proof. Until I die, Ill live as a good person and if thats not good enough for GOD then he is a hypocrit.

[nhillyer]

If heaven and hell actually exist (I believe they do to a certain extent) I strongly doubt there is hardly anyone in hell. And I guarantee you hell is not a place of fire and brimstone as portrayed by organized religions... That is and always will be just symbolism.

If I had to guess hell would be a place you go if you don't want to grow spiritually and get to know god personally... you probably can choose yourself where you want to go after death.

[Zachalmighty]

Is that Sarcasm? I really dont know if you should be saying that to another person about a faith.

That really shows someones ignorance. Buddhist's have a form of afterlife, so do muslims, and hindu's.

Hmmm it seems that Count Bleck's post was deleted. Ill leave this here as a rebuttal.

<< mod comment: several long, off-topic posts were removed. to those wanting to have private conversations and ramble on negatively toward one another, trade screen names and PMs. let's keep the discussion on track and on topic, as well as avoiding the insults and negativity... --cortjezter >>

[Mike]

Quite a few Catholic priests I know teach that hell is not so much fire and brimstone and lava, but merely the absence of God or any sort of hope or love. Your soul or whatever is left of your being is rejected and left completely alone by everything and anything.

[Count Bleck]

Quite a few Catholic priests I know teach that hell is not so much fire and brimstone and lava, but merely the absence of God or any sort of hope or love. Your soul or whatever is left of your being is rejected and left completely alone by everything and anything.

That is true, and the complete absence of God may be worse than fire and brimstone.

As for zach...either one belief is true, or nothing else. 2,000 years ago Jesus lived, He was lying, He was a lunatic, or He was telling the truth.

[NintendoWiiForever]

but what if all the religions tell of the same god and everything has gotten mixed up in translation and what not?

do i feel an absence of god or are you saying he is there even if you don't believe in him?

[Count Bleck]

"but what if all the religions tell of the same god and everything has gotten mixed up in translation and what not?"

Compare Buddha and Allah and get back to me on that one. No, if there is a god, there is ONE God.

"do i feel an absence of god or are you saying he is there even if you don't believe in him?"

Yes, I say that. The absence of God is the absence of all things good. Humor, joy, love, peace...He made the flipping CONCEPTS for them.

[dbroad]

Buddha is not God, buddhism teaches that there is no God just oneness with the universe, Allah is the islam name for God, the same God christians and Jews believe in, it is just like Rabbis calling God YHWH. Hinduism believes in one God with many avatars one for each aspect. Most religions believe in one God, doesn't mean they are right or wrong as we can't get to a dimension of the universe high enough to see.

[Mike]

Um, yeah, same being. Christians, Jews and Muslims may not agree on some of the same details, but in basic concept, it's very much the same Abrahamic God.

All that shows is that Muslims don't believe Jesus was God/Allah made flesh. That doesn't make them two separate beings. That makes one group presumably wrong about one of the details concerning the nature of God.

From my understanding, I think Muslims believe in the same religious history that Christians and Jews do up until Abraham. Whereas Christians believe that Joseph descended from Isaac, Muslims believe that Muhammad descended from Ishmael. Someone correct me if I got one of these facts wrong, but everything before that I think is pretty much the same.

[cortjezter]

http://gonintendo.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=991

a link to the board rules. this is the second or third reminder for those interested in this discussion to follow them and stay on topic. if we can't do that... it will get locked. i understand religion can be a very hot button issue, but please conduct yourselves with some discipline and try to remain focused. last warning.

[Zachalmighty]

Buddha is not God, buddhism teaches that there is no God just oneness with the universe, Allah is the islam name for God, the same God christians and Jews believe in, it is just like Rabbis calling God YHWH. Hinduism believes in one God with many avatars one for each aspect. Most religions believe in one God, doesn't mean they are right or wrong as we can't get to a dimension of the universe high enough to see.

Buddhist's also has a saying about being tied to the world in that respect.

"If you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. If you meet your father, kill your father. If you meet your God, kill your God. Bound by nothing you are free to roam the world as you are meant to."

Or something like that.

[SirKent]

'Does it really matter?'

This is what I posted a few days ago.

Before some self-righteous moderator goes and deletes it again, realize that there is a point there that I'd like people to consider. I did/will not extrapolate on it further because I'd prefer people to decipher it for themselves.

<< mod comment: your post was removed because it did not follow the board guidelines. please make sure you read and know them before passing the blame to anyone on our mod team. thanks! --cortjezter >>

[PRESTOCASO]

When the question is asked, does god exsist? I often ask how do you define god, or what do you mean by god?

[NintendoWiiForever]

well spiritual means consisting of a spirit or being one (and those kinds of things)
and a spiritual being is a being that consist only of spirit and what ever it is or is made of. also i assume that haveing no physical form means you can by pass certain laws of physics

and supposedly (not crediting or discrediting this) we all have a soul or spirit of our own that is given to us by god (like a spark of life) that is our life essence.

i would again assume that without a soul you would be devoid of god meaning you shell of a person would be suffering inside like they are in hell.

[PRESTOCASO]

So spiritual meaning consisting of spirit, ok then, what is spirit? In other words what is the positive definition?

<< mod comment: i already pegged Sir Kent for this, so in all fairness i'm going to do it here too. this thread already has a question, and it's meant for discussion, not empty rhetoric. if you want to pose an additional question, please also provide your own point of view. also, please make note of the double-posting/back & forth posting in the board guidelines. thanks! --cortjezter >>

[thewster]

I'm a christian, so I believe God exist. Now why shouldn't he(or she, but I'm gonna go with he for this post) well take a look at the two most common creation theories.
1. God creates the world in 7 days blah blah blah, you all know this one
2. Two particles crashes into each other and BANG the big bang happens, and you all know the rest.

What do both of these have in common?
the christian one will ask the atheist where the two particles come from, and he can't answer or will reply "they've always been there". The atheist will ask the christian where God came from, and he can't answer or will reply "he has always been there".

Either way what you choose to believe, you don't know more about where everything comes from, than the other person.

So since I find it too hard to believe that two particles, that have no origin, crashed into each other, I chose to go with the God one. It makes more sense, I believe. But hey, perhaps God created the big bang We will never know










or will we

Yes we will

God definitely exists. Theres no question in my mind read my sig.

[SirKent]

@Bjorna: Good viewpoint to have. What many people fail to understand is the difference between faith and knowing. You can have all the faith in the world that God exists or that science will prevail against religion, but nobody knows. To claim to is arrogance at its finest.

I don't pretend to know where we came from, and I really don't much care. I do have my general beliefs and theories, but I have to recognize that they're still limited by the bounds of human knowledge, which is why I don't believe anything whatsoever to be impossible, but rather just implausible by current human terms.