There are 12 choices, 15 votes for Loverboy13's debate

God and Reality: Please Help

I often hear of people saying that we live on this earth to respect each other and to do good. I often hear that we better behave or else we will end up in a place that none of us want to end up in after death, hell. But, I also hear people say that we are nothing, that we, people, animals, Life, are nothing in an empty void. I have grown up in a Christian family. All my life I’ve been told that there was an All-powerful ‘thing’ or ‘creator’ watching over us all. Our “giver of Life” they say. Then I wonder, “Why do we need to be good? Why CAN we be bad? Are we put here to suffer? Suffer for the chance of life in heaven? If so, then wouldn’t that make God somewhat evil? This ‘thing’ that made us, has also put us in a world of joy and suffering. Why not skip all this mess and lett us be free?” I have to ask myself these questions. Karma, people say that we need good karma to be set free from the eternal wheel of rebirth. Why? Why have to suffer and ‘do good’ so we can become apart of nothingness? Last, I ask those who say that God is in everything (butterflies, trees, ect.): is there anything to begin w/? And if so: why is there anything at all? I can’t live in a lie, I just need opinions of all who wish to be apart of something…Not something bigger, just something that wishes to find that ‘something bigger’ of Life


  • Hi there

    Hey, I’m very new to this site, please be patient w/ my mostly confused self. I posted this topic in hopes that others will help me out in my quest to find truth. Not THE truth, just some sort of truth. Please be kind in your opinions, but they are your opinions none the less. Please be honest in your replies. That’s all I can ask of anyone. Thank you.

    20%  Voted for by Loverboy13, jitterbugcowgirl, loverofChrist.
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  • GOD IS REALITY

    I UNDERSTAND HOW DIFFICULT IT IS SO MANY QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ALL I CAN SAY IS IT IS A JOURNEY BACK TO THE DIVINTY THAT IS WITHIN YES THERE IS SUFFERING BUT IT HAS ITS PURPOSE REMEMBER THE WORLD OF MAN IS NOT GODS WORLD MAN HAS CREATED HIS OWN ILLUSIONARY WORLD WITHIN GODS WORLD

    13%  Voted for by lisa leigh, pwincessovfantasy.
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  • i'll try

    Hi I’m a Christian. I’ll try and answer some of your questions as well as I can: Being good and bad is all to do with the concept of sin, sin being what is displeasing to God and so it separates us from God. Good and bad all comes from free will, which God has given us from the very start, Adam and eve. Which leads me on to the next point. God made us to be in the Garden of Eden, which at that time was free from suffering and that’s how God liked it (genesis1 v31). It wasn’t until separation from god that suffering came to be. I don’t quite get the “suffering for the chance in heaven” bit. The “skipping all this mess bit” I don’t think I can answer ether. In the end, I think, to some extent you have to just trust God and get on with life (cop out answer I know ). Karma; my knowledge of it is little and I don’t believe what I know of it so I cant really comment on that… And I don’t believe in the last bit so can’t help you there ether. But I hope I’ve been of some help anyway.

    13%  Voted for by Scrap, green-eternity.
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  • Free Will

    God gives us free will to do as we please. It is OUR choice to do either good or bad, OUR choice to folllow Him. Our choice to do whatever. End of story.

    Voted for by art-school-kid.
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  • Port Hall

    God is Good , the Good in mankind. One who takes responsibility for the choices in life belive in themselves and how they affect people around them. Good is not perfection but harmony, when a state of harmony is reached there is communion with 'Good', God. This is a state of heaven or a feeling above the physical, universal.

    Voted for by CVee.
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  • A Christian perspective

    Hmmm… interesting questions. But here’s life from a christian perspective: God origonally created us to be in relationship with him. Then what do we do? we go and mess it up. We disobey his only command, and end up on our own. But does God abandon us? no. Some would say that God hates us, but this is the whole point of the bible: god loves us. John 3:16 – For God loved the world SO MUCH that he gave to us his only son, so that all who believe in him will not die, but have eternal life. I know that’s like, the most-quoted bible verse EVER, but that’s the whole point of the bible.

    So Yes, we do bad, and we suffer, but God didn’t just give up on us, he DIED for us. He wants us to get free of that. That “something bigger” you’re looking for is what God has planned for you – a new life, freed from sin. It’s just so ridiculously simple: When you accept God, you get a Way Out. Eventually, you’ll get out of the suffering when you die and spend eternity with him, but here on earth, he begins to change your life bit by bit and turn the bad stuff in your life into good. He takes away your suffering, or at least gives you the strength to bear it, so that you can learn from it.

    Whoops, I got all evangalistic preacher on you didn’t I? heehe. sorry.

    Steve

    Voted for by Evets.
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  • Evolution
    The truth is you evolved and no thing created you, other than the trail of billions of animals procreating, with your parents ultimately two of them. Still, this raises more questions -- but there are some answers for. You're pretty lucky to be alive today. And have Internet access. And be reflecting on these questions. And being on the brink of joining a community of atheists. So much potential!
    Voted for by ExpensiveThinker.
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  • Hello!!!

    well…thats a good question…i dont really know…i dont think anyone can give you an exact answer…theres too much “proof” that God exists and that He doesnt…..i guess it all depends on what you were raised as or what ever you believe…there is no real truth that anyone can tell you

    Voted for by Picar.
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  • think about it....
    First of all, I am suprised to find not ONE comment that doesn't expound on anything but the reality of "God", that all knowing, all loving (omnipotent in general) being. I wont even get into the rampant contradictions within not only christianity but most all religions b/c that's not the point. The one thing I do want to say about religion is that ALL religions started as gnosis religions. (gnosis comes from the greek verb meaning to know) Before the dogma and the stories of religion there was at the core only a desire to know. Some call it to see the face of god or to become part of the vast formlessness. But to me knowing is the same as awareness.
    so we're finnaly getting somewhere. how do we achieve awareness?
    The only thing I've been able to figure is that awareness is achieved only through direct experience. And I don't mean directly DOING something, or directly SEEING, HEARING, et cetera, something external. I mean KNOWING. Bear with me for a second this is going to get a little graphic (i'm going to use an example i think everyone can relate to). The precise moment that you have an orgasim, before you start thinking "man this feels great!", even before you start to "feel" it, there is a moment of direct experience. Just a split second where there is no you, no world, no him/her who happens to be underneath/on top of you, no anything but awareness. Complete calm and a void of right and wrong, man and god. I'm not saying that you can only find this awareness in sex, I'm saying that you can find it in anything b/c it is our nature as existence. I think sex is so enjoyable to most of us b/c of the ease with which the act brings our awareness to the surface of our consciousness. BUT FIGURE IT OUT FOR YOURSELF! Nobody has your answers. This is only part of my answer.
    To end this I'll share a couple of things that get me through the day: 1. All matter is made of energy and is in essence some form of light. 2. WE ARE HERE.
    Voted for by jeremymoore15.
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  • Greetings Loverboy13
    From your comments I gather that you truly are searching for some sort of truth without hearing some one's conclusions of what the truth actually is. I applaude this. You are asking for evidence and not a conviction. If this is truly what you are searching for, I think you will find it. My only intention in this comment is to give you some evidence to consider.
    The philosopher Immanuel Kant made a very profound observation about the world. He noted it consisted of two important things; "the starry heavens above and the moral law within." These are two pieces of evidence that you may find crucial in your search. Consider the heavens above and the physical world around us. It is governed by the laws of physics, chemistry, mathematics and so forth. The physical world is a very determined place. All that occurs in the physical world occurs out of necessity. It could not possibly occur any way differently given the present conditions. This is science, a true knowledge that is unchanging. Now consider the moral law within. It is present in every human soul, an inclination of a right and wrong. It is not specific most of the time. It often does not tell us which way is the right way to go, only whispers in our ears that there is a right way and that there is a wrong way. The choice is ours to make. And that is the amazing aspect of it all. The entire world around us is governed by laws and necessity, and yet within us we find an influence, an inclination that we can choose to follow or go against. And in that we have a choice, we have freedom which is the opposite of necessity. Now I pose a question or two for you to consider. If we are products of the universe and thus the universe being the greatest power imaginable, how did free beings emerge from a world of necessity? In the universe, there is no such thing as chance nor can something (such as freedom) come from nothing (necessity being the total lack of freedom). The second question is similar to the first. If the universe is merely a product of us by whatever means (thought, perception, imagination) which would make us the most powerful force imaginable in the universe, then how does necessity come from freedom? The same problem emerges where you cannot have something (necessity) coming from nothing (freedom, which is the total lack of necessity). These are the questions that may lead you closer to the truth you seek.
    Voted for by keyman7.
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  • why

    Alright, here's what went on when God created us. Regardless of what your opinions of evolution (i believe in intelligent design myself) when God created us, he created us with something called free will, that is, the ability to think pretty much and be able to choose good from bad. This is actually scientfically proven by way of humans are the only life forms in the universe that has a rational brain. Now, when we were created with free will, now here comes along stupid old satan. And he's all like "DUDE! you should totally disobey God! IT'd BE GREAT!" now of course, a lot of people believe the story of the garden of eden is an allegory so this pretty much means that if you believe it is fact then that's cool but if you don't, it doesn't really matter much. All that matters is that we humans do have the ability to choose right from wrong. The world is such a horrible place because of this ability. Now one may ask "well why do we have this ability then?!!!!" but the answer is because if we didn't, we would be machines. Think about it. The whole reason we have this ability is not for some kind of test or anything like that; it is for the greatest gift God can give us: love. If we didn't have free will, then we would love God no matter what. We would love everyone no matter what. Sure there would be no sinning and killing, so wars or robberies, but we all would be like barbie dolls in that if someone were to just press a button on us, we would reply "You're my favorite friend. I love you." What, therefore, is the point of that? Free will allows us to love because it alloys us to choose and think. By God giving us free will, he gave us the most wonderful thing in life, and even though some people would rebel against, he knew it was for the better. So that is why our world is so destructive yet great at the same time. I hope you don't turn into one of those stupid atheist, who, because of easy to answere questions like this turn away from God. MAN THEY ARE SO STUPID! alright ,well i'm done see ya around -steve

    Voted for by footballfan385.
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  • is it matter?
    God,s exist is or not ,is it a matter ?
    I think matter is our ' Belief' .Why we want believe in god ?
    Because we want 'security' , If we belive we feel safty in present bad time or to avoid bad time in feature.
    We know that once we will finished , but we do not ecsept it because we want to be continue or want to no ever die. So in believe in god we think that after death [ finish ] we will go to meat with god or we will rebearth. So clever human creat the exist of 'God' .
    rskhurana@eth.net
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