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Existence of God
Topic Started: Aug 31 2009, 07:14 PM (694 Views)
Delovely
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In Fine Artistry

A lot of people still question the existence of God so, as a Christian, what could be your best answer to prove and to show God's existence?

How would a Christian asses the impact of mankind of "the meaningless alternative" to a universe without God as Creator?
Some things must be handled smoothly, quietly.

"When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of wisdom are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much."
~*~


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Max
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My best answer is to point out there are many things in life that we cannot see or touch or "Prove".

Gravity-the average person experiences it without "knowing" how to prove it's existence. Fly on an airline? The Flight Deck door is Locked. No way to "Prove" the Captain is anything but a recorded voice.

Love. How do you "Prove" you love your baby, or your spouse, or that your dog or kitten loves you? You cannot. :) You simply have to FEEL it.

That's what God is. It's the FEELING. :)

But like any love, you have to open yourself to receiving it. Why wait for "proof"? "Proof" ain't coming. But His love is already here.
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She-ra
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That is a serious toughie.

God is such a subjective and personal experience.

There ultimately is no way to "PROVE" there is a God or I'm sure it would have been done by now.

That's why some people, *I think* stress the fact that FAITH is so important.

I am of no organized religion but I cannot say I am atheist (yet). I have had many difficulties with this subject in my life and because I tend to be scientific at times it does test my faith.

However, I have to say I do believe in God. There is no way whatsoever that I could ever prove or even explain why or what my experiences are other than an indirect "knowing" if that makes ANY sense :lmao:

And it's funny, the more I say okay that's IT how CAN there be a God... then something happens where, I'll be damned... maybe He is there and maybe there is a God... I constantly question and I'm probably a HUGE pain in God's ass and He's probably up there going on no it's HER again... but oh well- that's just me :)

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XNavyGunner
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I can't see how a person doesn't believe in God. Not necessarily the Judeo Christian god. But a god. I look at a sunrise or sunset, a rainbow, theleaaves changing color, and that just makes me believe in a god.
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newbloodmoon
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XNavyGunner
Sep 1 2009, 08:57 PM
I can't see how a person doesn't believe in God. Not necessarily the Judeo Christian god. But a god. I look at a sunrise or sunset, a rainbow, theleaaves changing color, and that just makes me believe in a god.
Some would say that all those phenomena aren't a valid argument in favor of a God(s), but a case for science. I believe that's where faith comes in.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
Voltaire

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Delovely
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In other words, knowledge of the existence of God can be known by natural reason and by faith.

So, although Hebrews 11:1 says that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” God’s plan for the salvation of mankind requires “knowledge of the truth” about God’s essence, which cannot be known by natural reason alone. Many, if not most human beings on earth today believe in God not by the laborious syllogisms of natural reason, but by faith in Divine Revelation, whether such revelation comes from Jesus Christ, Moses, Mohammed or Buddha. In fact, St. Paul in his First Epistle to the Corinthians says: “Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? For…. the world did not come to know God through wisdom, it was the will of God…to save those who have faith.” (1:20-21).

Demonstration of the existence of God by natural reason must be a posteriori or “after the fact”, as “from the effects, we proceed to knowledge of the cause”. This method is approved in scripture: “Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be understood and perceived in what he has made.” (Romans 1:20). Thus, the belief in other things that were created by God, himself.

There were and are many, many arguments proving the existence of God by science and observation, too, but one that I can share is man’s rationality, particularly the self-awareness and longing for God. That an argument can be made for the existence of God based on man’s rationality and higher faculties, namely goodness, self-awareness, love, morality, search for meaning of life, justice, mercy, etc. Man is God’s splendid creation, just a little lower than the angels but far above the animals. All living things are endowed with the faculties they require for survival, e.g., keen eyesight at night for avoiding predators; long, sturdy legs for rapid motion to escape carnivores; sharp and large teeth and powerful jaws for capturing prey; etc. Why then was man endowed with the higher faculties, such as love, justice, mercy, goodness, self-awareness conscience, etc.? These do nothing to preserve human life, in the endless competition for survival with other species that is the constant mechanism of evolution.

For instance, with respect to self-awareness, a Macro-sociology textbook tells us: “humans have a highly developed awareness of self and an acute consciousness of their situation with respect to the rest of the world. This is both a blessing and a curse. Because of it, we are able to picture ourselves in situations we have never experienced and thus plan for the future and develop goals. But with this awareness comes the realization that we are responsible for our actions, and thus we acquire the capacity for making moral judgments and creating a moral order.”

Another for instance: why does man, even the most primitive man, always and instinctively seek a Supreme Being to worship? If God does not exist, this eternal longing of man for God and meaning in his life is doomed to failure. So why does this longing exist at all? It certainly cannot be justified by evolution; neither can evolution explain the existence in man of the above higher faculties. The same Macro-sociology text tells us: “Every culture contains information that seeks to explain the ultimate causes of things and events.” Lacking any other acceptable explanation for this phenomenon, we are forced to concede that God implanted the faculty of self-awareness and the longing to discover his ultimate destiny for one reason alone: Man was created by God and is destined to be united with his Creator after death.

Lastly, God is a Spirit. Does God have a body? St. Thomas argues that as the First Mover who is Himself unmoved, God cannot have a body. Another argument is that since God is a necessary being and exists only in actuality (not in potentiality), He cannot have a body, which as based in matter cannot be eternal but must necessarily entropy over time.

God is the same as his Nature and Essence. To prove the existence of God is to define his Nature and Essence. In proving God, we have proven that He is a Spirit, that He is Eternal, that He is Omnipotent and Omniscient; and that he is the Creator of the Universe.
Some things must be handled smoothly, quietly.

"When you are deluded and full of doubt, even a thousand books of wisdom are not enough. When you have realized understanding, even one word is too much."
~*~


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LarryOldtimer
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Evidence . . . what a seemingly powerful word, but in reality, in and of itself has little to no meaning. What is meaningful, is always the interpretation of the evidence. Religious people take the position that without a god, life in meaningless. Without a god, there can be no "afterlife".

I totally disagree with this. I have had a meaningful life. I have children I love, and they and their children love me. I have sought out knowledge, and have found a considerable amount of it. I also have had a life of happiness, and see no indication that any god had anything to do with any of the above. All of the gods I have ever read about were arbitrary and capricious, and had almost exactly the same weaknesses that humans have. So I think that perhaps the conjuring up some god or gods may be needed for humans in general to function, only the imagination is required to do so.

I can easily contemplate that the world we live in but a part of (almost non-existant part, relative to the vast, beyond human comprehension, real universes) could come about in other ways than a creator god.

So I would classify myself as an agnostic in the original meaning of the term . . . we can't know whether there is a god or not, but even if there were a god, it would make no difference in the lives and deaths of humans.

Humans are really not much of anything, but do seem to have great arrogance.

But life, that which we actually know nothing about, goes on, and is enjoyable . . . or miserable . . . it is always up to the individual to decide.

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