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How can you believe in religion?

I don't mean this to be offensive I'm just genuinely curious about how you can buy into the idea of a God existing (and especially Christianity and the belief in Jesus and his "miracles"). I also wonder if people genuinely believe it or if it's just to give you a purpose in life and console you about fears of death??

Another random question I have is, I know a lot of Christians don't believe that the world was literally created in 6 days but do they generally believe in the order of creation???
(edited 6 years ago)

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Reply 1
Original post by Kpopvkei
I don't mean this to be offensive I'm just genuinely curious about how you can buy into the idea of a God existing (and especially Christianity and the belief in Jesus and his "miracles":wink:. I also wonder if people genuinely believe it or if it's just to give you a purpose in life and console you about fears of death??



I'm a Christian and the easiest way for me to explain how I feel is that my spirit resonates with the word of God. It's as straightforward as that.

When I hear preaching or worship my soul is uplifted and I am aware of God and the glory of God, I could say the 'awesomeness' of God, His magnificence.

Obviously sometimes when I'm a bit overwhelmed with things in my life and haven't taken the time to read my bible, go to church or pray I can feel distant from God but, if I stop to think about it I have an assurance that He will never leave me or forsake me, so I just roll with it, it's my problem, God is constant.

I have searched other things to see if they could bring more meaning to me and they haven't. My Christian faith in God brings everything into alignment with regard to creation, life and eternity.

I don't think about being dead and eternity too much, although with a friend recently dying I have thought more about how without God there is an awful finality in death. I don't have this which I'm glad about.

To think about heaven and what heaven will be like I can only go by what the bible says. The concept of the Christian heaven is far removed from some other religions, of which I am glad of.
Reply 2
I also wonder if people genuinely believe it or if it's just to give you a purpose in life and console you about fears of death??


The overwhelming majority of religious people believe what they have been brought up with and evidently it's very hard to shake off. The reasons given for those beliefs are usually post hoc rationalisations to justify their parents' beliefs.
Reply 3
Kpopvkei wants everyone to know being obsessed with something/someone and placing that something/someone in very high esteem is weird and illogical
for me I'm a mix of both. I don't want to die and become nothingness,and it's cool to be reborn.However, I'm not the type who says god is responsible for everything.
Once I thoroughly learnt the fundamentals of my religion, I genuinely felt like it was the truth. I'm still learning more about it everyday and it just keeps feeling more and more right to be following it. I think the 'giving your life a purpose' argument is just used by people who don't believe in religion or don't agree with it. I mean, it does give you a purpose but it's much more than that. So much more that I can't even explain it fully. :smile:
the same way as others believe in ghosts, demons and other such invisible entities. it's cool to be a ghost hunter but not so much if you're a God hunter. personally I believe in supernature and describe myself as spiritual as opposed to being religious.
Once you start looking into religions and its teachings, you develop faith. I noticed when this happened to me, I noticed more in life and generally felt much more happier!
Reply 8
Original post by Kpopvkei
I don't mean this to be offensive I'm just genuinely curious about how you can buy into the idea of a God existing (and especially Christianity and the belief in Jesus and his "miracles":wink:. I also wonder if people genuinely believe it or if it's just to give you a purpose in life and console you about fears of death??

Another random question I have is, I know a lot of Christians don't believe that the world was literally created in 6 days but do they generally believe in the order of creation???



Christianity is a Father-child relationship between God and us.
It's not about consoling ourselves about fears of death. No, that's not the case.

It might sound repetitive but as I said, it's a relationship. As Jesus said, Love God and others. So, the main focus is loving and obeying his word (Bible). Jesus died for our sins and made that ultimate sacrifice for us to have that marvelous relationship with the Father.

Jesus is the way, truth and life. The only one way to heaven.

Most people think that being Christian = being weak and one not thinking for themselves. No that's not the point, it's rather the contrary.

When you allow Jesus into your life, he fills the void in you. He tranforms you and most importantly before doing all this he accepts and loves you even with all the imperfections you have. Christianity is not a fear of death antidote. It is rather a way to gain eternal life through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Whether we believe it or not God is God and he is real, Heaven is real and hell is real as well. If you study the bible and open your heart, mind and eyes you will find that everything going on in this world is all taking place gradually. Very soon Jesus will appear in all his glory and those who didn't believe in him will see him and recognise that he is the King of Kings.

I hope that in a way or the other I have answered some of your questions xx
Original post by Kpopvkei
I don't mean this to be offensive I'm just genuinely curious about how you can buy into the idea of a God existing (and especially Christianity and the belief in Jesus and his "miracles":wink:.


The question is not the least bit offensive and you are 100% correct to ask questions and challenge things, always, never stop thinking, never stop challenging.

The answer to your question is that the human condition is an extremely vulnerable one. We are constantly at enormous risk.

Consider 2 glass bottles.

Into one you pour honey, into the other you pour poison.

A small child happens to pick up the bottles and drinks from them and dies as a result of the poison.

Who is to blame for this travesty?

Can we blame the glass bottle for holding the poison? No, surely not, it is just a vessel, nothing more. That vessel can be filled with absolutely anything, anything at all. In fact it is completely vulnerable. It can stop poison being put in it or anything else.

So it is with the human condition.

I tell you the truth when I say that a human CAN be filled with absolutely anything. A human can be programmed, conditioned, brainwashed, duped, mislead and made to think and believe anything at all. Humans are just glass bottles.

Hence you can make a tiny child turn into a peaceful loving, kind and charitable person who might give up its life for a friend, and you can equally turn a child into a raving lunatic or a religious fundamentalist who is prepared to kill and slaughter others at will in the complete belief that what they are doing is right.

The first key to life then is this:

TEMET NOSCE

Know Thyself

Understand who and what you are and how vulnerable you are. Like it or not you have already been filled, already been programmed and conditioned right from your very childhood. Without any choice in the matter your bottle has been filled. It governs how you think, what you believe, what you perceive to be right and wrong and ultimately therefore how you act.

The realisation that you are little more than a programmed computer is the first key, the first step towards enlightenment.

The second key is to purposefully rid yourself of that programming, break through it, cast it aside and refuse any more to believe it. That my friend is one of THE hardest things a human will ever do. It's incredibly difficult to break your programming, to go against what now feels inherently right. It can be painful, it can bring huge feelings of guilt and uncertainty and make you feel empty and lonely.

It is not without great wisdom that Jesus said we must be as little children.

We have to be humble and realise that, just as we believed in Santa CLaus as tiny kids, we now similarly believe "stuff" because we've been indoctrinated and programmed with it.

Realise that we are still children in the grand scheme of life and that at some point we will look back and see how silly we were to believe the stuff we currently do, just as we look back at how we believed in Santa.

Therefore, do not be surprised when people believe in various religions, Gods, dogmas and doctrines. They are programmed to do so.
Many, perhaps most, will never manage to break out of that conditioning and will die having always been indoctrinated by others, never having been free.


Original post by Kpopvkei

Another random question I have is, I know a lot of Christians don't believe that the world was literally created in 6 days but do they generally believe in the order of creation???


Again this is just programming and mass duping of the people. The Bible DOES NOT say the universe was created in 6 days. Genesis IS NOT about the creation of the universe. It is all allegorical, meant to be cryptic and what it actually describes is the alchemical process for creating the Philosopher's Stone. Again, unless they can de-programme themselves from the former conditioning people will remain duped by a false and totally incorrect literal reading of the Bible. Or for that matter any other religious work.

They are all allegorical and all contain great secrets.

Jesus had the Philosopher's Stone, the Elixir Of Life. It's how he could heal people, how he could transmute things and how he could survive in the wilderness for 40 days without food or drink and survive the extreme temperatures there.

This Elixir is recorded in the Bible numerous times. It's in the Quran and in the Bhadavad Gita, in the works of Taoism, Buddhism, Rosicrucianism and just about everywhere. But it's hidden, tucked away allegorically within childish stories which pad out the text.

People can be programmed with anything. It will always be thus until the Philosopher's Stone is made public, made available to all. At that point our minds will no longer be able to be duped.

TEMET NOSCE
How can you believe that everything came from nothing?

0 + 0 + 0 can never = 1.
Reply 11
Original post by Wolfram Alpha
How can you believe that everything came from nothing?

0 + 0 + 0 can never = 1.


Nobody believes everything came from nothing. The big bang happened from a singularity, not nothingness.
When people are raised a certain way and taught from childhood to believe in something it can be difficult for them to change their minds. Maybe the commitment some believers have to their faith blinds them to some aspects of their religion that non-believers find incoherent. Overall it is easier to comprehend that what we experience is created by some higher being rather that facing the idea that the universe came into being by something we don't entirely understand at the moment.
Original post by Wolfram Alpha
How can you believe that everything came from nothing?

0 + 0 + 0 can never = 1.


So what did God make everything from?
I am fully for being having their religious beliefs. Just don’t argue pointlessly against proven science and rational thought. Also, please don’t be intruding on my life in the way of Jehovah’s Witness’. Let’s just all have our own beliefs and not inflict them upon our children
People living simply by desire, rather than reality.
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
So what did God make everything from?


Nice deflection
Original post by Plantagenet Crown
So what did God make everything from?


From matter which came about from the Big Bang...
Original post by trippieblue
Nice deflection


It's not a deflection. Theists often attack "atheist beliefs" by making the claim "something can't come from nothing, therefore God". First of all, this ignores the fact that scientists don't believe the Big Bang came from a literal nothing, and secondly, ignores that it's in fact theists who believe God created everything from nothing.
Original post by Wolfram Alpha
From matter which came about from the Big Bang...


So God didn't create the Big Bang?

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