I have had a life of experiences with what I can only describe as "God" since I was a young child--and I grew up in a secular home that didn't read the bible, attend church or discuss religion.  I kept my experiences to myself all through my early life because they were too real and important to me to share with people I knew wouldn't understand them.  It wasn't until I was sixteen years old through happening to hear ten minutes of someone else's conversation that I realized my beliefs and experiences were the same as many of those who claimed Christianity as their faith--and I had never studied a bible.

It was not until 11 years later that I decided to attend a church.  In the intervening time every close friend I had was an agnostic or atheist.  I always just shared my experience--I didn't quotation it with bible verses or leverage it to present a religious doctrine.

Ignorance and inexperience are the only places from which one can rail unrestrained against all belief.  When you have had the experience, the uniformed "expert's" opinions really don't count for much to you. 

It doesn't matter if there are a million hypocrites, 10 million religious dogmatists and 100 million liars and deluded.  If there is one person with a true experience, it is truth.  I personally want to know the truth--not someone else's dictation of it to me.  Most people of faith are seeking that and I think anyone who is should be respected.  No one has to agree with them.

You'll also find--if you make the attempt to--that no one is more offended by religion than a person with real spiritual experience.

^^ this ^^

No matter how advanced human civilization becomes or no matter how evolved it will be a million years from now we will still be unable to explain or prove the existence of god let alone explain why we exist in the first place and the existence of the universe. 

The current state of religions is as follows:

• God created man and everything else..
• Some religions say us westerners made up dinosaurs and they never existed..
• We are the center of the universe...
• All none believers- even if they do good deeds in any religion either remain on earth or go to hell when they die..
• We are the only living sentient beings in the universe..
• Both major religions have killed each other in the name of god..
• God sanctions violence if its for the greater good they say and they'll go to heaven after committing it..
• The good and the bad exist in today's religions. 

The problem starts with the human brain trying to explain things it couldn't possibly comprehend. It twists religion back and forth to do its own bidding. A more highly intelligent species of human would still face the same problems as today: murder, chaos, negative emotions. We are both intelligent and emotional and that will remain true 500 years from now.

Its because of these pros and weaknesses that we create a cultural and religious drive to try perfect ourselves. We strive for a peaceful existance but some of us use religion to create violence and war. This is why people question the existence of god. Its because we are not perfect- so how can we be sure that we have the perfect formula to explain gods existence... 

Good catch, ..... yeah, right....

Yes, I quoted you referring to the subject  of your quote ..."the religious spammer".

Jafo evidently is concerned we may have one or two...namely, forefather1 and possibly me...

The religious "spammer" is not me. I'm old hat in this discussion, what has been so far a very interesting thread.

No, but typically a 'necrothread' is only found by spammers...as legitimate Users have long moved on.

When an old thread surfaces unexpectedly it gets 'looked at'...

If this holy thread is to be resurrected then it must be God's will.

I mean, no human could possibly do that, right?

As if old threads getting resurrection by the interested party has suddenly become a sin. Well take me to hell because i just committed another sin posting here again. Devils Pride!  

First, by God I mean the One, Spiritual, Eternal, Immutable, Personal Being, Infinite in intelligence, in Will and in all Perfection, and Infinitely Superior to all that is or can be conceived apart from Himself. Almighty God is the Supreme Being, incomprehensible in His Infinite Perfection by all lesser intelligences, although knowable as to the fact of His existence as living Creator Who made all things, including space, time, matter and life, and keeps these in existence.

As to God, there is but one true God. There are however many false gods.

The end of a thing is the purpose for which it was made. Man was created for God...that he may know, love and serve Him both in this world and in the eternal next. Almighty God wants that all men be saved and come to the fullness of truth. 

As far as truth, as there is but One God, there is but one truth, and with all due respect, what you said here is not true.

The ancient Hebrews are the ones Almighty God chose to reveal Himself (Truth Itself) and His truths that man might know, love and serve (worship) Him.

What started out with the ancient Hebrews was the beginning of God's revelation of Himself and Salvation History (which began at the dawn of time and will last until Christ comes again in Judgment at the consummation of the world.) The fullest revelation of those things of God which man is intended to know has been made as far as this life goes. What began with the ancient Hebrews (the depths of God's truths found in both oral Tradition and written Scripture) was fulfilled in Jesus the Christ, who is God-man. 

As individuals attain and progress in the knowledge of Christ's truths, they get nearer and nearer to that fullness of truth which is possible on this earth.  Christ established a Church and His one true Religion to teach His truths. (I expect this may raise a furor), The fullness of truth is contained in the Deposit of Faith confided to Christ's Church of St. Matthew 16:18, which has been in existence since 33AD and will be until the consummation of the world. 

No one attains the perfect fullness of knowledge and truth in this world. The perfect fullness of knowledge is possible ONLY in the Heavenly vision of Almighty God.  

Thanks and rightly so. I "get it" now.

I disagree.

You are confusing two separate things...belief in the existence of the One, Almighty God and belief in His revelation, oral and written. 

Belief in the existence of God can be by right reason, while belief in His revelation is where faith comes in.

And to spell this out further there are two kinds of faith...Divine or supernatural Faith and human or natural faith.

.............................

Funny how a 1700 year old alternate history novel still has such a large following.

I wasn't going to get involved in this thread, but the reply above bothers me on so many levels I couldn't just let it go. Lets skip over the capitalisation of traits and the whole 'well we're here so he must exist' part and start here;

(Again, skipping the question why he would need servants, for now.) Does this mean that you have to be a christian to get into heaven after you die? Or can only 'true' christians, who share your exact faith get in? What about muslims and jews? Buddhists? Hindu's? What about nice people who live a good life, but don't believe in your god? Either through choise (as in hearing about christ and all that, but deciding it's just fairytale, and not a particularly nice one), or because they happen to live somewhere where there are no christians to tell them about the religion?

Thisssss souuuunds so beautiful. Oh my its like the angels singing except its full of assumptions and what not and we are suppose to believe this because its humble and beautiful and divine? What if the universe was created by more than 1 god? Did you ever stop to think that? Did man right the bible, Buddhist texts, Gnostic text, Koran, Egyptian texts, Hinduism or god? Im guessing man and why not woman ( dont you dare say wemen are not meant to write by gods will).

Why did god kill the dinosaurcers? Was he pissed off or nature did its things to bring up the true believers-doubt both? Ever stop to wonder why nobody knows what god was up to before man&woman wrote their religious books or evolved on earth?

I believe in god (single and plural)-- because existence comes from somewhere. The universe comes from somewhere. It didnt just appear out of nowhere.

What i don't like is how god somehow gets recreated in mans own image making certain parties superior because of their beliefs in their god. We are one people and to love and compassion should be our goals to achieving perfection. Not just towards humans and other species but also to the exitence of alien species. Its that simple.

Don't you dare even think that for 1 second god created cows for us to eat. God created nature to takes its course. Nature created cows for us-and screw vegetereans for thinking by not eating meat they are not eating gods creatures. As if they significantly live longer because of it. I don't trust vegetarianism 

Why people complicate life with tones of books and what not that are too complicated to even remember is why societies break down throughout history. They forget! The human brain is not a computer! All this leads to Slavery, racism, genocide, crusades, jihads, prejudice, terrorism and war. My goodness! If they follow the basic rule then the existence of god can be revealed through great accomplishments and cohesion from everyone in the world. They spend their entire lifes learning religion when religion is a just a few words. They forget the basic rule! love and compassion to all species! That should be mans religion.

Not jiba jaba

Good! becasue ALmighty God doesn't need servants. Almighty God doesn't need anything or anyone. We must distinguish between God's essential constitution and His free operation resulting in creating us.  

....................

I have answered all this in my blog,  Will only Catholics Get to Heaven?

https://forums.joeuser.com/307297

https://forums.joeuser.com/307297

How do i get completely free of sin? Im human, i sin alot like every other human. Im not going to heaven em i? Who said i've got be completely free of sin? You, the bible? or god? Who decides whether i go to heaven? You have not answered all my questions. Dont rant about the almighty jiba jiba speech. Are you going 2 throw out that line: "you shouldnt question the word of god because its a sin" to defend yourself?

I've finally concluded that it takes intelligence to truly understand the existence of god. Humans are never going to get there if we have to read journals and split humanity into fragments like catholics etc. Even jesus took all the sins of the earth as it was written and he made it to heaven. Ah so if i sin maybe i should sacrifice myself for a really good deed to make it through the gates of heaven?

You know the truth remains as follows: Your intellect cannot explain your beliefs and you blindly follow what seems to be the right path without questioning it. You are on the right path yet you don't know you are. Do you understand what i'm saying?

religion has been complicated by humanity and the equation to describe god is questionable.