Where's God?

[POI]

Does he pop up in my dreams? Is he the one whom produces my goose-bumps? Is He the one giving me my "moral compass"? Is he only experienced during deep meditation? If I have enough faith, will he appear to me? But seriously. Where is he? I was a Christian for decades. I earnestly prayed for him to reach me, to no avail.

For debate: Why have I not felt his presence?

A) I never tried hard enough; lack faith
B) He does not want to reveal Himself to me (yet)
C) Evil is blocking the request(s)
D) I'm too dumb to realize he's reaching me
E) He's not really there at all <- Current conclusion

Do not answer yet. This topic has spawned from another unrelated topic. I decided to devote this large topic to itself. Below are some premises:

P1) does god exist? (dunno)
P2) does god want a relationship with all, especially the ones who seek him (apparently so)
P3) is god capable of communicating (apparently so)
P4) can god communicate his message in a way in which the recipient could no longer deny (apparently so)
P5) have I asked for this communication earnestly and repetitively (YES)
P6) does the Bible state god answers the call to all who seek him (YES)

At best, god has opted not to contact me YET. And this would be after decades of actively seeking him. Without any emotion, I'm logically left with 2 options.

A) God is not really there <- Current conclusion.
B) God is not adhering to his promise (yet).

[JoeyKnothead]

The truth is that someone can only speculate why someone doesn't believe in God. Those speculations could include the person not being sincere or not a true Christian, while both could be valid reasons given Christ own word neither is appropriate to debate about on this website given the rules of the site.

A gross misunderstanding of what it means to not / believe something.

If I hafta be insincere to not believe something, then by all rights I believe it.

This continued demonization of folks who lack belief is typical coming from those who're told how special they are for having em the "right" beliefs.

I personally agree with Simon Greenleaf who said:
"Of the Divine character of the Bible, I think, no man who deals honestly with his own mind and heart can entertain a reasonable doubt, For myself, I must say, that having for many years made the evidences of Christianity the subject of close study, the result has been a firm and increasing conviction of the authenticity and plenary inspiration of the Bible. It is indeed the Word of God"

There we go again - atheists're dishonest.

Insert all manner of cussing and questioning of your speculatively questionable genetics.

[Tcg]

I would think it is not a big problem to believe in God. You could simply put your faith in Jesus Christ.

It's a huge problem to believe in that for which there is no sufficient evidence. Well, at least for some of us. I myself couldn't possibly put my faith in some dude who died almost 2,000 years ago. What in the world would I trust a died guy to do?


Tcg

[JoeyKnothead]

What in the world would I trust a died guy to do?

Decompose.

[brunumb]

[Replying to brunumb in post #23]

Yes those of us that have had spiritual experiences have some sort of bad DNA that makes us unable to determine exactly what's going on in our life and to interpret what we've actually personally experienced.

If we are going to speculate along those lines, it could just be due to the presence of the gullibility gene.

[PolytheistWitch]

[Replying to brunumb in post #34]

I'm sorry you don't trust your own experiences. The fact that you think if you had a spiritual experience that meant you're gullible doesn't mean that everyone that has spiritual experiences are gullible. You obviously weren't raised to trust yourself, I'm sorry but I was. There's no reason for me to doubt what I experience in my own home while practicing my spirituality. It's a shame that that's how you basically view other human beings.

[brunumb]

[Replying to brunumb in post #34]

I'm sorry you don't trust your own experiences. The fact that you think if you had a spiritual experience that meant you're gullible doesn't mean that everyone that has spiritual experiences are gullible. You obviously weren't raised to trust yourself, I'm sorry but I was. There's no reason for me to doubt what I experience in my own home while practicing my spirituality. It's a shame that that's how you basically view other human beings.

What exactly do you consider a spiritual experience? Please share one of yours with us to illustrate, particularly in relation to establishing the existence of God.

[PolytheistWitch]

[Replying to brunumb in post #36]

A spiritual experience would involve engaging with spirit. There are a variety of beings that exist in what we call the spirit world. These range from deities to land spirits to animal spirits to guides to the dead. Obviously for the purposes of this conversation which involves interacting with deities I would specifically mean engaging with deities. And by engaging I mean making contact with them through meditation, ritual or shamanic journey.

[AquinasForGod]

[Replying to POI in post #18]

Your story doesn't make sense. If you were a believer then you would not be trying to communicate with God or waiting for him to communicate with you. Believers actually believe God is real. You clearly did not believe or else you would not be trying to get God to talk to you and when he did not you ran away.

Why did you expect God to communicate with you? Did you think maybe you were a prophet?

[Shem Yoshi]

I would think it is not a big problem to believe in God. You could simply put your faith in Jesus Christ.

It's a huge problem to believe in that for which there is no sufficient evidence. Well, at least for some of us. I myself couldn't possibly put my faith in some dude who died almost 2,000 years ago. What in the world would I trust a died guy to do?

"A person who rejects Christ may choose to say that I do not accept it, he may not choose to say there is not enough evidence."~Simon Greenleef...

If you choose not to put your faith in Christ, you can do that, but you cant really say that God has not revealed himself to humanity.

[Shem Yoshi]

The truth of the matter is this. We ultimately dont know why you dont believe in God, it could be that you choose not to believe. None the less, there would be no way that we could validate that you are sincere, any one could just say that they are... And it is against the rules to question such things, that would be a necessary question for discussion of this debate.

I believe in the Bible after i read it because it convinced me that it is the Word of God. You have that same evidence and choose not to believe it, for what reasons this is we can only speculate.