POLL: Is there a God ??
- Thread starter megablue
- Start date
WildcatfaninOhio
All-American
The poll should have specified WHICH god. I'm fairly certain that the 76% that voted for yes meant, "yes the xian god that I was taught to believe in exists". If it asked if Zeus exists, those same 76% would have answered no.
And, if there is one true God, that would be the correct answer. Because Richard Dawkins and Ricky Gervais have a cute, but irrelevant, comment that people like to parrot, that does not change the fact that if there is one God, He is and the others do not.
^^^^
Key word there is “if”
You can believe there is. I can believe there’s not. Neither one of us can definitively prove the existence or non-existence of a true god or gods.
Key word there is “if”
You can believe there is. I can believe there’s not. Neither one of us can definitively prove the existence or non-existence of a true god or gods.
He does not believe there “is a one true god or gods.” I believe there is a God. Seems one of us is definitely wrong. If both are wrong, my comment is still correct. Ron can explain how we can both be correct.
Maybe there’s a 3rd option none of us even know about. Or a 4th? Something new and cool we’ve never heard about.
When I think of the poll question I'd assume it's talking about the God of Christianity as most people here are of that religion. Both can be wrong in the sense that there's a supreme being out there but it's not the God of the bible. If this is the case then an athiest/agnostic like myself would be wrong but so would a believer in the Christian God.
Sure. This has been belabored, but I did not say we both could not be wrong. I only said one of us definitely is wrong.
Here is a 20-minute video from a few months back by Alex O’Connor, who has a regular YouTube podcast entitled WITHIN REASON that covers many interesting and controversial topics.
He is very young, bright, sincere and engaging, I think.
People on both sides of “Is there a God?” might find his presentation here quite honest, if nothing else.
He is very young, bright, sincere and engaging, I think.
People on both sides of “Is there a God?” might find his presentation here quite honest, if nothing else.
Last edited:
He's a smart kid; I've been a fan for a long time. I think there's a very good chance he comes around in the end.
Here he is making a point I've made in this thread against the crux of "your" atheist rationale much more effectively than I did.
Catholics, especially, whether devout or lapsed, will get a kick out of this. A funny reminder of early catechism. It ticked me and brought back memories. Very cute … !!
Last edited:
https://documentedhealings.com/category/smith-wigglesworth/
A true living God working through Smith Wigglesworth raising the dead.
A true living God working through Smith Wigglesworth raising the dead.
Engaging smart young man. I just listened to his first hypothesis, which is sad, because he truly sounds angry that he has not had a revelation of God, while detailing what he believes is a resume worthy. I hear him as a less sophisticated analogy. I too was raised Catholic. In my senior year of high school, I decided the rote recitation of creeds and prayers and responses I saw in church could not be the relational response a living god would want. So, rather than routine, I said the words, learned them, so that I could mean them. I tried hard to be the image of a good believer I had conceived. Went to college, and decided it made no sense to me. I too listened to every Christian who approached and sincerely engaged those who presented as kind and thoughtful. I was the true agnostic for much of that time, seeing the possibility for a God, but also seeing what I viewed as reality around me. This was my posture for years, with moments of voiced atheism. Years later, after a “discussion” with a believer who I know loved me, I felt this tinge of hypocrisy. I was talking about the God of the Bible, challenging His existence, and yet, I really only had portions of that Bible read to me. I had not read the four gospels in their entirety. I decided to do that so that I could know and better refute what they believed. I was not truly seeking God, but more arguments that opposed. Into the Gospel of Matthew, my heart completely flipped. How could that be after listening to this young man’s stated attempts to find God?
And, yet, it did.
So, I guess he can attest to being the one, if the only one, non-believer who claims sincerely to have sought and not found (yet) and, therefore, if even one, his claim must be true, but he must account for those of us who were surprised by faith when the god he describes does not exist.
He has based his first point on his limited perspective. Fair enough. But, explain the perspective of the guy who was surprised to find he believed in God when his motives, while convicted by honest humility, were not pure.
It is a quandary for him. One he can overlook by being self-centered, but one that exists, nevertheless.
Much like O’Connor’s, yours is an honest, sincere and well-articulated description of how you moved from spiritual sobriety to a position of deep and fervent faith. Thanks for the post.
Last edited:
In Jesus’s banquet parable, people chose possessions, works, and relationships over the kingdom of God. Seems like time passes, people don’t change.
