[maca930]

I go to a Catholic school. I read the Bible during school hours. I still can't believe in God. If you believe in Him, then that's fine, I'm sticking with the big bang theory.

[Cannabin0l]

The video below is a vivid description of my failure to believe in god.

Guadal, Faeyn, Maca, everyone watch this video, and listen to the words / lyrics very closely. Compelling.

I don't expect it to change anyones opinions, but while we're discussing the matter I thought I'd post it.

[youtube]_k9eDEjDOS4[/youtube]

[kingofturves]

[youtube]SIgxFfnJ78Y[/youtube]

[smith2013]

Well on the subject, a good book to read I think is: Heaven is for Real. I'd say most of you guys have heard of it.

[fritterdonut]

Have you ever thought about your soul - can it be saved?
Or perhaps you think that when you're dead you just stay in your grave
Is God just a thought within your head or is he a part of you?
Is Christ just a name that you read in a book when you were in school?

When you think about death do you lose your breath or
do you keep your cool?
Would you like to see the Pope on the end of a rope
do you think he's a fool?
Well I have seen the truth, yes I've seen the light and I've changed my ways
And I'll be prepared when you're lonely and scared at the end of our days

Could it be you're afraid of what your friends might say
If they knew you believed in God above?
They should realize before they criticize
that God is the only way to love

Is your mind so small that you have to fall
In with the pack wherever they run
Will you still sneer when death is near
And say they may as well worship the sun?

I think it was true it was people like you that crucified Christ
I think it is sad the opinion you had was the only one voiced
Will you be so sure when your day is near, say you don't believe?
You had the chance but you turned it down, now you can't retrieve

Perhaps you'll think before you say that God is dead and gone
Open your eyes, just realize that he's the one
The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate
Or will you jeer at all you hear? Yes! I think it's too late.

--Black Sabbath, Song: After Forever, Album: Master of Reality

For all you haters out there.

[BSGSamuel]

[kittenpirate007]

I don't understand how that answers my question. Are you saying that he intended to let people rape women and children, and commit mass murders?

Faeyn already answered this question, God gave us free will, and if people use their freewill to cause evil, than God deals with them in the afterlife.

I don't see why people should expect divine intervention. Why should God come down and fix all the problems that we created?
And if God intervened with the evil in the world, than where would our freewill come into play at?

That's probably all I will say in this thread, as I hate talking about religion on the internet...

[atlarjy]

Just a minor observation.
You want a REASON to believe in god. I can present you with a simple logic square for that.

God Exists God Doesn't Exist
--------------------------------------------------
You Believe | | |
--------------------------------------------------
You Don't Believe | | |
----------------------------------------------------

Per most beliefs of these 4 possibilities 2 of these possibilities you simply go away, 1 you suffer for eternity, the only one that even gives you a chance of "an eternity in the light" or whatever euphemism they use for it is to believe in SOMETHING and try be a good person.
As for "why does god let that happen. Why would he step in to stop help us if we won't even help ourselves. Most of the human centered bad things(murders, rapes, ect..) that happen to us are a combination of hundreds of little evils that we as a race encourage or ignore and allow to grow into the catastrophies they result in. If you look at the individuals involved lot of the those people were abused/ignored/scared by a variety of terrible things. Does that excuse their actions NO should they be punished....well yes I think very severely...
People thank god for "Winning the big game" and get mad at him when bad things happen...In the end I really think if there is a god he's obviously not going to step in and fix everything for us. If he exists he gave us the ability to think and grow and left it to us to address each little thing that happens in our lives and accept the consequences. You want things to get better....Start making them better! Don't wait for some invisible figure that has NEVER actually fixed all the problems of humanity. At most he just created the oportunity for us to fix them ourselves and is waiting to see what we do with that opportunity

Just my 2 cents....

[FaeynHeart]

I don't understand how that answers my question. Are you saying that he intended to let people rape women and children, and commit mass murders?

Hm, well I'm trying to help you understand. Try to relate it to a father-son kind of thing. If you're a dad, and you raise your son to know what he should do and not do, you hope that he will make the best decisions. While he's young, you may keep away from harm and show more leniency.

Now imagine that he's growing up and becoming a young man, and he starts to make the wrong decisions. You try to tell him you still love him and are only telling him to make the right decisions because you've been there and experienced how things end up bad if you don't. This goes on for a long time, and eventually, he starts to ignore you because he wants to do things his own way. Instead of getting frustrated, you tell your son "Son, I still love you. I'm here whenever you want to be with me. I won't turn you away whenever you call."

While I can't portray it perfectly, this is what I believe, pretty close to how God would deal with us. So do you see that it was not His intention for us to make those choices? He isn't going to control us like robots. You wouldn't do that to your son right? He's got to learn and grow up.

If you disagree entirely that's totally fine But I did just want to make some sort of effort to answer your question.

[Prodigy9]

@Faeyn: good description. To add my own $0.02 on the matter, removing free will (i.e. making everyone's thoughts/words/actions absolutely dependent on what God wants) would eliminate the possibility of doing anything evil, but it would also eliminate the moral goodness of doing anything righteous.