Why do christians believe in god?

[kilese]

I want to know how, in this modern world, people still worship a god. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even try to believe it. I see no logic in it at all, to believe in a magical being that lives in the clouds. You can't possibly truly believe in it all. If you do, then humans are more clueless than i thought. Why worship someone who lets children starve everyday? If he has the power to stop it, and doesn't, then he is malevolent. But if he doesn't have the power, he is not a god. And if god created freewill and is omnipotent, then he would already know about all the horrible things in the world that would happen, and could have stopped it. And if he's omnipotent, whats the point of praying? Your prayers would have already been heard. And no one's prayers have been answered, so he is not worth worshiping, and therefore, is not a god. I'm not try to attack anyone, i just can't understand how anyone can believe all this.

[JohnnyJersey]

I don't understand how anyone can be so arrogant and ignorant as to think that the world ends with what they can sense and that there not only is not but can't be a crucial reason behind the existence of everything. Well, I guess I kind of understand it; there are many people who lack the ability to think philosophically and question beyond what they're told are certain limits in the world, i.e. that which can be sensed and observed.

Furthermore, I can't understand how people who live their lives on faith in what others claim to have observed and the stories and tales told by those people would be able to turn around and criticize others for doing the same without realizing what bleedingly ignorant hypocrites they are.

Then again, there are just a lot of ignorant, uneducated people out there who never study anything yet bash what they don't know - and the irreligious fall into that category.

[JoeyKnothead]

From Post 5:

I don't understand how anyone can be so arrogant and ignorant as to think that the world ends with what they can sense and that there not only is not but can't be a crucial reason behind the existence of everything.

Why would it not be arrogant to propose there's something beyond what can be sensed?

How can one know what can't be sensed?

Well, I guess I kind of understand it; there are many people who lack the ability to think philosophically and question beyond what they're told are certain limits in the world, i.e. that which can be sensed and observed.

What do you propose is beyond what can be sensed and observed?

Furthermore, I can't understand how people who live their lives on faith in what others claim to have observed and the stories and tales told by those people would be able to turn around and criticize others for doing the same without realizing what bleedingly ignorant hypocrites they are.

Your failure to understand why folks don't believe claims of dead folks rising, or animals talking, or folks walking on water is your own issue.

Show me evidence these things occur and I'll go to believing with you.

Then again, there are just a lot of ignorant, uneducated people out there who never study anything yet bash what they don't know - and the irreligious fall into that category.

Then perhaps you're not so "ignorant or uneducated" that you can't proffer verifiable evidence for your favored god?

Let's see who's "ignorant or uneducated".

[Flail]

I don't understand how anyone can be so arrogant and ignorant as to think that the world ends with what they can sense and that there not only is not but can't be a crucial reason behind the existence of everything. Well, I guess I kind of understand it; there are many people who lack the ability to think philosophically and question beyond what they're told are certain limits in the world, i.e. that which can be sensed and observed.

Furthermore, I can't understand how people who live their lives on faith in what others claim to have observed and the stories and tales told by those people would be able to turn around and criticize others for doing the same without realizing what bleedingly ignorant hypocrites they are.

Then again, there are just a lot of ignorant, uneducated people out there who never study anything yet bash what they don't know - and the irreligious fall into that category.

...and I agree....which is why life is so interesting and fulfilling in its questions and searches and challenges...there is so much to learn and understand...particular god indoctrinations tend to take sutch things as that out of life.

[DavidBG]

I want to know how, in this modern world, people still worship a god. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even try to believe it. I see no logic in it at all, to believe in a magical being that lives in the clouds. You can't possibly truly believe in it all. If you do, then humans are more clueless than i thought. Why worship someone who lets children starve everyday? If he has the power to stop it, and doesn't, then he is malevolent. But if he doesn't have the power, he is not a god. And if god created freewill and is omnipotent, then he would already know about all the horrible things in the world that would happen, and could have stopped it. And if he's omnipotent, whats the point of praying? Your prayers would have already been heard. And no one's prayers have been answered, so he is not worth worshiping, and therefore, is not a god. I'm not try to attack anyone, i just can't understand how anyone can believe all this.

Christians don't believe hardly any of the above. First of all they believe in God not god. Secondly, he doesn't exactly "live in the clouds." (I don't know where that came from) And nobody ever said he was magical. (At least not the Bible) And who is letting children starve? Man or God? Sin and evil came into the world as a result of man's sins. The Bible says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Now until you all try this, you can't say God doesn't answer prayer.

David

[Flail]

I want to know how, in this modern world, people still worship a god. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even try to believe it. I see no logic in it at all, to believe in a magical being that lives in the clouds. You can't possibly truly believe in it all. If you do, then humans are more clueless than i thought. Why worship someone who lets children starve everyday? If he has the power to stop it, and doesn't, then he is malevolent. But if he doesn't have the power, he is not a god. And if god created freewill and is omnipotent, then he would already know about all the horrible things in the world that would happen, and could have stopped it. And if he's omnipotent, whats the point of praying? Your prayers would have already been heard. And no one's prayers have been answered, so he is not worth worshiping, and therefore, is not a god. I'm not try to attack anyone, i just can't understand how anyone can believe all this.

Christians don't believe hardly any of the above. First of all they believe in God not god. Secondly, he doesn't exactly "live in the clouds." (I don't know where that came from) And nobody ever said he was magical. (At least not the Bible) And who is letting children starve? Man or God? Sin and evil came into the world as a result of man's sins. The Bible says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Now until you all try this, you can't say God doesn't answer prayer.

David

Have you turned from your wicked ways? What happens if you turn back? Do you have any evidence that your God has forgiven all of your sin? Do you have any evidence as to where God lives?

[DavidBG]

Have I turned from my wicked ways? Yes. As we all are though, I am not perfect.

What happens if I turn back? If I or anyone else were to turn back, they would be separated from God.

Where is God? He is omnipresent. I'll bet a lot of you will want to argue that, but I state this: Space is omnipresent (after a fashion). There is space everywhere. (on a scientific level anyway) God is even more so.

On a scientific level: Everything wrong you've ever done you'll continue to do throughout all eternity, except for one thing, God's forgiveness. He'll separate your sins as far as the east is from the west. And that is infinite distance.

[WinePusher]

I want to know how, in this modern world, people still worship a god.

That is kind of weird. There must be some veracity to the God claim if so many people in the modern world are stil believers.

I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even try to believe it. I see no logic in it at all, to believe in a magical being that lives in the clouds.

What religion claims that a magical creature lives in the clouds? Christianity claims a transcendent being exists outside of the natural world, not a magical being that lives in the clouds.

You can't possibly truly believe in it all.

Takes much more faith to be an atheist and believe that no higher order or purpose exists......

If you do, then humans are more clueless than i thought.

Notice, that the great philsophers and scientists of the ages were christians.

Soren Kieerkegard, Immanuel Kant, Wilhelm Hegel, Plato, Rutherford, J.J Thompson, Ernest Rutherford, Copernicus, Galileo. Now, there religious beleifs may or may not have directly influenced their great works, but if it did not influence them, it surly did not hinder them.

Why worship someone who lets children starve everyday? If he has the power to stop it, and doesn't, then he is malevolent.

What would you like to see happen, God rain down some manna? I see God's hand at work in all those missionaries who feed and care for children in thrid world countries.

But if he doesn't have the power, he is not a god. And if god created freewill and is omnipotent, then he would already know about all the horrible things in the world that would happen, and could have stopped it.

According to you, the only other alternative would have been to make man sub-serviant to God with no free will of his own. And also, notice that the good that has been brought about by free will, not just evil.

[JohnnyJersey]

Why would it not be arrogant to propose there's something beyond what can be sensed?

Because it is a humble attitude to acknowledge that which is beyond our capability of understanding. It is an arrogant attitude that believes we can possibly know all, even if we don't know it all yet.

How can one know what can't be sensed?

Spiritually, for one.

What do you propose is beyond what can be sensed and observed?

The Supernatural.

Your failure to understand why folks don't believe claims of dead folks rising, or animals talking, or folks walking on water is your own issue.

Show me evidence these things occur and I'll go to believing with you.

Your failure to understand or even be able to consider the fact that there is more beyond your own senses is your own issue.

Show me evidence that you will accept whatever evidence I will provide and I will provide it; otherwise, I won't waste my time with you.

Then perhaps you're not so "ignorant or uneducated" that you can't proffer verifiable evidence for your favored god?

Let's see who's "ignorant or uneducated".

"favored god" - ha. How pathetically typical.

"Verifiable"? Verifiable by what? By stories from others? By tales from others? By hearsay?

[Scotracer]

I want to know how, in this modern world, people still worship a god. I don't know about anyone else, but I can't even try to believe it. I see no logic in it at all, to believe in a magical being that lives in the clouds. You can't possibly truly believe in it all. If you do, then humans are more clueless than i thought. Why worship someone who lets children starve everyday? If he has the power to stop it, and doesn't, then he is malevolent. But if he doesn't have the power, he is not a god. And if god created freewill and is omnipotent, then he would already know about all the horrible things in the world that would happen, and could have stopped it. And if he's omnipotent, whats the point of praying? Your prayers would have already been heard. And no one's prayers have been answered, so he is not worth worshiping, and therefore, is not a god. I'm not try to attack anyone, i just can't understand how anyone can believe all this.

Christians don't believe hardly any of the above. First of all they believe in God not god. Secondly, he doesn't exactly "live in the clouds." (I don't know where that came from) And nobody ever said he was magical. (At least not the Bible) And who is letting children starve? Man or God? Sin and evil came into the world as a result of man's sins. The Bible says, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." Now until you all try this, you can't say God doesn't answer prayer.

David

Can your god use supernatural forces to affect the natural world?

If the answer to the above is yes, the god you believe in is magical, by definition.

I don't understand how anyone can be so arrogant and ignorant as to think that the world ends with what they can sense and that there not only is not but can't be a crucial reason behind the existence of everything. Well, I guess I kind of understand it; there are many people who lack the ability to think philosophically and question beyond what they're told are certain limits in the world, i.e. that which can be sensed and observed.

Furthermore, I can't understand how people who live their lives on faith in what others claim to have observed and the stories and tales told by those people would be able to turn around and criticize others for doing the same without realizing what bleedingly ignorant hypocrites they are.

Then again, there are just a lot of ignorant, uneducated people out there who never study anything yet bash what they don't know - and the irreligious fall into that category.

Didn't take long for you to run in with the broad insults, did it?

Are you really, honestly comparing the bible with the scientific method? For one thet bible has no accountability as we don't know the authors (and they ain't alive) and offer no way to verify what they claim is true whereas science is wholly accountable and scrutinised critically to the nth degree. Also, science has been confirmed over and over and over again to make accurate predictions and explanations of nature...if it didn't we wouldn't even be having this debate.

No one said there was nothing beyond what we know; you'd be very hard pressed to find an atheist who would make such a ridiculous claim but when you make a claim or believe something so much that it affects how you live and can't back it up in any verifiable sense....well, then you're not being rational.

[Adamoriens]

Christians don't believe hardly any of the above. First of all they believe in God not god. Secondly, he doesn't exactly "live in the clouds." (I don't know where that came from)

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From the New International Version:

Acts 1:9-11: "After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 'Men of Galilee,' they said, 'why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.'"

Luke 24:50-53: "When he had led them out to the vicinity of Bethany, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven. Then they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. And they stayed continually at the temple, praising God."

Mark 16:19-20: "After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it."

In addition, numerous passages in Exodus refer to God descending down to Earth in physical form (decidedly not in the form of Jesus, as many would have it), inhabiting clouds and storms about mount Sinai etc. In Genesis, God notices the builders of of the Tower of Babel:

Genesis 11: 5-7: "But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, 'If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.'"

We have no statement that he "exactly lives in the clouds." However, the text seems to suggest that he lives somewhere in the sky or in space. No doubt I'm misinterpreting all this incorrectly; it's all metaphorical! Whatever the case, you now know where the idea came from: the Bible.