So like idk. lately almost constantly daily,there has been one think i really ponder. so last weekend on Sunday i went to church with my dad just because he asked me to, and all i could do when i was sitting there is question if god truly exists or if he does,does he truly have good intentions. all that went through my head was, why hell didnt he just start over in the beginning?? i mean people always start over, right? well why couldnt he?? and i mean like, if adam and eve turned bad, why did he just leave it at that? ok. so then i started thinking, it wasnt really there fault i guess. cuz god thought he'd let his lil bad angel exist here. wouldnt it make sense that if you intend to have ppl worship you, why would you leave that evil thing continue to exist??? why would he have to show and prove that hes powerful if he already is like supposed to be? i mean i think it would make more sense to destroy satan than to let him prove himself. cuz by trying to do that, look at what the world has had to go through. there is almost everything that is possibly bad, surrounding the word. why would he have to prove that??
So then i started to think...there were dinosaurs. where are they mentioned in the bible??i mean i could be wrong cuz ive only read a good amount of it back in the day when i beliefs were different than from how they are today,if you find it sure let me know. but seriously where is this whole thing about earth going through like all of the ice age and dinosaurs and all that other stuff. the bible and the thought of god, are some things i really ponder about the truth and the real existence. i just dont see the correspondece
cuz if you think about it,life would be soo much better if "he" did the right thing in the begining.get rid of the evil,instead of letting it exist. im not trying to turn anyones beleifs at all what so ever, but i dont know if all this is true. i mean couldnt it have been possible jesus either didnt really exist or that he was like some kind of witch doctor/magician???i just dont know for sure about these things anymore. im not against the thought of there being a god,but i do at times really truly wonder if he really exists or has the right intentions.i mean this was stuff that i honestly thought were true, i believed in it, and defended it all the time. but now i look back and wonder why. now i just thing that people just need something to believe in in order to have something to live for. but i look back on what i was taught and have thought otherwise on what i was taught.
I was taught and once believed in a perfect future in a paradise, that followed the end of the word just there was going to be like some heavenly army to destroy all the bad and wicked. i was also taught that after death, one would just be in peace, sleeping,waiting for this paradise to come true. and there was no heaven or hell. and when the time came for like a judgement day, the wicked and evil wouldnt exist they would just be back to there sleeping. so then i thought, well why didnt he just do this getting rid of evil in the very very beigining??? it would make more sense. and another thing, why didnt he just start all over again, and work out all the things that would have lead to problems? maybe he just wasnt ready to make life and needed to wait, just how young ppl should wait till they think of the outcomes of not being ready to start having babies...
anyways my point of stating my former beliefs was that, if this whole sleeping thing is true, then why dont i just do what ever the hell i want to do right now, within the law that is, and it wont matter in the end. cuz if i end up "failing" judgement, then it wouldnt really matter since ill just end up catching up on a hella lot of sleeping...i mean if what i was brought up knowing, wouldnt that just stand true?? cuz some of the things to go along with this talked of paradise, were there would be no sicknes, no sadness, and only tears of joy...stuff like that. and if the bible just so happens to be true, i know its described like this in there somewhere. so then if there wont be sadness, then my family isnt really going to miss me then will they. they will have know sadness of remembering my existance, not missing me, and ill just be in a deep sleep.dead. but i wont miss anything either cuz well ill be dead.completely unconsciene. it wont matter to them and it wont matter to me. and i will have done what i wanted to do during the time that i did existed. so then i think about it,what have i really got to lose if this is all true?? i will have lived to the fullest and didnt hold back from doing that. i dont know, i may sound harsh, but i dont mean to be, this is just what makes sense to me...
I dont know, just thinking about this subject that can be soo controversial is driving me nuts!but idk why,but i cant help but wonder about these kind of things.and i know if i were to ever want to discuss this with family or throw out my opinion on the whole subject, its like im the devil in disguise!so like idk ive been wanting to ask these kinds of things and give my opinion without any interruption, and have someone think to begin some sort of exercisim or whatever it is...but really, i want to believe but i just dont. and i dont think i will again. its something i just can seem to understand and i dont think i ever will be able to. trust me its not the lack of mental intelligence!haha its just something that i thing if this were to be true, then you would have to be god. cuz i dont think humans are really able to grasp the whole idea about it. cuz it was supposed to be understandable, then why the hell are there soo many freakin' religions out there???!!!?!
Go ahead. i know ill be judged for this. say what you got to say to me and about me. bring it on. judge all you want if thats what you feel like doing to me after reading this....a lil input might be nice :)
Honestly, I think it's really good that you're questioning what you believe, or don't believe, in. No matter what a person puts their trust in, whether it's a god or science, if they trust unthinkingly, and don't know what they truly are believing and putting their hope in, they're vastly unintelligent. Do you mind if I answer a few of your questions though? I don't have all the answers, not even most, but I think I might have some.
- God DID start over, with Noah. the world had gotten even worse than it is today, and God just said, "no more." so, Noah builds the boat, animals come from all over, the world is flooded, and only Noah and his family are left. This actually ties in to the next part:
- Dinosaurs. A "leviathion" is mentioned in Job, and this is what most people point to for dinosaurs. it certainly sounds frightening enough..(if i don't get this right, i'm sorry.. I'm going from memory here) I think it's scaly like an alligator, but HUGE, and has a long neck? i'm not sure. but most dinosaurs probably died in the flood-- they were just too big to get on the ark.
- About evil, and God eliminating it. You've heard the law "every action has an equal and opposite reaction"? sort of the same principal. like, you can't have one without the other. In the absence of light, you have dark. cold doesn't really exist, it's just the absence of heat. We have evil because there is good. if there were only good, would we know it was good? If we had only God, would we be in such awe of his mercy and splendor and love?
- People can prove Jesus existed, but you're right, they can't really prove he did all the stuff the bible says. Who knows, maybe he WAS a crazy guy who just believed he was God's son, or he was a witch doctor. The way i see it, he had to either have been a liar or really who he said he was. His dying for what he believed in is one thing, but if it was a lie, shouldn't we have figured it out by now? why, if it IS a lie, are people still willingly dying for this man? it seems silly to me to still be making such a big deal out of this guy if he was a fake.
- Death. The apostle Paul, somewhere in the new testament, talks about death being like sleep. but not in the way you were taught it. i think he means it more in the sense of when you wake up in the morning, you don't generally have a sense of all those hours passing by. it's more like, you close your eyes to sleep, and BOOM! you open them and it's morning! i think that when we die, we close our eyes to sleep, and BAM! you open them and it's eternity.
holy cow, this is long. i'm sorry. i hope i'm not coming across judgemental, because that's not how i'm meaning it at all. I've asked all these questions, and this to me just makes the most sense. I hope that up there helped you in your search. I truly hope you find what you're looking for.
Actually, the thing with the leviathan is a little mixed up in the translation. People say that it has a big tale, so it can't be an elephant or whatever. The actual word, however, is referring to the leviathans genitals.
As for the dinosaurs being wiped out in the flood, how do you attest to the fact that the fossils we find of them are much older than the supposed flood?
Jesus, and his apostles, didn't have to be lying if they weren't telling the truth. They could have honestly believed all that, and were just wrong.
OK, I buy human evil, but what about things like Hurricane Katrina?
And the Noah thing, god did start over, after allowing humans to go on even after they screwed up, and then killed every man, woman, child and every animal on the face of the planet except one family, and two kinds of every animal. Doesn't that seem a little...extreme?
"-bah!! Pardon the "bah!" I feel several "bahs!", but out of courtesy I only say one."
H.P. Lovecraft
Good point. But that brings into question the accuracy of carbon dating, and how long it takes for each strata layer to be put down. It was generally thought to take millions of years to lay down each individual layer, but when Mt. Saint Helens blew her top, there were seven or so layers put down in like, two minutes or so. If that could happen in that short of time, think of what could happen in forty days during a world-wide flood. Now, i'm not saying there were no layers pre-flood, or no layers post-flood. but besides dinosaurs in those layers, there are other animals, and humans, too.
I wasn't necessarily referring to just the disciples. I'm referring to the people who have died for Jesus' sake throughout the ages, including today. With all the knowledge we have about human history and progress, i feel that if Jesus were a fake, we would have definite knowledge of it by now.
But if God started over after Adam and Eve sinned, he would be wiping out everything. everything else was already created by the time he created man. so sparing noah, his family, and the pair of each animals, he was being LESS extreme than if he wiped the slate totally clean and started all over.
I really don't honestly know what to think about stuff like Hurricane Katrina. it's horrible stuff, and i really don't know why God allows that kind of stuff to happen. I wish it didn't. but... idk. i just don't know.
lol that quote made my day. thank you for it! ^_^
"Good point. But that brings into question the accuracy of carbon dating, and how long it takes for each strata layer to be put down. It was generally thought to take millions of years to lay down each individual layer, but when Mt. Saint Helens blew her top, there were seven or so layers put down in like, two minutes or so. If that could happen in that short of time, think of what could happen in forty days during a world-wide flood. Now, i'm not saying there were no layers pre-flood, or no layers post-flood. but besides dinosaurs in those layers, there are other animals, and humans, too."
Carbon dating is not the only way to do it. Neither is what you're talking about, which isn't carbon dating. What you're talking about is dating by rock level, which isn't the most accurate. Carbon dating is dating by the amount of carbon left in organic remains. That isn't effective with dinosaurs because of their great age. There are other methods, though, that are much more accurate in that regard. (Uranium, I think. I could be wrong)
"I wasn't necessarily referring to just the disciples. I'm referring to the people who have died for Jesus' sake throughout the ages, including today. With all the knowledge we have about human history and progress, i feel that if Jesus were a fake, we would have definite knowledge of it by now."
What about all of the people who died for Judaism? What about all the people who died for Islam?
Why would we have definite knowledge? How can you? The fact is that there is very little evidence that Jesus was anything more than a messiah-claimant. The evidence that suggests otherwise is the bible.
"But if God started over after Adam and Eve sinned, he would be wiping out everything. everything else was already created by the time he created man. so sparing noah, his family, and the pair of each animals, he was being LESS extreme than if he wiped the slate totally clean and started all over."
He could have just erased Adam and Eve's memory and killed the freaking snake or something... I mean, he's god. You'd think he'd find a way...
"I really don't honestly know what to think about stuff like Hurricane Katrina. it's horrible stuff, and i really don't know why God allows that kind of stuff to happen. I wish it didn't. but... idk. i just don't know."
.....
"lol that quote made my day. thank you for it! ^_^"
:dances:
"-bah!! Pardon the "bah!" I feel several "bahs!", but out of courtesy I only say one."
H.P. Lovecraft
TAIL, jsaj... TAIL....
A tale is a story. A tail is an appendage coming off the spinal column.
~C
Check out the latest entry in the Between The Lines column!
:-& Gah.....
"-bah!! Pardon the "bah!" I feel several "bahs!", but out of courtesy I only say one."
H.P. Lovecraft
Well, I'm an atheist. The reason: I am a questioner, and a believer. I believe what I can make sense of. I have studied religions all of my life in all of their guises. I'll never stop that. I find them fascinating.
If you don't believe, it is for a reason. If you believe, it is for a reason. Question everything, and believe in what makes sense to you. And, remember, you don't have to believe in god or science to believe in something. You could believe in yourself, too.
You can't ignore me, for I'll not lie down quietly.
I question God on a daily basis, its actually starting to get really frustrating. I don't want to go on a rant about my own beliefs, but I will say that religion is really a personal decision. No one should just blindly accept everything, but at the same time, you should try to keep an open mind. I believe in God, not because its what I was taught (though it did contribute) but because I personally have chosen to believe, based on what I have observed and felt in my own life. In short, it is always good to ask questions and wonder, it really is what makes someone an intelligent and ultimately wise person.