My Statement of (Non)Belief

Interesting post. If you get the opportunity, you may want to read 'The Salmon of Doubt' (assuming you haven't already done so) to compare Douglas Adams's views with yours.

Aha. I had one of those aha moments, then more and more until "belief" became a lie.

The Fortean Times had an article on the Intelligent Design theory, and how it doesn't even support itself. The surface gloss is convincing, but when you start to look at specific examples it collapses into a heap of wishful thinking.
Douglas Adams was the most lucid thinker I have ever read, I second the recommend for Salmon of Doubt.

I am honored that my question elicited such eloquence. Thank you.

I wish I had some awesome way of trying to make my point, or some deep, intelligent statement that would give you have another 'Aha moment' as you realized you are a believer after all. But all I can say is that I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is real, and that He gave His son, Jesus to die for all of us. I believe the Bible - every word of it. Now, that doesn't mean I UNDERSTAND HOW it all came to be. But I don't need to know all that right now. That's where faith comes in. There are MANY things in life that don't make sense - does that mean they aren't real? I face things every single day, as I'm sure you do, that are unexplainable, unfair, or just don't make sense, but there they are anyway. So why, how, or when, God came to be isn't that important to me. All I need to know is He IS, ALWAYS HAS BEEN, AND ALWAYS WILL BE. When I get to heaven, ALL will be made clear.
Thanks for listening ~MARCI~

Marci,

There is none, because your certain path will never fit all that transcends. I do not have the arrogance to presume that I know the mind of what you call god. I do not know what heaven even is, far less that I have surety that I will "go" there when I die. I think the mystery is far more infinite and complex, with no guarantees at all. I feel far more connection to the spiritual now that I have opened my heart to what is, rather than what I have been told is. I cannot fit into that concrete mold the glory I have experienced directly. The light that fills my day refuses to be named and restricted by dogma and orthodoxy.

David, I apologize if I crossed the line with this, I will not be offended if you remove my response.

very well written. There are many questions that one can ask if one is really looking for answers. Many people look to and need to have a 'higher power' and that is fine. I agree that one can have a belief system but they really should not force it on anyone.

(I do believe in God, but He and I really need to have a serious talk one of these days.)

At first, I thought that the existence of a divine being is a mere notion of idealistic minds. To some extent, their argument that a grand design such as the earth can only be done out of a powerful hand. It seems to me that the world is a physical manifestation of God and men are his emotional description.

Honorable idea, very interesting. With the theory of God (I'm a non-devout Christian) I've played with almost any idea you could think of.

My favorite is that we are seperate ideas in the subconcious of God's mind. We are apart of his really long dream. As in Men in Black, how the galaxy was the size of a marble. Maybe our God is having a dream which we are all a part of and the only thing holding us all on the same plane of existance is the fact we don't really exist at all by ourselves.

Like I said, fun idea. Nice site too.

Well, it was fun reading it, and one day I might actually create a blog in answer to it. Mostly because I enjoy a good debate.

Suffice it to say, that I, as a Christian, Have riddled these same questions and yet, I am still a Christian. Funny how challenges effect differing changes in oneself.

One of my favorite mind teasers always leads me down darkened corridors with no answers, and the question goes like this: How can God, knowing all, know for sure there is not another God somewhere else? And if that were the case, then of course wouldn't he be asking the same questions? "Is there a God?"

Silly isn't it?

Although quite a mind bender, it still does not relieve the possibility of a Creator, whether or not he himself was created is irrelevant, even if it weren't a foolish idea.

You see to me there is no question of whether or not there is a God or not. That is so firmly established by probahbility, that it is almost laughable to conclude any other possibility. But, the thought of a God that has exisited before there was anything else, and beyond that, now THAT, blows my mind. (The Bible teaches that God and His Son were before all things - That means ALL things.) Of course I can say with relative confidence that I am NOT God, so my innability to grasp such constructs of the imagination does not suprise me.

What I note briefly about your perception of Biblical knowledge, is that it is fairly wrong - or at least very, very incomplete. But thats OK, mine is too on occasion. The difference being however, that I cannot find any logical reasoning that gives me the ability to exclude a Creator, vis a vis, my own finiteness, and foolishness. This includes all you have written here, which has appeared in various forms throughout human history. One erroneous statement is your claim that a bunch of people got together and "Voted on the Bible". The uninitiated probably do not know that you refer to the Council of Nicenes. You are either very ignorant about how the various books of the Bible were chosen, or you have decided to fabricate a description to cast doubt in the minds of your listeners. Either scenario is unconscienable. Both secular scholars, and Christians scholars understand why.

It always amazes me that people think they have come up with a new way to explain life, when actually every concept they have ever come up with will have already been concluded in various incarnations in one form or another. Quite simply, Agnostics and Atheists NEVER come up with any new material.

Another point of note: I was involved in a Paralegal capacity for several years (Constitutional law), and I can steadfastly declare that you do not know American History. Oh, you do know some sort of history, but mostly from propaganda of a sort that is always filtered by the winner through the victor's controlled superstructure. The fact that you need to ask what victor I speak of, or what winner I am talking about, further establishes the case. (Yes I know, I am not elaborating, but then I would have to write a book, and there are so many unproven conclusions in your statement of unbelief, I'll take the liberty of exercising similar liberties here)

I suppose you do believe in revisionist history? Or are you to be like most other people victimized at the winds of political pursuit? While claims are made that this group or that makes news, or "spins it", These same people are not cognizant enough to recognze that such statements prove that there are forces attempting to change their understanding of history, and it has been exceptionally successful in the USA. One good example is what the founding fathers thought about 'democracy". Read Federalist Papers 10-11, to get the meaning.

So, How can a fellow like me, answer people making these sorts of observations such as the ones you have made?

The answer is, I cannot. This is because it is a battle, an argument, even a political pursuit that consists solely as a battle of ideologies. This is the identical battle spoken of in the Holy Scriptures. Its Good v Evil, but its got a different name in every generation. Rememeber - Nothing new under the sun?

In conclusion: I do not question your statement that you were a Bible thumper. However, I do question whether or not you ever really accepted Christ. I doubt it. The Bible itself states that individual Christians KNOW they have God. This cannot be "believed away". Once you have received Jesus, there is no way to go back - Old things are passed away... all things are become new. Quite simply put, you cannot "unaccept" God. You can only not accept him - or reject him in the first place.

Cheers!

Mark

Thanks for your reply .gif" alt="smiley"/>

Something that you said struck me as funny and true, that many times Christians forget they are human, and forget what the Bible REALLY says. It's great to have your beliefs, and I have very strong Christian beliefs, but so many times Christians forget that the Bible says to be humble and loving. When you take on the "I'm right, you're wrong" mentality, you really are neither. While we should be preaching the gospel, we should be preaching it with love and not judgment, because this is also biblical. So many times nowadays, people in general feel the need to force their views on other people, and the truth is that with the gospel, this will turn many more people away then to show them Christ. So I've decided to solidify my beliefs, be peaceful, be neither offensive or defensive, and just live and love like the Bible truly teaches. It kills me when I see Christians take on this self-righteous attitude, because that's not what Christ teaches at all.

Well the deal with the fig tree wasn't that it "didn't follow the Law", it was that the tree didn't bear good fruit, which is spoken in parable. Interpretation being that someone who is truly living like they are supposed to will not only have the Christian beliefs but will act as a Christian truly should. Which is my deal with Christians nowadays (not omitting myself), who have the beliefs but have no love or compassion for others. It's so easy for us to think we are so great and perfect because we've got the Book, we've got Jesus, all the while never really understanding what Jesus is saying, never realizing that Jesus wasn't talking so much to the "sinners" as He was to us perfect ones. The Bible gives me hope, teaches me how to love, but is also very, very convicting.

I myself am a Christian, and while I still fully believe the Bible, I have to say I understand where you're coming from. Let me say again, as far as the beliefs, I'm solid. But I feel the same about being bothered by people polluting the religion. I'm starting to see that a fair amount of people will label themselves as Christians and go to church once a week just so they can be called a "Christian", all the while not living like the Bible says they should.

For instance, "God Bless America", but wait...God loves everyone! Or the war in Iraq, Bush is supposedly a religious man, yet Matthew 26:52 says "all who draw the sword will die by the sword". It upsets me when I see "Christians" proclaiming that God is behind them whenever they make decisions that are clearly Biblically incorrect. If you're going to call yourself a "Christian", then live by the Bible, and stop putting on an act.

I'm also upset by the lack of thinking in the church sometimes. It's obvious to me that God wouldn't only want us to follow a select group of leaders. I'm not saying that pastors and elders of churches are wrong, I'm just saying that God gave everyone minds capable of great wisdom and great capacity, and I doubt that He would want us to allow others to think for us.

So while you and I, dear writer, have different beliefs, I really appreciate your writing here. Diversity is very important, talk like this is what gets us all to really think on our own. I'm also sorry for the way us Christians our living nowadays, and while I'm not "good" myself, I'm trying to clean up my act and truly follow the God that I claim to love.

Thanks again for your thought-provoking words.

-Reid

"In the beginning, God created the Big Bang, which brought forth the Heavens and the Earth."
People 6,000 years ago didn't have the concepts for things like the speed of light, gravity, fusion, DNA or dinosaurs, and they thought the world was flat (the jury is still out on that one. http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/)
If we accept that the Bible is the word of God as interpreted by man (otherwise why are there so many versions of it out there, and who made King James the final authority on it?) and that God simply works on a different time scale than we do, then it's easier to believe he could exist. Who is to say that God didn't create evolution? The final image of Man could have been written into the self-modifying source code called 'DNA.' Surely that would not be impossible for someone all powerful.
Another reason I see this as being reasonable is that we know the speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, and that we can see light that was created from stars coming from billions of years ago. Either this is correct, or we have to accept that God created everything 6000 years ago then lied to us about it, same as the dinosaur bones. I prefer to think he created the big bang, and evolution, and just accept that he does indeed work on a different time scale than we do.
Perhaps to God one day is equal to one galactic rotation and not just one rotation of the earth.
Just some food for thought.
Wayne