Well, I was going to skip this thread but I just can't resist. *Relax, this won't hurt a bit!*

First we should clear up this 'Faith' is the answer problem. I know it works for some of you out there, but for me it just didn't cut it. "Faith in WHAT Exactly", is what I always asked. How can I 'Believe' or have 'Faith' in 'Something', when I don't know what the hell I'm supposed to 'Believe' or have 'Faith' in? In other words, I'm being told to 'Believe' in 'Nothing'. Now how can anyone 'Believe' or have 'Faith' in 'Nothing'? It's 'Nothing' for crying out loud! I'm looking for 'Something'. I thought that was the whole idea, wasn't it?

Where is God? What is God? Let me See, Smell, Taste, Hear, Feel God and I'll certainly 'Believe'!! Is that too much to ask? Not some book, or some words from some other person telling me what they know of God. That just isn't the same dammit! Why not me? Has God forsaken me? Have I been left alone, to sift through lies and riddles until I'm lost forever. Why have so many others been allowed to 'Know' God while I'm left with 'Nothing'? (Does any of this sound familiar? Maybe not word for word, but atleast along the same lines?)

Obviously you won't find 'Anything' in 'Nothing', so I found no strength in words like 'Faith' or 'Belief'.

What I was searching for was also more than just 'Anything', 'Something', 'This Thing' or 'That Thing'. So I found no strength in Any of them either.

Finally, after I stopped trying so hard to know 'Anything' about 'Something' that I knew 'Nothing' about, I understood 'Everything' I needed to Know. I then realized the Strength in Knowing. I don't need to Believe nor does it require Faith. Knowing is Knowing, and that was 'ALL I NEEDED'.

My advice is not to try so hard. What it is that you are searching for is not hidden from you. It is impossible to avoid once you stop looking. You simply need to allow yourself to accept that it's already there & always has been. No floating pencils, or magic is required. Don't listen for whispers in the night, writing on the wall or even signs pointing the way. Just like normal Vision, you loose focus when something is either Too Close or Too Far Away. Likewise, 'Everything' can be both, Too Simple & Too Complex to understand if you don't view it properly. Search for Nothing, and you will find Everything.

Silence is Golden, because God is Speaking. Be Still & Listen.

You Will Smile, You Will Laugh & You Will Know, When You Know God.

Good post....couldn't have said it much better myself....

I have a friend named Stan that no one has met. Yet people scream that they know him, and that his is fat, grubby, ditzy, and crazy. And that he has said this that and the other. Stan is none of these things, and have said no such things. Yet if Stan isn't the way people(who say they know him) discribe him, does that mean he does not exist?

Originally posted by Fitzpatrick
To trust that your friends would die for you do they need to kill themselves.

yeah but atleast he can see his friends so thats not a good example

But if Stan jsut came to the forground an exposed himself for a fraction of a second, then wouldn't that deminish all the misconceptions about him??...Why not expose himself if all these misconceptions are floating around??....

Originally posted by LuDaCrIs
Put all of your religious beleifs aside and all that u learned from the bible and church and wat not and pretend u never even knew about god in the first place...wouldnt this seem like a reasonable idea to confirm that god does in fact exist - referring to the idea of litfing a pen in front of ur eyes....

Also if no one ever told u about religion, would u ever think of GOD and beleive in him???...

I Have a few things to say.

1: Before Christ, in B.C., not too many people knew about God. Like your scenario, They had never read the Bible (there was none at that time),Never believed in God, and never heard of him. They believed the sun and moon and what not were all many 'gods' and they had thier temples and all, but they never asked this of God, so he never had to lift a pencil for them or whatever they wrote with. That is why Jesus came down and told us that he was the real messiah and the Bible was written and now we have religions.

So the reasons that God does not perform your "simple task" are as follows:

1) As I mentioned above, before Christ, no one heard of or believed in one God or even God himself. This is why Jesus came down from Heaven and put us on track and opened the Gates of Heaven. So, God has already done his part of your deal. When you asked him to perform a simple task for you, you did not realize that that simple task has already been done for you. That simple task was Jesus. So really, even though Jesus's coming to earth and then ascending into heaven was not exactly as simple as lifting up a pencil, God seems to have had more than one reason for sending Jesus to earth: not only was that reason so that we could believe in and learn about God, but also, even though it was 2,004 years ago, he was living up to his end of the deal. So now you must live up to yours.

2) If I was wrong about the above (and I highly doubt that I am not), then hear is a second possible reason. If you have ever read the Bible and gone to church, then you know that some of the things that God asks of us, like forgiving people for sinning against us (like making fun of us or lying about us), loving our enemies, etc., are pretty hard to live up to. You would have to be an immaculate conception (translation: perfect), which no one but Mary, Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit is. Are you ready to forgive Osama bin Laden for 9/11? Are you ready to forgive Hitler for his mass murders and torture chambers? The Japanese for Pearl Harbor? Are you ready to try to befriend the person at school/work that you hate most? If so, You are living the Gospel. I know I can't make friends with the person at school that I hate. Can you? Try. Try to stick up for someone that is being made fun of with no friends. Its hard, and God knows this. Perhaps God knows that you can't live up to your end of the deal.

3) Also, it says somewhere in the Bible or something, "Blessed is he who believes but has not seen." God expects you to believe in him with no proof but words in a Book. To ask him to proove his existance is Satan's will.

Be still and thou shall see God.

Deep

lets not be selfish with our thoughts.. if you dont believe.. that means GOD dosnt exist to you.. GOD exists for many people. He/She is apart of there thoughts and there daily paterns. GOD is used in the bible as a noun.. nouns are person, place, thing or.... IDEA... I believe interpetations of the bible get people confused.. you must remember that GOD is a idea... I suppose if you have enough faith he could be a being.. or if you have in yourself complete knowledge he could be a man. Religons are for the followers, no one else. If you think about the idea of there being GODs then you bring power to the people who allready believe in the subject.

1: Before Christ, in B.C., not too many people knew about God. Like your scenario, They had never read the Bible (there was none at that time),Never believed in God, and never heard of him. They believed the sun and moon and what not were all many 'gods' and they had thier temples and all, but they never asked this of God, so he never had to lift a pencil for them or whatever they wrote with. That is why Jesus came down and told us that he was the real messiah and the Bible was written and now we have religions.

Ever heard of Zarathushtra?

Deep

Originally posted by LuDaCrIs
But if Stan jsut came to the forground an exposed himself for a fraction of a second, then wouldn't that deminish all the misconceptions about him??...Why not expose himself if all these misconceptions are floating around??....

How do you know he is a "him", or that she is a "her". You think along human knowledge. What if "God" is greater? Not a seperate enity as we have been constantly told, but a something almost entirely different. What if we can't fully understand who is "God".
What if "God" isn't how Christians, Jews, and Muslems say "it" is.

Very close Mojom Very close.

GOD is everything, ALL. GOD is ALL that exists, existed and will exist.

No book can define what GOD is. As book can only contain a finite number of words. And since GOD is all you would have to have an infinite "book" to define what GOD is.

NO religion "knows" the true extent of GOD. No one person 'knows" the true extent of GOD. Even Jesus being the SON of GOD did not truely "know" the extent of GOD even though he was created in the "perfect" image of his father. Jesus came to instruct mankind about how to treat each other, not to reveal the extent of what GOD is.

The fact that "we" exist prove that GOD exists. What happens after death IMO depends on a lot of factors. Maybe even your personal mind set and convictions, your "will" to live on, or to move on to a higher form. I dont know. Maybe its like going to sleep and then when GOD chooses you just -re-start. Maybe GOD can choose what year you get reborn in. Maybe everything that can happen has already happen and at this moment in time everyone that is alive now is just in the now moving towards tomorrow. But if you die today maybe you can be reborn in the past thousands of years before your current life. So in the case of regression you would have no memories of what you expierenced because your lifeline is before your future lifeline thus you would have no recollection of any future events.

Maybe in rare cases "certain" evolved souls are allowed to recall information that it required from the future. Which might explain some of the odd gifted people in our past.

Silence is Golden, because God is Speaking. Be Still & Listen.

I never even read this till now. We seem to have the same attitude.

God cannot be subscribed by any " one " religion. The true nature of " God " comes from very different extremes at each end of the world.

From the Inside, to the outside.

Deep

HE CAN'T DO IT CUZ HE DOESN'T EXIST!!!!!

Originally posted by ZeroDeep

Silence is Golden, because God is Speaking. Be Still & Listen.

I never even read this till now. We seem to have the same attitude.

God cannot be subscribed by any " one " religion. The true nature of " God " comes from very different extremes at each end of the world.

From the Inside, to the outside.

Deep

I never heard that phrase either before I wrote it just then in that post. It certainly does have a nice flow doesn't it?

I suppose some people might even say that God was speaking through me at that moment. Others would say I just got lucky perhaps. Either way, the message is still there. I wonder if it's possible that nobody has said that before now?? If this was truely the first time then I'm glad you were here to share it ZeroDeep! I would also agree that we seem to think alike in this area. I've noticed that on a few occasions.

I think robertfenix, judging from his last post, sees things in a similar fashion as well.

Ross Perot was not elected President.

Proof God Exists!