Sabbath Dispatch #1

[A_Wanderer]

I'm not being antagonistic, it is a statement of beliefs and I was relating an experience and how my beliefs shaped my interpretation of it, the only reason that I put "we" there is because I was editing it for consistency without considering how it effected the meaning.

I believe that the strange event is explainable, I feel that it was really significant, I think that it isn't.

 

[martha]

Ok then.

You quotation of Iris's post led me to think otherwise.

 

[maycocksean]

Yet you felt the need to try to explain it.






Didn't Sean request no debates?

Heh, heh. . .I ALMOST replied to his post, but I decided not to since I was the one who said I preferred not to turn this into a debate thread. However, I also said that if people felt compelled to debate then that's up to them. But I felt it would be hypocritical not to honor my own perferences.

Edit: However, I also see that A_W clarified himself well. I just have to say. . .real quick--

believersdon'tnecessarilyattributeallconcidencetodivineinterventioneither

 

[Angela Harlem]

believersdon'tnecessarilyattributeallconcidencetodivineinterventioneither

ironically, in my lack of any specified god/religious state, i find coincidence a truly amazing and fascinating happening. i find it is grounds for musing beyond what i normally have the literal time for in instances such as what a_w described.

has anyone ever tracked an event in their lives back as far as they could? ever wondered if something that is happening right now will have an impact in some profound or not so profound way on something in the future? questions, questions.

 

[A stor]

Has anyone here ever had dreams, when you were a child, of a place you would have no knowledge of? And later on thought, that perhaps it was a window to a past life? As a very young child, I use to dream of running down a hill which over looked a sea. Decades later, I saw a picture of this place, it was in Ireland. At age four, I had no idea of what Ireland was or the Irish, and there were no pictures of Ireland in our home.

 

[maycocksean]

ironically, in my lack of any specified god/religious state, i find coincidence a truly amazing and fascinating happening. i find it is grounds for musing beyond what i normally have the literal time for in instances such as what a_w described.

To me, it depends on the coincidence. We once ran into a friend of ours in a train station in Korea. She just happened to be flying through, had a layover, and decided to go into Seoul. She happened to be getting off a train as we were getting on. It was a remarkable coincidence, since that was the last person we would have expected to run into in a foreign country, but I didn't feel that there was anything supernatural about it, because basically all we did was chat for a few minutes, and then go our seperate ways. Similar to A_Wanderers running into his cousins, there is no apparent purpose in such a concidence.

For me, as a believer to think that God had a hand in a coincidence, it needs to be leading to/assisting with some greater purpose or meaning.

 

[martha]

To me, it's not God, so much as karma.

 

[AliEnvy]

Has anyone here ever had dreams, when you were a child, of a place you would have no knowledge of? And later on thought, that perhaps it was a window to a past life? As a very young child, I use to dream of running down a hill which over looked a sea. Decades later, I saw a picture of this place, it was in Ireland. At age four, I had no idea of what Ireland was or the Irish, and there were no pictures of Ireland in our home.

I have semi-regular and strong déjà vu experiences around everyday, insignificant events. I've never put a lot of thought into why that is.

 

[Angela Harlem]

To me, it's not God, so much as karma.

I'm still at the working out the difference stage. Hell, I wonder if there is a difference most of the time.

 

[AussieU2fanman]

My friend believes in a constantly evolving God that automatically changes its characteristics to counteract any atheistic arguments.

 

[A_Wanderer]

A God that can pretend to not exist shows an level of perfect cunning which proves his existence.

 

[AussieU2fanman]

A God that can pretend to not exist shows an level of perfect cunning which proves his existence.

Well you've obviously never seen a toasted mary cheese sandwich.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

I believe in God every day. I feel his presence in my life and know that he's love too, the greatest love I've ever known.

It's some human beings that I struggle to have faith in, on too many days

 

[A stor]

I have semi-regular and strong déjà vu experiences around everyday, insignificant events. I've never put a lot of thought into why that is.

I never did either, until I was in college. I good friend of mine was Buddhist and very spiritual. I enjoyed talking to him, about God, Heaven and reincarnation. Something, I think is a real possibility or choice, for the enlightenment of the soul. Sadly, after our college days, we lost track of one another.

 

[October1977]

What a great post.

I believe in God and that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for my sins. But I don't look at my relationship with God as a set of rules that must be followed. But out of love for Him, and going by what I read in the Bible, I choose to change my behavior little by little every day out of love. "Crucify the flesh" as the Bible says - my lust, my anger, my intolerance. Little by little, when I recognize it in me, I try to change it.

I also believe God created the world, the universe and everythying in it and I don't think it contradicts science at all. The big bang...okay, but where did it all start and how did that great mass get there? Evolution? Fine, but how did that living organism get there? Life came from something to start out with. The age of the world? Genesis says the world was without form and void and that His spirit hovered over the waters - pre-Adamic flood? Who really knows and I surely don't so I won't try to debate anything I've written thus far. But the story of Jesus Christ is beautiful to me and one that I truly believe even if out of faith alone.

But my day to day - it's kind of like a marriage. The day I got married, I didn't go down the list of all of those things I couldn't do anymore. I simply try to act in a way that is nonetheless imperfect, but nonetheless loving towards the person I'm in a relationship with. And Jesus said that if we love Him, we will keep his commandments and that the world would know that we are His disciples (believers) by the way we love one another - a point that in another post or two has been proven we Christians have failed time and time again.

I read a response that says we created God. I don't agree with that but respect and understand the person believing that way. The question I am left with is why did we feel the need to create God. What is in human nature that makes one seek something bigger than himself and even makes the atheist declare his disbelief? Every person in the world, I believe, has felt the need at some time to seek something bigger than himself...by that I mean God, or to someone who doesn't or didn't believe the way I do, a God-like power. (My opinion - I'm sure there are those out there that would argue they've never felt that need.)

In the book of Acts, Paul is addressing a crowd and he makes a comment to them (this is all from memory, so I could be wrong in my paraphrasing - feel free to correct) about seeing the statues of all the gods they worshiped leading up to where they were talking. And then he noticed a statue to an "unknown god". Paul said, "it is about this unknown god as you call it that I want to appeal to you". Even the crowd, with all of their other gods felt there was another one they couldn't quite put there finger on. This intrigues me to no end. Again, what a great post.

 

[AussieU2fanman]

I read a response that says we created God. I don't agree with that but respect and understand the person believing that way. The question I am left with is why did we feel the need to create God. What is in human nature that makes one seek something bigger than himself and even makes the atheist declare his disbelief? Every person in the world, I believe, has felt the need at some time to seek something bigger than himself...by that I mean God, or to someone who doesn't or didn't believe the way I do, a God-like power. (My opinion - I'm sure there are those out there that would argue they've never felt that need.)

Well there are thousands of other Gods/religions, and you're a monotheist, so according to yours and many other peoples convictions, every other God/religion must be false. So yes humans have certainly created Gods/organised religion to worship, which Richard Dawkins and several other prolific evolutionary biologists argued is an evolutionary misfiring. Read up on it, it's very thought provoking.

 

[October1977]

Well there are thousands of other Gods/religions, and you're a monotheist, so according to yours and many other peoples convictions, every other God/religion must be false. So yes humans have certainly created Gods/organised religion to worship, which Richard Dawkins and several other prolific evolutionary biologists argued is an evolutionary misfiring. Read up on it, it's very thought provoking.

I will actually. Agreed. There's nothing wrong with reading about other beliefs and religions, theories, etc. If anything, fear is what keeps a lot of Christians from doing so (in my own experience anyway) which shows an ultimate lack of confidence in what it is they believe.

It's safe to say that my belief coexists with my doubt but I've never doubted God's existence but rather I've thought..."oh, this is who He is" - rather than, "oh, he doesn't exist afterall." I don't know if that made sense; I lack the words at the moment.