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Question For All That Believe In God

Discussion in 'Faith & Religion' started by Lon Tanner, Mar 11, 2017.

  1. Bill Boggs

    Bill Boggs Supreme Member
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    I long ago determined God and godly things were over my head and I would never
    understand. Most people I suppose would consider God’s instructions to be included
    in the bible and I grew up believing that. I later read Carl Sagan, then all I could find
    by other scientific minds so I could weigh it all out for myself. I determined it really
    didn’t matter. I’d do the best I could with what I had to do with and things would work
    out the way they will. Life will go without me as it will eventually for us all.
     
    #76
  2. Terence Eames

    Terence Eames Very Well-Known Member
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    In Western (Christian) thought, God is traditionally described as a being that possesses at least three necessary properties: omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), and omnibenevolence (supremely good). In other words, God knows everything, has the power to do anything, and is perfectly good.
    Hence, I believe God knows our inner most thoughts and judges us accordingly, but with mercy. We are all sinners.
     
    #77
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    The way I learned it, it was omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence, the latter meaning being everywhere at once.
     
    #78
    Last edited: Apr 15, 2021
  4. Boris Boddenov

    Boris Boddenov Very Well-Known Member
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    You nailed it. Yes, I believe in a Supreme Being, but hell, I have trouble with square roots. How can I respond to cosmic questions about God?
     
    #79
  5. Logan Bellgamin

    Logan Bellgamin Well-Known Member
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    Roots are not square. They are gnarly & twisty & covered with soil. The crabgrass roots in my yard go all the way through the earth to Japan, where they become cherry blossom trees.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

    Meanwhile, back on the topic:
    1) If there is no God, then what is the origin of the universe?
    2) I recommend the book "Mere Christianity" by C.S. Lewis. Even if you doubt his conclusions, his logic & writing style are some of the most beautiful & thought-provoking stuff I have ever read.
    3) Interesting thing about the Theory of Evolution -- some teachers provide conceptual charts that show us evolving from primates but fail to fully explain how the primates came into existence. Other teachers take us back to evolving from uni-celled things like amoeba, but there still remains the question of where the amoeba came from. In actuality, evolutionary analyses of the origin of life rightly need to start with naught but chemicals/rocks, & free energy (heat, gamma rays, sunlight, etc) and somehow explain the spontaneous generation of huge amounts of aminos from those sources alone.
     
    #80
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  6. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    Mere Christianity is a very good book. C.S. Lewis was a friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, by the way, and Tolkien was the stronger Christian in the relationship. They had a lot in common.
     
    #81
  7. Hugh Manely

    Hugh Manely Very Well-Known Member
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    In reference to Logan's first question (in post 80), I have these thoughts:

    I’ll tell you why I am not an evolutionist.

    In the beginning, everything in existence is thought by many scientists to have occupied a single infinitely dense point, or singularity. Only after this point began to expand in a "Big Bang" did the universe officially begin, they argue.

    The Big Bang singularity arises directly and unavoidably from the mathematics of Einstein’s general relativity, but the caveat is that the math can explain only what happened immediately AFTER-- not at or before— hence, the singularity. They can only “prove” the creation of the universe if they take a “limit”. So in one sense they are taking a “leap of faith” just as they accuse us who believe in creationism.

    Before I can believe in evolution, I first have to figure a way to reconcile the idea of “singularity” in my mind. It involves the idea of infinity. As a former math instructor, I obviously had to use the idea of infinity in much of my work. Let me give an example: Singularity in a simple way is like saying suppose you take the number 1/1,000,000 and ask how many zeros needed to be added to the denominator before you get to 0. Any good mathematician can prove that it IS zero only if the zeros never terminate! (you can only imagine doing this, obviously it can’t be done physically, as is true of the many mathematical calculations, that’s why we have mathematical symbolism.). Or again take the decimal .999999…. and ask how many 9’s have to be added before it becomes exactly 1. Well, an infinite number. ONLY then can it be proven equal.


    I am not well versed in quantum mechanics, but the proponents of the “big bang” theory must cross over a bridge somewhat like this to prove their theory. (the actual calculations are too complicated for me to follow and there is not enough space on this forum for it anyway) None of the scientists I talked with know how to get over this hump and I’ve talked with a few of them.

    They admit to the fact that first the “singularity” must be accounted for. In other words, everything they calculate is extrapolated BACKWARDS, and all the formulas work only AFTER the singularity. So to me their scientific “proof” of the universe taking place without a creator has not been proven. the big bang idea is only a theory, and it was postulated because it was the best model that fits the data.
     
    #82
  8. Boris Boddenov

    Boris Boddenov Very Well-Known Member
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    Hear you loud and clear. Thanks for the response. As for gnarly roots, I got trouble understanding them too.
     
    #83
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  9. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    If you believe in God [He/She/or it] is lives within you so that means all your thoughts are known.
     
    #84
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  10. Hugh Manely

    Hugh Manely Very Well-Known Member
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    True and very consoling. As you say, He lives inside and imbues one with strength in the inner man/woman for all His family.

    For me, I have prayed (at least a year and more) nearly daily for the promises in Psalm 91 to be fulfilled for all my family members. (He can't fulfill His promise unless we ask)

    Even though 3 members did get Covid-19 (one SIL was in ER for a few days), we have all survived so far, and give thanks to God for our well-being.
     
    #85
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  11. Logan Bellgamin

    Logan Bellgamin Well-Known Member
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    @Hugh Manely -- U said, "In reference to Logan's first question (in post 80), I have these thoughts" I clicked "Like" for your thoughts but I didn't actually like them at all. I LOOOVED them!!!

    Teacher Hugh,
    I learned from you.

    And now, I hope someone will deal with the theory of some folks, that the universe wasn't created, nor did it need to be, for it is eternal. Hmmmmm? AND -- is our universe a "closed system" ----- or not? Hmmmmmmmmmmm????
     
    #86
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2021
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  12. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Who created God?
     
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  13. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    God's parents, of course.
     
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  14. Shirley Martin

    Shirley Martin Supreme Member
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    Who created God's parents?

    I have to agree with @Bill Boggs on this. There is no way we can prove anything about God. I just do the best I can to follow the teachings of Jesus as best I understand them. That ought to be good enough.
     
    #89
  15. Logan Bellgamin

    Logan Bellgamin Well-Known Member
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    @Shirley Martin asked, "Who created God?"

    Hmmmmm..........................................
    If someone/something created God, then the question becomes, "Who created that someone/something?"

    Then, if whoever/whichever created that someone/something, the question becomes, "Who created that whoever/whichever?"

    And so on, ad infinitum (infinite regression).

    Therefore...

    EITHER
    1- God is an uncreated, self-existent, eternal (infinitely "old") person, as He declared (Exodus 3.14): "I AM that I AM."
    OR
    2- Matter/energy itself is uncreated and eternal (infinitely "old").
    OR
    3- At some time in the distant past, from nothing-at-all (ex nihilo), matter/energy came into existence.
     
    #90
    Last edited: Apr 16, 2021
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