God gave us free will. He gave us a choice to either believe in him or not. I'm not someone you should really ask. But I've seen cripples walk and such. He also has a plan, so there are reasons why things happen. If God was to heal everyone and make everything so ladida, he wouldn't have made Earth. Humans are full of sin, so we have to pay the consequences too. I just believe that God did somethings to me to protect me from losing faith, to remind me. Let's not forget, God isn't the only one around, there is also Satan. God is superior, because he sent Lucifer to hell, he can stop him, but he chose to give us free will. I just added the small things like Tropicana ice cream just as a small factor.

What I have to counter in your arguement is that how was I healed right on the spot?
How did I recieve the same exact ice cream the next day, when I didn't pray out loud, or tell anyone I wanted it? It was just a craving I had right on the spot before I prayed. Out of thousands of ice creams, that one was bought by someone and given to me?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 1 2009, 2:33 am by Echo.

I have a little cousin, who is 5 years old and relatively slow for his age. I used to let him watch a Christian channel (full of cartoons and whatnot) because I thought it would give him some moral lessons that he could grow up with. After spending an afternoon watching TV with him, I decided that I'd rather have him watching SpongeBob than the Christian cartoons. It didn't teach him any moral lessons. It was teaching him how to worship.

While I have nothing against any religion, I believe that anything that spends more time telling someone who, what, and how to worship some higher figure over the why they should worship is not worth believing in. If those cartoons proposed a question such as "Why should I believe in God?" and followed up with the response "Because he gives strength to people when they need it the most" (or something following the same lines), I would let my cousin watch. Instead, it was several hours of "Praise God because he is all mighty and all knowing. If you don't you go to hell."

That argument pisses me off largely because of theists can't ever seem to answer it. So, I'll answer it just like I answered the ultimate question, what's the meaning of life. You ready?

God doesn't heal amputees for many reasons. The prime reason is probably to establish in mankind the mentality that they have to fend for themselves, that they are ultimately responsible for their actions. If one knows that even the most horrible of injuries, the loss of a limb, can be regenerated through pleading to a father figure, mankind will never become truly responsible and adult. Anyway, injuries don't effect your immortal soul, so after death you spend an eternity in heaven, and the loss of a limb way back when is a small price to pay.

Anyway, that's essentially what I would label the logical (lol) answer to that annoying as hell question that a website's dedicated to. Oh, and actually I answered the ultimate question better then this one, if you find the flaws in it. I don't think many would. However, this question is harder .

Hercanic, don't try to start a huge theist vs atheist debate, please. They never go anywhere. Just like the protection vs OSMAP arguments go nowhere.

Wow, that is such a great answer. To further this, the Bible said to cut off a limb that causes you to sin, but this isn't something to be taken true to word. It can in some ways.

I'll note that I think all religions on earth are complete bullshit, and that god either takes a form entirely different from what all these religions say or doesn't exist. That question just really pisses me off.

I can't agree with that part. There are plenty of religions out there to cover all of the aspects of what a god could be. Malevolent, omnipotent, active, passive, etc.

I'm essentially agnostic. My 'religion' (or lack thereof) states that I don't know. I mix some Centrerism into that (or {myrealfirstname+lastname} + ism) to produce that I believe that all these real religions are completely wrong and I narrow down God to essentially just an energy source with allowance for sentience (though I doubt it) and an equal amount in the other direction.

There are also nigh-infinite possibilites.
Know of a religion that describes a psychotic glittery pink fairy god? Only so arbitrary as any other incarnation we've come up with, just less inline with what we would subconsciously expect for no good, or entirely appropriate reason.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 1 2009, 3:34 am by EzDay281.

If you put in the other religious choices, I would still choose the "God does not exist" choice because I wouldn't want to waste time worshiping a gamble of religions beliefs.

You know I might just have faith in God if the same things happened to me. I think everyone could believe in god if he answered their prayers to this level.

@Hercanic: I don't think you're using the right angle of questioning at echo.

I believe in my religion because It makes sense too me. I am a Matrixist, and we believe that this world is not real, but a dream. I've been one for sometime now, and I'm not entirely sure what first drew me to it, but It has to do a lot with Solipsism (A theory which revolves around the idea that The only thing I know exists is my mind) which is something I've thought about for a while now, but didn't really think other people thought about it. This is the main reason I joined, but there were others at the time.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrixism

Is this for real?

Some Matrixists will tell you it is. Other won't.

Matrixism is not very defined, and a lot of people have false ideas about it, so the interwebs isn't the greatest place for finding information.

If there were no God, there would be no Atheists. – G. K. Chesterton

From that statement, a God must exist.

Thus, that statement is incorrect. As it would be anyway, without that ridiculous corollary (which is, admittedly ridiculous because of the assumption it's based on, and not because of flawed logical deduction).

I got a better one:
"If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him." -Voltaire

I'm pretty sure Voltaire > Chesterton

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Jan 1 2009, 4:42 pm by Dapperdan.

I have one question. Why are you guys so obsessed with God?

I believe a lot of these topics are made based on people who either have or don't have a god wanting to reason with the other. One side seems to think the other is wrong and so wants to discuss about it, little do they know there is a very low probability of them changing anyone's mind.
In other words:

Questions like this leads to debates. This isn't really a debate thread. And what do you mean guys? More than 70% voted that they are not a theist.