SaviorSelf said:
ItinerantPreacher said:
SaviorSelf said:
Everyone's a hypocrite sometimes, I don't see that as a Christian thing nor do I use that as reasoning for my disbelief at all.
For the record I love my dad. He was abused and beaten senselessly as a kid so he didn't really know how to be a father or command respect except by forcing it (whipping.) It wasn't until he became serious about Christianity about 6-7 years ago that he stopped doing that.
Thanks for the insight and explaining the situation with your dad. And you are right, everyone's a hypocrite sometimes. I define hypocrisy as "acting differently than what you believe" (Pretty boiled down simplified definition). Sin causes me to act differently that I believe from time to time.
Ok, so do you believe there is a god?
No. I treat the question of whether or not there is a God the same way as questions like "is time travel possible?" I don't know, I'll probably never know, I don't even think I'm capable of knowing, it's not effecting me as far as I can tell, so why bother with it..?
SaviorSelf, I got busy this weekend, so it took me a bit to respond.
In response to the question of whether or not there is a God, you responded the way I believed before I became I got saved. The big difference between you and me is that I was never exposed to any Bible teaching before I was challenged to read it for myself. I assume from your previous posts that you have. I called myself an atheist until someone pointed out to me that I was actually an agnostic.
It did affect me, but I didn't realize it was affecting me until I was standing on the other side so to speak. My life had become a mess, I wasn't happy about it, but I couldn't seem to fix it. For me, I had come to a financially low spot in my life, even though I worked hard and had/have a good work ethic. My interpersonal relationships were all strained, especially the one with my girlfriend (now wife). My relationship with my parents was strained, my relationship with my friends was superficial and shallow. Truthfully, although I had plenty of human companionship, I was pretty lonely.
To me, religion was a crutch for people that needed crutches. To me, the few Christians I saw and knew, their relationship with God seemed superficial. They talked a bit about God, but mostly they talked about the things they didn't do that I did, but never why. Drinking, or dancing or things like that. Made no sense to me. I am a "why" kinda guy.
The challenge I took was to look for myself. I would tell you things like, "the Bible is a good book for those that need it", but I had never looked myself. So I did. Some 2 months or so later, it changed my life.
You mentioned that it isn't affecting you life as far as you can tell. Here are some things you might consider in regards to cause and effect.'
1) You cant say there isnt a God, which means to you there certainly could be one. I think all of His creation speaks of Him. The inability of scientists to explain the universe speaks of Him, the moral codes built into mankind and society speak of Him, and those with changed lives speak of Him.
2) You cant discount the Bible as untrue. Saying "I am not sure if it is true" means it might be. That's a serious issue. You know things that I did not, for example that the Bible speaks plainly about heaven, hell, sin and separation from God. While some argue about it's interpretation in areas, it is an incredible book. Even those who claim late date writings of some of the books have to concede that it was written over a long period of time. It is historically accurate, and more important, it is prophetically accurate. The chances of the accuracy of the amount of prophecy being accurate are infinitesimally small.
Here then is the problem for you. If God is real and the Bible is true, you are in trouble. Not legal trouble, not moral trouble, but spiritual trouble. You owe it to yourself to do a thorough investigation of the issues with an open mind. That's my challenge or encouragement for you, is that you look for yourself with an open mind.
On another note, there were a bunch of responses that were decidedly un-Christian in their wording and sarcasm. This is an open forum, so in reality there is nothing I can do about them, but I do want to go on record as saying that as a Christian, I am not on board with them at all. I found those responses unnecessarily derogatory, insulting and unnecessary.
Frag, Ransom, BandGuy and anyone else who answered in kind.
