I have asked him Cathy, and nothing happened, hence why I don't believe there is one. I do believe in life after death. Like MJ said, faith is what you perceive it to be. Let me be very honest here, I believe the US is brain washed with religion from birth. Hell, you have it on your money, so you see every day of your life, "in god we trust". How much more brain washing do you want? There are other countries around the world that are similar, in that religion is pushed upon them from birth, no choice, or little choice, but brain washed into the population as children. Free choice? That could be an interesting debate!

I don't see god Cathy... never have, doubt I ever will; same goes with the devil. Unless someone can prove they exist, without doubt, then my mind won't change. There is one thing to believe they exist, that is called faith, and as MJ pointed out, that changes uniquely per person. I don't believe either exist because I don't believe something that I can't see, touch, or be explained. I believe there are other people in the universe, because there is too much unexplained regarding it. What, do we honestly think we are the only existence in the entire universe, something that has infinite depth? I don't think so....

Then ghosts... again, too much enexplained in regard to them, so I believe they exist, because there are those they can prove and disprove, then the unexplained. God and the devil.... well, something I believe was created by the Catholic church to push wealth and a following for corrupt world tactics. Bill Gates money is nothing to the Catholic church. Tell me its about religion, and I can show you how much monies at stake. Its now an empire, its a business, its a way to get the world to try and do things and follow like puppets when the strings are pulled IMHO.

you realize, anthony that Christianity was alive and well long before the catholic church came into being, and judaism before that? i don't want to fight with you, nor make your angry. i don't believe in pushing people too hard, it has to be their decision after all.
who said that if you believe in God that there can't be other people or beings in the universe? i believe He created the universe, and we know about angelic beings and humans, the Bible does not say there are no more. who knows? if there are others, i know He created them, too.
you don't want to know what i believe about ghosts, so i won't go there
by the way. we do take up an offering at church, the money goes to pay for heating,ss materials, missionaries, our mortgage, etc. my pastor(husband)does not receive a nickel for his work, as a matter of fact we also give of tithes and offerings. brooks never preaches about giving money-he teaches about stewardship of your entire life, time,money, talent, etc. our small church gives way above the tithe, and they are never coerced into it. some are in it for money, and that's all they'll have for it. i'd rather take a few souls with me to heaven some day.
by the way, it's not about religion for me, you can be religious about anything, it's about Christ.
speaking of money, do you really think people believe in God because it's on the money. wrong. and the world is a puppet sometimes, either God is pulling your strings, because you let Him, or satan is whether you know it or not.
our country was founded on Biblical principals, but sadly has moved away from them and now it is politically correct to christian bash, although it's ok to let anything else go, especially wicca, and paganism, and humanism.
so, basically, "that dog won't hunt."
i respect your opinion, and you can certainly serve whom you want. but realize i said this as my opinion, and because i care about you.please don't be angry. tell me to leave you alone if you want, but don't be angry. the God you don't know, and the one i do loves you.
cathy

Cathy, I am not angry about any of this, not even flustered. This is opinionated discussion... I don't see a god or devil, don't believe they even exist. Some people have died for a short period, then returned, the things they say vary so much that no definative proof can be found, and then the more detailed aspect is that when asked what they believe in prior to death, the one's who believe in christianity and so forth, see a bright light or something like that, varies once again between them all, which has been directly associated to each person being in that situation have literally believed what they wanted to believe death was prior to the near death experience, ie. those who seen a white light always believed one existed, thus the brain told them what they have already made believed, and the list goes on and on with all the different things people see, or think they see in those experiences, and you will more often than not find the person had those thoughts prior to the near death, so their mind simply gave them what they had already pictured and put together, but only occurred in their mind, didn't really happen.

There is no definative proof either way! It is about beliefs, about faith. You believe there is a god, I don't believe that. You have faith in some higher power helping you in life, I don't, and see that the only person who can help anyone is themself.

Cookie, I'm going to borrow this sugg. for myself, bc I do believe in God and yet have had faith and lost it....found it again and lost it again....and so forth.

I'm struggling these days in relations. with God, and yet I believe and do have faith that yes, if I do ask him to show me he is real, and present, he will and my faith struggle will be over for as long as I continue to accept God.

Your post reminded me of this option, cookie. I had completely forgotton.

Once when I was convinced that I was totally unlovable and unworthy of God, .........Now mind you I had previously known little about God, nor recognized and acknowledged many experiences of God, a very kind man said that if you don't believe that God loves you, ask him to show you that he loves you.

I did this repeatedly and in his time, God soon showed me how very much he loves me. For a long time, I have cont. to ask and he responded by showing me in many ways.

It wasn't until, I gave up on my devot. disciplines and walked away that sometime afterwards my perspective of life and its meaning all shifted into a downward spiral, life got much tougher to live, and I began in my, (perhaps small, perhaps some larger) but ways none-the-less of perpetuating unneccessary suffering for myself and others.

I know all strength and loving power comes from God, and yet my thoughts and head will persistantly, work-overtime to trick me.

So again, cookie, I'll be borrowing this little prayer and be asking it, bc I now can spot a good thing when I see it.

And, really cookie, I want my faith back. And know that God wants this and will respond. So thanks for posting and sharing with us your faith.

Hope

I notice a lot of people base their faith that God loves them by how much money or wealth they acquire in life. Makes me wonder...

Essentially, our body's life, just like any other animal or organism, is nothing more than chemical reactions taking place at any second in time. I would say that it is possible to break it down mathematically. In the past, man did not understand or have such knowledge as he does today, therefore its man's instinct to explain things that are not understandable in a divine light to fill in the pieces of the puzzle. Superstitions are also born from such ignorance. I don't know what difference it would really make, but I do wish I believed in God; I guess it would give me something to look forward to when I die.

I am an atheist, and do not feel the need for religion - not any more. No more faith after what happened in my country many years ago. The religion does not provide explanation for what's going on around, and the faith is not based on knowledge, so I can not accept it.
But I do have a faith in myself. I Think that the life is sometimes hard, but it is possible to handle it. I am a natural fighter, a daughter and a grand-daughter of fighters, and I know that someday things will be all right for me. I know it, althoug sometimes do nod feel like this.

mac, i don't even know anyone really wealthy personally. as a matter of fact, most of our church is made up of lower middle class, a few upper middle, and a few poor. we are all the same in God's eyes. i have never had a lot of money. as a matter of fact, if i write out a budget, we can't meet it, but somehow God keeps helping me out when i need it. and i know that He loves me. do you know in the Bible it speaks of how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven.(about as easy as a camel passing through the eye of a needle) because many put their faith in their money instead of Him.
i also have a very good understanding of science. do you know that charles darwin based his THEORY of evolution on one species of bird, on one island, and that he basically said it was full of holes himself before he died? not claiming he converted, that didn't happen. but evolution is just a theory, and a poor one at that. look at the mechanics of the smallest organism,
i feel that science and God actually go hand in hand, and there are several christian men and women who are also scientists, lol.(and i'm not superstitious)whether or not you have faith or believe in God is your own business, i would love for you to, only for your own benefit, but would never ram it down your throat. however, not having faith in God yourself, how do you know what people base their faith on, and they are just all ignorant of science? i know in whom i have believed and i trust in him. what if you are right? we will both be dirt, and i will be none the wiser, lol. what if i'm right? where will we be then? i want everybody to be in heaven some day, and so does He, but i can't force you, and He won't.

I have to admit that is a good point.

One thing I have noticed is that those who believe in any sort of religion generally have a mental edge over those that don't. It almost seems like a survival instict ingrained into the mind of a human. I guess that's why they say there's no aethiest's in a fox hole during an attack. Reality is a big slap in the face though!

Struggling to keep this simple. In finding and reading and participating in this thread I have become a obsessive mess over personlizing one simple statement, that being the appearance of an assumption.

Mac are you simply making the statement that you

"notice a lot of people base their faith that God loves them by how much money or wealth they acquire in life. Makes me wonder..."

or are you assuming that this has anything whatsoever to do with what I build and have built my faith upon? Because, if so? It in fact highly contradicts what I do indeed build my faith upon.

Get me out of here. I'm too sensitive! I don't belong here on this thread and tonight see threads such as these as nothing but the invitation for judgement, assumptions, fear and ill-feeling.

We've touched on everything from opinions to faiths to experiences and now we've introduced reality. All of which don't even mean the same thing; in fact defined very differently. The two closest in the definition are 'opinion' and 'faith'. And yet, still different, as faith 'kicks opinion up a notch' while including things like trust, reliance, conviction.

This is a dangerous thread for me to leave myself vulnerable. So, Bless and best wishes to you'all and have a goodnight.

Im personally an atheist, but have many friends who are religious....
I just wanted to add that i think if people had as much love for/faith in themselves as they do for "god" the world would most likely be an even slightly better place...
I also tend to find the whole thing very patriarchial, cult like and close minded.