questioning faith

#78
#78
kunsanvol said:
I am not here to start any bashing of believers vs non-believers. I have some things on my mind and want the opinions of others who are believers.

I am a believer. I always have been and I always will be. But honestly, I'm not sure what I believe and what I don't because some things just don't add up with me.

Does prayer actually work? I've always been taught that God controls all, and knows what will happen to each of us. Our birth, our lives, our death..everything. So, with that being said, if a young person get cancer, and it is God's will that he will die from it, what purpose does prayer serve? If enough people pray, does God change his mind? If not enough people pray, does God decide to let the person die?

If God is all powerful and all good, how can childhood cancer be explained? Why would He allow His people to suffer? I'm told God loves us more than we can understand...even more than we love our own children. I know that I had the ability to stop my child from suffering, I sure would. So if God supposedly loves him more than I do, why allow him to suffer?

Things just don't add up sometimes to me
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God is love, and all the other positive attributes of the universe. God doesn't control our daily lives, so asking for things like healing doesn't work. Meditating on healing or acceptance might, depending on the individual.

The Bible is generally for the superstitious. There is a lot of ancient and contradicting info in it. Remember, the people of the Bible didn't know that the Earth is round. If they were divinely inspired, surly they would have known that.

Follow the teachings of Jesus, not the Old Testament. He got it right.
 
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#80
#80
Believe or believe not..ultimately it is a choice. Most people will not choose to believe and trust God, and be obedient to his will, and his word. Humans want the right to say what is good and evil, that was and still is the temptation, and it is the downfall of man. How many in this thread alone have questioned God morality and judgement? Jesus surely did get it right. Most people will choose to walk the broad way to perdition of their own volition.
 
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#81
#81
UGADawg4Life said:
God is love, and all the other positive attributes of the universe. God doesn't control our daily lives, so asking for things like healing doesn't work. Meditating on healing or acceptance might, depending on the individual.

The Bible is generally for the superstitious. There is a lot of ancient and contradicting info in it. Remember, the people of the Bible didn't know that the Earth is round. If they were divinely inspired, surly they would have known that.

Follow the teachings of Jesus, not the Old Testament. He got it right.
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It is*he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,

Isaiah 40:22
 
#83
#83
volfanbill said:
Also, since humans wrote the Bible, I believe the overall message to be true, but I find it fallible. Humans, as always, screwed some specifics up.
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My quote to this is that I find the Bible to be the Truth, but has no need to be historically fact. Everything in the Bible is divinely inspired to bring people closer to God. The stories are there for a purpose. Reading the Bible like it's 100% fact is discrediting the whole point of the Bible.
 
#84
#84
kiddiedoc said:
Who, coincidentally, was quite firm in his faith and in God's Divine Providence in the establishment of the United States as a uniquely Christian nation.
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God has only ever established one nation and that was the nation of Israel.
Period.
This American Christian Patriotism is a bunch of bunk.
 
#85
#85
Berry4Heisman14 said:
gravity is literally all around you. love I feel it. literally everything we do involves math. don't really see your point
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Really? Ok, show me gravity.

The point is you believe in all kinds of things based on faith. You believe in the laws of logic. You believe, on faith, that the universe you live in is intelligible and that the laws that govern it are uniform. We could provide a long list. And you couldn't even know any of this if it weren't for God. Math is evidence of his mind.
 
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#86
#86
Roustabout said:
God has only ever established one nation and that was the nation of Israel.
Period.
This American Christian Patriotism is a bunch of bunk.
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I have been reading and studying the settlement, foundation, Revolution, and Constitutional design of our Country and have learned a great deal. It was absolutely accepted by our Founders that God was directly in control. From the devotion of the Puritans and Lollards, to the series of miraculous events that assured survival of the early pioneers, to prayers and fasting of Colonial officials and military, to the Christian basis of our government's original design....it is all there.

Here is a great book for enlightenment. You won't find this in public schools:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1887...=8QPX0TYYYT2J98ZCSGD2&dpPl=1&dpID=A1Cy0y5eL7L
 
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#87
#87
I'm regretting having made what I hoped would be received as a statement of sympathy and not turned into a point of debate. I am an analytical person and I don't know that I ever would've found faith without having experienced what was, for me, a supernatural experience. There is no way that I could prove or explain that experience to anyone else but it was something that I needed if I was ever going to find faith and fortunately for me it was provided. I don't know whether everyone receives that sort of experience and I can certainly understand why someone might think I have a screw loose if I talked about it. Hence, about the best I can do is offer an understanding word. It's harder for some people to have faith than it is for others. It's not fair, but that's how it is.
 
#88
#88
I've got to say OP I'm in the same boat with you. I believe...I'm not entirely sure what I believe sometimes, but I do believe we are all here by more than just pure chance. With that being said if you believe in the existence of god I think you just have to accept that we here on earth are completely uncapable of comprehending his plans.
 
#90
#90
kiddiedoc said:
I have been reading and studying the settlement, foundation, Revolution, and Constitutional design of our Country and have learned a great deal. It was absolutely accepted by our Founders that God was directly in control. From the devotion of the Puritans and Lollards, to the series of miraculous events that assured survival of the early pioneers, to prayers and fasting of Colonial officials and military, to the Christian basis of our government's original design....it is all there.

Here is a great book for enlightenment. You won't find this in public schools:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1887...=8QPX0TYYYT2J98ZCSGD2&dpPl=1&dpID=A1Cy0y5eL7L
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It doesn't matter what they believed. They don't determine Gods decree. Israel wasn't established by men agreeing. They certainly built a country that is best run with Christian citizenry.

Taxation without representation is not a biblical principle. The Puritans have birth to religious shaming +read the Scarlett Letter) and the Salem witch trials. They were isolationist and did not come to the Americas to start a revolution.

The US is based on Lockeien ideas birthed out of the French revolution. There is nothing in our founding documents that establishes the states as a religious entity or suggests the practice of Christianity or any religion.
 
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#91
#91
VolunteerHillbilly said:
I'm regretting having made what I hoped would be received as a statement of sympathy and not turned into a point of debate. I am an analytical person and I don't know that I ever would've found faith without having experienced what was, for me, a supernatural experience. There is no way that I could prove or explain that experience to anyone else but it was something that I needed if I was ever going to find faith and fortunately for me it was provided. I don't know whether everyone receives that sort of experience and I can certainly understand why someone might think I have a screw loose if I talked about it. Hence, about the best I can do is offer an understanding word. It's harder for some people to have faith than it is for others. It's not fair, but that's how it is.
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What about experiences that Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist and Wicka have?

Should ones faith be based on the truth of the Gospel or an emotional experience?
 
#94
#94
Roustabout said:
It doesn't matter what they believed. They don't determine Gods decree. Israel wasn't established by men agreeing. They certainly built a country that is best run with Christian citizenry.

Taxation without representation is not a biblical principle. The Puritans have birth to religious shaming +read the Scarlett Letter) and the Salem witch trials. They were isolationist and did not come to the Americas to start a revolution.

The US is based on Lockeien ideas birthed out of the French revolution. There is nothing in our founding documents that establishes the states as a religious entity or suggests the practice of Christianity or any religion.
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I think you have some dates backwards. or at least have mis-attributed some of the catalysts.
 
#95
#95
creekerballer said:
I've got to say OP I'm in the same boat with you. I believe...I'm not entirely sure what I believe sometimes, but I do believe we are all here by more than just pure chance. With that being said if you believe in the existence of god I think you just have to accept that we here on earth are completely uncapable of comprehending his plans.
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Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."
 
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#96
#96
Roustabout said:
The US is based on Lockeien ideas birthed out of the French revolution. There is nothing in our founding documents that establishes the states as a religious entity or suggests the practice of Christianity or any religion.
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Incorrect on all accounts. I will post evidence when I have time. I would HIGHLY encourage you to check out the book I referenced, which includes many original writings of the early settlers and our Founding fathers.

Also, the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787. The basis for U.S. government had been slowly established for over a hundred years prior. The French Revolution dated 1789-1799.
 
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#97
#97
kiddiedoc said:
Incorrect on all accounts. I will post evidence when I have time. I would HIGHLY encourage you to check out the book I referenced, which includes many original writings of the early settlers and our Founding fathers.

Also, the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787. The basis for U.S. government had been slowly established for over a hundred years prior. The French Revolution dated 1789-1799.
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Don't try to rewrite revisionist history.
 
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#99
#99
kiddiedoc said:
Incorrect on all accounts. I will post evidence when I have time. I would HIGHLY encourage you to check out the book I referenced, which includes many original writings of the early settlers and our Founding fathers.

Also, the Constitutional Convention took place in 1787. The basis for U.S. government had been slowly established for over a hundred years prior. The French Revolution dated 1789-1799.
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I doubt it's anything new. I've read and watched endless discussions pushing the idea that the US is a Christian nation. It isn't. There is no such thing.

Locke's ideas were major catalyst of the governments that came out of both revolutions. His ideas were highly influential in the FFs.
 
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#100
#100
"To that kind providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?

I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth- that God Governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that "except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it." I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better, than the Builders of Babel: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests; our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages."

- Ben Franklin, 1787, before calling for daily prayer at the Constitutional Convention
 
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