Chapter 1. 4
The God Idea
Religion
can be quite simple
if
you have no facts to bother you. C.S. Lewis -
First Word
For
one to believe in the existence of a god, one must be confident that such a
belief is capable of being verified by either reasoned argument or direct
experience. If we start out neutral with
respect to God and try to reason our way to his existence without some kind of
a spiritual interaction, then we just aren't going to come to a positive
conclusion, thus a belief in God becomes a form of unreason. Does the Universe, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water,
the Eye, the Human Brain, DNA and Laws of Nature, all point to happenstance and
Evolution or to Creative Design; The God Idea?
A few Definitions
Atheist –
A
meaning “No”
and Theos meaning “God”; believes there is no god
therefore miracles are not possible; there is no supernatural and we all live
in a closed system.
An Airport Atheist is one who prays
when there is turbulence on an airplane.
Agnostic –
A
meaning “No”
and gnosis meaning “Knowledge”; they are NOT SURE if
there is a God, they have no knowledge one way or the other.
An Skeptic has some
knowledge of a God, but doubts that He really exist.
An Infidel does not believe
that God exists and wants everyone else to believe the same.
Relativism –
There are no absolute truths, only truths that are relevant to each individual.
Therefore if Truth is relative; then no one is ever wrong.
Note the difference; Belief in no
God (there
is no god) & No belief in
God (There is a god, but no belief)
Pantheism believes
God created the Universe and He IS the universe and everything is part of God.
Pantheism believes that God is beyond “Good and Evil” The wiser you are the
less you call something good or evil. – The side that is called evil is
dependent on which side you are on. - Cancer kills people; Doctors kill cancer
– Both are killers. - God created them both. ( Selah; ponder that ! )
Dualism is the
belief that there are two EQUAL and independent powerful forces in the
world; one that is GOOD and one that is EVIL and
the world is the stage on which their battle is fought endlessly. – Obviously
we can REASON that
Ten Reasons to NOT Believe
1. There is just no
evidence that there is a god; it’s just bias, opinions and tradition.
2. My parents did
not believe in God therefore we never went to Church or Sunday School.
3. God is an
invention of the political wealthy elite to suppress the lower working class.
4. The only reason
people go to church, is to rub shoulders so they can make business contacts.
5. Religion is just
a hustle to separate you from your money.
6. My college
professor taught that NATURE accounts for everything in life.
7. I can’t believe
that a cosmic Deity created me just for the purpose of worshipping him.
8. Religion is just
something that keeps me in a box and makes me feel guilty about my lifestyle
9. I have a good
mind that directs my life; religion just restricts my full potential.
10. If God really
existed, we would not see so much pain, suffering and EVIL in this world.
The
following statements will cause the very soul
of a
follower of Jesus Christ to shutter.
Bill
Gates - Microsoft
I agree with people like Richard Dawkins,
that mankind felt the need for CREATION MYTHS. Before we really began to understand
disease and the weather and things like that, we sought FALSE EXPLANATIONS for them. Now SCIENCE has filled in some of the realm; not all,
that religion used to fill. But the
mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there's no
scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers
that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view. I think it makes sense to believe in God, but
exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know.
Article
Rolling Stone Magazine
Pope
Francis
Pope
Francis said in so many words that you
do not have to believe in god as long as you obey your conscience. “It is not necessary to believe in God to be a good person. In a way, the traditional notions of God is
outdated. One can be spiritual, but not
religious. It is not necessary to go to
church and give money. For many, NATURE can be a church. Some of the best people in history did not
believe in God while some of the worst deeds were done in His name.”
“You
ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who
don’t seek the faith. I start by saying
and this is the fundamental thing, that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to
him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their
conscience. “Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey
their conscience.”
Buddha – No God
There is no evidence to support the God Idea
although numerous religions claim that god exists. Some say he is a man,
others a woman and still others gender neutral.
Buddha will not pass judgment on this until such evidence is found.
The earliest man lived in a dangerous and hostile
environment and feared the wild animals and suffered for the lack of food. He feared the thunder, lightning, storms and
created the “God
Idea” in order to give him consolation and courage during his hard
times. "Gripped by FEAR men go to the
sacred mountains, sacred groves, sacred trees and shrines"
Buddha taught that his followers should try to understand their
fears, and accept the things they cannot change, replacing fear with rational
understanding.
Some believe that there must be a god in order to
explain the origin of the universe.
Buddha says that science has explained how the universe came about
without the God
Idea.
Mortals are weak and need the strength of a god in order
to help themselves.
Buddha points to the many without god, who have overcome
disabilities, handicaps and great difficulties through their own inner self and
determination.
To live a happy and
meaningful life, many
feel like they need to worship a god.
Buddha shows that you can live a meaningful life without a belief
in a god and millions of people already do so.
Buddha shows that each person has the capacity
without a god to purify the mind, develop love and compassion and gain perfect
understanding by shifting the attention from the heavens to the inner person;
to find solutions through self-realization and understanding.
Dalai
Lama – Concerning the Muslim ISIS terrorist shootings in Paris -
November 13, 2015.
“Humans have created this
problem, and now we are asking God to solve it.
It is
Illogical… Let us work for peace and
NOT expect help from god, Buddha or the governments”.
Intelligent People
Intelligent
people have memory,
learning, logic, abstract thoughts, understanding, emotional knowledge,
self-awareness, communications, planning and creativity. They perceive information, retain it as
knowledge and apply it to problem solving. They lead THE HERD.
Albert Einstein
(theoretical physicist) “God does not
play dice with the Universe”. "The
word God for me is nothing more than the expression and product of human
weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honorable, but still primitive legends
which are nevertheless pretty childish. No interpretation, no matter how
subtle, can (for me) change
this".
Angelina Jolie (actress) “There doesn’t need to be a God for
me. There’s something in people that’s
spiritual, that’s godlike. I don’t feel
like doing things just because people say things, but I also don’t really know
if it’s better to just not believe in anything either.”
George Clooney
(actor) I don’t believe in heaven and
hell. I don’t know if I believe in
God. All I know is that as an
individual, I won’t allow this life, the only thing I know to exist, to be
wasted.
Bill Maher (TV Host) Religion is just the ultimate hustle. Why can’t God just defeat the Devil? It’s the same reason a comic book character
can’t defeat his nemesis. Then there’s
no story. If God gets rid of the Devil, and he could
because he’s all powerful, well there’s no fear; no reason to come to church.
Daniel Radcliffe (actor) (Harry Potter) I’m
not religious, I’m an atheist, and a militant atheist when religion starts
impacting on legislation.
Lance Armstrong (Racing Cyclist) I Hope I will be judged on whether I lived
a true life, not whether I believed in a certain book, or whether I have been
baptized.
Woody Allen (director; playwright) To you, I’m an atheist. To God, I’m the loyal opposition.
Bruce Lee (martial artist) Religion goes against you being able to
cultivate your own ways and beliefs.
Jack Nicholson
(actor) I don’t believe in God now,
but I can still work up an envy for someone who has a faith. I can see how that could be a deeply soothing
experience.
Billy Joel (singer; songwriter, pianist) I still
feel very much like an atheist in the religious aspects of things. But there are spiritual planes that I’m aware
of that I don’t know anything about and that I can’t explain.
Jodie Foster (actress) I absolutely love religions
and the rituals even thought I don’t believe in God; we celebrate pretty much
every religion in our family with the kids.
Warren Buffett (Business magnate) I’m too mathematical; too logical to make
a leap of faith.
Katherine Hepburn
(actress) I’m an atheist, and that’s
it. I believe there’s nothing we can
know except that we should be kind to each other and do what we can for each
other.
Howard Stern (TV personality) “I don’t think there’s
any difference between the Pope wearing a large hat and parading around with a
smoking purse and an African painting his face white and praying to a rock.”
Morgan Freeman
(actor; played God) Has anybody ever
seen hard evidence (of God)? What we get is theories from our earlier
prophets. People who think that God
invented us, think that the Earth can’t be more than 6,000 years old; so I
guess it’s a question of belief.
Kevin Bacon (actor) I think there is a puritanical
wind that is blowing. I have never seen
such a lack of separation between Church and state in America. I don’t believe in God, but if I did, I would
say that SEX is a God-given right, otherwise it’s the end of our species.
Steven Hawking
(smartest man living when this was
written) World-famous theoretical physicist says; "Before we
understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing
explanation. Steven says flat-out that
he doesn't believe in God, but he does believe that space travel offers the
best hope for our species' immortality.
Hollywood
Stars - Recruitment
People do not join a religion on doctrinal
grounds, rather they mainly join because they have found caring friends and a
warm fellowship. Some cults utilize “Hollywood Stars”
to help in recruitment like Shirley MacLaine for the New Age Movement or Donnie and Marie
Osmond for the Mormons and Tom Cruise for the Christian Scientist.
Cults are referred to as; Youth Nappers,
Brain Washers and Mind Benders. All
cults do not have all of the same characteristics; some stress moral
activities, others lifestyle; still others, the method of Proselytizing;
manifestation of Spiritual Gifts, Spirit Guides, Self-denial; Rejection of the
upper classes values; Chanting, Channeling, Visions, the Scientific,
Philosophical and Communal methods and Sex freedom religions; then there is
bizarre cultic behavior such as Jim Jones. We simply cannot lump all cults together.
Oprah Winfrey’s church
does not present the same Jesus as found in the New Testament. They present Jesus as just a good man that is
tolerant of alternative lifestyles. Their
doctrine smacks of New Age consciousness; awakenings of your true purpose and
your union with the Divine. God is not a
being or personality, but simply a FORCE which mankind is a part of, therefore
mankind is also divine. New Age appeals
to the ego of “EVOLVING” through meditation to the next level of
consciousness and enlightenment. What
makes this so sad is that millions of people blindly follow Oprah[1].
The Book says; to whom much is given, much will be required[2].
Born an
Atheist
What
if I told you that you were born an ATHEIST; an
unbeliever in God?[3] Well you were, in fact we were all born DEAD to
spiritual things.[4] We do not possess on our own, the ability to
seek such things. Things of God are
spiritually discerned and to understand them, our dead spirit has to be made
alive. (Born again)
The
Spiritual attributes of God have been clearly perceived in nature IF we
choose to see them; so if no one had ever told us about God, we would still be
without excuse[5].
We are destroyed because we choose to
reject His knowledge that is right before our very eyes[6].
Right and
Wrong
The Law of Human Nature thinks UNFAIR behavior is just plain wrong. Why is that?
People
universally and naturally understand courtesy and decent behavior. We know to
NOT do wrong, but we do wrong anyway; then defend our actions with excuses. Why is that?
Where does this Standard of Right and Wrong and decent behavior come from?[7]
There must be some sort of an agreement
of what right and wrong is that is beyond ordinary facts. The Book says
the laws are written on our hearts; ACCUSING us or EXCUSING
us. [8]
Selah; Ponder That
Is this all
there is?
If man evolved from a lower type of life,
what’s the next big step in evolution and why has there been no “evoluting” in
the past 6,000 years? Are we just Cosmic
Orphans?
Our
bodies may be good for about eighty to a hundred years and then we return to
room temperature. What happens after
that? Does my Spirit or my Soul (my
mind) remain with my dead body or does it move on to someplace else?
Could the decisions I make during my
lifetime have some kind of Eternal Consequence?
The
Question that begs to be answered; IS THIS
Did nothing and nothing bump into each
other and then BANG
there was something? Everything that happens is caused by something GREATER than itself. Something must have been the first Unmovable
Cause, that itself had no cause. Is
there an UNMOVED
MOVER that made me and everything
else? Did this “Creator” of everything just
Why do I have a desire to know about this UNMOVED MOVER?
Is this desire coming from my spirit or
am I being drawn by His Spirit. God has
set eternity in our hearts and we hunger for its meaning. WHY IS THAT?
All we can do
is Weigh the Evidence and choose the MOST
LIKELY EXPLANATION.
The Unjust Steward
There
is a parable about a servant who was wasting his master’s goods. The wasteful servant cheated his master by
changing the books of those that were indebted to him. The master commended him for the decision he
made; not because it was a good decision, but because he got off the fence and
made a decision to acknowledge to himself WHICH
SIDE OF THE FENCE [9] he belonged on. He will now “be received”
into the everlasting worldly home. Oddly
enough, the steward remained the same person before and after his decision; he
was only a Make
Believer. Even demons
acknowledge God; but they do not accept Him.[10]
No Hope
If
you were born a Muslim then you have no idea of what’s in store for you in
the afterlife. God’s love is CONDITIONAL
upon what you do. In fact you may very
well be someone who Allah created specifically to go to Hell. The only thing that you know for sure is that
if you kill someone in the name of Allah then you will go to heaven with 70
virgins and a river of wine. The Heart
of Islam is not to KNOW God, but to obey Him.
It’s not to MEDITATE on His essence, but to SUMMIT
to His will. Sadly, Islam is a religion of the WORKS of man, not of the MERCY &
GRACE of God.
Qur’an Sura
19:96 – Allah has no affection; Love depends on
Works
96 Allah has no affection for any
creature.
LOVE IS CONDITIONAL ON GOOD WORKS.
Sura
32:13 – Allah creates many to go to Hell
13
Allah sends to hell
whomever he wants. He created a
multitude of spirits and men
SPECIFICALLY FOR THE PURPOSE OF SENDING THEM TO
HELL.
Sura
52:17 – Paradise - Reward because of Works
17 Verily, the will be in gardens, and the
delight, enjoying in that which their lord has bestowed on them… eat and drink
with happiness BECAUSE OF
WHAT YOU USED TO DO.
THEY WOULD RECLINE ON BEDS, ARRANGED IN RANKS,
AND WE SHALL MARRY THEM TO
FAIR WOMEN WITH WIDE, LOVELY EYES.
Sura
47:15 – Paradise - Rivers of water, milk, wine and honey
15 There are rivers of water that taste
and smell of which are not changed. Rivers of milk, of which the taste never
changes.
RIVERS OF WINE, delicious to those who drink.
And rivers of clarified honey.
(NOTE: Muslims are not supposed to drink alcohol.)
Jehovah
Witness
Jesus in NOT GOD and we do not worship
Him. We believe in Jesus, who said: “I am the way and the truth
and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.” We have faith that
Jesus came to earth from heaven and gave his perfect human life as a ransom
sacrifice. His death and resurrection
make it possible for those exercising faith in him to gain everlasting
life. We also believe that Jesus is now
ruling as King of God’s heavenly Kingdom, which will soon bring peace to the
entire earth. HOWEVER, we take Jesus at
his word when he said: “The Father is
greater than I am.” [11]
So we do not
worship Jesus, as we DO
NOT believe that he is Almighty God.
The Pitiful State
If I saw signs of God everywhere then I
would be a Believer.
If
I saw too much to deny Him, but too little to assure me, then I am just a Make-Believer.
It seems to me that if God really
sustains nature, then nature would reveal Him without ambiguity. If I see no signs of a god; then I must fix
myself in unbelief.
Did you see it? We
must decide whether to live our life as though God DOES exists, or whether to live as though He DOES NOT
exist; either way, IN EITHER CASE we may still be mistaken.
The Age old
Questions
Where did you come from? From my mother and father.
Where did they come from? From my grandparents.
Where did the first man and woman come from? Pond scum.
Where did that come from? Gasses, Chemicals and Matter.
Where did that come from? Space and planets exploding.
Where did they come from? A single source that was expanding.
Where did that
come from? I don’t know. Perhaps God. The Unmoved Mover.
If there is an Unmoved Mover; is He knowable or is
He hidden?
Let’s
Reason Together
Discussions
of God with someone who does not believe in God is illogical; there is
no point of reference; there is no yard stick of measurement; thoughts and
ideas are just foolishness.[12] Most people would claim to possess only an
infinitely small fraction of all the knowledge in the universe, so the odds are
extremely high of God existing outside of one’s knowledge. God does not expect us to believe without REASON.
- If you disbelieve in the face of strong evidence, then you are just closed
minded. The most progressive man is the one that REASONS[13] that he
is on the wrong path and turns back the soonest.
Pascal’s
Wager - The
Game; Does God Exist; the wage is Eternity
The Prize; Obtain an infinitely happy life for
eternity.
The Stakes; YOUR LIFE.
The Odds;
50/50 chance of winning or losing. – Equal chance of gain or loss.
The Participants;
the game is a necessary
pragmatic decision for every living person which is "Impossible to Avoid".
EVERYONE
MUST WAGER; IT’S NOT OPTIONAL.
The Rules – There is infinite bliss or infinite
loss attached to the wager which we are compelled to make. You must choose which God you are entering
into a wager with. – Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Hindu, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
Baltic, Celtic, Irish, Finnic, Germanic, Greek pantheon, Hungarian, Roman,
Aztec, Maya, Polynesian, etc. - (What if you choose
the wrong God?) You must
believe[14]
with certainty that the God you choose will honor His side of the Bet.
If the Wager is valid; the inability to
believe is not rational, and therefore must be caused by feelings: This
inability, therefore, can be overcome by learning from those who were bound
just like you. Follow the way by which they began; by acting as they believed,
attending Church Services, Repentance before God, following in Baptized, etc. This
will naturally bring your spirit alive, enlarge your FAITH and cause you to believe.
The Wager
- A decision of whether
or not to believe in the existence of God must be made by;
"CONSIDERING THE
CONSEQUENCES OF EACH POSSIBILITY".
a)
If
you bet that God exists, then; if you win, you gain all; if you lose, you lose
nothing, meaning one can gain eternal life if God exists, but if not,
one will be no worse off in death than if one had not believed.
b)
If
you bet against God’s existence, win or lose, you either gain nothing or lose
everything. You are either unavoidably annihilated or just lose the opportunity
of eternal happiness.
Summation - Betting that God DOES exist;
If you win, YOU
WIN IT ALL If you lose, YOU
LOSE NOTHING.
There is
Hope
Christianity believes the world was created good and
then it went wrong. Did God create Evil
as well as Good? God created man with
Life is choice
driven; the choices we make on this side of life have eternal consequences.
We
were all born in sin[15]
and death will come to us all.[16] We were born with thoughts and inclinations
of evil all the time[17].
We cannot on our own make something
pure that is impure[18].
We are born blind and deaf[19]
to spiritual matters therefore the word of God is foolishness to us.[20]
We must be gently instructed in the Word,[21]
and Christ will enable us to come to Him.[22] It’s a gift from God; we cannot do anything
to earn it; BUT
we must choose
it.
It’s not
complicated
Satan would have us in bondage to certain customs or rituals that are so
complicated that we would believe that we are just not worthy or that the
sacrifices are just too great. Actually
Jesus made it very simple, as all we have to do is BELIEVE and ACCEPT that God
sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, to be our Savior, and we will receive
eternal life.[23]
The
Take Away
President Theodore Roosevelt said; “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth
more than a college education”.
Mark Twain said
that what bothered him the most about the Bible was not the parts he didn’t
understand, but the parts he did understand.
You can only understand drunkenness when
you are sober. You can only understand
Sleep, when you are awake. A creature
with no eyes does not understand the meaning of Dark, they must first be able
to “See the
Light” in order to understand the dark.
If
Conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a person’s outward
actions; then their conversion is mostly imaginary, they are just Make-Believers. It’s in the Book
[1]Matthew
[2] Luke 12:47-48 - To whom much is given, much
will be required:
[3] Romans 5:17 – Because of Adam’s sin – We are doomed to die
[4] Ephesians 2:1-2 – You are DEAD
in your sins
[5] Romans 1:20 – We are without excuse
[6] Hosea 4:6 - We are destroyed because we rejected His knowledge
[7] Romans
[8] Romans
[9] Luke 16:1-9 – Make a decision – Get off the Fence
[10] James 2:19 - Even the demons believe, but do not accept
[11] John 14:28 - The Father
is greater than I am
[12] 1 Corinthians 2:14 – God is spiritually discerned; otherwise it is just
foolishness
[13] Isaiah 1:18 – Let’s reason together
[14] Mark 9:24 - Lord I believe; Help me in my Unbelief
[15] Psalms 51:5 – We were
born in sin
[16] Romans
[17] Genesis 6:5 – Our
thoughts and inclination are of evil all the time.
[18] Job 14:4 – Man cannot
make something pure that’s impure
[19] Mark
[20] 1 Corinthians 2:14 – The
Word is foolishness to the natural man.
[21] 2 Tim
[22] Ephesians 2:1 – Christ
made us alive when we were dead in our sins
-- John 6:65 – God enables us to come to Him
[23] John
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