My crazy life continues

Wha?

from JoeUser Forums
As far as yesterday, I'm not sure what's going on with either of the girls. But this post isn't about that. It's about my crazy, psychopathic mother.

She's a sweetheart, she really is. I walk into her room today, and she's completely smashed. Not like "oooh, I'm drunk and tipsy" smashed, like almost ready to pass out smashed. My dad will be home shortly, and I'm fairly certain that they are going to just get into the biggest argument ever. When that happens, I'll update everyone on that, if everything here is still alive, that is.

So, anyways, she's sitting there talking about the Passion of Christ movie. She's bawling her eyes out, trying to figure out why anyone would do something like that. I can't explain that to her, but I try to calm her down. People back then were certainly barbaric! So then she asks me who I think killed him - I don't know, to tell you the truth. So I tell her that, and try to bring up another argument saying that we might never know. She almost bited my head off. Then she asks me if I believe in god. Umm, maybe? I don't know, I don't have the proof for it. Yes, she's a little psychotic, but I do love her.

Do I believe in god? I'm not sure. There might be one god, there might be many gods, there might be no gods. I'm not aethiest or anything like that, I just don't have the proof. I'm ready for the flame war that this could quite possibly start, but I don't know if there is a god. Care to tell me your beliefs and why? I don't want any silly "Look at kids! We have kids!" stuff that's been shoved down my throat - the miracle of birth is easily explained and well defined by science. If I can sit here and slam everything down that easily, then don't bother to post it here.

What about people having miracles and living through insane horrible car accidents? Ever hear of luck? One of my good friends died in a car accident, she was 18. I'll never forget looking into that coffin, seeing her dead body resting there, peacefully... If there is a god, why did he have to take her?

Alright, start the fire - I'm ready to get hot.
1,712 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I could tell you examples of miracles from my own life- life-saving things like a tumor dissappearing and practical things like a broken car running far past its ability to do so- but miracles aren't what make me believe in God. And neither is that frightfully irritating "we have children" garbage that makes me wonder if they ever read any literature besides those little "right-to-life" pamphlets.

I believe in God because 1) I'm an intelligent person, and thinks just don't make any sense without God, and 2) once I took the initial step of faith (i.e. believing in something that I didn't have specific proof for), God has made Himself abundantly present in my life. At this point, denying God's existance would be far more ludacrice than, say, denying your existance.

That proof won't ease your mind or anybody else's, but I just wanted to maintain that not everybody is as cheesy or idyllic in their religious thinking as the stereotype might suggest. Incidentally, after I write this I'm going to write an article on miracles, so if you want to read that, it'll be the newest post on my site for the next day or so.

Best wishes.

~Dan
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
OK, so you believe in God because it's logical to believe in him? If that works for you, then that's great.
For myself, that's not enough. Logic could point to MANY other reasons for existance, believing in one is
choosing one 'possible explanation' over another simply because you like it better.

It's not logical that some big, all important guy/thing/spirit sat down one day and decided to make
a species of asshats and throw them on some big round planet thingy to spin around endlessly and blow
themselves up eventually. Or something like that.

Denying your existance makes things real easy, however. It's much more logical than accepting everything
else. How can He exist if we don't exist? Well, He can't. So, how can I prove I exist? Well, I can't.
But if I don't exist, then this is one shweet randomly generated article.

OK, but anyway, for you religious folk out there -- if you take it that God created this world and all that
mumbo jumbo, who created God and the universe himself? A recursive definition simply does not work.
There has to be a starting point.

well, as Bad Religion would put it... "Big bang, big crunch. Dontcha know there's no free lunch?"

k

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
It's called faith. Having faith is having the belief in the higher power. Why is it that when I speak to many religious people, the majority are happier, more level-headed, and more optomistic than your average person that doesn't have faith. People think "oh my life is so horrible, why would God let this happen to me if he existed." Well...God loves everyone(a deeper love than anyone could imagine), but God isn't always happy with everyone. You have to acknowledge his existance, have faith in him, love him back, then you will truely see the rewards. Take my case, I always believed. But when I didn't acknoweldge him, a lot of bad things happened in my life and I lost a lot. Then I started acknowledging him, praying for things on a regular basis, sometimes I prayed for nothing. Maybe I was being selfish praying for myself at times, but my prayers got answered and I got everything that I lost in my life back. Believe me...there was no hope in getting this back for me, I thought it was impossible. What to you have to gain by not believing? 5 minutes more of freetime that you would've used for praying? What do you have to loose by not believing? I'll tell you what you have to loose, although it might sound awefully harsh, it's the truth and there is no other way to say it, eternal life. I don't even pray 5 minutes a day, sometimes I feel guilty because I only prayed when I needed something. I have faith though and God realizes that. Have some faith man.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
ah, but if god loves everyone, he'll love even the disbelievers, because he knows they have good hearts.
praying? ...

ok, now you're taking quite a few things on faith:
1.) there is a god
2.) he can hear what you're saying, thinking, feeling, your ambitions, your intentions, blah blah blah
3.) there is an afterlife
4.) our lives are eternal

now, you think none of those are presumptuous?
i'll give you the one that 'god exists', sure. that's great and all. but why do the others logically
follow? just because god exists "up there" doesn't mean we necessarily follow him.

and what you're talking about when you say 'faith' is really just a matter of optimism/pessimism.
if i feel that everything's going well, it will go well. there doesn't have to be a god for that to be
true.

and are you so selfish to believe that, if there is a god, he really will stop time *just for you* and
make your wishes come true?

assuredly, if god can see our past, he would know if there's a good reason for us to believe in him
or not.

i'm sure the cavemen believed in god, and they knew exactly how to pray to him so that he accepted
them. because, if they didn't believe and pray correctly, he would spite them and kill them all off.
and where would we be then?

oh, wait, no... they probably didn't believe in god.

--

given a person like this:
someone who grew up in complete isolation with only the ability to communicate his fellow animals in
some sort of way (ok, i guess a lot like Tarzan). now, he doesn't know of "your God." he won't ever
know of your God unless:
a.) your God appears to him
b.) someone tells him about your God
and both are completely unlikely as the first statement said that he did live in complete isolation from
other humans. and God doesn't show himself to us other mortals, why would he bother with a little guy
who doesn't even know he exists? he surely must hate him, then.

but our poor little old johnny in the forest is none the wiser. he'll take what's put in front of him as it
goes, surviving. will he make it to heaven? i guess not, because he doesn't even know what heaven is.

so -- to recap,

we must know that god exists or just take it on 'faith'. acknowledge his presence consistently (or he'll get
pissed at us),

seriously, though.. what gives us the nerve to believe there's someone out there that gives that much of
a shit about us when we can barely find a single person in this world out of BILLIONS that care about us?

and no, just because i don't believe there's your Christian or Bhuddist or whatever God out there, does
not make me a bad person, despite what your religious psychobabble texts would state.

... end rant