Is it strange that I want there to be a God ?

[jstrodel]

I couldn't live without God. God is my best friend. I can assure you that God is real. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened to you. God is real, if you have any questions, PM me. I will write 25 pages if you want. It isn't a problem. Send me what you are curious about.

yeah... you keep telling yourself that. Say it enough times and you'll become convinced of it....wait, you've done it already!!

The Christian faith is true, I want all of it to be true, the mercy, the judgement, the person of Christ. I love God. God saved me and gave me hope that there was more in the world than money and getting a job and pleasure and living an empty life. God has given me meaning and opened my eyes to the wisdom of God. It is really amazing how many good things have come to me through God's agency.

hmmm, how many have? and which?

Seek and you will find. It is not wrong to long to be with God. God puts that in people.

Or people put that in people and then think it was some extra-terrestrial divinity.

But you must respond. Don't be weak. Don't let anyone talk you out of it.

I won't let anyone talk me out of it... if your god does exist and has presented itself to other people (not through wanting, but presented in a physical form), as is recorded in your holy book, then I expect the same treatment. Is it too much to expect?
Why must must I delude myself before I accept the existence of the delusion?

As for the wars and problem of evil, the world is in a state of evil because people have resisted God. They are no longer under the blessing of God, so that now sin affects the course of the world. That is why there are wars, because people fight to control the world. God did not cause all the bad things to happen, but now that they happen, God does punish sin. God is not more severe in God's ways than most governments in history, who have punished some crimes severely, but nevertheless are just and fair.

The wars... god itself helps win some wars, according to your holy book. If the guy's involved in wars, why would the evil of wars in the world be solved by this god?
I wouldn't expect it to be so...

There really is no philosophical problem of evil. God simply is not required to act in history the way that people would want God to, and if God did, what would happen is the end of the world, because so many things would change that people would cease to have free will and the kingdom of God would come.

How do you account for the free will of the people in the holy book's stories? Moses?... he met god, hence had no free will, so.... no kingdom of heaven for him. The same goes for Abraham, the apostles... heck, everyone!
Now, why must I believe the stories that were written about these people, instead of having equivalent experiences?
Why is it all done in such a way that, were the stories man-made/imagined, nothing would be required to change in the physical world we have around us?
Why must I delude myself that god exists before I have any experience of this god?
Why are all current "experiences" of the divine so camouflaged and mental that the only rational explanation for them is "man-made/imagined"?
Why, if god presented itself to some humans, can't it present itself to all humans?
Why, if god presented itself to some humans in one way (J.C, for example), did it present itself to other humans in a different way (e.g. Mohamed), giving rise to different religions and all the hardship and war those have brought on the world?

Could you condense your argument down to one point or two points I can respond to. I can't really find any argument here.

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I couldn't live without Allah. Allah is my best friend. I can assure you that Allah is real. Seek and you will find, knock and the door will opened to you. Allah is real, if you have any questions, PM me. I will write 25 pages if you want. It isn't a problem. Send me what you are curious about.

The Muslim faith is true, I want all of it to be true, the mercy, the judgement, the person of Mohammed. I love Allah. Allah saved me and gave me hope that there was more in the world than money and getting a job and pleasure and living an empty life. Allah has given me meaning and opened my eyes to the wisdom of Allah. It is really amazing how many good things have come to me through Allah's agency.

Seek and you will find. It is not wrong to long to be with Allah. Allah puts that in people.

But you must respond. Don't be weak. Don't let anyone talk you out of it.


As for the wars and problem of evil, the world is in a state of evil because people have resisted Allah. They are no longer under the blessing of Allah, so that now sin affects the course of the world. That is why there are wars, because people fight to control the world. Allah did not cause all the bad things to happen, but now that they happen, Allah does punish sin. Allah is not more severe in Allah's ways than most governments in history, who have punished some crimes severely, but nevertheless are just and fair.

There really is no philosophical problem of evil. Allah simply is not required to act in history the way that people would want Allah to, and if Allah did, what would happen is the end of the world, because so many things would change that people would cease to have free will and the kingdom of Allah would come.

Something to think about. Life is complicated.

This and more in the Quoran!

Now, strodel, prove the edited quote incorrect.

Maybe a lot of Muslims have the same experience and they are experience the same Father of Abraham that I experience. I couldn't be sure. Why must I disprove it? Why shouldn't you disprove that the two largest religions which both point to extremely similar deities who trace back to similar historical figures must argue against the existence of some common entity that explains both? That is not self evident to me, I find the existence of the two similar deities to be evidence for the truth claims, though it raises a problem, similar to the diversity of views within Christianity theology, of why God would reveal himself simultaneously in diverse ways. I am not sure exactly what the answer is, I suspect that here are many different forces involved in the reception of both Christianity and Islam, but I see the strong similarities as evidence.

Now a question for you: If all Gods and systems are the same, why can you only point to one God? Why, in 2013, are there no followers of Zeus and few animists, but why do monotheists cover the globe? Why does it seem like the religious traditions seem to coalesce around similar claims about God and Jesus, in many different religious traditions.

The problem is not that there are 500000000 competing claims that are all equally true, it is that there a relatively small number of claims that could conceivably represent what God would do if God revealed God's ways to the whole earth.

If God revealed God's self, would God come in the form of a primitive voodoo cult in Haiti? But is that explained if you understand Christianity, which accepts the reality of demons, though does not give them power.

The existence of many similar religions to Christianity gives additional evidence that there is some common revelation that is incomplete among non-Christians.