In a world without God...

[Ryantology]

A copy of a Copy in any honest person's language is a fake.

What does that make the Bible you read every day, which is a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a tale told word-of-mouth for centuries after it was taken from neighboring cultures and modified? And that's probably being extremely generous.

Ah, no.
When I first bent that knee and God slowly began to reveal himself to me and I began to understand the difference between the God of the bible and the God of my given denomination I was dumb founded. He was not who i though Him to be. Which is why i believe we are made to kneel before God and allow Him to lift us up.

You knelt before you knew, and you confirmed your own bias.

Be honest, you have been reading my post long enough to have seen at least 1 thing you did not know about God that I have been able to back scripturally. I was not raised in the church. None of what I share is passed down by my father or mother or by any church. These things were given to me to share. I formed a picture of God different than the one being taught by the church i was attending.

You invented your own version of God rather than having had one invented for you, as I did. That doesn't really change the invented nature of your god.

It got to the point where I had to choose between my church and how i chose to honor God (and my wife) I choose my God and my wife. It has taken 10 years to find another church. One who teaches from the pulpit things I had only every heard through my personal study.

It took you ten years to find a church which taught a version of Christianity which confirmed your bias.

I say all of this to say that i was not ready to worship a given picture of God. To truly bend that knee is to throw everything away, including everything you learned at church, and allow him to fill in the blanks.

Still do not see a single element of this story that makes it compelling.

If you can do this you will begin to see a contrast between the God of the bible and every other incarnation of God people may have. If you choose the God of the bible you will be given knoweledge and wisdom of God that exceeds anything you could possiably know. What's more, your will be given revelation first, and then whole passages and chapters will come together to reinforce the picture of God you have been given.

I will consider a relationship with God when he makes his presence obvious and impossible to deny or be interpreted as anything but what he is. Your standards of what constitutes knowledge are poor enough to convince you to dedicate your life to a runaway fantasy. Again, I don't trust my own senses as much as you do, which is ironic considering which of us places more value upon the material world.

For how many times have you heard someone preach about the nature of God and take a verse from here and pair it with one verse from there and tie it all together with some random bit for the psalms or some obscure verse from revelations?

You do it pretty much every day.

God does not hide Himself that way. God in hidded in Plain sight, meaning Chapter long passages and whole books written to describe a precept like freedom from the Law.

The creator of the universe should not hide from me if he wants me to think he is anything more than words in a book. He must not have made me stupid enough to find that acceptable.

The God of the bible is not the god you think Him to be. If you bend that knee and will be faithful to what He gives you you will see a driving force in your life that is counter-intuitive to what or how you think things should work. That's God. Not this omni max crap some monk put together 1500 years ago.

The God of the bible is a reprehensible character I would never worship even if it did exist. I would refuse him out of principle and respect for the human race.

Your confusing religions of man with the God of the bible. God is only interested in giving you an oppertunity to choose Him. What you do with that oppertunity is on you.

Beings invisible to me are giving me no opportunities. He needs to manifest as he is claimed to have done in the Old Testament, at the very least.

There is no guess work here. God told us He put an imprint of Himself on every mans heart. (Even minnie, that's why he argues so) and if we simply take what is given and apply it to A/S/K as we have been told the flood gates will be opened.

Again, I need more than that. What you say God has given is insufficient.

Who's purpose yours or His?

Is it not his purpose to establish a meaningful relationship with men who love him heart and soul? He is more powerful and capable than I am. It is upon him to make the effort. Even if I didn't A/S/K precisely according to scripture, could he not tell that my heart was genuine? There was a period of time when I really wanted what you have, wanted it as much as I've ever wanted anything. If your God is real, then all I got was "too bad". Not a single sign, hint, or even subtle encouragement. Just silence.

What if His purpose is not to amass the following you think he needs.
What if the purpose of this life is to provide a place where we can make a choice about where we want to spend eternity, and not blinded by the glory of God or completely mortified by the reality of Hell?

How can you make a choice about where you want to spend eternity without considering the rewards of heaven and the horrors of hell, when those rewards and horrors are all that defines the difference between the two? If God wanted man to make a choice about him without considering those things, he should have never made the promises and threats. He should have simply invited you to accept him, if you wanted, with no punishment for saying no and no reward for saying yes, other than the pleasure of his company and presence in your life. Heaven and Hell make it impossible to make that choice without poisoning the well with personal considerations. Does that not make sense?

Or, are the promises of heaven and hell just a trick to weed out everyone who would consider the ramifications of either so that can eliminate them from consideration (as they are thinking of themselves and their own fates more than of God)?

In this life we are completely free to make the choice to live for self or live for God. If we want to know God and know why we should Live for him God has left us a way that we can know. The only thing is we must follow His instructions in order to receive what He has promised.

I never needed promises. Even as a Christian, I never gave much thought to the afterlife (I was in my early 20s, who does think much about death in their 20s?). I can say, honestly, that I was not motivated by considerations of the afterlife as much as most Christians I know. The church I attended most spoke a lot more of the here and now, the companionship and the guidance in this life, what I was missing and what I needed. And, what I never ended up getting. You may find it difficult to believe any of this because of my attitude, but the reason I have such an attitude is because, whether or not I did it right, I did it with honest intentions, and I got nothing. So, either intentions mean less to God than following precise instructions, or there's no one on the other end of the line.

This is untrue. I have asked truly asked and questioned absolutly every single aspect of God I could think of, and of eternity to the reality of Hell and why it was such a bad thing. What I learned? First and foremost dont ask God what you really do not need the answers too. and second Not questioning God is a religion thing. God is open to question, just understand most of the answers come through harsh life experiences... (Per Lot, and me not that I have suffered as lot has suffered or for the same reasons.)

I consider it up to me to decide what answers I need and which I do not. And, if God is open to questions, why did he not answer mine in a way he knew I would need them answered?

You do not know how much strength it takes to completely submit do you? You know the rebellion you feel? Now Imagine what it would take to over come it with all of your factulities intact. Then imagine what it would take to maintain that submission for life. The strength needed there is far above and beyond what most if not all are capiable of.

It takes no strength to submit. Slaves submit.

Questions are not discouraged to the God of the bible (Look at all the stuff the deciples asked over and over again. Yes Jesus pointed to faith several times as the reason something did not work right, but the question it self was never rebuked.

My only question is the most important one: why does the infinitely-powerful creator of all things feel the need to hide himself from his creation?

If you ask God a question He will carve an answer on your Heart in such a way as to know the answer came from God. This often times is a painful experience if you have a hard heart. Or you can just ask someone who has asked your question (but the assureances you get are seldom on par with what you get when God answers your question directly.)

Perhaps my atheism is the answer he carved on my heart. As irrational as so many aspects of your god are, maybe your god answered my question with "I never existed".