Evidence God Exists: Part II

[Watson]

*sigh* I can't begin to understand why you'd be so intentionally wrapped up in such a silly exercise of self-deception

Speak for yourself.

while advocating your concept for god as some kind of 'universal truth' we've all wilfully ignoring.

God, as I have come to know Him and understand Him, is a part of every one and every thing. That means that He is just as much a part of you as He is a part of me. So, from my beliefs and my perspective, denying God's existence is like denying you have an arm or a leg; it is simply ridiculous.

Were you trying to impress us with a "story" of conversion to theism? Would that make your argument somehow more credible?

No, I was not trying to impress anyone at all. I was trying to illustrate the ways in which God works and how He can be revealed to a person, even an Atheist such as I considered myself. This is because the problem with discussing religion and God with any Atheist is that they simply do not understand God. Thus, to get anywhere in a dicussion with an Atheist, theists and believers must first educate them on how God works, then move on to other topics of discussion.

People occasionally move between states of belief and non-belief, for various reasons throughout their lives. When I cared more about truth than religion I deconverted from Christianity. Simply stating atheists can convert is irrelevant to any argument for god's existence and utterly redundant in any case -

As I said above, the purpose of my stating Atheists can convert is so I may demonstrate to you how God works and go from there. You misunderstand or find contention with the lesson.

everyone is born an atheist to begin with!

Wrong. By my beliefs, everyone is born with the utmost perfect belief; a belief not bogged down with religious names and confusion.

Right now, you are making claims about the universe and beings that exist within reality that could possibly damage people’s wealth or health if taken out of context.

Wealth? What has wealth got to do with anything at all?

Sure, I agree with you; when dealing in terms of God, there is always the possibility that someone will take the message out of its context and warp it to fit their own perspective. This is human nature. This is why I state that we are born with perfect belief; we have not bee introduced to our own individual likes and dislikes yet, and thus we have not had a chance to form a perspective about the world which could blind us from God and His teachings.

Don't expect people to be convinced by your arguments if you can't even manage being intellectually honest about yourself Watson.

I reiterate, speak for yourself.

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Well, I say I don't know what "True Atheist" means because, n my belief, I have yet to truly meet a "True Atheist", and I never will. I mean no disrespect by it, I just don't believe in "True" Atheism.
I am an Agnostic Christian, which means I believe in the teachings, I believe in the ideas and principles of the Christian religion, but I do not know them or claim them to be true.

I'll disregard the part on your non-belief in someone being a True Atheist, but I am curious to know how you can state that you "Believe" in the teachings, Principles and Ideas of the Christian religion but/and also state you do not know them or claim them to be true?? That's simply a paradox in what you stated...

What I meant when I said that was, I believe in the Christian teachings, principles and ideals, and have found them to be true in my observances and experiences throughout life, but I do not claim to know if they are real or not. I.e.- I have never literally met Jesus Christ in the flesh, I have never spoken with an angel or with a manifestation of God, at least ot in the English language, et cetera, et cetera.

Furthermore, my belief in God is quite seperate from my Christianity, and based on my own personal experience, coupled with my observations of the world around me. I have read very little of the Bible, but I am aware of it's contents and meaning through study of this life I am living.

I do understand your meaning in the separation of a personal god in which you believe in, however, you could get just as much morality and personal content out of a self help to happiness book than the Christian one....

I am applying the lessons I have learned throughout life to the Bible, and in so-doing, I gain more understanding of the Christian religion and its beliefs.

I don't plan on adding a sect of any kind, this is simply my personal experience with Christianity as I understand it. My interpretation of Christianity is based on my observations of God, rather than the other way around.

When you state your observations of god, in what way do you mean?

I have had experiences throughout life which I can not explain, nor can anyone else explain, as being anything more likely than God. These experiences are things which are very real to me, and which can only be explained or make sense through a theist view-point.

Well, if it helps; I choose Christianity because I find it the most broad in understanding and the best at describing the phenomenon we call 'life', the being we call 'God.' I also find that certain other religions do this very well, too, but none quite so precisely as Christianity. That is my take on it; a Muslim or a Buddhist may have a different take, just as you and the other Atheists on this site have differents take completely.
I believe they are Christian, but are not recognized as such because of the level of misrepresentation coming from Fundamentalists and other nutjobs.

I would say they are little more relaxed in comparison to the Islamic faith. The sad part is that the fundamentalist nutjobs you wrote about make up the majority here in the U.S. I can't speak for how it is in other countries who call themselves Christians.

It is unfortunate, but such is human nature. People are bound to misinterpret, warp, or otherwise take out of context what they read in books, see on TV, or simply hear from word of mouth. It permeates our society, even in things outside of religion.

Christianity has more depth to it than some would like to think, and takes a lot of study for one to undertsand it's true, underlying meaning.

The only depth and meaning is from the person that is giving it that, depth and meaning. There is reason for so many branches of faith based beliefs coming from one book. In the end, the bottom line is still human perception, not the label.

I agree with this. Our perception is largely based on what we believe in; believing in a world with God reveals His markings quite clearly; believing in a world with no God reveals a quite Godless looking world. Only if you understand God, however, will you be able to see His nature for what it truly is.

Thank you for your well wishes, haha. I do believe in a personal God; I believe that all major and minor religions out there are simply an attempt at describing that God in the best way they know how. Some have it better than others, and I only add the 'Agnostic' label to my Christianity because I merely believe in Jesus Christ and his teachings; I have no way of absolutely knowing for certain if He ever walk this earth.

For me personally, I believe there probably was a "Man" named Jesus or Yewah, or whatever, that tried to "Preach" to his people... I just look at him as being another human being spreading their opinions of what they believe to be truth, when it comes life of course... No more, no less....

Well, in a sense, I also believe this. Jesus was simply a man, a son of God just as I am a son of God. The difference between He and I, however, was that He was supposedly the prodigal son of God. Prodigal indicating He was a protege, He would have been connected and in tune with the lessons of God in such a way as to be adept, nearly perfect, at them, and at understanding and teaching them.