The Long and the Short of it.

[Godscreated]

I had to go back a few pages to find it, but I didn’t miss your post, Godschild! I’ll break it down into easily digestible chunks in my response.

[quote='Godschild' pid='70750' dateline='1274050682']
Now at this point there will be those who find they dislike who they percieve God to be (controlling tyrant, uncaring, murderer and ect.) and there faith is lost and there goes their belief. This may take several years or even a decade or so before it happens but for some it will and IMO it's because they never reached out to experience God. So now the road has split again and they also become nonbelievers.

I do see that god is represented as a “controlling tyrant, uncaring, murderer, and etc.”, as you said, but that is not why I do not believe the claims that he is real. If anything, it makes me wonder why anyone would want him to be real… but I digress. You do not seem to understand that there are other reasons people might become ‘nonbelievers’.

I did indeed “reach out to experience god”. I used to fully believe that it was all true. I would pray to god, to Jesus, to Mary… asking them to bless this person or that person, to give me guidance. I invited them into my heart and asked them to accept my unworthy soul into the kingdom of heaven. I gave them credit for the beauty of a rainbow and the ‘miracle’ of life. All that. Then I began to ask questions, because I realized that most of what I had read and been told did not make any sense. Eventually, I stopped believing any of it was true. From my perspective, I finally opened my eyes and allowed myself the experience of reality, unclouded by superstition… and, without dogma, it all made sense again.

Paul I do understand that people have other reasons not to believe, like believeing in another god or a religion that has no deity and ect. Billy Graham's partner in ministry gave up His belief in God because he could not understand why God allowed little childern to suffer. I do understand.
I thank you for being honest about your experience with God and I've read over it several times and I see from my experience with other christians you seem to share a common belief, you believe all that there is to christianity is prayer for others and yourself, that what the Bible says is true and the invitation for Christ to come into your heart. Now all of that is a good start but where is the experiential relationship I do not see where you were involved with God in His work for mankind. You did not say if your prayers were answered. Did you look to see were God was working so you might get involved, God intends for use to be involves in His work. God has chosen to work through man and I do not mean He forces us He allows us to exercise our freewill and either join in or set on the sidelines. If we decide to set on the sidelines God will find others to join in His work. I know this from a personal experience and I've regreted missing out on such a great opportunity to work with childeren. I know you think I'm a nutcase but I believe this is the reason people come to different conclusions about the same God some stop before they truly get to know Him and some follow on until they see who God really is.