Do you wish God was real?

[Longhorn]

You're making it a little too cut and dry. :-)

I think if a person honestly does not believe God exists and cannot bring him/herself to believe in God, I don't see how it can be held against them for eternity eternity.

But if someone does believe, then I do think they have a certain calling to try to build a relationship with Jesus.

but. You said, if I'm good, I go to heaven. is that the only requirement?
Why would you bother with anything else then? The bible could be one sentence long: be good.

How do you build a relationship with a dead guy?
I think that's illegal, CL O_o

[Metis]

This is what in Orthodox seminaries we call "Catholic doublespeak". Think of it like a secret dialect, where what you say that sounds nice actually means something really quite the reverse.

I'm not using this to be mean to you Catholic_Lady but take the signature there for a minute. . "And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace"...Sounds beautiful right? Might come right out of a self help book you might see being flogged on Oprah sometime.

Doing good? That doesn't mean feeding homeless people, that means converting to Catholicism. The only way you can be good and know you are good is to be a practicing Catholic. That's the theology and the teaching, if you're not that you're not good.

"Do good. We will meet one another there!"....Only if you convert!

(Yes I know there is a thing called "invincible ignorance" before anyone points it out to me, but that isn't a dogma, it's just a hope. There's still no salvation outside the Catholic Church according to Pope Boniface VIII)

[Catholic_Lady]

Doing good? That doesn't mean feeding homeless people, that means converting to Catholicism. The only way you can be good and know you are good is to be a practicing Catholic. That's the theology and the teaching, if you're not that you're not good.

"Do good. We will meet one another there!"....Only if you convert!

Lol, I'm pretty sure that's not what he meant.

[comet]

you're hot ... I'll convert.

[Rhondazvous]

This is what in Orthodox seminaries we call "Catholic doublespeak". Think of it like a secret dialect, where what you say that sounds nice actually means something really quite the reverse.

I'm not using this to be mean to you Catholic_Lady but take the signature there for a minute. . "And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace"...Sounds beautiful right? Might come right out of a self help book you might see being flogged on Oprah sometime.

Doing good? That doesn't mean feeding homeless people, that means converting to Catholicism. The only way you can be good and know you are good is to be a practicing Catholic. That's the theology and the teaching, if you're not that you're not good.

"Do good. We will meet one another there!"....Only if you convert!

(Yes I know there is a thing called "invincible ignorance" before anyone points it out to me, but that isn't a dogma, it's just a hope. There's still no salvation outside the Catholic Church according to Pope Boniface VIII)

Be good?
A good man is hard to find.

But then...

A hard man is good to find.

Be hard.

[Jenny A]

Hello everyone, I have another question for all you fine folks of AF.

Do you wish there was a God?

It doesn't have to be the God of Abraham. But just A God. Some supernatural supreme being out there who created us and loves us.... Do you wish that was real or do you prefer the idea of nothing like that existing?

Please explain why or why not.

No I can't remember ever wishing god was real. 

Now that you ask and I consider whether I want god to be real the answer is this.  I do not want any god I've ever heard of to be real.  I suppose I could design a god that would be nice to have around, but it sounds like a lot of wasted effort.

[KevinM1]

No, I have no use for a god. Any god. Desiring a god implies worshipping it, which is something I find inherently abhorrent.

[Rhondazvous]

Now Catholic_Lady, do you want god to really exist? I mean the god we read about in the Bible.

1. The god who set Adam up then punished him when he did not even know that what he was doing was wrong because he had no knowledge of good and evil until after he did it.
2. The god who then expects us to feel grateful for Jesus like a doctor who gives you something to make you sick only so you can feel grateful when he makes you well
3. The god who made a deal with Satan to attack a righteous man (Job)
4. The god who hardened Pharaoh’s heart when the man tried over and over to let the Hebrews go
5. The god who gives fathers instructions on how to sell their daughters into sexual slavery
6. The god who thinks rape is a sin, not against a woman, but against her husband
7. The god who created the grass and trees before he created the sun and moon. Imagine if the universe had really been created backwards as the god of the Bible did
8. The god who got angry at Moses when he had mercy on the women and children he’d captured in war instead of killing them
9. The god who thinks it’s okay to enslave gentiles (remember that you are a gentile)

I could go on, but if this isn’t enough to give you pause and you would still rather this god existed then I rest my case with all those who are reading this post.

[Bob Kelso]

I answered "other" because I'm on the fence. The gods held by most major religions receive a resounding no, but there are some gods in works of fiction that I like. 

Personally I think the world would be hilarious if it were run by Sheogorath. 

[Alex K]

Hmm, looks like I had my righteous angry day yesterday.