Does God exist?

[BigPapaKain]

(07-27-2022, 06:17 PM)Bengalzona Wrote: I would say there are some things in the Bible that reinforce my belief rather than persuaded me. In particular, pretty much all of the actual quotes attributed to Jesus. I think if someone were to remove everything from the New Testament except for Jesus' specific words, they would find a vision of Christian belief that is far, far different and better than the Christian faith as presented within our society. Unfortunately, to truly understand many of Jesus' sayings and parables, a person needs to have some grounding in the ancient Hebrew faith and religious customs and practices. And that, as I have learned, actually takes a lot of time and study. But it makes sense, since the Jesus we quote always considered himself to be a Jew and that was the primary audience that he was addressing at the time.

(Adding this on further reflection. A lot of what I have found useful from the Bible would also be useful to an agnostic or an atheist. There is wisdom there, I think, that does not require belief.)

I could give some critiques about the good things and bad things I find in the Hebrew Bible (Torah) and the writings attributed to the Apostles (particularly Paul). But for the sake of brevity, I won't do that now. Suffice it to say that I find them to be the writings of men that in some cases have some inspiration and in other cases have other influences.

As far as my belief in God, yes, I do think I would have had that belief regardless of the Bible. Personally, I have always felt like I was searching for something to believe in (i.e. I wanted to believe). So I attended many churches from many faiths. Baptist, Mormon, Lutheran, Catholic, Charismatic, Methodist, UCC, etc., and studied some philosophy. When I started looking at belief as a choice a person makes rather than a thing to be found in a certain place or faith, my searching stopped. I literally decided that I was going to believe in a higher power, even though I wasn't exactly sure what that power was or was about. I haven't regretted that choice since. 

You'd be hard pressed to find an Atheist who disagrees that Jesus had some good points. 

Sadly his message is lost in modern Christianity because everyone has to use his name to push their shitty agenda. It's ironic since most folks who do that are usually pushing the opposite of what he tried to teach. They'd hate Jesus if he existed today.