How do you know?

17th Angel · 06-19-2008, 11:38 PM

How do you know there is a god?

(done this been there got the t-shirt.)

No, I am not wanting to try and disprove... Nor debate how you know... I am not looking for a textbook answer, I am not looking for a set answer from your faith. I am looking for an individual answer... How you are effected, how you feel deep down within yourself... I want no other either to argue or debate anothers answer... Do not judge and frown on the answers that follow, I want to know how you know... How you feel... Don't (if you can help it) try to impressive with science that shows there is no possible chance there is/isn't..... Or how so and so is full of it because it just isn't possible, or because this religion doesn't teach that, it teaches this!!! Your wrong I'm right NAH NAH NAH! I am not looking nor interested in those kind of posts....

Am I clear? I mean, do you understand what I am wanting from this? How is -your- relationship, with -your- god....

So this is more a thread of expression of -personal- faith and feeling not a thread of debate.... (please... I know for some they cannot help themselves, but give it a shot.) Imagine it as a feedback form to your god

Testimonie I believe some call it?

I look forward to reading your replies. Thank you...

LeoSalinas22 · 06-19-2008, 11:55 PM

God to me exists because there would be hope for all the men, women, and children who have died senselessly on this earth due to the pride and arrogance of the wicked. the wicked have to answer for all the wrongs that they have commited. there has to be justice and judgement. otherwise there would no hope. that is my reason for believing in God. hope. now i know this doesn't explain how i know that God exists, but someone told me once that experiences are subjective. very true. but He exists to me.

Dawud · 06-19-2008, 11:56 PM

I have seen an angel once, and felt them many more times. I have had many dreams that ended up happening in real life years later. Dreams are, I believe, evidence of the soul, and the soul is evidence of God, the One Who created souls. Angels are also evidence of God, as are near death experiences. The greatest evidence, however, I believe, is to be found in the Word of God. God has kept His promises with mankind. The Prophets show clearly that They know more than mere mortals. Evidence? See "The Prisoner and the Kings" by William Sears and "The Challenge of Baha'u'llah" which is presented scientifically.

17th Angel · 06-20-2008, 12:01 AM

Just want to say I won't reply to all, but be assured I will read all and I appreciate them very much! I just felt like I should let you know that as I want it more to be about the person than the replies... You know?

Quote:

Originally Posted by LeoSalinas22

i know this doesn't explain how i know that God exists, but someone told me once that experiences are subjective. very true. but He exists to me.

That is not a problem brother... Thank you.

Dawud! Thank you too!

Wow that is an amazing post!

Dawud · 06-20-2008, 12:04 AM

Thanks

Dondi · 06-20-2008, 01:52 AM

I ran from God for several years in my youth, pretty much from 16-22 years old. You know, just me doing my own thing. But I all but became agnostic, in part by an influential friend who turned me on to a book by Mark Twain called, "Letters From Earth", which can be found here, BTW. At any rate, I think it was more of an excuse to do what I want than anything else.

There were a lot of factors going on in my life at the time that I do not wish to go into, but suffice to say that I had begun a slow spiral into a depressed state and dissatisfaction in the way things were going. I was pretty much partied out and at 22 really didn't know what to do with myself. Professional and workwise, things were ok, but I just didn't know what I was all about. I'd always kinda felt alienated from people in general, never really fitting in to any clique or group, though I did feel some comaraderie in being a sailor. Still, I was wanting something different. A change for the better, I kept thinking.

So what did I do? Of course, I brought a book on ESP (Extra Sensory Perception). I was browsing the bookstore and happened across it in the New Age section. I didn't have a clue what New Age was. Anyway, I was intrigued at the notion of being able to read people's minds and maybe gain some kind of power in my life that I could use to my advantage.

So as I read the book, the author suggested some breathing and relaxation exercises to gather focus on abilities that are dormant in my mind. Cool. I was ready and willing to give it all a go.

Except....

At one point in the book, the author brought up the subject of "spirit guides" and how they have helped him harness his abilities. And I thought, "Whoa..wait just a minute."

I thought long and hard about this prospect of "spirit guides". The author was fully convinced they exist and claimed to communicate with them. But this gave me red flags all over the place. Just a sense of wrongness about it for some reason, something dangerous about it...for lack of a better term, deceptively demonic about it, or so my Christian background was telling me. I didn't want to get involved in that sort of thing....at all.

But ironically, this book got me into thinking about the spiritual realm. If there were these "spirit guides" or "demons" or whatever, and they were really speaking to people, then there has to be something out there. And if there are worlds unseen, then there is the possibility that God is real, too.

Well, that just got me depressed all over again. I didn't want no spirit guides, so I chucked the ESP book away. And yet, I knew I was as far from God as I could possibly be.

What was I going to do now?

(Cont'd)

Dondi · 06-20-2008, 02:18 AM

One day, I was in a retail store at the checkout line when I overheard this black dude say, "There's no better high than Jesus" to the cashier. Now I've been high in all kinda ways, but I've never heard of that. This guy is nuts. (I later found out that the guy was an ex-coke dealer). Anyway, I kinda shrugged it off at the time.

Some days later, I was just lying in my bed thinking all kinds of stuff, like what direction my life was headed and how I really hated how things were going and the low esteem I had of myself. And I found my thoughts turning toward the possibility of God. I can't tell you how much of a mental block my mind was going through. If there was a God, He seemed a million miles away and what would He want of me anyhow? And yet...yet what have I to lose. So not really expecting anything, on a whim, I just talked to God as if He might be there. I just talked to Him about anything that came to my mind, mostly how my life was going and just opening up to Him about everything, confessing as many wrongs I've done and sorry for being such a disappointment. Then I just broke down and started crying and feeling like such a wretch. I asked, "If you are real, God, please let your presence be known."

Then something amazing happen. I just felt this rush of relief and though I should have been crying, all I could feel was this tremendous sense of love wash all over me. I was the most powerful love I ever experienced and I half laughed and half wept for joy. A thousand words could not adequately convey what I felt at that moment, but it was a sense of pure acceptance accompanied by a peace that everything is right. That's it...there was a sense of rightness about me like all is forgiven and forgotten, almost instantaneously.

I know, I know, it sounds a bit trite. But I just can't describe it any other way...really.

But one thing I do know, the black dude was right, "there is no better high than Jesus." )BTW, that black dude's past had caught up on him and he was charged with possession with intent to sell and awaiting trial. But surreptitiously, those charges were subsequently dropped for some reason.

When I was seeking a church to go to, a friend invited me to his church and unbeknownst to me, the black dude was the assistant pastor there. Go figure.)

Subsequently, God has shown me over and over, even to this day. Even some things that still amaze me.

China Cat Sunflower · 06-20-2008, 02:36 AM

This one time I was trippin' on acid sitting on my bed. I was watching the psychedelic paisley worm thingies swimming in the air all around me, and I had this realization of how everything worked together. I remember tears running down my cheeks I was so happy, and I just kept saying over and over "I understand, Oh, God...I understand." I must have been twenty at the time, and it was the first, like, "awakening" thing that happened to me.

Chris

wil · 06-20-2008, 03:58 AM

Nice stuff.

For me I sit in his lap. But he has no lap, and ain't no he. I'm in his hands, but no his and no hands. I'm enveloped in what is and in my moments of lucidity there is no me.

mee · 06-20-2008, 07:51 AM

All Scripture is inspired of God and beneficial for teaching, for reproving, for setting things straight, for disciplining in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be fully competent, completely equipped for every good work.
2 timothy 3;16-17

how do i know it works ? the prophecies in the bible ALWAYS come true

and even now in the time that we are living in ,the book of the bible is still undergoing fullfillment of bible prophecy , and the true knowledge is abundant
Daniel 12;4 ....Daniel 2;44 ....especially in the last days

and mee loves it

cyberpi · 06-22-2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alex P

How do you know there is a god?

By Love, by Faith, and by Truth.

sherry · 06-22-2008, 05:01 PM

This is my very first post on this forum and this thread caught me as I was scanning thru the others. I actually came straight to the bottom, I'll go back and read the other responses after I've posted mine.

How do I know that there is a god?

First let me qualify by stating that while I believe that there is a god, I can no longer proclaim that I believe it is the one god of Christianity. I don't have any answers beyond that, I'm currently researching all religions in hopes to find my answers. However, I do believe, that there IS some being, or beings, out there guiding things. I've have too many times in my life where I have felt something other than my own hand guiding me.

Just a few examples:

I've been at places in my life where I've had to make choices, hard choices and yet when most people would be stressed or worried about making the right one, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that I was being led in the right direction. I never had second thoughts, just an inner calm that this was right. It happened when I decided to move myself & my 4 yr old daughter 750 miles away from everything & everyone I ever knew, it happened each time my husband was relocated to another city & my employer arrainged for a new job for me in that next city (a few times a position being created for me just on the recommendation on that employer). I believe that the intuition inside of me that tells me to change my plans for no reason at all (like the night I was supposed to go with my best friend & 20 minutes after I called to tell her I changed my mind, she was in a car wreck & all the occupants of the car were lost) was given to me by some being.

I could go on and on about simliar experiences that my life has been full of. I believe there is a god or possibly even gods. I also believe that we will never have all of the answers or begin to know what all is out there.

greymare · 06-22-2008, 05:45 PM

for me, I dont know and I dont not know........ I just dont know......i think.
but perhaps i am in denial??? Im a little confused, but thats why im here and I have all these lovely friends here to help..........

ps, welcome sherry

17th Angel · 06-23-2008, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sherry

This is my very first post on this forum

And what a post.

Welcome to CR Sherry, I shall watch your posts with much interest.

sherry · 06-24-2008, 12:37 AM

Lol, thank you for the kind welcome, but I suspect you won't be seeing much from me. You see, when it comes from knowledge of religion, any religion, I am like a kidnergardner just starting school. I know my basic primary colors, but any shades beyond those and I'm clueless. I have spent the last 8 years married into a strict southern baptist family and while I can quote only a handfull of the most popular bible versus, I can tell you dozens of "your duties, the proper way, and what's right and wrong because the bible says..." as I have been instructed by my husband and in-laws. Due to a series of events, I have realized, accepted and admitted that my path is not theirs. I do not believe as they do and I will no longer play the part of a false believer. My problem comes in discovering what I DO believe and finding the right path for me. Atm I am following some inner voice, convinced it will lead me in the right direction. It led me here, and I'm fascinated with your site and all of the discussions. Most importantly I love the wide range of different beliefs and the respect I see for each of them here.

LOL, so while you may not see much of me, you can be sure that I am lurking!