elbaron:

Let us assume that man created evil or to put it in your own words, if man has made the world evil and if we are to further agree that God made man in his own image, does that not follow that God must have certain parts of him that are evil?

As you said, God made man in His own image, which means that He created man to be perfect--just as He is perfect. Adam and Eve were created in His image and likeness, and therefore had no sin, but it was their choice and will to sin and betray God. therefore God has no 'parts of him that are evil,' it was man that sinned,

Wont you agree that for man to know evil he must have learnt it from somewhere? Of course we can argue that man learnt from Satan, but God himself created this Satan. Am I making sense?

God did not create Satan, He created angels who then were exiled from heaven for rebelling against God. "There occurred a war in the heavens. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought against them. However they did not prevail, and there was no room for them in heaven. The great dragon was cast down, that ancient snake, known as Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were also cast down with him" (Revelation 12:7-9).

Did you say that God is hurt when he sees what his world has come to? If we must speculate to that, would it not, as a matter of simple logic follow, that God had no idea at the time of creation what his world would turn to? And if we agree that this is correct, would it not be safe to assume that God is not omnipotent? A god who does not have foresight does not appear to me to be all powerful. Let's think about these things.

Of course God knew what would happen before He created the world and before he created man, that's what makes Him God. "And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the[a] Lord God Omnipotent reigns!" (Revelation 19:6). He created the world so we could share in his blessings and goodness. I may have made the world sound doomed and horrible in my past posts, but there are still a lot of good things left on this earth, and there are many good people-just as many good as there are evil.

this is a very good site that explains many aspects of God, creation, and the fallen man:
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8050.asp

thank you

allonym:

If the bible was written by man, then they could be making up parts of it...It is easy to make things consistent. If you have copy of the bible up to Leviticus, and you are writing Numbers, you just read all of the previous stuff and make sure you don't contradict anything that is aleady there.

by man through the Holy Spirit. man was completely inspired by the word of God, they didn't make up any of it.  and who says that the writers of the New Testament had copies of the sections of the Old Testament?

Further more, if the only way I can know that God exists is by having faith, wouldn't that mean that for a vast number of people, God doesn't exist.

God exists whether people choose to believe in Him or not

they should definitely be allowed to get married.. it's bad enough that there are so many rapists and perverts out there, but it's really depressing to hear that a priest--who is supposed to represent God and who others look up to--has raped an innocent little boy.  i'm Orthodox and the priests in my church are supposed to get married..it is a very very old church, and in all its history, there has never been a problem like this with any of the priests.

exu:

How do you know the Christian God is filled with love when there are so many instances of him killing people indiscriminately, just for living in the wrong part of the world- or so the Bible says...

when did God ever kill people indiscriminately?
we know that He is filled with love because He came down to earth and suffered and died for our salvation. Jesus took all the torment and hate from those who persecuted him, and did nothing to those who spat on his face. that's how I know He is a loving God.

felucci:

Purgatory is real and biblical for "even many will be saved through fire" but not all will need to pass through purgatory.

Purgatory is not real. where in the Bible does it mention anything about purgatory? There is only heaven and hell...paradise and hades..

exu:

unfortunately the christian church also spent a large portion of it's time persecuting and killing those who did not believe what they believed or who dared to question something which they could not understand...

but this was done in ignorance..and was not the will of God. again, the Christian God is filled with love, and would never wish upon the death of innocent people. why would He want to see His children being killed? that is why He is so different from Allah, who encourages his followers to persecute and kill those who are non-Muslim.

both religions encourage hatred and intolerance...

simply put..Christianity, which is mainly based on the Word of God from the Holy Bible, revolves around love for one another. no where does it mention or encourage hate towards any group of people.

exu:

How exactly is the 'Holy Bible' proof that God exists

Wasn't it written by man

the Bible was written by man, who was inspired by the Holy Spirit..it's not just stuff that they came up with off the top of their heads. that's why even though the Bible was written over a long period of time and by many authors, all the prophecies made are the same throughout and do not contradict one other

allonym:

Maybe we created ourselves. If time is circular, then by traveling far enough into the future, we'the end up in the past and thus could "create" ourselves. Or, we could just travel back in time and do the same thing. As for why we exist. . . well, if we never created ourselves, we wouldn't exists, so to exist, we created ourselves. . simple huh?

no not simple..I'm not really following what you mean. how can we create ourselves..travelling into the future??

allonym:

And what happens when you ask and you get no reply? Or you die without getting one? Would that mean God didn't exist for you and so you would've been better off living like God didn't?

we all get replies if we believe enough and have faith--we just have to wait for the right time. we usually think all hope is gone and that God is not listening to us when we ask for something and we don't get it, but that's only because we don't know what He knows, because our knowledge is so limited, so what we think of as being the right place and time for a sign or an answer might not be the right time at all.

Christianity and Islam are completely different from each other. like dejiolowe said, we do not all worship the same God. we might all call Him "God" but the person sitting next to you might have a different meaning for this word. in Christianity, God is a God of love, peace and compassion. the God of Islam--or "Allah"-- is a distant and unapproachable god who does not love all people, but only those who do well, whereas the Christian God has unconditional love for all His children--even sinners and those who hate Him.

also, Islam claims to be a peaceful religion, but how can a peaceful religion kill everyone whom they see as "unbelievers." how can it be a peaceful religion if the very god who is worshipped by so many encourages hatred and murder of those who are not Muslim? It is amazing that people would rather believe the word of a person who claimed to be a prophet and to have one day seen visions of a supernatural being over the word of God, who is the creator of the universe, who has no beginning and no end, and who has existed since before the beginning of man.

what is the evidence of our existence? if we say that there is no God..then who created us? why do we exist? God can prove Himself and His existence to each and every one of us if we only just take the time to ask Him..He will reveal Himself to you in a way that no one else can. the best way that I could convince you that there is in fact a God is by all the miracles of the world and of life. Only God can change the heart of a person who is so full of sin and who is a murderer and a drug abuser and an athiest--and this has happened. Only God can save the life of a person whom all doctors claimed dead because of a horrible disease that is fatal and deadly--and yet it has happened..and not by chance or coincidence, but by miracles sent by God. Also, the Holy Bible is evidence that God exists.

because people like adedibu are free to make their own decisions. angels are there only to lead us in the right direction and help us throughout our life's journey.

we do not just cease to exist after death..even if you do not believe in heaven or hell or God. just because you might not believe in something, it doesn't mean it does not exist. God, who is merciful and compassionate, will judge us all on the last day. one way or another God will reveal Himself to you sometime in your life. it is your choice to welcome Him into your life or not.

guardian angels do exist and everyone has one. they are there with us always, but its just hard for us to understand because we don't see them there. also, they are there when tragedies strike, but it is not up to them to decide when is the right time for someone to leave this earth, that's up to God. but I personally believe in them because of stories I've heard in the past, and because when I was a child I was saved by an angel when I fell from the balcony of my house. I don't remember this incident but my family told me that I said I saw someone with wings carrying me (one might say that children have wild imaginations, but how can a child lie about something as amazing as seeing an angel?). I guess it just wasn't my time to die. that's all the proof I need that guardian angels exist and protect us.

without God, there is no man.  If there is no God, then where did you and I come from? I find it very difficult to believe that we all just dropped from the sky one day.  God is the only reasonable and concrete source of our existance.

elbaron said:

God does not exist.  Why?
- God contradicts Free Will of all living beings including itself.
- Evil and suffering contradict existence of a benevolent god.
- God is dangerous and religion is wrong
- Souls do not exist

--God in no way contradicts the Free Will of all living beings.  In fact, He does the exact opposite of this. each and every one of us is given the opportunity each day to think for ourselves and make decisions. if we did not have Free Will, then we would not be able to sin, and Adam and Eve would not have been allowed to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden.  God simply tells us what is right and wrong, but He does not make our decisions for us or force us to do anything. God is there if [and only if] we need His support or His guidance.

--God did not create evil.  People created evil.  God made a world that was perfect and man turned it into an evil and unpleasant place to live in.  there is so much hate and suffering in today's world because of the ignorance of the human race and because of the lack of love for one another.  God Himself suffers even more than we do when He sees what has become of the world He created.  God is like a father who sadly watches as his child drifts away--except with God it is different because of the unconditional love He has for his children that is so hard for regular humans to comprehend.

--the lack of God and religion is dangerous.  I am not only saying this because I am Christian and it's what's expected of me, but because I truly believe it deep within my heart.  I have had personal experiences in life where I have repeatedly made bad choices and I everytime I quickly found myself depressed and burdened by my sins.  God is the only one who can free us from sin and who can keep us sane in this crazy and dangerous world.

--how can souls not exist? if they didn't exist then there would be no life and you and I would just be dead bodies.

but the most important thing you need to know is that God loves you.  and He will always love each of us, regardless of how badly we treat Him or how many bad things we say about Him.  He will one day reveal to us the truth about everything and everyone will be convinced once and for all.