[CottShop]

I'd liek to ask for some help in fleshing this out a bit further as this is I think an important issue that many people wonder about- I know I certainly wonder about it- why God decided to remove His presence when it would seem that most people would accept Him if He were to be present dwelling among us. I think some key issues have been touched upon in the article, but I feel as though it's lackign a bit- or perhaps even more than just a bit.

[Resolute Conservative]

Just as people want to focus on the bad and say “where is God”, I see evidence of Him every day. In my children, in ill people and children who heal it seems overnight, people who avoid death by inches, simply looking at a sunset...

[swampdweller]

ping

[Aquinasfan]

The proofs are well known and incontrovertible. But you can't make someone believe what he doesn't want to believe. Disbelief in God makes a libertine lifestyle easier to rationalize.

[ladtx]

Our existence is proof enough for me.

[MrB]

Case for a Creator has answers for those that seek some scientific “proof”.

If you find someone’s fingerprints all over a “crime” scene, you don’t assume they self assembled there by accident.

He also put us in a very good spot to see those fingerprints throughout the universe.
“Privileged Planet”

Psalm 19

[Dmitry Vukicevich]

The complexity of a leaf alone convinces me of the existence of God.

[Sacajaweau]

Prove that God doesn’t exist...Didn’t think so..

[MrB]

Two books you need to read:

http://www.amazon.com/Case-Creator-Journalist-Investigates-Scientific/dp/0310241448

and if you’re anything of an astronomy/physics buff, you’ll get a HUGE kick out of this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Privileged-Planet-Cosmos-Designed-Discovery/dp/0895260654

The first delves into many difference scientific disciplines, and the second is an examination of cosmology showing that our planet is placed specifically where it needs to be, and the laws of physics exactly fine tuned, so that we can live and DISCOVER God’s universe.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I know I certainly wonder about it- why God decided to remove His presence when it would seem that most people would accept Him if He were to be present dwelling among us."

As a recovering alcoholic I unknowingly worshiped a false god for many years. Mind you, I didn't think of it in those terms, but with sobriety I came to recognize that indeed, I had let alcohol become the center of my existence, and all things were peripheral to it. When I wasn't drinking, I was consciously or subconsciously thinking about my next opportunity to drink, and the bar was my altar. As I cleaned up my act, not only did I rediscover the religious traditions tht my parents had taken great pains to raise me with, but I also discovered a spiritual component that filled a void in my life I'd been pouring booze into for a big portion of my life.

In any case, about a year or so into my sobriety I experienced some moments of doubt...I remarked to a friend that I could really use a miracle to dispel my doubts and reinvigorate my faith. My friend pointed out that I'd been sober for a year...and for a person who scarcely went a day without drinking in the 17 years before that, I was indeed living a miracle.

God is with us and all around us, and his fingerprints are pretty much there to be seen if we only choose to look for them and ask His help in recognizing them.

[mnehring]

Sound’s like the proverbial, not seeing the forest through the trees.

[Rocky]

Your question is a profound one, and one not easily answered.

Paul tells us in Romans that God has revealed himself to all mankind by His creation. The more we learn of the complexity of the cell, the basis building block of life, them more we can appreciate that.

Genesis says that man was made in the image of God. Most commentaries agree that the scripture is talking about the characteristics of man which sets him apart from the rest of creation. The ability to think abstractly and to create: art, engineering, science, mathematics, etc.

Still, Jesus said that he spoke in parables so that, hearing, they might not hear. In other places, he said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” It seems that God is willing to reveal Himself when we have “ears to hear.” That’s how it was in my life. I did not have a personal experience with God until I got down on my knees, humbling myself, and asked God to show me if He was there. Within two weeks, I was transformed, my view of the world was completely changed, and without my trying to change - without any indoctrination (I wasn’t going to church or under the teaching of any instructor) - it was a change I did not expect.

After the fall of Adam and Eve, the Bible says God called out, “Adam, where are you?” In a sense, man is hiding from God. Until we are willing to humble ourselves before the God of all creation, we are in rebellion to Him, and it seems to me that He refuses to force Himself on us. Instead, He calls to us, in a voice we can hear down in our souls if we will humble ourselves and recognize our need for Him.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

[RobRoy]

DNA and the JCL on which it runs certainly is proof of intelligence, if nothing else.

Well that, and the babelfish in my ear.

[RobRoy]

When people look for proof, Luke 16: 19-31 always comes to mind:

The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

“But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

“He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

“Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

” ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

“He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ “

[LiteKeeper]

Initial response...more later, as this is an area that teach on: read Romans 1:20...then back up and read verses 18 & 19.

I will get back to this later, if that is OK.

[NoGrayZone]

“why God decided to remove His presence when it would seem that most people would accept Him if He were to be present dwelling among us.”

I believe this is where the free will comes to play. If God was here with us 24/7, in our faces, we would have no “choice” but to accept him.

Instead, he leaves us “hints” along the way. Look at how perfectly the human body was put together, just our brains alone. Our children, our earth, the way everything seems to work perfectly together (except of course when man comes along and messes it up).

I believe He wants us to choose Him with our own free will, nothing more, nothing forced.

Faith.

[chesty_puller]

Study DNA. God’s programming. The process can not exist naturally.

[Ready2go]

CottShop said:
I'd liek to ask for some help in fleshing this out a bit further as this is I think an important issue that many people wonder about- I know I certainly wonder about it- why God decided to remove His presence when it would seem that most people would accept Him if He were to be present dwelling among us. I think some key issues have been touched upon in the article, but I feel as though it's lackign a bit- or perhaps even more than just a bit.

CottShop, God hasn't stopped performing miracles in our lives, but how many of us accept them?

The unbeliever's scoff, but with every storm...every earthquake...every tragedy someone tells the unbelievers how God saved them from being killed or injured.

Here are a few testimonies:
http://www1.wsvn.com/features/articles/specialreport/MI75423

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=517535&in_page_id=1770

http://www.stillwatergazette.com/articles/2008/02/12/news/news500.txt

http://www.disasternews.net/news/article.php?articleid=3616

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=508795&in_page_id=1770

http://wcbstv.com/watercooler/window.washer.accident.2.622511.html

http://www.israeltoday.co.il/default.aspx?tabid=128&view=item&idx=1347

http://www.newportnewstimes.com/articles/2007/12/19/community/community01.txt

Many more stories here:
http://www.breakingchristiannews.com/articles/index.html?offset=380

[ThePythonicCow]

perhaps easier to serve a God who must be sought

Not so much easier, as necessary. That which we can find easily, even in our more misguided moments, is too simple, too base. That which is worthiest of our faith must be sought, usually with difficulty, and is never entirely found.

And I would suggest that wondering if there is Proof that God exists, is like a simple man denying even what is beyond the next hill, because he cannot see it with his own two eyes. Proofs are a useful, even essential, tool that we use in constructing mathematical theories, but they are far from the only tool, nor the most profound tool.

Your very question, whether there is "Proof that God exists" suggests you accept proofs as the Gold Standard of existence. That very suggestion is a dangerous concession to the faithless secularists, and should be avoided. There are other standards of existence, some more profound, than the logic of proofs, or the sight of ones own eyes.

[Beloved Levinite]

ping.

[MarDav]

“I suppose a lot of people wonder why a loving God would keep Himself so hidden and unseen when so many people it seems are looking for Him.”

I’m sure the Almighty wishes this (that so many people are looking for Him) were so.