Guess who doesn't believe in God?

Netscape ^ | 11/2/03 | Netscape News

[Sofa King]

Personally, I'd like to be taken to a tall bridge, have a stick a dynamite tapped to my body an lit, and then be tossed over at the right time so that it explodes halfway down.

BOOM!

[Zipporah]

LOL!

[Lessismore]

I wasn't expecting that!

[Theo]

I just saw an interview the Chris Matthews had with the *REVEREND* Al Sharpton. I thought this article was going to be about him....

[Tired_of_the_Lies]

Nothing good has come from the human tendency to shove one's beliefs in the face of others.

I agree with you. I don't like other people telling me what I should be doing or believing or thinking.

I don't mind others who publicly profess their faith (as addressed by Willie Green in post #55), as long as they don't insist on my believing the same as they.

[Willie Green]

I agree. For me, it is a private decision. If someone else wants to profess their faith publicly, I support that whole-hearteredly

I'm glad we agree.
I'm not very evangelistic either.
But I'm sure you've noticed how some so-called "liberals" tend to spin the term "private" in order to stifle those who more openly profess their faith.

[Held_to_Ransom]

It is ridiculous that over 50% of self-described Jews do not believe in God.

Perhaps it is reflective of the fact that the Jewish population of the US is actually falling. One can't help but wonder if younger Jews are looking at Israel and wondering what the glory of being chosen by God to be a Jew really is.

[freedumb2003]

I wasn't expecting that!

No one ever does!

[Truth666]

Guess who also doesn't believe in God - hint - the last person supposed not to

[MarkL]

The French philosopher Pascal had a good take on the issue. He wrote that if you are uncertain of God's existence it would be better for you to live your life as if there was a God. When you die if you find out that God doesn't exist you have lost nothing. However, if live your life as if God doesn't exist and when you die find out he does, there will be some serious costs.

Thank you... I thought that was St. Thomas Aquinas. I didn't know it was Blaise Pascal.

Mark

[MSCASEY]

Those that do not can NOT have a relationship with Him! How sad! I guess not many have the holy spirit.

MCD

[shekkian]

"84 percent of women believe in God, compared with 73 percent of men."

So do I get my 1.15 virgins in the afterlife?

[Gritty]

I'm agnostic.

Been there. Done that. Wasted my time being there.

I won't attempt to answer all your questions, and I certainly don't want to argue. What you need to do is perform a bit of reading to examine some of these important questions and observations you have. It won't take too long, and there are good answers for each of them.

I recommend reading the New Testament, the Book of John. That should answer a lot of your questions and possible confusions. Come to your own conclusions.

[mrs9x]

Not at all...I'm not saying we need an inquisition. It's just that it is asinine for someone to consider themselves Christian and not believe in God. All Christian faiths, regardless of practices, believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God. How can one then be a believer in Jesus as Son of God and not believe in God? It is a contradiction in terms.

There may be those who consider themselves "Christian" or "Jewish" and not believe in God, basing their characterization in some sort of amorphous cultural religion. But that still is ridiculous to consider oneself the follower of a certain religion and not believe in the central tenet of that religion.

[xp38]

Fetch....the comfy chair!

[man of Yosemite]

In order to be a Christian one needs to have a spiritual birth, laying down the life of sin to receive a new life through the salvation of Christ. It comes from realizing that you are estranged from God, desperately needing the mercy of God in order to be cleansed from your sin, which cleansing comes through the substitutionary death of Christ, the righteous one dying in place of the unrighteous. People who study Christ's teachings apart from recognizing their own spiritual depravity, never truly know Christ, their pride deceiving them into thinking they are becoming wise. These become false teachers, and do not recognize the blood payment needed for the forgiveness of their sins.

[Lessismore]

I think that there is a problem in polls like this, since they don't really define what "God" is. Lots more people believe in sort of an abstract "creator of the universe" god, or in sort of a "metaphysical spritual" god, than in an "anthropomorphic physical" god that would be the father of the son of god.

The result is that they consider that they believe in God, they also consider Jesus to be the "Son of God" in sort of a metaphorical sense, and they regard Christian morals, ethics, rituals, and community with some reverence. Thus, they consider themselves Christian.

[Foxfire4]

I do think more and more people believe in a god of inclusion, rather than a god of exclusion. It's hard to take seriously an old man sitting on a cloud, hurling down judgments.

I've heard this stereotype a lot, but I've never met one single Christian who believed it. "In Him we live, and move, and have our being" does not equate to Patriarch-on-a-cloud. And most people who believe in a god of inclusion seem to me to be frantically grasping for excuses to avoid believing in any god at all.

By the grace of God, I've had one or two intense experiences of his presence. They didn't leave room for unbelief. :-) Scariest moments of my life, and I'd give anything to have them again.

[winker]

Want some really interesting numbers to crunch ask the question and insert JESUS instead.