Understanding God

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This question is for any of us who are Christians.

I have started going to a local church. Mainly to meet new people, but also to learn about God. I'm having trouble with the whole concept of God creating the universe and everything.

Does anyone else have this problem or did they find it easy to understand, and were able to let God into their life?

There's very good reason why you don't understand: It's mythology! The Christian creation myth is no more true to reality than the Chinese one or the Egyptian one or whatever.

Mork did preface his post by saying it was for the Christians on the board.

"Christian" is so broad a term in many ways....funamentalist certainly beleive different things than non funamentialist. Each sect has its own interpetation of the Bible.

I have a hard time wrapping my mind around ANY of the theories of how exsistance started. And I have a difficult time getting go of control which is necessary for beleif.

BeeBee
(PS...I'm moving this to the PP and R forum as that forum is the place for this type of discussion.)

I have asking on other forums about the Big Bang and how it was created from nothingness to somethingness. So no real answers yet if I come across any I posted for You.

I only attended sunday school as a child. I had a lot of trouble relating to what they were saying. I dunno, maybe you can just 'open your heart to jesus' or whatever altar calll thingy they say and see what happens. I don't think you can understand it intellectually.

We know there is a God based on what we observe objectively. No matter how small something is, we know it has order. No matter how large something is, we see it has order. Order does not emerge from chaos - entropy proves that. Therefore, something must be imposing order on chaos, reversing entropy. That something is God.

We could say a human is engineered by an alien race, for example. We look at the four-chambered human heart and marvel at as a machine. We look at our hands, our brain; just looking at us alone, we see an engineer. Perhaps that engineer is an alien?

But then, how do you explain the rest? How do you explain the atomic level? Or the rest of the universe that we see? There is order, everywhere. There is so much proof, it blinds!

I think the only understanding you can have about god is that you aren't going to understand him.

My understanding of god is he doesn’t exist he’s an imaginary friend for adults so they don’t look so crazy talking to no one. Instead they pray for a miracle that won’t happen and Jesus was a stoner who invented god while accidentally taking to much Opium in a street full of people. Creation is illogical and stupid while scientist time and money is spent try to get through your thick skulls that the Big Bang happened and created the Solar System over millions of years and not within 6 days and apparently that included evolution. How do scientists put it thought our stubborn brain the reality of the situation?

Not all religions beleive the Bible is literal truth.

For example, I think the Big Bang is very reasonable, know evolution as a fact, love science and am still a beleiver. There is no conflict between science and religion for me. Science answers how, religion answers who.

BeeBee

Could all the dickheads who can't read please start their own anti-christian thread. Clearly this thread is for christians.

Maybe people who don't want to be instantly flamed for not being hardcaore atheists should post aboutt hsi stuff in the Haven as it obviously does NOT help to post here.

Mork- are you having trouble on an emotional level or an intellectual level? I can't give an ultimate answer for either but I'd suggest, if it's an intellectual level, then try going to a bookstore and going to the religion section under Christianity. "The Case for Christ" and "The Case for Faith" are two nice, basic books that might give you ideas for further research and they're written at a pretty easy level. ((I am not saying these books are the be-all, end-all of apologetics but they're a good baby step. I'm aware that they are flawed. C'est la vie.)) If it's an emotional level you could do books for that too, or talk to your priest or pastor about it. They might be able to give you some leads.

BTW, if you aren't nessessarily wanting to be Christian but are simply speaking spirituality, this deserves research too. Shop around if you like; there are actually books on many major religions in the "for dummies" series (i.e. Christianity for dummies, buddhism for dummies, judiasm for dummies). Just please don't join any religion that wants you to kill yourself in order to catch a comet, OK?

((I just know we're going to get about a million posts making fun of the "for dummies" thing. "Religion is for dummies, christianity is for dummiest, believe in god and you're a dummy, christians suxxorz." Well, I'm anticipating this. Hence why I will end this by saying if you want religion advise without a being flamed for not being an aetheist, post in the haven.))

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis is good, too. I have struggled with the same question for as long as I can remember, and I still have trouble with the aspect of religion, but C.S. Lewis makes a lot of sense to me.

I recommend books by Josh McDowell who like C.S Lewis was once an athiest. Among his books are the Resurrection Factor and I think he also wrote Evidence that Demands a Verdict. Romans 1:19-20, Acts 14:17,Psalms 19:1 and Psalms 97:6. tells us about God's creation itself showing us of his existence. James 1:5 promises us that if we ask God for wisdom, that he will give it to us. So I suggest asking him. I have been a Christian for several years, before that my life was a mess, I was a mess. I'm glad a know my Lord. People who tend to be bitter towards me because of my faith I feel they are because they aren't happy in their own lives, I just pray for them. So calling them names Postperson is not what Jesus would want you to do.

How would you know?

The Bible is clearly the best source of information about Jesus (even atheistic scholars agree on this point). In Matthew 7:12 Jesus says "So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets." and in 19:19 "love your neighbor as yourself". To call someone an offensive name is not loving, so clearly Jesus would not want you to do it. That is how Paula knows.

Didn't Jesus do some creative name-calling of his own according to the bible?