I feel like they must be gullible. It seems like they are looking up to something that isn't there. They basically tell me that I need to believe in God before I can believe in God. Isn't it best to face everything with a little doubt? Isn't faith just belief without convincing evidence, and shouldn't we guard ourselves against that? Honestly, what reason do you have for believing in God? He can't be seen or heard, you may say that you go by faith rather than by sight, but that just seems as though it's invented to gain blind believers. "Don't think or look, listen, or think, just believe me." What's the difference? It seems like you're all living in a fantasy.
2007-09-17 18:59:05 · 41 answers · asked by the a-hole loser 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
"Don't look, listen, or think, just believe me." is what was meant to typed.
2007-09-17 19:05:12 · update #1
meant to be typed, I think I need to go to sleep.
2007-09-17 19:05:41 · update #2
Not necessarily stupid, just really gullible. Very very very gullible.. They will believe anything in the Bible based on faith.
2007-09-17 19:03:15 · answer #1 · answered by Green 7 · 8⤊ 6⤋
can you see oxygen? Do you see the air? However you have faith that you will take your next breathe don't you? You have never seen George Washington in person- but you do believe he was the first pres.of the US, don't you? Don't say of course Washington existed because people wrote about him. Writing about someone does not prove the existence of God, as you would say, so why would it necessarily prove Washington's existence. I know you are going to say that this is a ridiculous analogy- however when you stop to think about it , why is it so ridiculous? Jesus Himself said- "blessed are those who believe that have not seen". By the way what makes you think, that I or anyone else who believes in God, trusts in blind faith. I had looked, and listened and thought hard before I came to faith in Christ. I looked around me and realized that there is nothing as real as the forgiveness of Christ. I am not living a fantasy. Yes, God can be heard- if we take the time to listen to His still, small voice. The believers that you call blind- actually see much more than people who only see with their eyes. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart to Him, and He will. By the way, you have faith too, even if you do not call it that- because you do not have proof that God does not exist, do you?
2007-09-17 20:15:17 · answer #2 · answered by AdoreHim 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
Anything you believe has to be taken on faith... by definition. When you believe in science, you take its basic axioms of causality on faith. Religious people take the teachings of their religion on faith.
Lots of people think that Religion <=> God. This is not true. Buddhism doesn't have a god. I'm not sure but I think Jainism doesn't either.
Science doesn't require the existence of God, but it can neither prove or disprove its existence.
But you are right. People who don't question their beliefs are necessarily stupid. I include all beliefs in this. If you are taking science at face value just because scientists say so, you are no better than the religious fanatic who takes his priest's teachings at face value without questioning them.
Questioning any religion will lead to discarding all of its dogma and will leave behind an inner core of pointers about how to be a "good" person that even an atheist will agree with.
P.S. I'm agnostic.
2007-09-17 19:34:10 · answer #3 · answered by StormBringer 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
You can look at it this way...
1. You are wrong and there is a God and an after-life. But you did not believe in your lifetime so now you are damned to hell
OR
2. You were right and there is no God, but I lived a life that harmed no other, helped many people to find comfort in a belief system, stood my ground in the face of non-belief and died a happy person.
You can think of me as stupid and that I wasted my life on "being a Christian" Or that I had conviction and that I was a good person who did what she felt was right.
I can not convince you that there is a God. It is called blind faith, but the word does NOT say "Don't think, look, or listen"
The Bible tells you to:
Look. there are signs all around you that there is something more powerful then us at work.
Listen - God speaks to us. NOT little voices in our heads (I would think they were crazy too) But you know that idea that pops in your head or little nagging feeling that what you are about to do is not such a good idea....
Think! Read the scriptures and THINK about how that may be relavent to your life. You can not call it "bible study" without involving the thinking process.
The Ten Comandments....Just good common sense. Nothing outrageous. There are many different beliefs and religions, but the main idea is that we are not alone and there is a higher power.
However you personally decide to invision that is up to you.
I can't help but think that people who believe we are the highest power are stupid.
2007-09-17 19:18:59 · answer #4 · answered by playfulduo69 4 · 3⤊ 3⤋
No, not living in a fantasy, nor gullible.
Its not like the "Stepford Wives"
I was just like you. Its OK. I wanted ppl to leave me alone. If I was going to have a relationship w Jesus, I wanted a lot of answers; as well I wanted the answers to MY questions-not to be lured beyond MY question into mumbo jumbo. And I wanted MY timeline. WHEN I decided to accept Jesus would be WHEN I wanted to IF I decided to. All that seemed pretty private between myself and God, and my business and no one else's.
I was also in a different state of mind than I am now.
I could only enjoy 'dirty' jokes and didnt understand the stupid jokes I heard from the pulpit. I'd look at everyone laughing trying to see if they were sincere and then I just thought they hit the vodka w OJ at breakfast.
And the crying when someone testified of their life. Oh, pleeeze. Hello? Can we get real here????
Then I did become a Christian and slowly my life changed. My thinking changed. My heart changed.
Even tho I said all this, God was my "daddy" while I was growing up. I knew He cared as if I was his daughter. He took care of me. I knew this. It was the Jesus part that I spoke of above.
I got to a place that I needed Jesus. I knew he existed all along. But by then, I needed him. And he came to help.
Since then, God has answered many prayers and dialogues with Him. He has given me prophetic dreams which has helped my family-mostly w health matters. He has sent me money when I asked for it. He's been on the road w me and given me the right place to go to get much needed directions.
Dont let people make you angry about this. You know God's name. If God wants to dialogue with you, He will. You know His name. And if you are currently debunking as best as you can, God can use that in you, if you ever come to Him. God doesnt want blind believers. He has no problem with you questioning. I understand if you keep getting the same answers as if by the Stepford Wives. The reason is that there are a particular number of favorite scriptures that seems all Christians know and will repeat when questioned.Keep in mind, tho, that the same questions usually come up.
What does that mean:"They basically tell me that I need to believe in God before I can believe in God."
Are they saying that until you have a NEED to believe in God, you cant believe in God? Untrue. Are they trying to say that at some time in your life you will find that you NEED God then, and then, by God, you will believe in God? Untrue.
If you look at all the religions, even if for your own enrichment, dont be angered or discouraged by those who believe in God and speak highly of Him, even if maybe a familiar tune of why you need God. People dont understand how they sound like they are denigrating a person, while at that expense as they are trying to lift God up.
Rest easy.
2007-09-17 20:04:30 · answer #5 · answered by Spunkynut 5 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It's called faith. Fantasy? One the other side of the coin, prove that God doesn't exist. Look at the human body and its form, how it performs in all its glory. Look at this beautiful sites in this world, and tell me it just happened. My God has given you free will, to choose what you wish. He can be your God as well. What you believe is your business, but don't say that this is all a fantasy, it is real, and God is real. I'm believing in Him. He's led me in many dark times, and I have come out the other side. He is the hero that so many are looking for today. They just forget to look up and thank him for the air they breath, and sunshine that warms their skin, and the abundance of love He is giving, just for the taking. I pray that God will touch your heart one day soon.
2007-09-17 19:14:56 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 2⤋
Some of the most brilliant inventors, scientists, politicians, entrepeneurs were and are religious. So your premise that religious people are stupid, is just, well, stupid.
Faith is a hope that what we believe is true. You start with faith and build a testimony thru a personal revelation from God. How can you ever claim that someone else didnt receive a personal revelation that God exists?
2007-09-17 19:08:54 · answer #7 · answered by cadisneygirl 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Einstein believed in God. Steven Hawkings still does. I don't believe either of them qualify as stupid or confused. Whereas I am agnostic, and often feel both stupid and confused. I don't think there is any correlation between intelligence and religious conviction. I think that people generally react to their parent's perception of God (hypocritical beliefs fostering doubt, and sincere convictions used daily in life encouraging faith) and base their decisions on that. I was raised to doubt anything I couldn't verify, and distrust those who tried to establish leadership over me. It's not about intelligence, it's about perception.
2007-09-17 19:20:28 · answer #8 · answered by benjamin QMM 5 · 3⤊ 2⤋
Faith is the substance of things hoped for...the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1
I don't mind being called gullible or even stupid. God has proven Himself to me, on an individual level, time & time again. Better yet, when I'm dead & gone I will live eternally. Whether you believe it or not so will you. Your actions today determine where you will spend that eternity.
This question actually reminds me of an email I got today:
One day a 6 year old girl was sitting in a classroom. The teacher was going to explain evolution to the children. The teacher asked a little boy: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
TEACHER: Tommy, do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
TEACHER: Go outside and look up and see if you can see the sky.
TOMMY: Okay. (He returned a few seconds later) Yes, I saw the sky.
TEACHER: Did you see God up there?
TOMMY: No.
TEACHER: That's my point. We can't see God because he isn't there. Possibly he just doesn't exist.
A little girl spoke up and wanted to ask the boy some questions.
The teacher agreed and the little girl asked the boy: Tommy, do you see the tree outside?
TOMMY: Yes.
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy do you see the grass outside?
TOMMY: Yessssss!
LITTLE GIRL: Did you see the sky?
TOMMY: Yessssss!
LITTLE GIRL: Tommy, do you see the teacher?
TOMMY: Yes
LITTLE GIRL: Do you see her brain?
TOMMY: No
LITTLE GIRL: Then according to what we were taught today in school, she possibly may not even have one!
(You Go Girl!)
FOR WE WALK BY FAITH, NOT BY SIGHT"
II CORINTHIANS 5:7
To take this a step further I thought that the Atheist might answer that we CAN see her brain if we open her skull....but again....that can only happen after death or in a moment of extreme trauma....just as we see God after death or just as he appears & rescues us in moments of extreme trauma. Need more proof that happens? He healed my mother of colon cancer that 3 doctors told her was there after a colonoscopy (sp?), a CAT scan AND a biopsy. Come the day of surgery...it was just NOT THERE. Prayer works. God is alive. The blood of Jesus Christ still heals.
2007-09-17 19:14:14 · answer #9 · answered by Pamela 5 · 2⤊ 4⤋
For Atheists' Pondering:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1m1D_3pJMY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WffQVfIN8Wc
http://www.watchislam.com/videos/video.php?vid=19
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-811321280634119479
2007-09-17 19:16:25 · answer #10 · answered by BestAnswer 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sincere believers in Jesus Christ do not believe blindly. “Blind faith” is not real faith. When people believe, they’re really responding to God who has revealed Himself to them. God may not have revealed Himself visibly or audibly, but He would surely have revealed Himself in a way that the person would have no doubt about His Presence. God will also reveal Himself to you if you honestly and wholeheartedly seek Him. He promised to answer. Why don’t you ask Him yourself and find out the truth? He’s a good God.
2007-09-17 19:25:47 · answer #11 · answered by Jedidiah 3 · 2⤊ 3⤋