Does God exist? Or, is there a God?

PO2 Floyd Fowler Well, if you approached that without presupposing your particular god(s) is real, then i bet this same reasoning would have a different result.

For once I have to agree with SPC Kyle Kinas. Believing something because you want to is a horrible excuse to believe anything. Imagine how chaotic the world would be if beings just popped into existence because we imagined it.

SPC Nathan Freeman I think there's a star trek episode to that effect.

LULz. Ray: I couldn't help it!!!

SPC Kyle Kinas, Each person can believe as they want too. He is not just my God either there are many who believe and it comes from lifes experience with each of us. I once thought the Bible to be just a book too. But one day I was in the bathroom doing laundry and had a furnace repair man who didnt no what he was doing. He lit the pilot and then did a pressure test on the tank outside. The flames blew like a dragon the plastic clock and carbon tester was dripping like ice melting from a roof and I walked out of the bathroom by the furnace down the hall and grabbed the phone and extinguisher without a singe. The fire department said since I had my ceramic shop attached to my trailer house it would be to the ground in about 15 minutes. Guess what it still stands with a small amount of repairs that had to be done to redo the hall and have a new furnace. After what I felt and what happened I then new something saved me and I really do not believe it was luck cause I have none of that and I don't believe it was fate. Many things that were bad that happened in my life the two accidents doctors to this day ask me how I walk. So each of us have our own things to have in our minds and hearts. I want you to know, I respect you for your beliefs like I do anyone else. My dad was a non-believer and it showed in him too for 67 yrs of his life, until something happened and he now goes to church each Sunday. I almost fainted to hear this and he is in his 80's now. I never stopped loving my dad just because we had a difference of opinion and I never pushed him at it either. He said the same things like you for 67yrs. Each of us have our own things we believe in, you yours, mine mine. Does that mean we should be cruel to one another or say mean things to one another because of the way we each believe? To me yes I believe He answers prayers and any other questions you have about life I am not God so I can not answer those other questions for you. School as a child has nothing to do with all the things in my life that have lead me to my belief. I do hope that you get your answers tho SPC Kyle Kinas. take care,

PV2 Violet Case Thank you for sharing. I appreciate it, even though we disagree.

PV2 Case, were all the other homes and businesses and animals that DID burn in the fire part of the miracle?

That is what is so amazing we did not loose any homes or businesses. Most of the critters run as soon as they smell smoke. Here is a link to show you the report. So in my heart I do believe that God did answer prayers. It is ok that others believe the way they want to. I do not hold it against anyone else how they believe but here is the link if you would like to check it out. So yes my heart feels blessings were saved buildings and lives. The little critters not so sure. But many deer are still running freely. There were still many areas for the animals to run too. I even keep two dens here on my land to help them for years.
http://www.warroadmnnews.com/94764/2095/dnr-determines-cause-of-palsburg-wildfire

Sir-
I want to thank for clearing up something that has puzzled me for years - how one can quote book, chapter and verse to christians and they won't hear a thing that you say- what is written in the bible is not what the bible means - the bible means what YOU say it means - there are over 700 commandments in the bible and you choose which commandments that you are going to force on other people and which commandments that you are going to ignore because they are too inconvenient.
My agnosticism started with christian denominations declaring that other denominations were not christian - years ago I heard two officers arguing that each of their churches were more christian based on the performence of the church softball teams and I thought that has nothing to do with christianity. Ane then learning of the political crap that Rome did for the church - Rome decided in 380 AD that Xmas was Dec 25th for the sole reason of bring the followers of Mithras into the fold and no other reason - if you know anything of animal husbandry, then you know that Jesus was born in the spring - I know that you are probably sticking your fingers in your ears right now so that you can't hear what I am writing.
I have a bible right here next to me so that when somebody states that in book/chapter/verse god says something, I can look it up, and most of the time that's not what that verse says, that guy just made it up.
My favorite book in the bible is James - I hear that christians hate that book, how do you feel about that book, and I hear that bible publishers are re-writing Ex 21.22 because somebody noticed that the verse says that mothers are more valuable than fetuses, Lev 27.4-6 is more blatant about the value, it's harder to argue with a price tag.
Out of curiosity, what is your degree in, I hope it's engineering, because then I can say that due to 2 Chron 4.2 you have to commit suicide, because there's no way that you can call yourself an engineer and say the PI is 3.0
Do you pray in public?, because Jesus warned us against people who did so.

It is sad how people do that with arguing who's church is better then who's and all the judgement in the world. I read and at times do not understand, then the Lord shows me what He means by an experience in life. I do not proclaim to be any certain religion either. I am just a believer in God and that Jesus is my salvation. My niece once said better to live as a Christian now in life and love others then to find out at the last minute to late that it was real and did nothing. But now something has made her also truly believe with all her heart. So we all have our ways and I agree with MAJ CArl Ballinger. Im not here on Rally Point for the point system like most. I am here for the good people who are on here and ones who do not believe as I do, it is not up to me to throw any stones.

MAJ Carl Ballinger, yet again I feel the need to call you out on absolute false information. Let's just start with advocacy of genocide in the bible- Turns out, AFTER god allegedly gave Moses the 10 commandments, he ordered them into wars where their orders were to destroy all men, women, children, animals, stocks of food, and property. Oh, except the war brides. This is genocide. It was ordered by god, according to the bible. Ergo, genocide is perfectly fine if god says to do it.

MAJ Ballinger, ALL of our concepts are human concepts. Love, hatred, empathy, warmth, war, peace, math, biological classifications, ..... all concepts that we have given a label to. Genocide is also a word that means something specific- deliberately killing a large group of people, especially of a particular ethnicity. Bible god ordered genocide. There is no debate, it is a matter of the fact of definitions. I don't have to debate this, just like I don't have to debate if Jerusalem is a city or a planet. It is a city, and god ordered genocide.

this was an amazing video long but really makes sense.

I quoted the ceremony text that I found, directly.

I'm not going to argue with you about our Christian heritage.

It would give you more credibility on RP if you would 1.) verify your account and 2.) fill our your profile even a little bit beyond bare bones.

I am not going to send my personal information to strangers. The people I served with know who I am. That's good enough.

I really am not that concerned with how credible I am to people who believe in a religion created 2000 years ago by people who could not read or write, who believed a jewish zombie can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him that you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul, that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree.

@Ssgt Jay S., I read the article you posted. There's a lot of bleeding heart propaganda going on there. Bambi? Really? I love deer meat. If a deer dies in a forest fire, it's a barbeque. Who doesn't love a good barbeque? That's not evil, that's dinner. Are you a vegetarian? If you are, you're missing out.

Our nation was never meant to be secular. For two hundred and thirty eight years, presidents, congressmen, judges and soldiers have been sworn in with their hand on the Bible. Not the Quran, or the writings of Buddha or Dalai Lama or any other person. Just the Bible. The Bible is the cornerstone of our unalienable rights. Every president in history who did anything great quoted the Bible. There is no mention of separation of church and state in the Constitution. The First Amendment was written so that no particular denomination within the Christian faith would dominate the government as the Roman Catholic church ruled other governments in Europe. There are books full of quotes from statesmen of every generation quoting the scriptures.

I'm definitely not an animal rights activist, or of the crowd that thinks (all) life is sacred. I'm also a hunter, and meat eater. So I am not sure what you are ranting about.

As far as a secular government goes, I suppose you've never read Jeffersons letter to the Danbury Baptists, or the Treat of Tripoli, signed by John Adams and ratified by our congress 1797. Your comments about the constitution is just incorrect, the constitution, (including the first and second amendments) was a document that resulted from compromise. In order to have it accepted by all of the parties involved with competing interests and agendas. Which sounds an awful like how our government operates now.... Not only is it clear to many people (including Thomas Jefferson, btw) that the Constitution requires a wall of separation between church and state, our SCOTUS has repeatedly found that is what the 1st amendment requires as well. So you can insist that your own interpretation of it is the correct one, while the rest of us ignore you and work toward preserving the secular government we were given by our founding fathers.

you can use the same expression, pray in one hand and spit in the other what one fills up first? I don't doubt that jesus existed, or yeshua as his name is. but to say he is the son of an omnipotent being? and the Virgin mary was supposed to be a Virigin when her husband returned and was found to be pregnant, what a better excuse than to claim god did it. not to mention every time something comes up that puts the bible on edge, some one of the faith finds a way to explain god, or uses the trump card because god.

I as a critical thinker know that know matter how much you believe in something, it never, ever, ever, makes that true.

As a critical thinker I have to caution myself against being a cynical thinker too though.

Faith might only be a placebo, but if helps someone conquer addiction, or provides comfort in a hopeless situation... I'm OK with it.

Just because it may be effective, or provide comfort, or help, does not make it true. It just makes it a useful tool for the masses.

I guess that's why it's your opinion and even you could be wrong.

There is always a problem with our understanding of everything, that's the point of science. We know we don't know everything, that's why we keep searching for the answer and figuring out how it all came to be. Life would be boring if we just decided that figuring things out was not needed.

Until last year we had no idea why matter had mass. Seriously, science is working on it. And we seem to be doing a [pretty darn good job when the opposite answer to anything is "I don't know, therefore God"

perfectly stated by CW3 (Join to see) . The fact that science is a self correcting method is a GOOD thing. That's why empirical evidence is required to include any gods. We need to know there's a 'there' there before it can be studied and understood.

Also, ever noticed how the 'bogeyman' of the supernatural keeps receding into these moredistinct, nebulous pockets of our ignorance? seriously!

gods used to throw lightening bolts and make mountains explode. But, they don't anymore. Is it because we understand the mechanisms better? (hint: yes)

Proof gods don't exist? nope. Proof there's no good reason yet to think there are any? Yep.

SPC Elijah J. Henry, MBA

Maj Carl Ballinger, that's a pretty loaded response. By what evidence do you claim god created everything? Or is this more belief. Which, as we have long ascertained, does not equate to reality.

Oh, and science is only limited by our imagination. It takes an ability to think outside the doctrine of the day to come up with an answer to the WHY in life for each and every thing that happens.

The presence of nerves make you feel everything or nothing.

CW3 (Join to see) stop wasting your time christians are like horses you lead to water you can get them there but you cant force them to drink. Honestly its a waste of time and energy that i could use doing things that are worthwhile

HAHAHAHA, lets not be too critical now. Belief and faith are deeply rooted in an individuals sense of self. If you treat that poorly it leads to self vindication of the absolutist ideology. Which gets you nowhere. The only effective way to go is to be patient, understanding and accepting of these facts. Keep at it, keep on explaining and shooting down all of these arguments. Remember, all you really have to do is get a believer to use that spotlight of critical thinking in themselves. That always causes cracks to form, and that's good because then reality and the way that things actually are gets to seep in.

When in doubt about your tactics, just remember. Your cellphone/computer is the harbinger of 3 of the forces of nature at work being controlled and exploited by man. You got this.

Lol. Someone is faith should never even be an open discussion