How do you know God is real?

You're correct that he's not an idiot: anyone with that kind of marketing scheme must be at least decently-intelligent. When I said I wept for the state of academia, I was referring more to his apparent lack of any intellectual ethics or self-respect. Anyone who uses their work the way he does is, as you said, a shameless showboater: not the kind of person I consider academically respectable, regardless of the work he produces. I think that a certain intellectual seriousness, or at least, as I said, self-respect, should be observed when one is in that kind of position. Whoring out your work to the lowest common denominator of the pseudo-intellectual world is not really consistent with this.

 

I can see the point of it: he wants to get this stuff discussed in popular media rather than letting it be the sole domain of academia. That's quite laudable really. But making a complex message accessible without distorting the meaning is hard, and he doesn't seem to be up to it.

 

Here you go again, talk about being predictable.

First, in what way were the questions an answer to anything that had been asked? They were not, I was merely trying to get more information, so the question can be better answered. If someone asks; "Is it red?", it is only natural to ask; "Is what red?" before answering. Although answering before knowing what is being talked about doesn't seem to bother you.

The OP made the statements; "How do you believe in God even though science/other religions/the situation of this world (people dying and starving to death everyday despite their prayers) seem to negate his existence?" and "I would love to find faith in God, but I haven't found a single shred of anything that points towards a loving Gods existence." both of which seem to say there is "proof" that God does not exist and that there is no "proof" for God's existence, I'm merely trying to find out what the OP considers to be "proof", so I can try to supply it or not as the case may be.

So, if trying to have a meaningful conversation with someone is my predictable mode of operation, then by all means I guess I've gotten quite predictable.

 

This does not appear to be an answer to the question I asked you and doesn't seem to have much bearing on what the OP asked, so why do you bring it up?

 

I'm beginning to see a pattern in some people's posts. It seems when someone asks a simple honest question about God, others seem intent on taking over and derailing the discussion into some esoteric cul-de-sac, so that the original OP is lost and not discussed. One begins to wonder what the motives of such ones are?

It's a shame that some posters take a discussion so far out in left field that the original OP can begin to feel unwelcome in their own thread.

 

There does seem to be an axe to grind by many members. Their means seem to be counter productive to their end goals. If they see religion as some sort of divider (mostly it is), creating a further division doesn't seem to make sense if the goal is to remove the dividers of the world. Ending up creating further divisions to prevent division

I think many of the problems of the world is brought on by force/coercion/marginalization.

 

So sayeth the grand prophet Inourbut Wotami.

 

So sayeth the wise alaundo - Baldur's Gate

 

If you think you are not every bit as responsible for this as anyone else, you are severely fooling yourself.

 

So you're calling yourself, Inourbut Wotami, now a days. Interesting, I'll try to keep that in mind.

 

My "friend" have you even bothered to try and engage the OP in conversation? At least I have and when the OP responds, I will continue the discussion I started. Till then I'm just carrying on with this make believe conversation you've started.

 

If you meditate, you don't have to believe. You can experience god directly. God isn't what you think he is either. He is not a man in the clouds with a long white beard. He is an inconceivable spirit, he is conscious energy!

 

I'm not sure how relevant anything I say would be -- you'd have to take my word for it. And I really don't know if the same results would be produced every time. Also, I think it's good for people to think for themselves.

 

That's what I thought.

 

I'll accept you blatant diversionary statement as meaning "you'd rather not answer the question."

 

Wow I dont belive any of us have our finger on God.. we all are searching . I have found my own path and I would consider myself a christian, but I have way different views of what todays christianity and how Christ intended his followers to live. So it can be hard to keep a clear focus on that when there are so many people who are doing the exact opposite of his teachings. I believe God is peace, Love , in us and around us and Loves us.

 

You can take it anyway you want. But you didn't answer my questions either so does that mean you are being blatantly diversionary and rather not answer the questions?

 

God is pure consciousness beyond space and time. He is all love and all bliss. God is the lightless light, that lights the light, that lights up all our souls! Infinite void of energy. Completely empty of space, yet completely full of love.

God works as one giant complex system, using duality (hot-cold, acid-base, day-night) to create form, like a computer uses 1s and 0s to create programs with visuals and sound.

 

Someday...

 

you don't know if god is real. you don't know whether he exists or not but you do make the decision to worship or not to worship. i'm a buddhist and so i don't fall into the category of worship. i like the way einstein puts it best. "faith needs no reason and reason needs to faith, but...faith without science is blind, and science without faith is boring." religion is a personal decision and i think people should keep it that way instead of preaching to everyone who cross their path on the street, haha.