Is there really a God?  How did the universe come to be? Evolution or creation?  I'm sure you all know we will have the answers to these questions one day when we die.  I personally believe in God because I have had too many experiences in my life not to.  I completely enturst my life to him.  I don't  believe in shoving Christianity down anybody throat,  because it is your choice to believe or not.  I personally don't want risk my eternity with God by doubting him.

I personally don't want risk my eternity with God by doubting him.

Different parents, different country, different religion and your perceived risk would be different as well.

That's how we got the world that we have today.

Of course it would be different.  Different religions around the world have different beliefs about eternity, the afterlife and so on, while others don't believe in these things at all.  I'm just saying that if one day God revealed himself to the world, I wouldn't want to regret not believing in him when I've had plenty of opportunities to do so. But, there again, this is just my belief. 

the ssasjp,,, you talk of this mysterious God as a "He". Just what clued you in to this God's gender?

 

If this God was revealed to you and you found out God was feminine with a nice bosom and luscious, roomy hips. Would you think twice about your allegiance to Her? I'm only asking because you sound just a tad gung-#### about this God's gender.

He, she, it,  I understand that God is not a particular gender.  I've always refered to God as he, probably because Jesus refered to his father in heaven. 

Of course it would be different.

Then how do you think "GOD" accounts for these differences?

You posted: "I personally don't want risk my eternity with God by doubting him. "

 

Sadly for you, of the trillion possible permutations of a god, you have chosen the least likely manifestation of god to believe in.

 

In essence, your future doesn't matter whether you believe in no god, or the particular god that you, personally have chosen to believe in .....

I don't see how it is the _ least_ likely;  the information probably started in oral tradition and has been recorded and passed down to this point.

I'd say that makes it more likely than other random things we could come up with now.

Let's say in the distant future, pretty much all evidence of you and your contemporaries (as individual ppl)  existing was scattered about and had a low probability of being found.

But it just so happens, a neighbor wrote a note about you.

Ppl in the future find it.   From their point of view, they aren't sure if it is a fictional story they found, or if you actually exist.

My point is, whether or not you really did exist, and they can't know for sure, you are more likely to exist, with them having found a record of 'misterwhite' than if at that instant someone made up the name 'kljljlkjlj' and wondered if  'kljljlkjlj' actually existed.

My point is, whether or not you really did exist, and they can't know for sure, you are more likely to exist, with them having found a record of 'misterwhite' than if at that instant someone made up the name 'kljljlkjlj' and wondered if  'kljljlkjlj' actually existed.

---------

This may be true for ordinary claims such as "a person named Jesus lived", but much less so for extraordinary claims such as "a person named Jesus rose from the dead."  We know that people can live and if a contemporary left some record of a person living, then that is credible evidence for the claim that a person lived at the time the contemporary lived.  We have no evidence of anyone rising from the dead so a claim made 2000 years ago by someone who was a contemporary of a person they claim rose from the dead is hardly credible evidence.  (Not to mention that there isn't a contemporary record of Jesus rising from the dead.)

I don't think my statement proves the likelihood of God existing.

I'm just saying, if God does exist, the fact that He is documented shows that He shouldn't be the 'least' likely permutation, as misterwhite was saying.

Fair enough.  I'll agree that things like square circles are less likely to exist.  ;-)

Is there really a God, and can a fish see water? There lies the mystery to that question. Chew on that!

The only way a fish can see water is by being out of it; and that means death for the fish. While in the water, the fish is simply a part of that environment. A person cannot see God because he or she is a part or an extension of that reality. It is natural for humans to refer to God as "He." As such, if other creatures were to be able to worship God, they too would do so in their natural image.