Belief...a choice?

You do not believe in a greater power than your self? You sound like my 14 yr old daughter. Do you deny the force of the wind & the impact it can have on our lives? I have never, ever seen the wind but I can tell you it causes a lot of "change" whenever it blows thru.

Actually, I dont believe that I will go to heaven. Even if I am a "good boy" as well as a believer. If, and I believe so, that God is our creator and creator of all things, then I believe he created this world we live in for that exact purpose: a place for his "physical" creations to live long and prosper(to quote another otherworldly being). As for you arguing my analogy concerning the wind, yes, you are correct, we can feel & experience its influence but still we can not physically see it. To many, "seeing is believing" and that is where my analogy lies. If you want to be pedantic then take for example an isolated tribe that has always done things the same way for many generations until a 1st world conglomerate affects their way of life by perhaps destroying certain ecosystems,ie:wildlife or flora dying inexplicably(to them)all outside of their small "world" that repercusses upon the tribe, with no physical indication to them of what is happenning.

Thankyou for your "fatherly" approach to my comment. It would seem that you consider me simplistic or perhaps even naive and therefore your approach is borderline patronistic. If you cannot see an analogy when it is used then I doubt you are able to see much beyond anything that you cannot touch, taste or feel and therefore I will dissregard your comment.

It would seem that many people dont like or cannot understand an analogy, fine. I am not a "Bible Basher" , I do not go to church every Sunday, and I dont beat up people who are atheists or evolutionists. I am simply a person that took a look around, saw that many things are missing in this world of ours & can see that logically if we all did a little more of what the Bible says we should do then we wouldnt be cutting each others heads off on video & generally killing or abusing each other. The Bible is the only book that professes to be the word of God and is also the oldest surviving book in the history of mankind that offers a start- to-present day history & guidline for "happy living" all in one package. it also give unfailing forecasts of what is to come. Try Mathew chapter 24. Whatever anybodies views are on the current crisis in the Middle East or Viet Nam or the previuos World Wars no one can deny that it all comes down to needless death. Perhaps the evolutionists would classify all of the above to survival of the fittest just as the "theory" of evolution advocates. If that is the case you guys must be relying on your fitness if war should ever erupt in your country.

Phatboy,
Thanks for the objective and well spoken viewpoint. I would add another simple analogy: (I like analogies) My 14 yr old daughter has just discovered she pretty well knows everything. It is in some way enlightening to watch her express herself(when I am not annoyed out of my mind) as I see so much of myself in her when I was her age. I can also see my stepfather at present, nearing 70, who, except for the crisis approaching his triple by-pass has rarely, if ever acknowledged the presence or existance of God. At the time of course he did. I think we all approach & recognise the existance of God at sometime in our lives and I suspect it is usually when we are at our lowest. What we do with that "inner knowledge" is of course up to us.