Where Did the Notion of God Come From??

God said other gods are an abomination. It is even a commandment. God did not want us to have other gods as we had invented these gods in place of him. There is nothing fleshly about God in the bible, in that - he says serve not the flesh. He is known as "he" but is not the typical animalistic lust driven "he". He says to serve not lust and the flesh, but rather spirit. Are you even considering these things......silly question.What a "man" is to a man is very different to what a "man" is to God. The things of the spirit are foolishness to the natural man.Is Christ a man's idea of a man? - I trow not.

Well, he must despise me then. I have proclaimed my self to be God numerous times, and there has yet to be any evidence presented to prove otherwise.

Mike, i dont know if you have ever been an athiest, i am guessing not. Maybe agnostic, but not athiest. Being an athiest i look at things differently, and so i dont feel that i need to fit a god figure in, it works without one. Because of this i obviously head towards atheism. Having read books that give explainations (that i find rational and sensible) on how dieties came about in human beliefs, this gives me as such another reason not to believe.We could argue the irrelevancy from here till christmas and it would remain us going true false true false etc etc .Uncool seems a very strange way of putting it. I try not too be affected by peer pressure, and so coolness makes little difference to me. I am sitting on no fence, i believe that we are merely the by product of several chances (but if those chances didnt occur, then we wouldnt be here to question) and a long amount of time.I will admit that i have done little reading recently, i have read maybe 4-5 books in the last month (one of these took me 3 weeks (crime and punishment is hardcore)) and so my reading has slowed slighty. Plus revision is beginning to rear its ugly head. But i will read the NT, and i will remain as open to it as i can (as i have said i will not accept it as gospel if i feel i have reason to disagree, otherwise i will try).I neither has washed any dishes this week, but unfortunatly this is because i am a smelly disgusting student

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Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life....

Actually, Not quite.For example, "Thou shalt have no other GOD before me" clearly show that other Gods are okay as long as you don't try to place them before the GOD of the Jews.And consider, "Thou shalt love the Lord Thy GOD". That too shows other gods or there would be no need to say Thy God.There is little doubt that early Judaism was polytheistic and in fact Christianity was until the Council of Nicea.Paul's acceptance of describing Christianity as "The religion of the Unknown God" also seems to imply that at least as late as Paul the idea of Polytheism was the norm.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

This amuses me. Yet you won't understand why, you see, when you have a very strong faith in God and know the truth - it is just so silly, you seem to be fertile soil for the deceptions of the enemy. Sorry, I had a moment of silliness. "uncool" means nothing to me, if you are the most uncool unsuccesful person you will mean the same to me as a millionaire succesful cool person. To me, we are all servants. If anything, that was the last word I should have used but I was typing quickly.It is good that you will read the NT. Read Isaiah in the OT after reading about Christ. All biblical prophecies are correct. The Jews returning to their land was a prophecy which has came to pass. It's just an unavoidable fact that God exists. Pray tonight and ask if he does, and ask him to do someting, BUT believe. I know he'll answer. Why do I know?

You seem to support nothing in the bible and even have spoken against christianity aswell. No it doesn't. That's your own addage.Are you saying that the father Christ talked of is the fabrication of humans?If you are an evolutionist christian, you certainly seem to only defend the former. Why do you fight "for" the idea that God is the invention of humans? --

Not at all. I do believe that the Bible is the creation of humans.That is quite different than GOD being the creation of humans.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

Then fight to say God is not the creation of humans, rather than fighting the book which tells us about Christ, and fighting with believers. Get your priorities straight, so far - you just seem like another atheist, you have not fought the good fight of faith. If your faith is weak it would certainly be consistent with your posts.

Fraid there are some things that just wont click (resurecution will not be one of these, i will treat it open mindedly) I do honestly intend to try and be as open minded as possible.Now you see people with faith sometimes amuse me quite possibly for similar reasons, they just seem to be so enclosed in themselves (not referring to you here, you seem to be quite open to ideas).Being the sort of person i am, i will have to think for a long time about what to pray for (there are several things that immediatly come to mind, but they are likely to come to pass anyway, so it will take me some time i suspect), and i will. I truly want to believe (i dont know if you will understand this), things would all be sooo much better, life would make a positive sort of sense (as opposed to making sense in the terms of, because we here, we are in a position to think of our existence), however there is one problem with belief i have found. I want all this but it just doesnt fit.As for now, im going to bed, ive spent all afternoon+night at work, had a couple of pints (the beauty of working in a student bar), so i feel just about right for sleep. Look forward to continuing our discussions in the morning Unseul

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Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life....

Then believe, and your needs will follow. Make that first leap and pray tonight, I promise you will not have dissapointment.I will continue tomorrow afternoon, if I get a chance, I also live in the UK so hopefully our debate times are compatable. This message has been edited by mike the wiz, 05-05-2004 09:59 PM

The problem is that IMHO, the Bible is one of the biggest obstacles to a belief in GOD. The only bigger obstacle that I have ever come across are CHRISTIANS.If you will look at the posts I've made relating to the Bible, it is those who place the Bible above GOD or make the mistake of thinking that the Bible IS Christianity.

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

What about the Dao? How the heck did Lao Zi come up with It?

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The Laminator

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What about the "Holy Spirit" ? As far as I can see it is largely a Christian idea - another element in the big mess.People couldn't look at God's face ? People couldn't look at Zeus. Is Zeus real ? A few people appearing to Abraham ? Well there's enough evidence of polytheism in the Bible and angels visit Lot so there are obvious ways for that to occur. If you want more on that then supply chapter and verse. "I am that I am" has been explained as an evasion on God's part - a refusal to reveal his name - quite plausible when you consider that that name has been so guarded that we have to guess how it was pronounced.But the fcats are as I stated them - the reason that "God" is such a complicated concept is that it is not a single concept. The general conception of "God" changed radically over time, but the old stories remained and were too important to be rewritten to fit the new ideas. Tou only have to read the Bible to see it.

OK, i offered up a pray last night. As to the amount of belief there was behind it im afraid i cannot really say. If it comes to pass, and there are several ways that it could, that would be convince me. However just to be a right bugger, why christianity? I was bought up christian so it would be easy to slip back into it, but why christianity over any other of the many religions out there?I mean ive just experienced something, that if i thought into random chances, would be quite meaningful. As i was going through the list of gods i know of etc (generally i just dont bother past the norse gods) I thought about the greek pantheon, and as i was thinking about Athena, i opened up my email, and bang, first thing i see is a new email called "The Athena Lecture" I had no previous knowledge of this lecture, so nothing could have planted it into my mind. Now thats sorta freaky eh Unseul

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Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life....

And what makes you think God cannot "use" chance Unseul?Have you read the story of Joseph? The "chance" God uses to make his will happen with Joseph - is quite extraordinary. Willowtree wrote a good post about it, I'll try and find it.You say "why christianity"? - Didn't I answer that in the topic you made? Anyway, forget what people have told you, when you see the truth everything else will fall into place."Chance" in no way is beyond God, it is written, "Nothing shall be impossible with God".