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Does God Exist?

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Revmitchell, Sep 30, 2009.

  1. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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  2. Winman

    Winman Active Member

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    That was a good video. :thumbsup:

    I believe life itself proves God. Life has been observed to arise from life 100% of the time. Life has been observed to arise from non-living matter exactly 0% of the time. This is scientific, it is observable and testable.

    Therefore if life exists now, it must have always existed. For if life at any time did not exist, life could not arise from it. And if ever all life died, no new life could ever arise again. Therefore, if we live now, then life must have existed for eternity. This is God.
     
  3. Aaron

    Aaron Member
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    In Him we live and move and have our being . . .
     
  4. gb93433

    gb93433 Active Member
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    1Sam 16:14 Now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.

    1Sam 16:15 Saul's servants then said to him, "Behold now, an evil spirit from God is terrorizing you.

    1Sam 16:16 "Let our lord now command your servants who are before you. Let them seek a man who is a skillful player on the harp; and it shall come about when the evil spirit from God is on you, that he shall play the harp with his hand, and you will be well."

    1Sam 16:1Sam 16:23 So it came about whenever the evil spirit from God came to Saul, David would take the harp and play it with his hand; and Saul would be refreshed and be well, and the evil spirit would depart from him.

    1Sam 18:10 Now it came about on the next day that an evil spirit from God came mightily upon Saul, and he raved in the midst of the house, while David was playing the harp with his hand, as usual; and a spear was in Saul's hand.

    1Sam 19:9 Now there was an evil spirit from the Lord on Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand, and David was playing the harp with his hand.
     
  5. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    The existence of law requires the existence of the Lawgiver.
     
  6. Jim1999

    Jim1999 <img src =/Jim1999.jpg>

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    In theology we have four arguments for the existence of God. No one argument stands alone to do this, but all four give reason to believe in the existence of God.

    Otherwise, we have no way, apart from our own reason, to believe in the existence of God.

    God has never verbalized to me, yet He has spoken, I believe, through His word and in prayer and by circumstance beyond natural feasibility.

    God exists tome just beyond my fingertips, beyond my flesh, and in His own eternal realm.........And, He lives in me, by His grace and the gift of faith.

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
  7. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    As D. Bonhoeffer said;

     
  8. Winman

    Winman Active Member

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    Could you go into a little detail and explain why this would be so?

    The scriptures themselves say man can know of God, and that all men are without excuse.

    Rom 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
    20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:


    Psa 19:1 [To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.] The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
    2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge.
    3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
     
  9. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    I do not disagree with your comment about people knowing God ... but that is not proof. It is both impossible to prove God exists and also impossible that God does not exist. God's can be experienced within a person's life, but that is not proof of his existence . Such experiences can always be written off as coincidence, imagination, or some other negative by a person who does not believe as it proves nothing other than what you or I believe we have experienced.

    I am not sure which book by Bonhoeffer this quote comes from. If you have not read him I suggest you do. His "The Cost of Discipleship" is excellent.

    I strongly believe in God and believe I can see where he has worked in my life. However, I can prove none of this to another person. I may be believed by a person of faith, but it will never be a proveable proof.
     
  10. Jedi Knight

    Jedi Knight Well-Known Member
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    When someone says "God does not exist" they are speaking from a heard heart of rebellion which results in their blindness. The Pharisees said to Jesus "are we blind too?" as if to justify their blindness. God made it evidence inside us there is a designer and we choose to seek Him or reject "suppress" the little light we have been given. Jesus gave plenty of evidence He was from God to the Pharisees just as Atheist "scoffers" claim there is no evidence and profess "are we blind too?" have evidence built within. Romans 1:19 Psalm 19:1
     
    #10 Jedi Knight, Oct 3, 2009
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  11. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    You and I believe God exists and the matter is settled for us. But Romans 1:19 and Psalm 1:19 is not evidence.
     
  12. Jedi Knight

    Jedi Knight Well-Known Member
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    It's Psalm 19:1....did ya bother to look it up? Those scripture explains very clear that the matter if there is a God is in them to know"do the math" clearly. You gonna buy the lie "over scripture" they give you for no evidence? They deceive themselves and for you to think poor souls....tisk,tisk,you don't see it. A proud Atheist are WILLFULLY IGNORANT.
     
    #12 Jedi Knight, Oct 3, 2009
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  13. Aaron

    Aaron Member
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    IOW, God has proven His own existence.

    Men are without excuse.
     
  14. webdog

    webdog Active Member
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    Very good point...I'll have to remember that.:thumbsup:
     
  15. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    You guys are wasting your time with him. He believes the Bible is just "a book of words".
     
  16. Jim1999

    Jim1999 <img src =/Jim1999.jpg>

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    As A.H. Strong notes, "the existence of God is a first truth; the knowledge of God's existence is a rational intuition." Systematic Theology.

    First, we must accept as fact the existence of a spiritual being upon whom we are dependent. Then we must set out to prove these suppositions. I am not going to try to teach basic theology here,but four ideas are usually presented covering the cosmology, teleological argument from order in nature, anthropological, the argument from man's mental and moral nature, and the ontological argument, lor argument from abstract ideas.

    Whilst each argument has some weight, one alone does not prove the existence of a god in itself. All four offer substantive weight combined with our own spiritual experience.

    The experiences listed in scriptures rests only on the fact that we accept scripture as authored by this God we have not proved factually or reasonably.

    Can one of you, without the aid of scripture, prove to me or anyone, the existence of God?

    What, pray tell, is the purpose of grace through faith, a gift of God, if we can, in fact, rationalize the existence of God? We can prove spontaneous generation by the same means!

    Cheers,

    Jim
     
  17. swaimj

    swaimj <img src=/swaimj.gif>

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    God's existence is not verifiable by the scientific method by which the modern man demands proof. Because, generally, God is infinite and man is finite, therefore we cannot varify his attributes. Specifically, God is omnipresent. Man cannot verify this because we cannot even be all of the places God could be, much less could we be at all of them at once. Also, God is omniscient, while man does not know it all. In fact the claim that "God does not exist" is a claim that the person who makes cannot verify or prove. Finally, God is all-powerful. If an all-powerful God demonstrated his power to a person, they would not survive the experience.

    If someone says to me, prove that God exists, I always ask, "what proof do you require?" "What evidence can I give that would prove his existence?" They either cannot give an answer, or they say something like, if God were to do "thus and such" I would believe in him. Usually, the "thus and such" they give is something that God has already done in the scriptures and I ask them why the poeple who observed this did not put their faith in God and suggest to them that if God did what they requested, they would simply rationalize it away.
     
  18. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    Scientifically, it is impossible to "Prove" there is a God.
    .

    In order to do so, an experiment would have to be set up...

    And you would need 2 controlled environments.

    In one environment, God would be present...
    In the other, God would be absent...

    And since there is NO place where God is absent, such an experiment is impossible.

    Also, since we only have 5 physical senses in which we can receive observable information,
    It is impossible to Prove using our 5 senses that God exists..
    You cannot see, touch, audibly hear, physically touch, or smell God.
    Yet we that are Christians can still have a relationship with God...

    How?

    That is why God gave us what I consider our true 6th sense... .FAITH

    Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    Faith is the only way we can prove God exists...
     
  19. Crabtownboy

    Crabtownboy Well-Known Member
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    I really like your explanation! :thumbs:

    You said it very well. Thanks.


    Swaimj, I also like your post very much. Thanks.

    Jim, your reply also ... thanks.
     
    #19 Crabtownboy, Oct 5, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 5, 2009
  20. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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    If I remember correctly you cannot watch posted videos. So you missed the context of the op. In the video a teacher suggested he could prove God does not exist. He goes on to say that if God did exist and He created everything then since evil exists God also created evil. In the teachers mind that proves God does not exist.

    One of the students in the video quoted Albert Einstein when he asked the teacher, in refutation, if cold exists. The teacher replied that it did and it could be proven. The student refuted this with the fact that cold cannot be proven as it is simply the absence of heat. The student goes on to ask the teacher can he prove that darkness exists? The Teacher again said yes but the student refutes this by replying with the fact that darkness is merely the absence of light.

    The student finishes his argument with the fact that evil is only the absence of God's love and in and of itself does not exist.
     
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