Why I Don't Believe In God

[mazHur]

This is so entangling that one can't but suspect that the whole forum is composed of press releases from The Vatican or some other disinformation organization. But one has humor and has to honor the fellowship.
It is not important to me what you believe or disbelieve. Because I care about all of you,

I think that so long as you don't think that what you believe or disbelieve is knowledge, you will be safe.

I am amused

It may also be said this way..........
I think that so long as you don't think that what you believe or disbelieve is knowledge, you will never learn to identify relations, even of those of next of kin.

In the Hands of God

By Teresa of Avila
(1515 - 1582)

English version by Kieran Kavanaugh OCD and Otilio Rodriguez OCD



I am Yours and born of You,
What do You want of me?

Majestic Sovereign,
Unending wisdom,
Kindness pleasing to my soul;
God sublime, one Being Good,
Behold this one so vile.
Singing of her love to you:
What do You want of me?

Yours, you made me,
Yours, you saved me,
Yours, you endured me,
Yours, you called me,
Yours, you awaited me,
Yours, I did not stray.
What do You want of me?

Good Lord, what do you want of me,
What is this wretch to do?
What work is this,
This sinful slave, to do?
Look at me, Sweet Love,
Sweet Love, look at me,
What do You want of me?

In Your hand
I place my heart,
Body, life and soul,
Deep feelings and affections mine,
Spouse -- Redeemer sweet,
Myself offered now to you,
What do You want of me?

Give me death, give me life,
Health or sickness,
Honor or shame,
War or swelling peace,
Weakness or full strength,
Yes, to these I say,
What do You want of me?

Give me wealth or want,
Delight or distress,
Happiness or gloominess,
Heaven or hell,
Sweet life, sun unveiled,
To you I give all.
What do You want of me?

Give me, if You will, prayer;
Or let me know dryness,
And abundance of devotion,
Or if not, then barrenness.
In you alone, Sovereign Majesty,
I find my peace,
What do You want of me?

Give me then wisdom.
Or for love, ignorance,
Years of abundance,
Or hunger and famine.
Darkness or sunlight,
Move me here or there:
What do You want of me?

If You want me to rest,
I desire it for love;
If to labor,
I will die working:
Sweet Love say
Where, how and when.
What do You want of me?

Calvary or Tabor give me,
Desert or fruitful land;
As Job in suffering
Or John at Your breast;
Barren or fruited vine,
Whatever be Your will:
What do You want of me?

Be I Joseph chained
Or as Egypt's governor,
David pained
Or exalted high,
Jonas drowned,
Or Jonas freed:
What do You want of me?

Silent or speaking,
Fruitbearing or barren,
My wounds shown by the Law,
Rejoicing in the tender Gospel;
Sorrowing or exulting,
You alone live in me:
What do You want of me?

Yours I am, for You I was born:
What do You want of me?

[cafolini]

And what did the chap said he wanted? She tried hard to give him everything she had. Did he asked her to buy him a cruise to the caribbean at least?

[mazHur]

Thinking Makes It So

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."1

William James, the father of American psychology, stated that, "the greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind [your thinking]." He also said, "If you change your mind, you can change your life."

While what William James said is true, this truth wasn't discovered by his generation. Two thousand years ago God's word pointed out the importance of right thinking.

It is true; we can change our lives by changing our thinking—either for good or bad. If we harbor and dwell on negative thoughts, we will act in negative ways. On the other hand, if we harbor and dwell on positive thoughts, we will act in positive ways. What we think about comes about.

As another has said, "What the mind dwells on the body acts on." Think of temptation for instance. First comes a thought and, if we entertain it, it hooks our feelings, and the stronger we feel about it, the more we keep thinking about it, and the more we rationalize about doing it … and unless we nip that thinking in the bud, we give in to the temptation and act it out.

So as an unknown author also wisely said:

Watch your thoughts; they lead to attitudes.
Watch your attitudes; they lead to words.
Watch your words; they lead to actions.
Watch your actions; they lead to habits.
Watch your habits; they form your character.
Watch your character; it determines your destiny.


1. The quote is from 1. Philippians 4:8 (NIV).
source:ACTS

[Darcy88]

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts."

-The Dhamapada.

By the way mazHur, that quote from Phillipians is one of my all time favourite quotes. I never took it in the sense that you take it here. I always just took it as adivce on how to achieve comfort and assurance.

[mazHur]

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts."

-The Dhamapada.

By the way mazHur, that quote from Phillipians is one of my all time favourite quotes. I never took it in the sense that you take it here. I always just took it as adivce on how to achieve comfort and assurance.

Good, but haven't you heard people often say, ''Hey he is not good spirit'', ''She is feeling low'', 'Oh, you hurt my soul!"". Thus all this 'spirit' business is psychological. It has to do with mind as well as heart!! 'Have heart!!'' we usually say to a depressed person, don't we?

[leemadison11]

God to me is faith of goodness, as long as God exist, faith in goodness exists. The day its over, people in Wall Street and the corrupt politicians are going rule this country. The country would be go to the dogs.

[cafolini]

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts."

-The Dhamapada.

By the way mazHur, that quote from Phillipians is one of my all time favourite quotes. I never took it in the sense that you take it here. I always just took it as adivce on how to achieve comfort and assurance.

I just realized that. I tried it and I became king of M31. The good thing about it was that when I got tired, I tried it again and I am back home to talk to you who are an honorable figment of what I think.

[Darcy88]

This may not have anything to do with my disbelief in God, but one of the reasons I am not a Christian is that I cannot make sense of the trinity. If its the father AND the son, then how is it not two gods and therefore a kind of polytheism?

[mazHur]

This may not have anything to do with my disbelief in God, but one of the reasons I am not a Christian is that I cannot make sense of the trinity. If its the father AND the son, then how is it not two gods and therefore a kind of polytheism?

Wow! You picked up the basic difference between two greatest religions of the world, ie Christianity and Islam!

[mazHur]

A nice sermon for those who cannot love!

Living, Loving and Learning Part I

"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth."the Bible

A popular song from back in the '60s or '70s by Burt Bacharach was: "What the world needs now is love, sweet love / It's the only thing that there's just too little of / What the world needs now is love, sweet love / No not just for some but for everyone."

Only those embittered and disillusioned by failure in love would disagree with those words. We were created for loving relationship, without which we limp along in the shadows of life eking out a lonely existence. And even while living with others such people may live together alone apart—and die a little every day.

It may not be most desirable, but we can live without romantic relationships, but we cannot live healthily nor can we get our love needs met without being in at least one—and hopefully—several healthy relationships.

Furthermore, we can only love and be loved to the degree that we are known. As long as I hide behind a false mask, no matter how attractive and likable that mask may be, I will never feel loved, because my mask is not me. That's the person I'm pretending to be. Only real people find real love. What is more, only real people can experience a real relationship with God. I simply cannot feel close to God or anybody else as long as I hide behind a false mask.

Moreover, as Sydney Jourard wrote some years ago in his book, The Transparent Self, "Every maladjusted person is someone who has not made himself known to another human being and in consequence he does not know himself. Nor can he be himself. More than that, he struggles actively to avoid becoming known by another human being. He works ceaselessly at it day and night. And it is work!"

So to be healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually—and to find loving relationships—we need to come out of hiding and be real.''

source: ACT

[osho]

I am tired of this idea of Godliness. I do not know what to say and not to say and what to believe or not to believe. I am torn between belief and disbelief and in fact everybody is a believer to some extent particularly when he has a thousand questions and not a single convincing answer and maybe God could be the last answer every skeptic arrives at.

Likewise everyone is a disbeliever too because the source of our belief in God is religious books and the teachings of our elders.

I have read plenty of religious books and some are trashy. No religious books are without fallacies or myths and it is a matter of degrees and Christianity and Hinduisms have so many religious texts that have no logic and are baseless. The rest of religions too have trashy things.

People become foolishly argue for their particular faith and they are in their babyhood indoctrinated into a particular credo and they cannot uproot their doctrinal faiths no matter how much they are well read and they have no questioning mind since they are hooked to their faiths.

Where is there God? It is in their thought. Where is their thought? It is in their memory and all your memories are things of the past, dried up and dead. Therefore your memory is your God.

If you are born to a religious community and you get hooked up with them and you cannot break this chain of faith and you will die as a blind follower.

You live with an illusion and die with this. This does not accord with truth.

[cafolini]

I am tired of this idea of Godliness. I do not know what to say and not to say and what to believe or not to believe. I am torn between belief and disbelief and in fact everybody is a believer to some extent particularly when he has a thousand questions and not a single convincing answer and maybe God could be the last answer every skeptic arrives at.

Likewise everyone is a disbeliever too because the source of our belief in God is religious books and the teachings of our elders.

I have read plenty of religious books and some are trashy. No religious books are without fallacies or myths and it is a matter of degrees and Christianity and Hinduisms have so many religious texts that have no logic and are baseless. The rest of religions too have trashy things.

People become foolishly argue for their particular faith and they are in their babyhood indoctrinated into a particular credo and they cannot uproot their doctrinal faiths no matter how much they are well read and they have no questioning mind since they are hooked to their faiths.

Where is there God? It is in their thought. Where is their thought? It is in their memory and all your memories are things of the past, dried up and dead. Therefore your memory is your God.

If you are born to a religious community and you get hooked up with them and you cannot break this chain of faith and you will die as a blind follower.

You live with an illusion and die with this. This does not accord with truth.

You could spend your life talking about truth. There occurs no truth. There occur and infinity of truths and an infinity of lies.

[BlackCat]

My friend you appears to be asking the fundamental question: "How can there be God if there is suffering?".First let us realize something: a) there are no rules saying God must always protect mankind from suffering b) what does not kill me make me stronger. We realize then the assumption that a God must be there to always protect us and keep us from harm is a very human assumption. We realize it's a justification for the lack of belief in God or in a benevolent being. We must also realize that many time struggles and sufferings shape and mold man and his characters, as Cardinal François-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận once said "You can't become a saint unless you suffer".

Secondly we must also realize that many of the multiple sufferings you've listed (including many natural catastrophes and Katy Perry) are man made. You realize that AIDS, diseases, poverty, hunger... are either caused directly by us or indirectly by our negligence. Our apathy for humanity, for the sufferings, our selfishness and self-centerness causes these sufferings. Like an Islamic scholar once said: "Why should God intervene something that human can do themselves?" This question about God's benevolence, or about God seeming negligence for humanity, eventually must lead us to question ourselves, our behaviors, our apathy.

[BlackCat]

You could spend your life talking about truth. There occurs no truth. There occur and infinity of truths and an infinity of lies.

If it is definite and objective that there is no truth, then lack of truth is the truth, thus occurs a paradox

[BlackCat]

I am tired of this idea of Godliness. I do not know what to say and not to say and what to believe or not to believe. I am torn between belief and disbelief and in fact everybody is a believer to some extent particularly when he has a thousand questions and not a single convincing answer and maybe God could be the last answer every skeptic arrives at.

Likewise everyone is a disbeliever too because the source of our belief in God is religious books and the teachings of our elders.

I have read plenty of religious books and some are trashy. No religious books are without fallacies or myths and it is a matter of degrees and Christianity and Hinduisms have so many religious texts that have no logic and are baseless. The rest of religions too have trashy things.

People become foolishly argue for their particular faith and they are in their babyhood indoctrinated into a particular credo and they cannot uproot their doctrinal faiths no matter how much they are well read and they have no questioning mind since they are hooked to their faiths.

Where is there God? It is in their thought. Where is their thought? It is in their memory and all your memories are things of the past, dried up and dead. Therefore your memory is your God.

If you are born to a religious community and you get hooked up with them and you cannot break this chain of faith and you will die as a blind follower.

You live with an illusion and die with this. This does not accord with truth.

Another presumption that a believer who have not fallen out of his faith or have left the faith is a blind believer. I must disagree. Especially in this society, I believe those who still believe are the most well read and the most enlightened people. Religious people are also people, they are capable of thinking and reasoning. Unfortunately they are painted nowaday as little morons who have absolutely not a single bit of common sense. They are painted as blind followers led to the slaughterhouse by wolves dressed in shepherd skin. As a believer I have longed for the day to break such stereotypes, I have longed to be recognized as a human being with reason and logic, someone who have studied philosophy. I want others to understand that I have too studied many faiths before come to the conclusion that my faith, Christianity, is the greatest faith of all.

Now the question back at you is what is truth? You said we as believers will be perpeptual worshippers of our memories. You said we will die in illusion and not accord with the truth. What then is truth? Is there even a truth? Is Plato right, or is it Nietzsche? Or is it like Buddhism, that truth is just an illusion? What is truth?