Questions For God

  Many years ago, in the early 1980's, during one of many discussions that I had with my dear Christian friend Don, I made this comment: "I could never stop believing in Jesus" . Don responded:  "Don't say that - say, By the grace of God I could never stop believing in Jesus" , which sort of made sense to me at the time.   We believed that, in our own selves, we had no power to come to God.  We also had no power to maintain our faith in God.  Faith itself was a gift from God. This is part of the Calvinistic view. Question: When I stopped believing in Jesus about 17-18 years after that discussion with Don, was it because God intentionally took his "grace" away from me?  Did God decide that he no longer wanted me to believe in Jesus - and so - he took away my ability to believe in Jesus?  If the Calvinistic Christian is going to be consistent in their beliefs, don't they have to believe that any and every Christian who leaves the faith and become...

  "Go ahead, tell everyone what you saw -  some will actually believe you." Dear Christian, With regard to what you believe and why I don't believe - as an atheist it's not that I am trying to convince you that I am right.  I t's not even that I am trying to convince you that you are wrong.   It's more like I am trying to get you to understand that you really don't have any good reason to believe what you believe and that you really don't know what you think you know. You have believed these things for so long that your belief feels - to you - like knowledge. You believe so strongly, confidently, that you misconstrue your belief with knowledge. In your mind the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus are so obvious that you are puzzled that some people don't believe (or don't know) that these biblical claims are true. In your mind, the fact that so many people have believed these things for so long, they have to be true. In your mind...

  I mean miracle CLAIMS Claim: verb To state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof . noun An assertion of the truth of something, typically one that is disputed or in doubt . ~    ~    ~ Often Christians will claim that they know (believe) that the God of the bible has in the past, and perhaps does still in the present, perform miracles. Often I will ask these Christians for some evidence in support of their claim that the God of the bible does (or did) perform miracles. Often (not) o n a rare occasion (denomination dependent) they might offer a miracle claim that they heard of 2nd or 3rd hand.  On an even rarer occasion they will offer their personal "experience" or "observation" of a miracle, but they will never offer any evidence in support of this personal miracle claim. Often they will cite some biblical passage as evidence in support of their claim that the God of the bible has performed miracles in th...

W.T.F.W.J.D What would you want the police to do if they witnessed you being assaulted or if they witnessed someone trying to murder you? What do you think a police officer in the USA is legally required to do if they witness someone assaulting you, or even attempting to murder you? If your answer was, "They are required to help me", you would be wrong .  Just ask the courts, including the US Supreme Court: 1975 Warren, Taliaferro, and Douglas In the early morning hours of Sunday, March 16, 1975, Carolyn Warren and Joan Taliaferro, who shared a room on the third floor of their rooming house, and Miriam Douglas, who shared a room on the second floor with her four-year-old daughter, were asleep. The women were awakened by the sound of the back door being broken down by two men later identified as Marvin Kent and James Morse. The men entered Douglas' second floor room, where Kent forced Douglas to perform oral sex on him and Morse raped her. Warren and Taliaferro heard Doug...

  Below are two of my own personal experiences.  Could they be viewed as actual miraculous interventions from God, or were they mere coincidences? ~        ~        ~ Money in time of need (sort of) I needed to do a brake-job on one of my vehicles (I usually try to do my own maintenance).  I went to the Auto Parts   store   and purchased some of my parts and then went to Walmart for the rest.  The total from both stores came to $68 and change.   After purchasing the final supplies I got into my car in the Walmart parking lot.  As I started it up I just happened to notice something in the kids seat of one of the empty   shopping   carts near where I was parked .  I got out for a look.  It was a rolled up wad of money and some change.  I got back in my car and counted - it was $67 and change.  I sat there for about 30 minutes to see if someone came back to look...