I have noticed, however, that when the highway department sets out to replace a bridge, first they put up signs telling everyone that there is a detour. Then they put up a barrier at the first crossroads. Finally they put up another barrier at the bridge itself. They make sure that no one is going to inadvertently go off that bridge.

Well, it seems to me if other religions are “bridge out” roads, then why does God allow them to exist? It seems in this case the highway department is more responsible than God. They are taking no chances. They don’t rely on fear and word of mouth to get the word across. But then, they can be sued for negligence if someone goes off it because they did not know the road was closed. God can’t.

I have studied various religions and revelations and it is very interesting how so many of them claim to be an updated version. Christianity replaced Judaism, in turn replaced by Islam, in turn replaced by Baha’i, and so forth, Well, if God can directly reveal an updated version to one person why can’t he directly inform all the other followers of these older versions that there is an upgrade? It shouldn’t be all that hard. And no fear would have to be involved at all.

When someone uses fear-based arguments to try to convince me then I know that what they offer me is bankrupt. Fear is what kept me lying to myself, and to others, about my true beliefs. But then I realized it doesn’t matter. If there is a God I would rather stand before Him having lived my life honestly than go through it mouthing a lie.

Thank you for your response. Life is too important, too valuable to waste time on squabbles that lead nowhere. Only when the mind is not restricted can true freedom be attained. You have a right to pursue your search through science or any way that you wish too. You also have the right not to believe in God. This is true freedom, the true freedom of choice that a lot of us miss.

Hinduism permits free thought. You are not constrained to a specific thought process but you are permitted to ask and keep asking until you , yourself have found the answer that sets you free.

The Buddha himself, questioned his own beliefs even though he was originally considered a Hindu. He challenged people to think and in all His sayings, he does not mention God at all. He is not wrong, instead He was right as He had the right to question and subsequently arrive at a conclusion.

ubi dunium, the world needs more people like you. We live in treacherous times where fear is being exploited to the fullest. Fear gives rise to constricted thinking and this is where such thinkers prefer to convert to escape the myth of judgment and eternal damnation. Such fear does not exists in the minds of the enlightened ones. Enlightenment simply means that one is being illuminated by acquiring new wisdom or understanding.

I wish you well in your fabulous undertaking. May all your wishes come true and may you truly find that which you seek.

In love,
A Hindu

I am a bit curious. I know most of these topics center around the bible and Christianity. And I guess this has to do with de-conversion etc.

I have seen miracles in other beliefs too. I have seen miracles in my life that I cannot explain and this has happened both as a Christian and as a Hindu. I have seen evil Christians as well as evil Hindus and even other religious beliefs. But these are people and it’s got nothing do do with God. I have Muslim friends who also see miracles.

Please, I would like to appeal to you, take a look around you. Look outside the bible. Why are people trying to find God in books? Seems to me every religion gives their believer a book! It’s like joining a club. Why can’t God be found simply be seeking Him, simply by asking Him. There are no rules in searching for God. There are no rules at all. Seek Him and He will be found.

Yes, there are people who do not believe in God, and that’s fine by me. I assure you that you will not go to hell as dictated by those who read the book and judge you.

And yes, there are those who do believe in God simply because we seek God. There’s nothing wrong with this either. But to base our belief on a book or a set of books is simply not acceptable. Books possess the thoughts of the writer (the holder of the pen) and in no way can equal to the thoughts of God. I cannot believe that God wants us to be able to read and write before we can seek Him.

Also understand why neuro linguistic programming is being used to control the masses. This is important. We can be controlled by others simply by reading and listening. Remove these shackles and set yourself free, be what you want to be. Don’t depend your life on miracles and books. Every day that you live is already a miracle! And your life story is a book.

In love,
A Hindu

I know I’m taking the bait her, and in order to avoid a completely pointless argument I’m not going to respond further, even after you respond to this comment, but I just have to point out that calling someone recovering from a stroke “an absolute miracle” displays nothing but misunderstanding of both medicine itself and the nature of strokes. Strokes occur when something goes wrong with bloodflow in the brain. They can be caused by bleeds, a lack of blood, or a clot. Long-term damage obviously has to do with what caused the stroke and what areas of the brain are affected, how badly they are affected, and how soon a person is able to get medical attention. Doctors tend to lean towards the worst-case-scenario prognosis so as not to raise false hopes. With something as ambiguous as a stroke, a doctor would certainly tell the family that there is likely going to be long term damage before knowing exactly the extent of the said damage. With immediate rehabilitation that stroke patients receive in hospitals their chances for recovery only go up.

So my point is that, given the nature of strokes, it isn’t miraculous at all that someone recovered from one, even one that doctors thought was very bad. Call me when someone regenerates a limb, or heals a broken bone in two seconds, or who is declared dead and then two days later walks out of the morgue. That would be truly miraculous.

Richard—

That is hilarious. So everything is coincidence unless the sea is parted, or manna falls from heaven? I just saw on ABC news a woman in Cleveland who was rushed to the hospital having stroke after stroke and the doctors said it would be impossibe for her to function again. Her church started praying for her, and then several more churches. She literally walked out of the hospital a week or so later. The doctors said they had never seen anything like it. This was on ABC with Charles Gibson under a title questioning the veracity and usefulness of prayer.

Now, one can look at this and say “coincidence”—-it’s still not good enough for someone set on having something “proved” directly to THEM. It was an absolute miracle—-but you see, this will not be good enough for you. You need to see the ocean part right in front of your eyes—-or you will not believe. God is not going to respond to a challenge like that. If you won’t believe he responded to the prayers for a woman like that, how are you going to beleive anything? And will you need to have this “proved” to you over and over again every time a doubt assails you?

I realize though that these kind of posts are most likely quite annoying to you as you want empirical proof, and would rather doubt an extremely unlikely event as being the hand of God, and raher put it all to “coincidence”.

Cooper, I personally dont mind a bit if you wish to interpret your experience as evidence of God. But c’mon — surely you can see how someone might not see it that way without just having an unreasonably hardened heart.

From the perspective of the nonbeliever, if you want to see your $20 as a sign from God, then you need to have satisfactory answers to a whole lot of other questions, like:

1. Why does he fuss over your twenty bucks and allows billions to suffer? Why, specifically, will Jesus “increase them”, as you say, rather than alleviating suffering?
2. Why do similar occurences in adherents to other religions not count as evidence of miracles of other Gods?
3. In the same vein, why does the appearance of the $20 count as evidence of a specifically *Chrisitan* God, rather than Zeus or Allah or Shiva? Or Elvis for that matter?
4. Why does God pay for your books one day and leave most of your other prayers unanswered?
5. Why is appealing to “mystery” when you cant answer these questions supposed to be a good enough answer?

I could go on, but you get the point. From our standpoint, it eventually just becomes a whole lot more damn simple just to say it was a coincidence and sometimes coincidences happen. I dont think thats a wildly unreasonable conclusion! After all, if you chalk it up to coincidence **all those problems just go away.**

With that type of mindset it’s going to be pretty hard to accept anything as coming from God unless you see the ocean parted, or see manna fall from heaven.

Yes, thats exactly what I want to see. From an omnipotent God, why is that so much to ask? Its not any harder for him than spotting you a 20.

Your god must be very small and impotent to hide behind everyday coinciences.

Just think of how many converts he could get if he just levitated the Exxon Valdez into the air and stuffed all the oil back into it and flew it around for an hour or two.

But no, all the “Big” Miracles are way way back in the past. Now days the best god can do is 20$ bills and cloudy stains on trees and windows and cheeze sammiches.

Just curious, if someone has some great inexplicable things happen from praying, does that mean they have to believe its because of a Christian God??