Does God exist?

From WhyNotWiki

YES, he most certainly does!

And although I can't prove it to you — you will always have the freedom to doubt His existence — I can at least give you some reasons that I think help support the claim that God exists...

Contents 1 Selfless love 2 Criticism of this argument for God's existence 2.1 Many religions have adherents who behave this way -- not just Christianity 2.2 Even some atheists are very kind and (by appearances anyway) selfless 2.3 It just shows how stupid these people are 3 4 The Bible being preserved, as if supernaturally, over the course of millennia 5 Evidence of good and evil 6 In the Bible 7 Keith/Melody Green, 198_ 8 Lee Venden, 199_ 9 College Place, ~2007-05-12 10 Theory of evolutionary origin of life too unlikely 11 Evidence of the power of God to radically changes people's lives 12 Testimony from those who know God and tell you that he exists 13 One can always doubt 14 satan didn't want me to write this article 15 Statistics about how people believe

[edit] Selfless love

Instances of selfless love edit

[edit] The Bible being preserved, as if supernaturally, over the course of millennia

The preservation of the Bible

[edit] Evidence of good and evil

Jesse Ferguson, http://www.myspace.com/nosugref

Is satan real? No? Yes? Not sure? "God, IS SATAN REAL?" Don't be frightened by the idea, it's not like he is going to send a demon over to your house to jab a peg into your brain if you think SATAN IS REAL. Instead, a demon will come over to your house (if one is not there already (if Satan does exist, mind you)) and it will try to make you stop reading this paragraph before it is done. Did it win? Since you are still reading, you are curious, what's the point in what Jesse wrote here?

Well, if Satan is real, then so is God. Satan exerts himself almost to herniation to force people to think he is a figment of mankind's imagination. (If he is real, then he is doing this, because we mostly DO think he is FICTIONAL.) WHY? If Satan is not real than neither is God. God wound NOT (if God is loving (and if he exists)) make earth so full of death/rape/violence/war/deformities/sadness/supressiion/uncreativity/deception. Acts of God should be thought of as acts of satan, but we don't believe in Satan. So GOOD JOB, SATAN! You have made people think God is an asshole, but he's not.

There is a very real person (living being) in this world called "the devil" or satan, and he also has a number of demons (fallen angels) in this world to do his bidding, and they are also very real.

Normally he prefers to work quietly, craftily, subtly, in a way that people don't recognize him for who he is. He leaves just enough room in most of the things he does that it's rather easy to think of another explanation besides "the devil did it". It works out much more to his favor to have people believe he doesn't even exist, or to think he's some cute red guy with pointy ears and a pitch fork, or to start playing around with witchcraft because they saw it on Harry Potter and thought it looked like some harmless fun. ([The devil's strategy (category)])

But occasionally the devil or his angels will slip up (?) and let their true colors be seen.

For example, from time to time one encounters an individual who is demon possessed. If one happens to be a witness to such a scene, one will walk away from it quite possibly terrified and unsettled and almost certainly more convinced than you were that there is a very real conflict going on between the forces of good (God and his angels) and the forces of evil (the devil and his angels).

I can assure you that these people are not just "acting", not merely pretending to be demon possessed — that they really are being used/controlled by a very real being of darkness, would certainly not be acting this way on their own accord. It is the demon who is speaking through this person, or making him convulse or whatever.

Now I have not had the occasion (I wouldn't say "privilege") to see a demon-possessed person myself, but I have heard accounts of these things from credible sources, including people I know personally, so I know it is real.

Instances of demon possession edit

[edit] Theory of evolutionary origin of life too unlikely

[Creation (category)][Evolution (category)][Theory of origins (category)]

The chances that life spontaneously began its existence — out of previously non-living matter, mind you — one fine day, millions of years ago (if that's possible at all — I have yet to see someone breathe life into non-living matter; feel free to prove me wrong), and the conditions being just right for that miracle "accidental" organism to grow and thrive long enough to reproduce, and so on, and the evolutionary cycle continuing those millions of years until they finally led to the species we have today — is to me simply unfathomable, not credible.

Certainly no more likely than that of a living God creating a world and its inhabitants — intentionally —, giving each animal and organism a design suitable to its function in the world... which is the theory that I personally believe in.

If the only force at work was natural selection — how those features that increased a [species]' ability to survive, became the features to be preserved in the gene pool — ... then how do you explain such non-essential features of the human biology and experience such as...

• dreams
• pleasure
• laughter
• joy
• [useless organs like the appendix]

Irreducible complexity...

[edit] Evidence of the power of God to radically changes people's lives

God changes people's lives around

[edit] Testimony from those who know God and tell you that he exists

[edit] One can always doubt

We will always have the freedom to doubt.

I believe that God does not under ordinary circumstances reveal himself to someone who doubts his existence, in such a way that their mind is changed in an instant by this undeniable proof of his existence and they become a believer on the spot! Perhaps that happens some of the time — once in a great while — but I think most of the time he does not work that way.

"Why not?" you ask? I have a couple of possible explanations.

Perhaps the most likely explanation is that these people have already made up their minds so firmly that God does not exist, that even a miracle would not convince them otherwise. They will come up with some "naturalistic" explanation to explain away anything that might be considered "supernatural", some way to show that God wasn't necessarily involved (he couldn't have been, because God doesn't exist), some way to show that was merely coincidence, some way to explain it to avoid admitting that there might be a God. People can be stubborn like that. No amount of evidence would satisfy them. One can always find a way to doubt something. (Also: How much evidence do you need?)

Matthew 4:2-4 (NLT) And God respects these people's decision to reject Him. He doesn't approve of it, but he gives everyone the final say in what they will choose to believe. God will not force anyone to believe in him. [Free will (category)]

Another explanation might simply be that God prefers to work on people's hearts more than on their minds. That's not to say that he doesn't want you to use your mind and to believe with your intellectual capacities as well, or that he wants you to have a "blind faith". But maybe he prefers to work first at the heart level — drawing people to him by means his love, goodness, and character. ... just an idea.

God will not be controlled by the whims of humans. It does not mean he does not love us, but God is much greater than us, much bigger than us, and we cannot presume to tell him what to do, especially when we come to him with a proud, haughty attitude. Maybe he just wants to humble us. Maybe we have to be in a teachable spirit before we can be taught.

Those who scoff at his name will not coerce God into giving some miraculous sign to convince them of his reality, just for their sake.

During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.”

But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Luke 23:8-11 (NLT)

Herod was delighted at the opportunity to see Jesus, because he had heard about him and had been hoping for a long time to see him perform a miracle. He asked Jesus question after question, but Jesus refused to answer. Meanwhile, the leading priests and the teachers of religious law stood there shouting their accusations. Then Herod and his soldiers began mocking and ridiculing Jesus. Finally, they put a royal robe on him and sent him back to Pilate.

That is not to say that God will not reveal himself to those who earnestly seek him. He will. He does. He wants to be found.

What the Bible says about atheism edit

Jeremiah 29:12-14 (NLT)

“In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

Will you take the time to seek him?

[edit] satan didn't want me to write this article

[edit] Statistics about how people believe

The Harris Poll - While Most U.S. Adults Believe in God, Only 58 Percent are "Absolutely Certain" (http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/index.asp?PID=707). Retrieved on 2007-05-11 11:18.

[...] a new Harris Poll finds that 42 percent of all U.S. adults say they are not "absolutely certain" there is a God, including 15 percent who are "somewhat certain," 11 percent who think there is probably no God and 16 percent who are not sure.

Aliases: Does Satan exist?, Does satan exist?