There is definitely no loving God. Fact.

Believing has nothing to do with proving, in fact proving defeats the object of believing. I had to go to Sunday school as a child , it taught me to question everything ,distrust many things , & to always try to find some sort of proof or actual facts to substantiate anything that I'm told or anything I hear or read .

That God does exist.

Proof of what Devongirl?

Proof from you, Annie?

Proof?

God does not exist, it is creation of man to provide comfort and explain things that can't be explained

God is exactly where most of this so called Christian country wants him to be.... on the very periphery. The world has spent so long telling God he is immaterial and not relevant to them so they can't very well then complain when bad things happen. When beautiful things happen and they do, do these same people then say "oh how wonderful God is so good". Sorry if this sound harsh but so many books have been written on the subject of evil in the world and it is attributed to the fall of man in the garden of Eden. I don't think this forum is the right place to get into a very indepth theological discussion but suffice to say evil and bad things have always existed. We are just so much more aware of it now with the advent of advanced social media.

Christ gave 'love you neighbour as yourself' when he condensed the Ten Commandments

Love the Lord Your God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself.

Man has the sin, it is the price we pay for being born and having free will. If there was no death, there would eventually be no life. I watch the television and see such cruelty and injustices liike everyone else, but I also see such acts if heroism and sacrifice, people laying down their lives for someone they dont even know, there is evil but goodness far outweighs it. That poor child and others like them, shouldn't have to go through that, that is down to the people that caused it to happen, men and women that inflict such acts and torture are dehumanised beings, they will never know true love.

The 'golden rule' of loving others as ourselves is present in some form in all major religions.

Jesus Christ, born and raised a Jew, would have heard it and imbibed it through home and synagogue - He did not invent it, but restated it.

I am sure that many folk lived by the rule of kindness long before Christ. It simply makes sense.

No RosieLeah, God exists whether people need him or not. I don't always 'need' Him but He's always here with me. Our ES doesn't need us and hasn't for nearly 5 years but we still exist.

I do not believe in Father Christmas because he is not real. Jesus Christ is real and is the reason for my faith. I have felt him with me when I've been in circumstances of great distress. The point of faith is that you don't have to prove it, it is part of your life. Malcolm Muggeridge once said on television many years ago when an interviewer said did he believe, " No I don't believe I know" That sums up Christian faith for me.

For what it's worth ... I think it is adult and healthy to question, to explore and to accept that actually we cannot be certain.

IF there is a loving 'parental' God I like to think he/she/it would enjoy the fact that we question ... To my mind, faith is not blind acceptance, but belief that openly faces and considers what may contradict or challenge or apparently dispel and yet still believes. In my experience, faith that is insistent because it will brook no contradiction is usually underpinned by fear and is in danger of becoming bigotry.

I forget who wrote the sharpest socio / theological arguments about us needing to create God for ourselves and in our own image, (there are several and Freud was among them), but to me they can add to our understanding of ourselves and what we consider to be of a divine nature.

I just don't think anyone has the right to insist that they are right. Wars were fought and blood shed to create 'holy' doctrine and the very tenets of Christian belief that underpin Roman Catholic and Anglican practice. Religious interpretations worked out within and against these ideas and teachings continue to give rise to great conflicts and misery today.

He got there first

And it's my word too!!

The rule of kindness is the word of Christ

Sounds like the rule of kindness to me; and I am glad that your belief has been a strength to you over the years and many trials.

I am happy to accept that there is no real "point" to life - I know that others find that impossible. And to accept that we are alone in this and have to fettle for ourselves as best we may. But I can pick what I see as the good things from the various religions without the need to believe in a deity: the prime principle of loving others from Christianity; the seeking quiet and inner peace from Buddhism etc.

We none of us know the answer to these questions - and I always feel that if there were answers, any deity worth its salt would make that much clearer. It is no good saying that the various religious books do give guidance, because unfortunately they do not give the same guidance!

You could waste a lifetime looking for answers where there are none - better to just concentrate on kindness. The value of that is very clear.

All I know, after 30+ years of practising Christianity in church, winning RE prizes at school and theology prizes at uni, a BA hons in Theology, several years spent married to a vicar (divorced, but that's a whole other story...) and the death of a child in an accident ... then subsequently becoming an RE lead-teacher in primary schools, ...all I know for me is that whatever God is or isn't, there has been a constant 'something' in my life - and the life of others that is about realising the potential if not the actuality of good rather than evil, for compassion rather than self-interest, for hope rather than despair. Religious doctrine has often-times been of little comfort to me. When Christian people told me to put my faith in Jesus and hold onto the belief that I will see my daughter in heaven one day - all I could feel and see was the gap and the waiting of some forty years ... I have grown away from organised religion and the idea of a 'father' God, but towards the idea of an accompanying God - not interventionist, but present and transoformative ... I do not see / feel this as a prop, but rather a sense-making. Maybe it is more philosophical / spiritual than religious, but whatever it is that leads to the positive is what God is for me.

I can't answer that Gilly, God doesn't do favourites . some who have done evil things may live long lives but we don't know if their lives are a living hell . Let's say God will decide to save the lives of children, what's the cut off age?

We want a God who does our will, he doesn't . I suppose if one doesn't believe in God the promises of Christ mean nothing , just empty words printed in a boring old book.

For those who believe in God the words of Christ give hope, strength, love, support , comfort.

And I have done my share of ranting at God ?, he still loves me ,I love him, I have had dark times, probably more to come, he has always been there , Christ promised - I will not fail you or forsake you.

We return to the basic questions:

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”

― Epicurus

Sums it up for me. I find it rather tiresome that these unanswerable questions are usually answered with such as: his ways are mysterious; we are like children to his parent role and we cannot always understand; you just have to have faith (for me that means switching off my brain)- all "answers" which do not address the questions at all.

But, I am fully aware that the belief in a god is a huge comfort to many and that has to be good for many. But that belief can also be bad - as god can be used to justify evil.

So, I just try to live by the rule of kindness.

This is why 'God' exists, Smileless, because people need Him!

So if god is real smileless and annie why did he allow poor little Bradley Lowery to suffer for so long and then die aged only 6 years old? When so many evil people get to live long lives? Surely a god that has this sort of power must be quite sick to play around as he does . Does he have s kind of wand that enables him ( or her to be fair) to cast spells " I grant you s long happy life" " I grant you pain and misery"
I do wish I had done kind if faith but can't help feeling as I do .

Anniebach

Same for me Smileless