Does God love me?

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Seraphim73 said:
That’s a beautiful insect.
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It can only reproduce via another living thing being eaten alive.
It has no choice in it, there is no malice, that is simply its nature.

How can you call this a moral creation that forces an animal to experience such suffering just so something can reproduce?
 
JosieN said:
He did help us, He sent his son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins as it was the sin of man that separated us. Every sin we commit from our own free will separates us further, but reparation can be made for our sins. You can ask for forgiveness. You can help the poor. You can go one day without eating (fasting), and most importantly you can pray, because God is there for those who truly seek Him and He will guide you. If you pray with an insincere heart what good is that? You think Christians are crazy people because our beliefs do not fit your logic. That is your choice because God gave a free will to all. If we choose God does not make us perfect but with prayer, penance and good deeds it brings us closer to God and an everlasting life in heaven after death. Yes God loves us. That is why He sent Jesus. When you choose Christ that does not mean you will have a carefree life. Many saints suffered greatly, but they did for Jesus and the salvation of other sinners as we can pray and suffer for all sinners so they may get to heaven also. For many centuries people have understood this. There were convents for people to devote their life to prayer and good works for the good of all. We can pray to the saints to intercede for us, they also work for the good of all, as they have already made their journey to heaven. God has not abandoned us and never will. At least that is what I have learned and believe. As I have a free will I am free to change my way of thinking as are you. I hope I will see things even more clearly one day. Until then I will put my trust in God and continue to seek His guidance.
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Was there an answer in your preaching somewhere?
I tend to start skipping when people start trying to tell me my own life story.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
It can only reproduce via another living thing being eaten alive.
It has no choice in it, there is no malice, that is simply its nature.

How can you call this a moral creation that forces an animal to experience such suffering just so something can reproduce?
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God made animals to serve man. You don’t apply the same standards of morality to animals that you do humans.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
Was there an answer in your preaching somewhere?
I tend to start skipping when people start trying to tell me my own life story.
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Maybe you would do better if you started listening? No one is forcing you to post here. It is especially strange to come to a Christian forum and not expect someone to preach Christ to you. 😉
 
Seraphim73 said:
God made animals to serve man. You don’t apply the same standards of morality to animals that you do humans.
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Well if that’s your foundation I guess I can see how animal cruelty becomes acceptable.
But I find cruelty immoral regardless, that’s my advantage.
 
Seraphim73 said:
Maybe you would do better if you started listening? No one is forcing you to post here. It is especially strange to come to a Christian forum and not expect someone to preach Christ to you. 😉
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I came here to see if anyone here could actually provide a decent argument or good evidence, I doubt I will but I’m open to a challenge.

I have yet to be surprised.

And I fully expected it, I also just disregard it because it proves nothing.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
Well if that’s your foundation I guess I can see how animal cruelty becomes acceptable.
But I find cruelty immoral regardless, that’s my advantage.
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We shouldn’t be cruel to animals. But predation is natural behavior. You can’t call the lion cruel because it preys on the antelope.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
I came here to see if anyone here could actually provide a decent argument or good evidence, I doubt I will but I’m open to a challenge.

I have yet to be surprised.

And I fully expected it, I also just disregard it because it proves nothing.
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So then you are searching. That is a good first step.
 
Seraphim73 said:
We shouldn’t be cruel to animals. But predation is natural behavior. You can’t call the lion cruel because it preys on the antelope.
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You can’t blame the lion no, but you can certainly lay blame at someone’s feet if the creationists are right.
A merciful and all-powerful deity need not design things in a way that requires suffering, and yet he does.

From a naturalistic world view it makes far more sense.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
You can’t blame the lion no, but you can certainly lay blame at someone’s feet if the creationists are right.
A merciful and all-powerful deity need not design things in a way that requires suffering, and yet he does.

From a naturalistic world view it makes far more sense.
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Did God design it that way? This world is our making.
 
Seraphim73 said:
Did God design it that way? This world is our making.
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We did not design nature as it originally was no.
We CAN change nature to a certain extent using selective breeding but no we didn’t design the lion to eat the gazelle or the tarantula wasp to reproduce as it does.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
It’s how I eventually became an atheist,
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Then you have dethroned God and set yourself up in His place. But God created us as doxological beings. People will always have that vague sense that something is missing, an indefinable lack of fulfillment. People fill that void with all manner of things, but ultimately God calls all of us. Some of us thought the way you do. Hopefully you will approach your search with an open mind.
 
Seraphim73 said:
**Then you have dethroned God and set yourself up in His place. **But God created us as doxological beings. People will always have that vague sense that something is missing, an indefinable lack of fulfillment. People fill that void with all manner of things, but ultimately God calls all of us. Some of us thought the way you do. Hopefully you will approach your search with an open mind.
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snorts I do not believe I am a god no.

I’m not sure what void you are referring to, you might have one but I only feel more fulfilled after leaving my faith behind.

And I once thought very similarly to how many of you do, but I wonder if you actually know what I believe, sadly many here think they do when they don’t bother to actually learn.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
Was there an answer in your preaching somewhere?
I tend to start skipping when people start trying to tell me my own life story.
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I was trying to help you see things the way I see them. I am sorry if I wasn’t very helpful. I did not mean to preach. I would be interested to know what you believe and why you believe there is no God.
 
JosieN said:
I was trying to help you see things the way I see them. I am sorry if I wasn’t very helpful. I did not mean to preach. I would be interested to know what you believe and why you believe there is no God.
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Oh. Well thank you for that and I apologize if I was a bit rude.

And thank you for actually taking the time to ask, you’re actually the first one on this site who has done so.
Everyone else just assumes.

Kudos to you friend.

It’s a bit of a long story and a friend just asked me to help shelve books (I volunteer at the Library) so I’ll have to make it a separate post, but I’ll make it I promise.
 
JosieN said:
I was trying to help you see things the way I see them. I am sorry if I wasn’t very helpful. I did not mean to preach. I would be interested to know what you believe and why you believe there is no God.
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Okay so basicaly I was raised as a Baptist by my mother and started having some doubts during high school.

I wanted to try and fix that so I started reading the bible more during my time alone, at some point my mom suggested that I read the Left Behind series thinking that it would be good for me.

I got about half way through the series before I started wondering who was actually the bad guy in this story.

So thinking that the authors must be depicting god wrong I opened right up to revelations to see for myself and I was rather horrified by the things I read.

So I had a crisis of faith and was trying to reconcile a merciful and loving god with the acts perpetuated in Revelations.

I couldn’t so I started seeking elsewhere, which is when I discovered Deism.

Deism worked for me for the most part as it didn’t cause the moral cognitive dissonance like my old faith did but it didn’t really seem to measure up under the microscope.

After taking up the motto of ‘God gave us Reason, not Religion’ I tried to live by that as much as I could and when others claimed that there were logical issues with even Deism I heard them out.

At that point even my Deism was shed.

That was about 4 years ago that I realized I was an atheist.

That’s basically my story in a nutshell.

My beliefs on the other hand pretty much revolve around a combination of Secular Humanism, Liberalism, a love of democracy and human rights, egalitarianism, and just plain old human happiness.
I also am a big tech lover and the Federation from Star Trek is my dream society.

So there, I hope that satisfies. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
 
Winterwolf00 said:
Okay so basicaly I was raised as a Baptist by my mother and started having some doubts during high school.

I wanted to try and fix that so I started reading the bible more during my time alone, at some point my mom suggested that I read the Left Behind series thinking that it would be good for me.

I got about half way through the series before I started wondering who was actually the bad guy in this story.

So thinking that the authors must be depicting god wrong I opened right up to revelations to see for myself and I was rather horrified by the things I read.

So I had a crisis of faith and was trying to reconcile a merciful and loving god with the acts perpetuated in Revelations.

I couldn’t so I started seeking elsewhere, which is when I discovered Deism.

Deism worked for me for the most part as it didn’t cause the moral cognitive dissonance like my old faith did but it didn’t really seem to measure up under the microscope.

After taking up the motto of ‘God gave us Reason, not Religion’ I tried to live by that as much as I could and when others claimed that there were logical issues with even Deism I heard them out.

At that point even my Deism was shed.

That was about 4 years ago that I realized I was an atheist.

That’s basically my story in a nutshell.

My beliefs on the other hand pretty much revolve around a combination of Secular Humanism, Liberalism, a love of democracy and human rights, egalitarianism, and just plain old human happiness.
I also am a big tech lover and the Federation from Star Trek is my dream society.

So there, I hope that satisfies. Let me know if you want to know anything else.
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That is interesting. I came to my beliefs the usual way. Through my parents teaching and example. My dad was a proud man but never to proud to get on his knees at night and pray. He preferred to stay at home but every Sunday he put on a suit and went to church so I knew it must be something important. My mom was Catholic also and every night we prayed the rosary together as a family. I had 4 brothers and 3 sisters.

I have no reason not to believe in God. My life is far from perfect my adult son has autism, my husband had an accident in 2012 and is a quadriplegic. I don’t blame God for these things. These things can happen to anyone. I pray to God everyday for a miracle for both of them. I say many prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His Heart is love. Praying makes me feel better inside and helps me be a better person. So I will continue to pray and believe and hope one day I will get to see my parents again in heaven after this life is over. I will thank them for their good example and for all their prayers.
 
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