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Re: Can you look at religion scientifically, and still believe God exists? - July 20th 2009, 07:33 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dasha View Post
What viable proof do we have that God really exists? Is there any?
No, there is no absolute proof that God exists. However if there was there would be no faith, and that would kind of defeat the purpose wouldn't it?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dasha View Post
The feelings you get from worship. Reading the bible. When praying. Sharing your faith. Coming to the Lord. Are they from God?
Those can just be counted as chemical reactions from the brain and not actual feelings from God. We naturally feel good when someone believes in us, why not the same feeling when we believe in someone?
I don't see how this negates the possibility of God's existence. If God created the universe, he also created the chemical reactions which occur in order to give us these feelings of awe and connection to Him.

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Originally Posted by Dasha View Post
How about miracles? A friend or loved one mysteriously healed from a sickness. Someone you know got hit by a bus and survived. There is more food in the pantry than yesterday. You passed a test you didn't study for. Are they really just miracles?
Humans are exceptional, we don't even know everything about ourselves. Our body is constantly healing itself and has the means to come back from almost every physical attack. Its only when we don't eat healthy does the body not have what it needs to heal and protect itself. And when we don't have what we need, our brains wont remember every thing. Like the fact that you were half asleep when you saw the pantry and your brain didn't pick it all up, or that you actually talked about the test last week.
In the bible days it seems people had actual miracles to believe in. I mean, things happening in front of their own eyes that could not be explained. Food left on the porch this morning means someone could have dropped if off. Food left back then was done right in front of their eyes. They literally never saw the bottom of bags, saw someone immediately recover from sickness, saw water turned to wine! Where are those miracles today? Did the bible lie?
Miracles do happen everyday. Life is a miracle. Just because something can be scientifically explained doesn't mean it can't be a gift from God.

There are still big miracles happening in the world, however they don't get as much recognition, and they don't happen very often. There were very few big theatrical miracles like the ones you were describing back in biblical times too. The ones that did occur before and after Jesus' 30 some years of life were often hundreds of years apart. However these miracles are so well known because the Bible is a huge part of our culture.

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Originally Posted by Dasha View Post
You can take every part of religions and pick them apart piece by piece and find many many flaws, and/or obvious lies. You can shout up to the heavens with curses and every vile thing your mouth can speak and not get struck down. You can take every feeling of faith or whatever and give it some cause. Give some sort of reason why it occurred.

Is there any real physical proof that God really exists? That he is not some figment of our imaginations?
No, and that's why it is considered faith.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dasha View Post
Or do all we have is faith? What if we put that faith in the wrong God? Are we still condemned to hell? How can we know which God is real?
I don't think anyone would be condemned to Hell for not believing in a certain human perception of what and who God is. God is completely out of our realm of understanding, so why should He care which flawed image of Him we follow?