I haven't 'made up' anything, I had what I considered to be sufficient evidence to believe that God existed.

AFAIK there is nothing in the Qu'ran that says women must wear Burquas, it simply says 'dress modestly', and so does the Bible. However, Jahweh and Allah are not the same. Allah is a unity, Jahweh is a trinity, which apart from other important differences, demonstrates that they can't be the same and therefore one of the religions is following a false God.

I don't know the answers to all the questions, but accept, like you do, that there is loads I don't understand and never will. If I ever DID know everything I would be God!

You do realise that it isn't possible to prove the non-existence of anything do you?

That is the kind of assertion that verges on the offensive for non-believers.

(however if you had put 'I believe' in front of it ...)

I entirely agree with you there. Either Christians or Muslims are wrong - basically millions of people are wasting their time. I would take it one stage further though and add atheists and jews into the mix. Now we have even more millions of people who are wrong - only one of those groups can be right. At least by being atheist I'm not wasting my time worshipping the wrong God like two of the other groups.

Nope, Jimenato is right.

Whatever your beliefs may be, they are just that - beliefs.

It is impossible to disprove the existence of something whose existence has never been proved in the first place.

For example, I cannot disprove the existence of giant mutant ant overlords who control everything we do - that doesn't prove that they do exist though (much as I might suspect it).

I guess in the end its all about need. some people need a god to make them feel guided and looked after. Others, like me dont. The religious leaders have found a way to control the masses and it pretty much works????? Thats my thoughts

Jo xxx

You can't believe in evolution and intelligent design at the same time. They completely contradict each other

Thankyou for reinforcing my view that most religious people are ignorant loons

Pascal is wrong as the choice is not yes or no, but between many, so a kind of reverse Pascal, says do not believe, as the likelihood of believing is you are believing in the wrong God and will probably piss of god more than not believing.

As a native Latin American once said when being burnt alive by the Christians when he refused to covert to Christianity...

"If you are guys are going to heaven then I'm definitely glad I'm not going"

Especially in the Old Testament, many things have been handed down from father to son, told at the fireplace, and not recorded for generations after (Who was there to record the happenings of Genesis I ??)
So there are many chances for distortion and bending of the truth, along with known translation mistakes.

The King James Bible was transcribed by 47 different people in at least 2 different locations over a 7 year period. They had instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.
As it was taken from the earlier Hebrew translation and not from the original which i believe was in Greek, without any access to the Dead Sea Scrolls there are many opportunities for errors, omissions and misunderstandings.

It is understood that the New Testament was written at least 70 years after the event, again on hearsay, and for religious political reasons a number of books were omitted.

So it is very difficult to say what is right and what is wrong - but if what is written and presented to you is what you believe then, as with the Koran or the Daily Mirror, that is what you will base your belief on.

.

I apologise. I assumed that most people thought, that if God existed, he would be outside time. Didn't mean to offend.

Couldn't God have created the world and organised things so that species developed via evolution? There seems to be no contradiction to me.

However, I notice the insults have started agin.

Apologies for repeating myself!

It is all smoke and mirrors in the end, it is all how it is conveyed to you as an individual as a concept and idea, and all how you interpret ate it..Or conversely, how you all interpret ate it...Read it one way and it tells you something, then read it the other way and it tells you something else, yet uses the same words....

This may seem a little confusing to some people who have come to know me but it’s what I truly believe,
‘Charity begins at home’
Is the biggest load of bollocks you will ever hear and
That Chasing the £ sign is good,
So in the future I’ll tell all my friends and family
They mean f#ck all to me in this life,
My peers will understand that
I’ve got my goals set on course and
The pursuit of the golden egg and shallow riches
Mean more than
Close family and friends,
I will say to you from deep down in the depths of my heart
From the beginning of time
Friends and families stayed, played and loved together,
But this will not be so in my grandkids lifetime,
This is a cheap crass, can’t be arsed throwaway generation,
Those supposedly in the know saying
25 years in the future noone will give a flying ****,
I am certainly not convinced that
The world will be a much happier, safer and better place to live in
A quarter of a century down the line,
Climate change and Mother Nature will be global and destructive,
We won’t stand around wingeing that
I, my family and friends care about the world I which we live,
It’ll be plain for all to see
This race of humans is blind, careless and don’t give a toss,
It’s downright crazy to assume that
There is some anticipation and the remotest possibility of salvation

I took Pascal's Wager. I think God will approve more of a sincerely held mistaken belief (or a sincere non-belief) than of the attitude that says it is not important what you believe. (although of course I don't think I am mistaken!).

With respect, so much of what you have written comes across as simple assertions, guesses or wishes. Many believers seem to insist that one can never truly know God, but so many seem to think they do. I understand your logic, but that is the logic of the human, who knows how the God if it exists would think or indeed if think would even be a word suitable.