I wasn't clear.  I MEANT that I myself may not believe in God anymore.  And I am very troubled, and asking your advice.  Read my added details.  Thank you!\n\nhttp://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=1006041519180&r=w
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LONG POST.  Skip if want to.   I have been there once.  I am agnostic.  I am not sure how much weight that will carry in helping you but hope my few words might get the thought process in you motorizing.   Just let me talk about my personal experience.\n\nI don't worry abou the afterlife aspect.  I have pretty much made peace (tho, not 100%...more like 85% to 90%) that my soul will rot along with my body.  My soul is made purely of synapses that happen in my brain matter.\n\nYES, I do still wonder at times what death will be like, and how I might die.  Just natural curiosity and a small fear of simply "not existing" anymore.  That fear or wonderment is perfectly natural.   It is not eternal bliss or eternal damnation or reincarnation that I look forward to to establish my selfish "immortality".  (Imo, it is selfish to me)\n\nI am of the belief that it's the HERE and NOW that matters so much.  I am thinking that my self-assigned purpose is to affect as many people as I can during my --and ours-- lifetime as possible.   I have made others laugh, learn to respect humanity's differences, to be more compassionate.  I attritube some of that success to my being deaf.  In turn, perhaps SOME of them might teach others --their children?-- what they learned.   THAT is my "immortality", Heron.  THAT is my "eternal bliss".  I know in my heart and head that SOME people actually passed it on to their loved ones about being compassionate.  \n\nHeron, Love, I have already had a hard childhood and a hard life.  Part of me is actually looking forward to death as the final escape and a welcome relief from my pains and sorrows of this life.  When I am OLD, when I am OLD!!!!!  :-p  I don't want to committ suicide!  :-p  Relax, peeps!  ;-)\n\nI am also no longer as afraid of simply blinking out of existence.  It's inevitable.  The future that Star Trek espouses, I so badly want to be there, but know I may not live to see it.  I accept that reality.  I just turn my fear of the non-existence into a focus on the HERE and NOW.  I just gape in wonderment of TODAY's science and my imagination SOARS on where it may lead......\n\nA smile at a sad child at Tim Horton's can brighten her whole day.  Years later, when Child is a old woman, she may remember this friendly stranger with the loving smile long after I turned to dust.  In turn, she may return the favor to another sad child she sees at a restaurant.  It's the MEMORY of me that I know will establish my "immortality".  I am hoping in the future, my second cousins or future unborn nieces/nephews will take my poetry (1,000+ already!) and try to publish some of them.  That is also my hope for immortality---just like my beloved poet, Emily Dickinson.\n\nCivilizations come and go.  A thousand years hence, our civilization may not be here anymore.  Religions may no longer exist.   We will no longer be remembered excepting for our own pottery and "ancient items".   Heron, my love, everything comes to an end, just as everything has a beginning.   Both the good and the bad.\n\nWhat is important is to accept your fear as natural....and to gain courage from that fear to take a leap where this may lead you.  All people of faith go through this.  Who knows, Heron, I may "return" to Wicca in the future.  Or be drawn to another religion.  Unpredictability is the magic of life.  :-)   The sooner I accepted that reality, the less I was afraid.  \n\nI was wiccan.  I believed in some of the gods/goddesses.  One day, I was doing the Full Moon ritual.  A thought just popped up out of nowhere that kind of shocked me----"If you are not getting anything out of this praying, hon, STOP doing it.  You are disrespecting the "god" if you pray and don't feel anything out of it!"    After that, I stopped if I felt it would be a "hollow ritual", void of feeling.  Eventually I had to question my wiccan
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I went back and answered both of your questions.  I hope that helps.\n\nBut understand this, the arguments and thinking of men are not to turn you to God, they are to cause you to open your heart and mind and turn yourself toward God.  Only you can make that choice, not only for today but for eternity.
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Are you doubting God? That's what those people do. They are put here from Satan to doubt your beliefs. Stand Firm!!
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My faith gets stronger because many people question not only God but many other religions. So i am afraid that people are starting to be very selfish...and think they can live on there own...and that they are the kings and guiders of their lives. Since i have been participating in yahoo answers i find my self now to believe in God more than before!!!
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To "Just my opinion"...I am a very good person and I am atheist. I do not deny the existence of god out of fear. I just don't believe. I am not afraid of hell because I have no reason to be afraid.  I do nothing that would be constituted as "sin" either.  I do not have to fear hell to be a good person!!  It is sad that most religious people are only truly good people out of fear.  They do not seem to do anything for anyone else for any reason beside their own self benefit...heaven.  I am not in denial.  I think that it is you who is in denial...you need something to explain what you do not understand.  You do not want to accept that there is no purpose for human existence and that you only have one life.  I guess I understand why people believe.  It would be comforting to think that after death, there is something else.  I prefer to live life  based on fact, and live the one life that I KNOW I have to the fullest.  Not to WASTE it worshiping something that is not even there!! (Sorry if I have been offensive to anyone else besides this guy)
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Hmmm. Hi. Perhaps my perception on things hasn't been explained clearly enough. I apologize for that. Here is, in short, what I do and don't believe:\n\nThere is no such thing as a god. To me, the concept of the existence of a deity (besides being unproved and absurd) is just that- a concept. And a misleading one, at that. To me, it's a lie.\n\nI do not worship the christian devil. Hell, I do not even believe in it! To me, Satan is a reflection of humanity. You are your own god, and are free to accept it or not. Satan is not an entity, it's a force, it's in us. It's our vital force.\n\nHave fun, and be tolerant.\n\nBy the way, when I say Satan's spawn, it doesn't mean I believe I am the child of your devil, it means I am the Satan, as it is in me. It's sometimes also meant to shock. Depends.\n\nHappy, now?
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Come on lymber1,I know it can get frustrating sometimes as a Christian trying to tell the truth of GOD.........But you know that calling people who don't believe,ignorant,is not the way to spread the truth of GOD,doing that will only drive them further away from GOD\n\nI know how you feel,but we must approach them from another angle the way JESUS did\n\nCraig,before you judge other peoples grammar,look at your own...."realize"not"realise\n\nhttp://www.gotquestions.org
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I just wanted to say that I have read your questions and answers to several questions (including my own) and I find you to be very level-headed and well-spoken. I used to practice Christianity and then evolved into feeling differently - a lot of the reasons I did had to do with the way Christians around me looked at issues - it got under my skin. But your views that are influenced by your beliefs are not at all offensive, even to someone who may not believe in the same things as you. I am glad to read what you have to say, as I am more inclined to listen to someone who is rational, if nothing else.
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I'm with weemaryanne on this one.\nYour take on religion is pretty much the same as mine - and many others. And you are not alone in being the only agnostic in a religious family.\nI think it's healthy to question the world around you and not take everything at face value. If you find faith in your god again, you won't have lost anything by examining your faith.\nIf you decide god doesn't exist, you won't be a worse person. You'll be accepting the world as it realyy is. And that is really quite liberating.\nGood luck with your journey.
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These people dont know sh!t! No body knows, so they cant solicit advice about something they have no clue about. Its all based on speculation and assumption. No body knows for certain, but its what you want to believe. No body knows if god really exists, but almost all the world believes in him. Find out for yourself rather than asking these ignorant folks on yahoo. And while your at it... maybe take a spelling lesson or two. G-H-O-S-T ... you typically learn that in 2nd grade.
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You've just pointed out the biggest contradiction in a belief in god.  Religious people answer this (it isn't really an answer) by usually saying, "we can't understand god's will" or some such response.  But the truth is, it's contradictory and illogical.  Same thing for prayer -- if god's got a plan and it's already all laid out, why bother to pray to him for anything, since he's apparently already decided if you'll get it or not? \n\nAnd, apparently, if god has a plan, then me not believing in him is all part of his plan, and I'm just fulfilling his wishes by not believing in him -- so christians, stop trying to convert me!\n\n:)
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No, I don't automatically assume a person who asks about God believes in God. I assume this is a person who wants to know about God. The fact you ask at all, tells me you doubt there is no God, and are willing to explore there really is a God.\n\nI do believe in God, I always have and I always will. I look at life with all of its intricacies, diversity and complexity, and i just can not accept we came to be on Earth any other way than by the Hand of God. There are just to many "just happens to be" to say evolution, and not God's creativity put life on Earth.
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I'm sorry for what happened to you as a child. I feel that many, many, many organized religions hide behind the word of God. They all preach the word but do not care to live by it. God is real sweetheart, and you seem to be a very strong person. Keep your faith in HIM and he will carry you through. It may not seem like it to you because of all the evil in the world today, but hold true to HIM. In the end Jesus will call out your name. Good Luck and don't give up on God, for God has not given up on people yet.
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Maybe you ought to start believing in God and then He would provide answers to your questions....you need devine help...good luck and may God bless.....
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I don't think you have to believe in God to believe in some kind of afterlife, there are many relgions in the world each one with it's own beliefs and viewpoints.  I personally believe in a soul, but that does not automatically mean I believe in Heaven.  I do believe something wonderful will happen when I die, I am just not sure what that is yet, and I hope it is along time before I find out.  Maybe he was there, because evryone was thinking about him.  It's hard to say.
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If you're going to believe in God it has to come about from your own experiences. It has to be based in your own faith and trust. Im at the point where I think there is a spirit world but not necassarily a higher power, but sometimes I go back to thinking there is a higher power but not necessarily the conventional god. I think hes probably a sarcastic bastard if hes up there.
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What you say just isn't true for many people.  People don't refuse faith; faith just doesn't exist for many people, especially thoughtful, rational-type people.  And you already know that it's not true that God always gives when asked; lots of times He doesn't.\n\nRE: Your Email (Yahoo wouln't let me respond directly):\n\nThanks Jenny.  I've read lots of the Bible growing up.  I have not decided "he doesn't exist."  But if He exists, he has not given me Faith.  To the contrary, He has given me a brain and a heart that do not lead me to Faith, even reading the Bible.  Who knows why, but that's the situation.  I can act like I have Faith, I can pretend I have Faith, but it would be a lie, and I can't just manufacture real Faith.  I'm sure it's very comforting to have Faith (regardless of whether it's well placed).