Former Athiests, What Changed Your Mind?

[sonicwhite]

Remember I didn't ask 4 the divine intervention. I was just enjoying my life w my ex. Then damn near overnight I couldn't think straight. I felt she was leaving me. I could pick that up. I was willing to total detox with no help so I could see how precious. I know what she was thinking. She thought I just abandoned her. NO! I couldn't function. It was so humility. Well what's up, 7 steps ahead of you. To the servant He gave five and I'm making damn sure I make 5 more. My name is Daniel Ball. So if you see while slamming those beers. That's the dude I did drugs with.
I have a choice, Anna, or fullfill prophecy. What did I ask Father I wanna be apart of Your Word I wanna know You that much. I guess Anna In Heaven we will be whole again.

 

[skipjames]

Orangemen claim to be about God and religion, but they are nothing more than hate-filled bastards who glorify warfare and therefore attract those who are attracted to violence. RIP
I've always wondered this; Judas had to betray Jesus as part of God's plan. God could have planned it another way, but he chose Judas to be the bad guy and do the deed. Judas did as he was scripted like an obedient puppy and then hates himself so much for it that he hangs himself.
I find myself puzzled as to why Judas was the real evil bad guy. On the cross Jesus asks God why he's doing it, doesn't ask Judas why he did it, y'know, because he was just doing his bit
Any thoughts?

It all depends on the concept of Omniscience we are working with; Can God see the future? I think He does and I also think that God does not force you to do anything, He knows what you will choose to do out of your own Free Will and He will make the most out of it. Judas shitty free choices were useful both for God´s Salvation plan and to remind us that in the Church there were are and always will be horrendous people, weak and frightened people (Peter) etc. does it make any sense?

 

[sonicwhite]

When a person is born they are a slave to sin, King David said sin was woven in me. God understands that. The only times you have free will is when you've been set free. As a slave yes your free to choose what sins you want but God saving you you have the ability to go against your own heart thus breaking God's law. For the dead being set free seems so corny but to us its the power of God unto Salvation.

 

[skipjames]

those profound conversion are more normal then you think. God shook both Heaven and Earth to get my attention.
Finally it took Him taking my ex to win me over. Like you said this feeling cannot be mimic. Yeah they'll just say it was you, as there is a dark force there is a pure force. Trust me on this I know that feeling to this day and long for my departure.

Truly sorry about your ex. I m an addict I don t even know the reasons behind many of my actions, imagine if I can understand the reasons behind God´s actions or lack of actions, but I do not think that He can possibly do something evil (like taking our loved ones) at most He can allow some evil x in order to achieve a good y. He calls us all the time but we are so stupid that we listen only when we are broken....

 

[sonicwhite]

Satan can only do what God Commands. The Book of Job. If we can discern what He's trying to say we can grow closer cuz no God is not evil. He allows it but not without consequences. Now did God make that man molest a child nope. God gets the last laugh.

 

[skipjames]

When a person is born they are a slave to sin, King David said sin was woven in me. God understands that. The only times you have free will is when you've been set free. As a slave yes your free to choose what sins you want but God saving you you have the ability to go against your own heart thus breaking God's law. For the dead being set free seems so corny but to us its the power of God unto Salvation.

I see your point, but Christ Himself set us free and want to be our friend, not our master "5 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." Without Him we can t do anything good, we need His Grace, but our sins are on us. He wants us to be free, and we nonetheless prefer to be slaves, and here I am talking about myself, i m really ashamed, God wants me to be free but I prefer the fake comfort of my vices which are self imposed slaveries.....

 

[skipjames]

Anna In Heaven we will be whole again

There s probably more Faith Hope and Charity in what you are saying here than in all my theological-philosophical babble. I m sure you ll be, really, and I hope to join you guys after a very well deserved & long period in Purgatory ....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSyjf61A6zE

 

[skipjames]

Used to be an atheist, now an agnostic. Mainly, the simple argument that there is as much proof AGAINST the existence of a god as there is FOR the existence of one. We simply don’t know, which is a good and reasonable point to be making, thereby I revised my original assessment.

If it was possible to know that God exists ( as I know that I am writing to you, where I m from, where I am living atm, etc) there will be no room for Faith. There are many accounts of Faith, I prefer the "classic" one : Faith is trust. Trust is not bombproof but is not irrational either : no meaningful relationship could exist without trust, we trust our SO, we trust our friends, we even trust the members of this jolly community of addicts and ex addicts here on BL!.....at times we are right, at times we are wrong, but we will never know if we don t risk. This guy wrote pretty much what you are saying here ( "there is as much proof AGAINST the existence of a god as there is FOR the existence of one") still he thought that believing in God was a risk worth taking, nothing to loose and everything to gain... https://iep.utm.edu/pasc-wag/

 

[sonicwhite]

The Man of sin the man of lawlessness. He will be like Pharaoh. His heart will continue to be hardens when Moses and Eljiah to strike the earth as many times they want. Even after all these Judgements I wouldn't want to be affiliated with the beast cuz I know his ending. God will keep hardening him up, but this is secret. You hurt His Wife whom He loves more then Himself. The Oracles say that Christ will just breathe on him and he will burst wide open. This seed is demonic. Satan's sons. What does it profit the whole world yet have your soul thrown alive in the lake of fire, human trash. Hitler will have it better then him.

 

[papercuts]

He knows what you will choose to do out of your own Free Will and He will make the most out of it.

I love this, best explanation I've had for it, thank you, I have an image of God darting through all the timelines, putting people in the right place at the right time to tweak things, but never directly affecting the thoughts or actions of anyone. So he knew Judas would do it, therefore incorporated it into his plan because stopping things isn't how he rolls.
After all stopping is death, life is movement. I can get onboard with the idea life rolls on and God nudges us here and there.

still he thought that believing in God was a risk worth taking

It's not really a choice to believe or not believe.
As a result of who told you what and when in your life they told you, you will believe it's true
or believe it's not
or know that you don't know
or believe in something else instead.
What I mean is I know what I believe, but could I change that?
I'm not sure I could just decide I'm going to believe in something I didn't believe in yesterday.
As a child I was told religion was something people used to believe in, in the old days, but it's just made up really.
It still surprises me that not believing is the exception in the world, most people seem to believe in something otherworldly.

 

[jasperkent]

I like to believe that humans will continue to evolve (perhaps into Homo Intelligiens?)* and that someday Science and Spirituality will come full circle, merge, and Everything will be clearly explained-- and everyone will understand it and agree upon it because it will be so obvious and indisputable.
A guy can dream, can't he?

* edit: Better yet: Homo Illustratum (Enlightened Man)

 

[papercuts]

I like to believe that humans will continue to evolve (perhaps into Homo Intelligiens?)* and that someday Science and Spirituality will come full circle, merge, and Everything will be clearly explained-- and everyone will understand it and agree upon it because it will be so obvious and indisputable.
A guy can dream, can't he?

* edit: Better yet: Homo Illustratum (Enlightened Man)

I'm not sure we are evolving into a more intelligent species, there seems plenty evidence to the contrary.

I think science will continue to answer some questions, but there are huge flaws in scientific knowledge, mostly from conjecture of things that can't be experimented with or quantified in an objective way.
Questions like, "How fast does a rock fall 30 miles from the surface of jupiter" or "Describe how the pain feels". The first can't be done for practical reasons, we have to use mathematics and it'll be right because we have enough info to go on and work it out, perhaps we'll prove it by being there sometime.
The second question is more difficult, but used in medicine all the time, so it's a thing that gets measured subjectively and my pain will always seem worse than yours, that's why we have wars.

They have inevitably not always guessed right, leaving wrong paths to retrace and 96% of the universe to find, still a bit to go.
I agree in theory there is an explanation for everything, we aren't the species that will find the answers, we're not smart enough and we'll make ourselves extinct soon anyway if you believe...

 

[sonicwhite]

Science also cannot prove itself. It's a man made attempt to play God. Yes it brought a lot of sincere things but I was watching a video or lab technicians duplicating brain matter to do pong. That's one step away from total chaos. They assure that won't let it get outta hand. Yeah sure.

 

[jasperkent]

I like to believe that humans will continue to evolve...

Note that I said I like to believe...
That's what I hope for when I'm feeling particularly optimistic.

What do I predict most days?
That humanity will be extinct within 100 years by one of the following:
a) World War III
b) a fatal, untreatable pandemic
c) climate change (floods, droughts, heat)
d) some combination of the above
e) robots/AI will conclude that, on the whole, Earth would be better off if humans were exterminated

Of course the privileged few will probably survive in their bunkers. But I have no reason to believe that anything will be better when the human race gets a second chance.

 

[Dreamflyer]

Looking around at how insanely intricate the world (never mind the entire universe) is and not believing that we're all just some big cosmic accident.

Just take our planet for example:: Every day it turns at the same time, goes around the sun at the same time, and tilts back and forth at the same time. That's a pretty big coincidence!

Look at nature, how the seasons change at the same time every year. How the animals go through the same stages every year. I don't claim to have all the answers, but everything just seems way too perfectly designed.

 

[sonicwhite]

Take the moon for example. Without it the sea would float off into the universe. The moon is just one of those Awe inspiring things that make you know there was a intelligent designer

 

[jasperkent]

Looking around at how insanely intricate the world (never mind the entire universe)..... I don't claim to have all the answers, but everything just seems way too perfectly designed.

....The moon is just one of those Awe inspiring things that make you know there was a intelligent designer

I agree with y'all that all of that is quite amazing. And the notion that the Universe is just an "accident" seems quite absurd.

On the other hand, 99% of animal species that have ever existed are now extinct. Is that really "intelligent design" ?

 

[jasperkent]

I'm not sure we are evolving into a more intelligent species, there seems plenty evidence to the contrary.

I agree that it certainly seems that way. However, I think our view of humanity is a bit skewed. These days we can pretty much know what's happening everywhere on earth 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. 90% of what the media tells us is bad news. So of course humans appear to be total fuck-ups.

But look at our history and you'll see that overall our behavior has improved. I've never seen someone stoned to death in a public square because they committed adultery. Sure, we still stone people metaphorically but at least we're not throwing actual rocks.

The Bible outlines laws and codes of conduct for both slaves and slaveholders but it never once suggests that maybe slavery is not a good thing.

Human history is full of war, exploitation, genocide, and a plethora of disturbingly creative methods of torture. We've never been particularly nice. These days we just notice our flaws more.

Just sayin'

 

[Merek]

I'm curious what might make someone decide not to be an atheist anymore, and if drug use had any impact on that decision.

When I was younger, probably early to mid teen years, I was a fairly confident Athiest. Then, as I got into exploring psychedelics, I had enough experiences that I couldn't really justify being an Athiest anymore but I've also not really latched onto any religion.

I read a lot of religious text, probably most closely identified with Buddhism, but I think the most accurate way to label myself would he a spiritual agnostic.

I'd be very interested to hear what other people's religious experiences have been throughout their lives.

This sounds like a very similiar experience as mine, it’s hard too explain the mind blowing experiences I had I used too be an atheist when I was younger but after I had very intense trips on LSD I was shown that god exists, I’m not religious even though I was raised catholic I believe in my own thing based on the mind blowing experiences I had, I don’t believe there’s one dominant god I believe there’s billions or maybe even infinite gods and many of them are your guardian angels.

 

[sonicwhite]

There's 1. He's called Alpha and Omega. The 1st and the last. In Biblical days that was just their culture. Yes to us it may of been immoral but to them it was the norm. Men could have multiple wives and they would all get along. But you do that now fight is about to break out a woman really just wanted a son. Whom her husband would be so joyful.

Children are a blessing from God. No matter what way you slice it. We may look like we evolved but deep in the dark of things we don't know in the Political spectrum there is a true evil who hates you. Cares nothing about you. Our system will always be broken. It's a matter of the heart. The heart is wicked who can know it. Only until you actually truly find Christ can you undo a lot of what your mind taught your heart. Yet you can go against it to the point you no longer hear the conviction.




The only time there will be utter peace is when Christ comes back and will make His Iron Rod crush nations. Then He will recieve the respect He alone deserves. There will still be population and Christ will break the knees of any who defy Him. Blessed is he who partakes in the 1st resurrection. Where the second death has no power.