How can I know if God exists?

[Verison]

Greetings

I'm new at this, this is my first post, please bear with me. There is a lot to this, I'll be brief.

I recently learned of Meyers-Briggs and personality types. My Daughter, who has a degree in psychology, never mentioned it. When I discovered "me" and asked her about it she agreed I was an INFJ. Then changed the subject. She doesn't discuss such things with family members. She is a certified therapist.

My experience with "God":

When I was 13 I lived in a small town with a nice patch of woods nearby. The forest is where I am most comfortable, I've wandered the woods since I was 9. On the backside of this patch was an open face iron mine with many vertical faces. I had climbed around on it several times. At the top there was an area that went into the face a little, enough room for 4 people. The Cave. We would lower ourselves to a small ledge and then go into the indentation.

One day after school I decided that was where I was going to go until dinner time. A neighbor asked if he could go along, I had my BB gun with me and he'd like to try it. His Father had split so this kid had no experience with one. I said sure and off we went. We shot at acorns, scared an occasional chipmunk.

When we reached the top of the cliff I asked him if he had ever been down to the cave. He said no and I suggested we go down. I had done this dozens of times. Over the edge I slide myself carrying the BB gun, why I don't know, the other guy could have handed it down to me. I somehow slipped off the ledge we stepped to get into the indentation and dropped several feet to the next ledge and started sliding across it. With the momentum I had I couldn't stop myself and off I went further down to the next one. As I fell I flipped and landed on the left side of my head. The pain was intense but very brief. I then was walking down a dark corridor....

There was no pain, no memory at that time of felling off the cliff, just that I was walking down a dark corridor with someone behind my right shoulder. I asked where we were going, there was no answer. I asked if it would take long, there was no answer. So we walked. We came to the end, it really looked like the corridor continued, but there was a corridor that went to the left. Standing there was a man in a brown suit wearing wire rimmed glasses, standing in front of a very tall wooden door. He smiled and gestured towards the door and it opened. The brightest, whitest light one can imagine came out of it. It was like looking into the sun but I could still see. On the other side was a huge space without walls with figures moving. The figures had no real shapes. I stepped back and looked at the man in the brown suit. He gestured me to go through the door. I shook my head and said no, I'm not ready. He looked over my shoulder at the being that had walked down the corridor with me with an expression of like now what. I turned around and looked at the being. There was no real shape, just a greyish figure. I said 3 times over an undeterminable time period, "God. I am not ready." After the 3rd time I woke up.

I knew I was hurt bad, but there was no intense pain, just an ache. I yelled up to my friend, who was screaming his head off, that I was dazed and needed help getting back up to the top, to the trail out. When we got to the trail I told him to go get my Father. By the time I got to the road Dad was there and off to the hospital we went.

I had a sever concussion, nearly ripped my left ear off, a cut on the side of my head, scraped my face, had a couple of gouges in my right leg and nerve damage in my left shoulder, my left eye was totally bloodshot for several months. I didn't feel my left shoulder for 3 years.

I was not a church going kid. I did attend Sunday school when I was younger at the insistence of my Mother , somewhat by Dad, but had stopped going by the age of 10.

Even though I called this form God when I face to face, I've always had this feeling that it wasn't "God" as taught at Sunday school. I think of it as The Entity, The Supreme Being, The One. I believe there is another level of existence, a rebirth of sorts into another dimension. I died. It was decided by The Entity that I continue on my path in this world. I believe The Entity looked into the future and saw the two beautiful Human Beings I would create. My Daughters. And they are making a difference in the lives of others that need help. They are why I exist.

 

[John K]

Greetings and welcome to the forum @Verison

That's a most extraordinary experience to tell us as your first post here. It must have had a profound effect on your life since then. I think that when anyone has a direct spiritual experience it feels quite different to the stereotypes - it's almost impossible to convey in words what it was really like no matter how you try. Somehow, these experiences can feel so utterly intimate.

 

[Timujin]

monotheism killed off natural religions - as much as they could that is why they are still around today, people defend their tribe with their life - and as Christianity spread - so did witch hunts and the our connection to the full past and the full story...and our full story, which is voted for by every action and inaction you choose brings upon the next world/ generation.... you excuses will be their excuses.

because people had proof that the strongest survived when humanity was in its infancy but now we have proof that all perspectives have value - some cultures in the past would've killed Stephen Hawking, James Baldwin, Simone Weil or Joseph Campbell. for blasphemy anything they chose.

I think that the Idea of one god is embarrassing- long running game of how much the poor will put up with... until they understand their power or the powerful begin to share more for their own safety and the safety of their children. and still their is no end to whatever good work you choose to do, due to the constant refreshing surface of time / earth.

 

[ErikAlberto]

Greetings

I'm new at this, this is my first post, please bear with me.

…I believe there is another level of existence, a rebirth of sorts into another dimension. I died. It was decided by The Entity that I continue on my path in this world. I believe The Entity looked into the future and saw the two beautiful Human Beings I would create. My Daughters. And they are making a difference in the lives of others that need help. They are why I exist.

Hello, Version, welcome! I’m glad you decided to share some of your story here — that was beautiful to read. Cheers.

 

[Verison]

Greetings and welcome to the forum @Verison

That's a most extraordinary experience to tell us as your first post here. It must have had a profound effect on your life since then. I think that when anyone has a direct spiritual experience it feels quite different to the stereotypes - it's almost impossible to convey in words what it was really like no matter how you try. Somehow, these experiences can feel so utterly intimate.

There was a lot more to it, the was the short version. I was in the woods a lot throughout my life. Every trip into the forest was like going to church. I saw more, felt more.

I put it aside most of my life. I never talked about it. You know how we are. Recently through work I got involved with a woman who I felt was a gift. It brought it all back. I thought our paths were meant to come together. Maybe one of the things The Entity saw and decided I needed to go on living here rather than there. She needed help, I was there to help her. She felt differently. I was there to help her out the poor life she was in with a bad marriage and physical ailments. All she had to do was take my hand. Instead, when our working together was done, she thrusted a knife into my heart and cut off all contact, a habit I was later told she has. She's back home and I'm sure miserable. Both of us slid back into the ruts we were in.

 

[Verison]

Hello, Version, welcome! I’m glad you decided to share some of your story here — that was beautiful to read. Cheers.

Thanks Erik

 

[Cornerstone]

If God doesn't exist, who eats the sacrifices left in the temple?

 

[just me]

Romans 14 says,

2For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. 3Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him. 4Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand. 5One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. 7For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. 8For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.

Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.

 

[Sorn]

There is one thing that no mathematician or physicist or astronomer can really explain to you.
That is infinity.
No one is able to say where our world comes from and goes to. It is infinity in the past and infinity in the future. Infinity in space and time.
Every time you try to grasp this infinity, it disappears and cannot be grasped.

That is one aspect.

A second aspect is right "before your eyes" and even closer than your own eyes.
It is your own consciousness, your I, your personality that thinks, acts and feels.
This is the second aspect that we cannot grasp because it is ourselves.
Now you bring both things together, then you realize that only the I is able to be infinite.
I can't really explain that now. But try to see the whole universe not as something infinite, incomprehensible, but as one single thing.
A thing which is infinite and thinks. That's the only thing I can imagine that exists and is infinite at the same time.
In other words, God.

We try to explain the world this way: We decompose/analyze it and want to determine what it is made of.
Mathematically about so 1/9 = 0.1111111111111111111111....
If we now try to multiply 0.111111111111111 again with 9, then no more 1 comes out but 0.9999999999...
We are always missing something to the perfection.
In this way one cannot look at the endlessness of the universe.

 

[just me]

The quest to know has been dated as far back as we can. Sometimes, people pass through this temporal situation and have to explore it to better understand it. I , personally, see things as temporal or eternal. In my opinion, the number 1 cannot be divided by a larger number without fractions. To give an answer in eternity form shows the answer keeps answering.
9/1=9
1/9=0ne ninth
Adding 1/9 nine times will equal 1.
Decimals do not always define an object in the best, satisfactory way.

4/1=4
1/4x4=1 perfection in the answer

The same with 1 divided by infinity: how does one interpret this?
∞ infinity symbol, sideways figure eight
I would say 1/∞, so we can write this down and look at it. Why does the infinity symbol cross itself?

22/7 is a fraction with a symbol we use, called pi, which is used for diameter divided by radius of same circle. 3.14 is an approximate calculation rounded off by trillions of numbers behind 3.14. 22/7x7/22=1
This is why I prefer using eternal, which the Bible used. The Bible used the words temporal and eternal, which I prefer to stick with...eternal not governed by time.

What is missing in one way we might look at things does not exclude it from perfection, if we view things differently. As one sees space and time together, we can also see the temporal and the eternal as different.

 

[qt pi]

How can I know if God exists?
Define God.
I didn't note a part of the discussion where the definition is covered.
What are we actually trying to prove exists?

 

[Sorn]

Define God.

And I wonder what your motivations are for asking this question.
What do you expect people to be able to answer?
The bottom line is that I don't see much difference in your question from the original question.

 

[John K]

Define God.
I didn't note a part of the discussion where the definition is covered.
What are we actually trying to prove exists?

The thread question was not about proving but knowing that God exists - these are rather different things. You can experience God within you for example, and many people do, or claim to - you can also experience God in the world about you in nature and in other people. All sorts of ways are used to describe this experience and they can give very different impressions, for example:

• 1 John 4:16
  So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

• Tao Te Ching - Lao Tzu - chapter 1
  
  The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.
  The name that can be named is not the eternal name.
  The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
  The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
  Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
  Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
  These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
  this appears as darkness.
  Darkness within darkness.
  The gate to all mystery.

• For myself as well, following science to the edges of what we know about the universe gives yet more insight. Our universe is a very strange place in that the fundamental laws that govern it are orderly and succinct; they are incredibly fine-tuned, and only very slight changes in them would result in a universe that is impossible for us to live in. What's more, there seem to be scientific laws that we know next to nothing about but which are to do with consciousness - it seems to me a fallacy to see consciousness as distinct from the material world and superimposed upon it. Far more likely is it that the laws underlying consciousness, as we experience it, are integral to our world, just as the laws of gravity and electromagnetism are, that consciousness is a feature of our universe, just as gravity is. The extreme fine tuning suggests that the laws governing our universe are very unlikely to have come about by blind chance, but that there is a purpose and an agent behind them. There is an alternative, but it's equally challenging to accept - which is that our universe is one of a countless number of others all created at random and most of which are uninhabitable and sterile. There would need to be far more of these universes than there are subatomic particles in our universe for there to be any chance of this succeeding in our existence. This second possibility is no less challenging to accept than that there is a creator.

These three present very different perspectives on God - the real one would encompass all of them and far more besides.

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