A thing that many believers have in common is that none of them claim to have ever confronted God, and that they obviously are not aware of God's opinion on certain issues. The only way for them to get an idea of what God's opinion is, is to check the Bible. The thing about the Bible though is that it was written by humans, and therefore is, by many, not considered completely accurate as a source showing exactly what God's opinion really is. As a result, many believers now, for instance, says that there is nothing wrong about homosexuality despite the fact that the Bible clearly condemns it. Another heavily debated topic is whether evolution explains how all life came to be or if God created all plants, animals etc. separately: A case where believers who fully trust science usually sides with the evolutionists, to my knowledge.

What this means is that every view/opinion that God supposedly has according to the Bible, is up for debate for all believers who don't believe in every word that the Bible says. "God's Word"contains flaws, and it is up to the believers to correct them with their own view of what opinions a perfect God should have. Ultimately, what this means is that their beliefs are what defines the God that they believe in. They create a God in their heads that fulfills the criterias of their ideal God, and then believe in their creation. What this also obviously means is that all who don't believe in every word in the Bible believe in different gods with different opinions.

My question is this: How can these people actually believe that their view of the one and true God is the correct belief? I mean, their chances of having the correct beliefs of what opinions the actual god holds are basically nonexistent if we consider all possibilities. Heck, as far as we know God may have fooled mankind all along and made people write down the Bible just for the heck of it. Or the actual God who created the universe had nothing to do with the Bible, and it is all just stories that were made up by humans.

By not believing in every word of the Bible and instead believe in your own definition of a perfect god you are paying for a lottery that is impossible to win, as I see it.

Thoughts?

I believe in objective universal morals. I don't believe however, that God in which i believe in is necessarily defined by the morals i hold. My views on God mostly deistic (with some abrahamic characteristics) while my spirituality is christian and is defined by my morals. So my view on God isn't dependent or defined by my moral spirituality

What is spirituality?

What exactly does that mean?

Anyway, just saying: If I had to choose a number out of all numbers that exists (which is an infinite amound as we all know), I would never believe that my choice was the correct one no matter how many clues I got. Especially if those clues cannot be trusted......

And even if I went by those clues because I had no other choice I would never start drawing conclusions based on the number being correct. I would always have doubt and be prepared for the possibility of a loss. Unlike many believers.

It's a matter of believing what you want to believe. That's what faith is, kind of a willful self-delusion. It's the art of pushing the things that don't add up, that don't make sense, into the back of your mind.

I grew up belonging to church and all of that. I had all these questions, all these moral problems with what I was reading, with all the contradictions. When I would ask about them, though, all I would get were uncomfortable shifts and "why don't you pray about that." Strangely, praying did absolutely nothing for me.

I never got any answers to my questions about christianity. In fact, the more I learned, the less I liked what I was reading. I was finally able to admit to myself that I didn't like this god very much at all and stopped trying to convince myself that I believed. The parts that were reinforced by fear were the hardest, of course, but the further I got from it the sillier it became.

I feel a lot better about myself now that I don't have all that guilt about "doubting". I think guilt is the ultimate tether to religion. It keeps people troubled and down, which makes them vulnerable to anything that promises stability. Of course, the other way to escape guilt is to be a true-believer and accept what you're told without thinking about it, but that's impossible for me. I could never stop thinking about things, so I don't think religion is for me.

Here we go again, equating Christianity as "religion". The majority of religious people around the world are NOT Christian/Jewish. And the Bible is not the only religious text.

Sheesh!

Immaterial reality of the deepest values and meanings by which people live. It's also an inner path to discovering the essence of your being

I doubt very many Hindus are gonna read whatever is posted on this site though :)

Still, this thread can be applied to anyone who doesn't believe in everything that supposedly defines their deity/deities. It is all about people who are creating their own religions to different degrees.

So, the same as character or morality?

What does "dicovering the essece of your being" mean?

If you want God's word and not man's interpretation, the closest thing you can get is an untranslated Jewish bible.