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I used to be a christian, but I figured, if there is a God, then why doesn't he fix problems that people pray for him to fix? One of my christian friends says not to test God, my response to that was "If I can't test this all-powerful being, then how can we truely know there is a God? We don't.". Believing blindly without question makes for a really naive person.

So where do I stand religiously? I'm an athiest with humanism philosophy focussed on Optimism (see link for Optimism).

To answer your latest thought in the thread, murder is still murder, and we still have to abide by the laws set in place for it.

Wait....in the quiz, why IS there no "yes" answer?

I kinda want to respond to QUinlan89's post. If God can destroy Satan then why hasn't he? Humans have been around for about a million years, and Satan is still around. That just seems like God is being lazy. I mean sure, in the infinateness of time and space, what seems like a million years is just a blink of an eye to an all powerful, and immortal being. And why is it up to us to prove Satan flawed. I would assume that God himself has that answer. Why would he trust a creation that he obviously thinks is so flawed to make such a drastic descision. You're just assuming that the bible is right and not a bunch of crap. I'd rather not believe something that was written by people traveling the desert for months at a time, with little food and water. It just dosen't seem like they would be the most logical of sources for explanations of the universe. To rebut to Soulless Tenshi's post, if god dosen't want us to choose bad things, why give us free will. If we're just going to screw up the choice, why even allow us to do it? It's like giving a gun to someone who's obviously suicidal...that's just insane. BTW Wolf_spirit16 there is a yes, it's the first one.

Well...

God is definitely powerful enough to put His Mighty Hand on something and vanish forever...

But...God isn't unfair like that.

He gives us choices to follow.

As for sins and whatnot...well, God didn't create sins. We humen did...according to the bible, where Eve eats the Forbidden Fruit...that's when sin was born.

Impurity lingers around earth, not because God wants it there (remember, He's PURE and HOLY, not some dirty "dooty head"), but it's because we humen came up with it. He loves us so much that He'd gives us choices of things to follow.

And I guess some can significantly follow steps better than others...

I mean, do you think porn was created by God? XD I mean, the nature of being nude was given by God, but Adam and Eve weren't ashamed at first, until they took a bite into the Forbidden Fruit and "their eyes opened." Porn came along a little afterwards, with people have sex with others that weren't married to each other, which soon ignited the prostitutes. Did God put them there? NO. We humen created those things. Not God. He didn't go, "Hmm, as I make this human, she shall be a whore!" I'm sure it was more of, "I'm going to give you choices as you live on that world...choose wisely!"

I mean...were babies born as whores and sluts? No...how did they became such? As they grew up, surroundings effected them. Peers, cultures, media, etc! Not God.

XD Don't blame God on things you've done.

I'm just gonna drop-kick a couple of thoughts into this discussion.

ONE:
The bible is a book written by man. Not an accurate description of god's designs, wishes or anything of the sort, it's an interpretation. And as it's a book, one which has been translated, rewritten, reprinted, modified editted and whatnot, changes creap in. Best known example of this being one of the first translations into actual english as we know it today (I can't remember when exactly, but it did happen), one of the Ten Commandments, commonly known as 'Thou shalt not commit adultery', was printed as 'Thou shalt commit adultery'. Note the difference, it's a small one, but quite significant.
Acknowledging the existence of such minor changes leads to the conclusion that even if the bible had been written originally with divine inspiration, and was at some point in time the actual text as given by god, assuming that this still is the case is absolutely delusional. Human error in the translations etc have filtered all the divine bits out and chucked them away.

TWO:
People tend to be somewhat self-centered about god. But who says that WE are his/her prime creation. Maybe we are a side-effect to his/her actual creation.

THREE:
If god is all powerful and created the entire, practically endless universe, with countless worlds, and as such countless different life-forms, why would he/she give a rat's bottom about an insignificant blue-green ball of dirt and water, effectively mud, so why would he care about this mudball at the outer edge of an insignificant galaxy and the underdevelloped primates with a massive minority complex living on it?
It's more realistic to see the universe as a sort of laboratory where god experiments with whatever he/she can think of and discards such experiment whenever he/she comes up with the next thing.

FOUR:
IF god destroys Lucifer, an event with I think will not occur... ever, there will be no more standard by which to measure good or evil. (Even with the guy with the horns and pitchfork around that distinction is hard to make since we only have gods word for it that he/she is good and Lucifer is evil. But that is an entirely different matter.)

Just my tuppence.

I am not out to insult anyone's form of belief, religion, or philosophy. I just encourage people to think for themselves, in stead of blindly following what some guy in front of a lot of people reads out of an outdted book.

Well, although you or I may consider the death and suffering immense, consider the scale that you're talking about. There are almost seven billion people in the world now, and compare it to the number of those who have died or are suffering. Even the Holocaust, which resulted in the deaths of more than six million is not even 1% of the total amount of people that are alive.

This is not, of course, intended to belittle any of the tragic events that happen every day, but to show how there is a much bigger picture than people are generally seeing.

The assumption that god will make all things right for man at the end of times, also known as Armageddon or the Apocalypse, may well be based on a misunderstanding.
If you look at the Old Testament (actually the more interesting half of the bible), you can easily conclude that god does have a definite nasty streak. The O.T. is riddled with smiting with brimstone and fire. After which he sent Jesus, as the story goes, to remove the sins of man, effectively giving us a second chance. And what does mankind do? We blow it again.
Now I don't know about the rest of you, but with a temper like that, I'd be miffed.

Could you perhaps...try to view things from another standpoint?

Have you read any of the bible? If not, I do recomend it even if only to satisfy some of your curiousity.

In truth, I can understand your questions, for some of them were ones I once had myself. If God is so loving...why do such terrible things happen? Why is there sin, temptation, evil, etc?

I asked these same questions once and found my answers within reading of the bible as well as the opening of my mind to the meaning of what was written in there.

God made angels, such as Lucifer, like us...with something very important...Free Will. The right to choose, which is something God wanted us to have, so as to allow us the Choice to love Him, and the Choice to serve Him.

God was not seeking perfection when He made us. God was seeking companionship. God desired someone to love...so in result were angels and the race of men made.

Think of it perhaps this way. What if you...perhaps were the only being on earth...would you not get lonely? Would you not desire companionship? At the same time, if you had the ability to have or make someone to be with you or to at least be in your presense, would you make them love you? Or would you rather that it was chosen of the person to love you?

These are just my thoughts, nothing more. So I appologize if they are found offensive. I mean none. Just thought I would toss in another perspective.