No hate mail please let me just get this of my chest it would be good if I thought there was a God.
The fact some, once most religions can call for my death because I do not believe is worth considering, why?
We learn in School about history millions of years of evolution most believe in it but still in a host of Gods.
What one of the many Gods is the only one? why?
what about all those other Gods? who made those who follow them, what fate them, those who follow the wrong God?
Each book of God any God informs us if we only obey we get life forever, to do what? obey and serve?
Look into the night sky see all those stars and know they are endless or may as well be we will never see and end.
If man could write the great classics so very many of them why could he not produce those Holy books?
He did,
They stand between man being one or todays endless race toward dreadful wars.
Irony is the actions some take in the service of fables harms us all.
Over to you Boaz David.

If there is one Belly ,it is not a compassionate one that balances our deeds with the scale of some justice system.It is up to us to create justice and compassion.I think the reality will be slowly revealed through the evolution of our cosciousness.

Whether we can have an individual consciousness entity beyond this world is doubtful.Science seems to pointing to relationships between energy,matter,time and space that are pointing to a reality beyond our ordinary experiences.Already they are making things travel faster than light,which according to Einstein's theory is impossible.There is something magic about our universe and we are just beginning to scratch the surface.

If we don't all kill each other first fighting over religion,energy,resources and land,we may well achieve something that is special,that surpasses all our ideals of heaven.

Hi Belly.. Arjay..

I can say nothing more than Paul......

"If Christ is not raised from the dead.. we of all men are most to be pitied"....

Acts 14
19Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

I often wonder what Paul was thinking when the rocks were being hurled at him at Lystra.... ? He surely would have re-thought his 'religion' ? I mean.. the feeling a rock being pelted at ur head and body, KAAAA---THUMP.. *ouch* to put it mildly.. you have to ask "Is it worth it?.. do I really believe this.. did I REALLY encounter Christ when travelling to Damascus"? He must have been pretty confident of that, because we read next:

20But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe.

I could point to personal experience.. others experience.. scripture.. miracle.. sign... etc.. history, archeology... all of which adds up to a very convincing case for Gods activity in the world, but I cannot stand in front of you and drag a spiritual rabbit out of a hat to prove "God".

I reflect on the Vietnam war and see the ugliness and sinfulness of man to his fellow man.. one of my peers, also in the RAAF at that time, looks at the same thing and says "DONT everrr talk to me about God..Ive been to Vietnam"...

We each respond to things according to our own hearts.

But to answer your question in the post..'YES' :)

Let Jesus Himself be the spokesman for this issue. (John 14)

8Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

9Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 10Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?

You ask "is there a God" and I point to Scripture.

"come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" Matth 11:28

I hope and pray that all of us on the forum will find that special rest in Him.

Hey Belly

I believe that there is a god of some sorts but not the one told in religious teaching such as you will find in Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam ect. Those gods were endorsed or had there teaching manipulated by people who want the ability to control the masses and using some higher state as their authorization.

Sure Jesus and the rest of them did exist but so did hundreds if not thousands of others who proclaimed they had been “shown the light” but their teaching never caught on in the main stream.

Is there a god? I guess in a way there must be something that all people consider “Godly” because without this godly thing why is there anything? Really there should be nothing!

So there must be something truly amazing that we are unable to comprehend.

I have heard a lot of theories and all are quite mind blowing but logical.

One goes along the lines of “well in the not to distant future we will have computers so powerful that we will be able a form a type of universe inside a computer.” I guess we do already in computer games but I am talking a lot more life like. If moore’s law is correct we will have computers more powerful then the human brain in a decade or two and who knows how powerful these computers will be in hundreds or thousands of years time. Its quite possible for a “Vanilla sky’s” scenario to occur.

You also have to wonder how many of these “universes” they would create? 1? 2? 1000? Then you must think well if we are creating these universes is it possible that we are also living in one created by some other form of intelligence? If we are playing god creating universes why cant something else do the same thing?
It is an out there theory but with the computing power which will soon be available I would think that it is a possibility.

Another way of looking at the god scenario is that we must first work out if the universe is a fixed size or infinite. It is a bit of a paradox because if either are proven to be true it will be difficult to understand or comprehend.

If it is a fixed size what defies the boundaries? (I have heard some theory that the universe is round or that it is able to spin)

If it is infinite in size then it must be by its very nature be full of infinite possibilities which include other universes which once again would be infinite in number. So with infinite numbers of universes and infinite possibilities it would be almost inconceivable for there not to be another universe or three EXACTLY like the one we live in.
So if the universe is infinite in size there is another EasyTimes or three on OLO arguing this very topic somewhere else in the cosmos right now.

A humbling thought.

Is there a god? Well I think it is more of a question of what form does god take?