aletheakatharos

I figured non-believers weren't invited to this thread, what a pleasant surprise! 

There are a million tiny little reasons or moments in my life that kind of 'revealed' the lack of a god, but the question isn't how I got here, right? THe reason I believe what I believe is because it's what makes the most sense.

The lack of some indemonstrable superpower literally watching over and causing all the stuff that happens in life doesn't make sense, such a power having any reason to care about if someone jacks off or has premarital sex or is gay doesn't make any sense, or caring if people who live for the blink of an eye in the grand scheme of things worship it or not doesn't make any sense, that being be mad at his creation because they do exactly as he planned for them to do, or that being seeming surprised when people do what they do and then getting mad at them...the enormity of space, the weird forms of life, the struggles of humans, the stories in the books, they just don't make sense. IF I were to try to believe in a god, it'd be a pantheistic version, because that makes far more sense than a single entity being responsible for everything, but those aren't real either, all the stuff they used to explain has been explained by science. Once you start tugging at the strings, the whole sweater comes apart for me. 

But respond you did.  While totally ignoring and without even attempting, the theme of my topic. 

You are an expert at ignoring the questions and posing your own.  Twice now you have done this on two of my threads .  Posing your own questions in response to my initial questions do not in any way, answer or address the original - my original questions. 

Are you a Christian?  Your profile suggest that you are. But are you a practicing Christian?  The title of this thread, my thread does have the words " Christian" and proof of  "gods plan", in it.  I ask because this is an ignorant and habitual ploy that many  Christians adopt when they can't or won't answer the simplest of questions concerning their own scriptures, but instead choose conflict and disruption (and posing their own questions) over such simple questions . 

Did you miss my questions?

Was me being born for instance, a part of " gods plan " , if so, why do I not know about it by now?  Will I even know about it?

Was Jesus being sent to earth to suffer and die also part of gods plan?

Is every act we witness in nature good and bad all part of gods divine plan?

Was the "plan" centered on individuals and not everyone,   as Jeremiah 29:11 seems to suggest?

Not to drudge up another topic but don't forget that the processes of the universe that bring things into existence are compatible with a Creator. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure you have discovered as well that the majority of those who push evolution also push atheism and materialism but they are not one and the same. The battle is not between theism and evolution it's between atheism and theism....creationism and materialism. There's a clash of ideologies not necessarily a clash between theism and scientific findings. 

There's no real reason why Theism is not compatible with evolution, God uses processes to manifest things into existence. Then again, I'm not a Biblical Genesis literalist either so I don't have a real problem with evolution as simply a process by means to create, my problem is with those who assume evolution or interpret it as atheism. Scientific discoveries are a neutral study, nobody owns them, they can be interpreted however one sees fit. I'm not saying you have to believe that just consider it. 

I would say roughly 15 years, the first half of my life I mainly studied the Bible, Christian testimonies and Christian literature. Actually, the time I've spent arguing with atheists and the time I've spent studying spirituality as a whole are about the same, perhaps arguing with atheists compelled my fixation even further. Maybe they exposed flaws within my belief system and because of my determination and desire to know truth I've adjusted those flaws. My fixation with God and my love for truth are one and the same, so I always align myself with what is true without compromising my love for God. I don't place beliefs and religion over God's status in my life, so I don't let beliefs dictate anything about God unless those beliefs are accurate. How I determine what is accurate follows in many different ways, basically the process that I personally use to discover truth or what follows in logic is a rigorous procedure. I'm cursed with non-stop debating in my own head and the constant sifting of information lol.

Lots of interesting things. The nature of God (what God is), the specifics of the soul (what the soul is), how creation is put together, specifics of alternative dimensions.....just more insights about all aspects of creation in general. Quite fascinating really.

I'll tell ya what, here are the main sources I've really found a lot of useful information within, or rather the ones I favor most. Just consider that OT Jews are not the only people or culture capable of having observations about God or the afterworlds.

Hinduism was probably the first one I considered studying, then of course Buddhism, Native American Spirituality (whos culture I most love), Eckankar and then various factions of eastern and tribal religions.

Hinduism seems to posses very instinctive knowledge about the nature of God and the nature of consciousness, meaning what God actually is and what that entails. Buddhism and Buddhist cosmology has great understanding and insights about how creation is put together, Native American Spirituality really has a lot of depth about the spiritual worlds, spiritual beings and so forth. Eckankar is beautiful in that it has wonderful knowledge about the soul and how that relates to God, they also have a very unique understanding of how creation is put together which is very similar to Buddhism.

Creation is put together in layers (which explains the afterlife), or you could say there are multiple parallel worlds. The closest theory put forward in philosophical circles is the multiverse theory, in time I believe this will become more prominent. It will be what opens the door for spirituality to become a global phenomenon once again, but not like the old days where fundamentalist religions ruled the world through tyranny and control rather the simple truth of what exists will captivate people.

One reason why I refuse to limit God or what God has done is because we seldom consider what an eternal Being means, in that God is not just a God but a creative Entity. Putting both the concepts of eternal and creativity together makes for very interesting implications. Since the nature of the soul is eternal God knows that the created worlds must be vast and various. Our physical universe is but one little cosmos and experience in the grand scheme of the eternal journey of the soul. This is why the multiverse theory fits so well in my estimations, because within creation the experiences the soul can have are virtually endless with heaven being only a single place and a single experience. In the multiverse theory there are several universes and within each universe there are countless galaxies, solar systems and planets. These are areas that the soul can sojourn. 

There's absolutely nothing wrong with the heaven scenario either, but it fits within the overarching reality of God's creative abilities, there's room for that and much more. This fits much better with the conception of a creative God and loosens the rigidity of how we normally think of God, creation and religion.

The is probably the most interesting thing for me because I too am very creative and something about there being just two places when we leave the physical body that just doesn't sit right with me. The Bible is very vague about the parallel worlds that exists and what that entails. It seems to have a certain focus for a specific group of people which is fine because the Christian Heaven is certainly a Kingdom, but a Kingdom that fits within a series of parallel dimensions, it resides on a planet of its own within a universe full of other planets. For Christians "heaven" is very much like the way we experience earth. To us earthlings, the planet earth is really the only thing that exists....and to Christians, heaven is the only place that exits when they die. Again though, this is all fine I'm just detailing what I feel is much more accurate.

NDE's (as well as paranormal observations) are a very good source of evidence that correlates with the proposition of the soul and alternate dimensions. These are first hand observations of what it is like leaving the physical body and so I've invested a lot of time in researching them and considering all the countless testimonies. That complied with my study of religion as a whole there's a wealth of knowledge and information that is highly beneficial for understanding spirituality and creation.

Just copy and paste the posters paragraph or comment you wish to reply to after you hit the reply button..... after you paste their comment in this box just put your reply underneath of theirs after a space. Then highlight their comment again with your mouse by clicking and dragging (I'm sure you know how to highlight something) and then select the " (quotation mark) above in the highlighted column with the letters and symbols.  That will highlight the posters comment. Repeat as necessary, you can also copy and paste their whole comment, paste it and separate it with your own responses and do all the highlighting and quotation after, it works the same way either way.