I'm just interested in how mankind could create life (bacteria and viruses) when this is supposedly the sole province of God. Doubt I'll get any kind of sensible answer, mind.

depends who you listen to LRR - according to the Witnesses the ONLY God is called Jehovah - there is no other God according to :


Isaiah 43:10-12

Common English Bible (CEB)

10 You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
my servant, whom I chose,
so that you would know and believe me
and understand that I am the one
Before me no god was formed;
after me there has been no other.
11 I, I am the Lord,
and there is no savior besides me.
12 I announced, I saved, I proclaimed,
not some stranger among you.
You are my witnesses, says the Lord,
and I am God.

Personally, I don't have a clue - I was a believer for nearly 50 years but became an agnostic - I, like most people respect anyones views but don't have to agree with them

That's interesting. When God appeared on the scene, there was definitely no existing God in residence. Must be right, cos he says so.

So, how did God get formed then? There was no pre-existing God to form him, and obviously, he couldn't form himself before he existed.

Secondly, if God created everything, how come there was a "before God", and who created that?

Wow, 50 years is a long time to believe in/follow something and then not. Must have been hard.

well, after decades of praying and asking for help I suddenly had a string of circumstances where people stabbed me in the back and famlily illness and other bad things made me realise that there just cannot be a God by any name - I basically lost the faith because if a God did exist then he/it wouldn't put me and my family through the pain we are suffering - all pleas for help were ignored - many, including Kirkstaller will say that it's either a punishment for past sins or a 'test' of faith - I used to actually believe that but realise that this not actually the case.
I believe in the afterlife though but don't see how that has to be intrinsically linked to any deity or higher power

I respect anyones religious or non religious beliefs but I believe the bible is a fictional work which was compiled over the centuries to be a user manual to life, a historical storybook for people to read about life few thousand years ago and a work of propaganda and blackmail to get people to hand over their money and services to the church in exchange for eternal life

I think we will get eternal life (or go to hell) but don't see how any God needs to be involved in the process - Kirkstaller and the like will call me contradictory of course but that's what I feel.

anyone interested in learning about God & believing etc should read the Book of Romans written by Paul which is interesting and quite persuasive - it's quite thought provoking and easily the best bit of he bible for me for those looking to be converted

Tell you what, I'm in Birmingham tomorrow and Thursday night so I might dig out the Gideons bible from the bedside drawer in the hotel room and have a read of that.

On the other hand I've just downloaded "Marley and Me" onto the eReader so I might read that instead, and of course Thursday night is always Big Wok night in Brum...

This kind of sums it up for me. The bible & other religous books are like everything, open to interpretation. It's these interpretations, (along with all the problems they cause) that I'm not keen on.

One of my faves is that women can't be priests because Paul said so. Also all the apostles were men, so how can a woman be so exalted. HELLO< they were all Jews, so obviously all priests should be Jews.

We'll be seeing threads like these all the time, this is KS preaching. He doesn't care how much he gets mocked as long as he's spreading the word of 'god'.

He isn't open to debate, he's an homophobic , sexist, bigot who can't come to terms with death. He can believe in what he wants but he shouldn't be allowed to force his evil on others.

He's shown his hand on many occasion, he starts off nice saying he only wants to save us and then takes great delight in telling us were all going to hell.

Self righteous friend.

This topic has now turned into what is a good topic to discuss to just slagging off Kirkstaller the majority had their say in that massive thread from a few weeks ago, can we just ignore the moon pixy lover, he'll never change his mind even if the big bang and eternal nothingness slap him in the face.