For God it is not enough that we are good and moral people. For God, we must be good and moral people and believe in God, in order to escape hell. This fact is one that drove me from Christian to agnostic. I just plain don’t like the type of person that demands you believe in him while he hides from detection. What is he? Some kind of a**hole?
Why Does God Require our Belief?
08 Tuesday May 2012
Posted in The Conversion
X Amish Atheist 
Consh Du Deitch shvetza? Ich gleicha es, oss dee Amish Leit imma nooch Deitch shvetza.
Ich vayss nedd, fer woss Gott nedd gontz offen tzeigt, oss Ehr laybt.
Ich bin en ivva tzeigta Grisht (convinced Christian) ovva ich winsh, oss Gott sich effentlich beweisa daet tzu all dee Leit, dee dee worret leeva, ovva nedd recht nau glauva kenna.
Ich vinsh Dich en guudes Laeva. Wonn Du recht nau nedd glauva kannsht, sell iss all recht. Keep on on Gott bayda fer der geshenk fum glauva.
Wonn du suchsht dei beshtes tze duh, sell iss filleicht gnunk fer der Mann upshtairs.
Here is a translation of my last message, which was in the Pennsylvania Dutch language: “Can you speak Pennsylvania Dutch? I like it that the Amish people can still talk Pennsylvania Dutch.
I don’t know why God doesn’t show that He lives totally obviously. I am a convinced Christian, but I wish that God would openly prove to all the people that love the truth but cannot believe right now [that He exists].
I wish you a good life. If you can’t believe right now, that’s all right. Keep on praying to God for the gift of faith.
If you are seeking to do your best, maybe that’s enough for the man upstairs.
Ya, Ich can Deitch shvetza. I glaub evva net es die Glauva ein gab iss. Ich glaub ven ebbus vwah iss, dan kammah logic usah fah es provah. Ich hab beviht es provah vooh ich yingah wah but ich hab net kenna. Sell is van ich schtopt hab glauva.
Note: I’ve never written much Pennsylvania Dutch so the above is just what the words sound like to me. Here’s the translation: “Yes, I can speak Pennsylvania Dutch. I don’t believe that faith is a gift. I believe if something is true, it can be proven with logic. I tried proving it when I was younger and couldn’t. That is when I stopped believing.
For me faith in God is a response to what He says to me and does in me. That is because to me He is a person, not a mathematical proposition. I hope and pray that you will see that for yourself one day.
Sorry, I’m verenglisht; hence no PA Dutch to contribute.
To each his own but I find persons to be “mathematical propositions” so why not God?
Perhaps what people refer to as god is not a He or a She at all? Sometimes I think what we call god is more of a life force, the thing which drives all living things to grow and reproduce, in whatever way we/it evolved to do such things. The bible is just another creation story – and every people who have walked the earth have had some kind of creation story, and some kind of ethic to maintain the integrity of its culture. There is no puppeteer yanking strings. I really don’t know about the eternal soul, but I would bet on the fact that it is nothing like what most religious people picture it to be.
Have you read NonZero by Robert Wright? I think you’ll find it very interesting. (although, I should add that I don’t support his arguments in his other book, The Moral Animal – but that is a whole other conversation!).
I have not read that book but after reading the Amazon description, I am interested.
Hi! I really think you are an awesome intellect. You need to know that God does not send any humans to hell. They end up there because they choose to. He created hell for the fallen angels and the devil only. He is an awesome father.
My feeling is that the need to be worshiped is a human emotional need, and if God/Gods/Goddess is truly a deity, Him/Her/They would have no need for a human emotion.