{"id":2629,"date":"2020-11-29T13:50:17","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T12:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=2629"},"modified":"2020-11-30T21:24:35","modified_gmt":"2020-11-30T20:24:35","slug":"is-there-a-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/predication.net\/?p=2629","title":{"rendered":"IS THERE A GOD?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Introductory story\u2026 In his book The Mysterious Island, Jules Verne describes the wreck of a group of five aerobatics flying a balloon over the Pacific, in the middle of a storm on an unknown coast. Four are saved, but one of them, engineer Cyrus Smith, is missing. After a long search and search, they finally find him lying in a hole in the middle of the rocks after a few days. At first, he seems to be dead – but in the end, poor and exhausted, he still takes over: “- My lord! My lord! – Nab called. The engineer heard him. He met Nab and Spiletto, then the other two, Harbert and the sailor, and weakly returned their handshakes. Again, a few words came out of his mouth, which he certainly wanted to say before, revealing what thoughts were going through his mind. This time his words were already understandable. – Island or mainland? – he whispered. – Oh! Pencroff shouted. – What about us, only if you’re alive, Mr. Smith! An island or a mainland? We’ll see that later. The engineer nodded weakly, then closed his eyes again. But it was no longer unconsciousness, but sleep. Nab, Harbert, and Pencroff came out of the cave and headed for the high dune, where several crooked trees grew. The sailor could not stay on the way and repeated several times: – Island or mainland! Think of something like this when you can barely breathe! That’s a guy! The next day, March 28, when the engineer finally woke up around eight o’clock, just as his first words were yesterday: – Island or mainland? As you can see, the thought kept wandering through his head. – We don’t know anything about that faith yet, Mr. Smith! – replied Pencroff. – Don’t you know? “But we will find out,” Pencroff said – when we examine this country under your leadership. – I think we can start now – replied the engineer and stood up. The others looked at him in silence. Cyrus Smith crossed his arms and said: – So, friends, you still don’t know if fate threw us on the mainland or the island? “No, Mr. Cyrus,” the boy replied. – We’ll find out tomorrow – the engineer continued. “There’s nothing you can do about it.” <Why this question? And why can’t anything be done without her answer? The answer is simple: the answer to this question will decide everything the losers will do: If it’s a LAND, prepare for the march and try to reach some people and civilization. If it is an ISLAND, then: If it’s NEAR the mainland, they’ll start building a ship. If FAR is on the mainland, they will start building at home and preparing for a long stay, maybe forever\u2026 So without answering Smith’s question, it’s really not really possible to “do anything”! <The most key issue in our lives> We’re basically in a similar situation to Verne’s losers: We just found ourselves (= born) one day in this world of ours: the nation, the planet, the Universe\u2026 \u2026 Left to fend for themselves,\u2026 \u2026 To do with our lives what we consider most appropriate. What will be our MOST BASIC and KEY QUESTION, which we should ask ourselves at the very beginning and from which everything else will depend, and everything else in our lives will depend – and which, on the contrary, is THE FIRST FIRST and INDEPENDENT OF SOMETHING OTHER BEFORE ? 1<\/h2>\n
<Divide into groups of “firefighters,” “sailors,” “bikers,” and “ambulances”! In each group, try to find this FIRST QUESTION together in five minutes, which has nothing in front of it, and everything else is derived! Of course, with the REASONING why they think this question is the most important! After five minutes, we will compare all your answers and find out who answered the closest reality! VARIANT: You can also do this in discussion with the whole class, or as a competition between two groups, each trying to ask a question that would precede the question of their opponents\u2026> The goal: To find out that our “First Question” is very similar to that of Cyrus Smith – in fact, it is an analogy: “Island or mainland?” In other words: “Is this – the Universe, the Earth, the matter, this life – EVERYONE, or is there something beyond ITS BOUNDARIES?” Are we an “ISLAND” and there is nothing but us – or are we part of an infinitely larger “FORTRESS” and our world is just an outcrop of this transcendent reality? The answer to this question will determine everything: If there is NO “beyond” this world, then we will “BUILD A HOUSE”: we will settle here and focus exclusively on it and seek our happiness exclusively within its borders. If there is also something “beyond” the borders of the world, then we must ask ourselves a supplementary question: IS THIS WORLD “BEHIND BORDERS” WORTH IT? WHAT DOES IT OFFER? If IT’S WORTH IT, “WE WILL BUILD A SHIP”: we go after it, and we don’t care what we leave “on the island” of the world because of it\u2026 If it is NOT WORTH, then we will nevertheless “Build a House”\u2026 and never again worry about the nonsense “beyond the horizon of the world.” But in any case, our whole value system, our whole endeavor, our life goals, everything will depend on this key question and answer! So, in short, is there a GOD? LIFE AFTER DEATH? EXCEEDING THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, in which ours seems to be “immersed”? <Is it?> Why do you think so? Or isn’t it? Do you have anything to substantiate your claim? THE GOAL<\/h2>\n
Realize that this is too serious about dealing with the words “I don’t care,” resp. “For so my parents taught me,” or “because the pastor says so,” and so on. We need to be SURE on this question – because no matter what answer we give (It exists and is worth it; It exists and it is not worth it; It does not exist), we will build our whole life and our destiny on this answer – and it is quite likely that or we gain everything or we lose everything! There are some objective facts\u2026 \u2026 With which we could substantiate and prove the existence of God? <Search together!> CONCLUSION: “Religion has really convinced people that there is an invisible man up there behind the cloud who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And that invisible man has a special list of ten things he doesn’t want you to do. If you do one of those ten things, the invisible has a special place, full of fire and smoke and torture and flour, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and suffocate and scream and cry forever. \u201d (George Carlin, comedian, actor, writer) BUT REALLY? \uf04a In the following hours, we will answer three key questions: Is God probable? Is the assumption of the existence of God-Creator by the requirement of logic and RATIONALITY? Are there any objective, tangible Manifestations of God? Is there any concrete, common EXPERIENCE of God in humanity? Based on them, we can then come to one of two possible conclusions: OR to conclude with certainty that God exists. OR to conclude that there is no convincing evidence that God did exist\u2026<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"