Why ask? Just say goodbye.

Which, funnily enough, is a diminution of 'God be with you'.

You know what worries me a little bit, flooding the Earth to kill everyone.
One of the ten commandments, 'They Shalt Not Kill'
I don't trust a person who has a philosophy of 'Do as I say, not as I do'

As I've said before, Mujus, the entire bit you go on about asking God if he's there is basically condescending prattle.

You assume that we who consider deities fairy tales never honestly tried to talk to God.

He's not there. You're talking to yourself.

You know what they say... you can be sure that you've invented your own God when he likes all the things you like, and hates all the things you hate.

It should be said here that not all Christians believe that the bible is "literal truth". So the story of the flood, for instance is not actual genocide but a symbol of some spiritual truth. Do I KNOW what these symbols mean? Some I have a good idea of, others not so much. But I have found that ascertaining some of their meaning comes precisely from working through the contradictions rather than avoiding them.

Man is certainly stark mad. He cannot make a worm, and yet he will be making gods by dozens.
Michel de Montaigne (1533 - 1592)

Thou shalt not murder is more precise. And its worth noting that the ancient Hebrews pretty much meant that to mean you're not supposed to unlawfully kill another Hebrew. If it wasn't a member of their group of tribes, it literally wasn't murder. They weren't real people. You know, like butchering the inhabitants of Jericho at the command of their god.


Real uplifting stuff.

Excuse me Jack, but HAVE you ever tried communicating with God?
I can assure you that he loves you and longs for you to love him in return.
I want you to ask God the answer to something very important, and for him to reveal himself in a particular way. I have faith enough that he will respond, but in his own manner.
God has a plan for you, just as he has one for all of us, and if you are so eager to reject the mention of his existence, then you have some definite lack of understanding.
God reveals himself in many ways in everyone's lives, just as if he were communicating. Say, for example, that you were communicating with someone that you loved over the internet, had seen, but never met. You knew plenty about them, and wanted them to know you. But what if they were to reject you simply because they were insecure about your existence, that they didn't trust that you were you.
That's what faith is, it isn't about believing in what's not there, it's about trusting that whatever is there is what it is said to be. And God has spent the past 6,000+ years crafting a miracle for you to be able to establish that trust. It is called the Bible, and it is the Word of God Almighty. If you've never read it, I'd encourage you to give it a try, and see if God moves in you.

And, of course, "1. What the HELL were you thinking?"
Whether you are speaking about the creation, sin, or anything else...just read the Bible, it's all in there.
"2. How CAN you be so cruel and yet claim to be benevolent?"
God is not cruel. You are merely applying that word to his actions/inactions. Your concept of cruelty is being skewed so that you can try to deny the fact that there's a being that is greater than you are. First of all, God knows much better than you do, so you should probably not question him, lest you need to be in fear of him questioning you one day. Secondly, mankind has brought all terrible things upon themselves by committing sins. You may think that you are good, that you are worthy, but one unrepented sin is eternal damnation, and imperfection. When God made man, God made man in his own image-perfectly. Man sinned however, and now mankind suffers for it. Which brings me to your next point:
"3. How CAN your followers be so blind as to hide behind the "sin" argument when...well, you created us, so, really, who's at fault, the defective car or it's maker?"
God did not create sin. Sin is merely Satan's mimicry of God's perfect actions. YOU are the sinner, God has no control over whether you sin or not. Certainly, He could control you all he wanted, but He wants you to have free-will, to have the choice to follow him or not. Obviously, if you took Ninth Grade History, you should have learned about Pascal's Wager, and should understand that it is vital to your existence, and purely logical that you follow God, and not a life of sin. God created you to glorify Himself. Do not think that He is selfish, He is God Almighty, Creator of the Universe. The angels glorify Him all day, but they don't have a choice. YOU do have a choice. You can either worship Him, as you were created to do, or you can live a life of sin - a mere counterfeit of the enemy designed to turn you from God.
"4. HOW are you Good...and WHY should I trust, love, or follow you AT ALL?"
Remember this; “ 'Why do you call me good?' Jesus answered. 'No one is good—except God alone.' "
That's in the Bible. Don't believe in the Bible? Then obviously you are going to hell. Why should you not believe, trust, and love God Almighty, Creator of the Universe? You will suffer eternal damnation if you do not. God loves you and wants you to follow Him, but honestly, you have the choice, you may honor Him, and cherish the life He has given you, or you can live a life of sin, and die in a lake of fire. God is Good. God is not just good because I say so, or because He says so, or because anyone in the world says so...although, those should be good enough reasons. But God is good because He gave you life, and even while we were yet sinners, He sent His only begotten son to DIE FOR US! He loves us so, even though every time we sin, it is as if we are spitting in His face. He gives us Mercy, He gives us Compassion, He gives us Grace. He FORGIVES us of our wrongs, and He helps to make us Right (Yes, with a capital 'R'), and He gives us so many blessings, and better yet, He gives us the capability to sit next to Him on the throne one day, having ETERNAL LIFE! Think about that! You have the opportunity to worship the Creator of the Universe! WHY SHOULD YOU REFUSE THAT OFFER?

And, just as well:
" You know what worries me a little bit, flooding the Earth to kill everyone.
One of the ten commandments, 'They Shalt Not Kill'
I don't trust a person who has a philosophy of 'Do as I say, not as I do' "
Yet again, mankind brought the floods upon themselves. God did not want to flood the Earth, and yet he was forced to, because there were wicked men about. (Some scholars have interpreted a passage in Genesis to read that the wicked women of the Earth had been impregnated by fallen angels and given rise to destructive half-demon beings, but that is beyond the point.) And when I say 'wicked,' I mean the average American: Liberal, Drunken, Self-Indulged, Ill-Disciplined, Secular, Sexually Promiscuous, and Rebellious. Just as when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he flooded the Earth to wipe out the evil, and to save the less evil. But lo, God was very Merciful to not wipe out all of the Earth, to destroy mankind and be rid of us - a plague to his once perfect creation. God would not send a man to the grave whom there is still not hope for. God would not allow someone to die, who may yet have turned from his evilness. No, these were men beyond repair. And to quote the old Brave New World Maxim: "Ending is better than mending!" But God showed Compassion on us humans, and allowed us to mend the Earth for ourselves. Noah's descendants now fill the world-whether you call him Gilgamesh or whatever that Hindu equivalent was does not matter, what matters is that it happened, and God did it for a reason. Now, I'm not saying that God longs to see the wicked destroyed, for He is very Gracious, and does not do anything without a reason to do so. But God is unfathomable, not being able to be defined by our thoughts. Yes, it takes a bit of irrationality to believe in something that you cannot see, but once you take a step towards irrationality, you will soon realize how rationally thought out that step was. I've said quite often that, if everyone was completely rational, they'd go insane, and if everyone was completely irrational, they'd already be insane. But one cannot understand God or why He does the things that He does.
Now, I'm certainly not saying that God is irrational, or that you have to be crazy in order to believe in Him, but you cannot put into words why God does anything. It is a miraculous phenomenon that is a joy to experience. Just as I cannot explain to you why Tchaikovsky's Romeo & Juliet Overture is a beautiful piece, I cannot explain to you the beauty of God's intricate motives and the outcomes of those motives.
Returning from my tangent, God loves us very much, and longs to see us obeying Him and doing His deeds. God is all powerful, and we are not. Certainly, you can see why we should not kill anyone, and how mighty He is for being able to kill us all with one blow, yet loving us so much that He chooses not to every second of our lives.
regardless, I've run out of things to say, and look forward to the next Good-minded Christian to continue the argument for me. Goodnight!

tl dr

KA dr

(I'll read a long one--have to reciprocate when my posts are as long as they are--but I'm not slogging through that much for King Atom..."Wunderkind intellect" or no.)

King Atom
I don't mean this to be rude but I'm pleased that you think like this and can still function in 'normal life'. I suppose to survive we all create our own reality, yours is kinda fascinating, dinner around your gaff must be surreal :-)
Nigee

tl;dr for KA's post:

Believe in God and the Bible, He exists, if you don't believe, go to hell.

he put way too much effort into that

I just couldn't get through all of King Atom's stuff. Was it a joke? A spoof? A cynical aside?
Should've been. Might even have been funny.

'The flood' was caused by the eruption of the volcano under Santorini (known at the time as Fira) around 2,500 BC. No god need be involved.

Please don't come back and say, "Well, yes, my children. These are the ineffable ways by which our Lord works his miracles." Please don't.

Actually, if He was responsible for destroying the entire population of the planet, apart from an industrious boat-building family shouldn't He be held to account?

Hell would be - an eternity replying to messages posted by people like you.

Timur, people like you make me cry.
That is all.

Jesus wept.

King Atom....you are never going to change peoples minds like this......ever. Making declarative statements and expecting people to follow in line behind you is not using the brain God gave you....frankly it's just silly.

Jack writes, "you can be sure that you've invented your own God when he likes all the things you like, and hates all the things you hate." I'd have to agree with that. The daily walk with God is an uncomfortable one many times, because his holy spirit is working in us--as much as we let him--to change us to be more like him. These are big changes that sometimes take years or even decades to work out, addressing our biggest failings, our most selfish feelings, our scariest memories, our unrealistic idealizations of ourselves and others. But that's more than balanced with the deep peace that comes from getting to know the creator of the universe, the rescuer of mankind, progressively more and more.

Mujus believes in a god that would rather have him flame webdiplomacy on Sunday than be at church.

Flame? That is quite a mischaracterization of what he just wrote and a cheap shot.

Yes, flame. When you deliberately try to antagonize people it is called flaming.

Where in his last statement is he antagonizing anyone? Or do you consider anyone discussing a belief contrary to your own antagonistic?

Numerous people have objected to his daily proselytizing and condescending speeches about his supposed unique knowledge of 'god' and about how we all need salvation via his demonic sky wizard. If only we had experienced webdiplomacy earlier, then the all-knowing all-holy Mujus would have set us on the righteous path sooner.

and he reduced it to one post. He has as much right to discuss his beliefs as you do yours. And phrases like "demonic sky wizard" and "all-holy Mujus" are just cheap attempts to bully him into submission. It is intellectually pathetic and selfish. I have seen people try to do the same to you and I don't like it. I have zero problem with your lack of belief in what he says. But are you not, with these types of tactics, trying to push your beliefs onto him?

If you're going to try and convert people and tell them their life is directless & meaningless without 'god' on an online gaming forum then you better be able to handle resistance. Nobody is taking away his so-called "right" to be a pompous sanctimonious missionary, but don't expect me to applaud him for it. If he can't handle anything but adoring praise then maybe he should leave the conversion of heathens to somebody with thicker skin.

It is quite rich for you to be so resentful of me supposedly wanting to 'push my beliefs' onto him (when have I ever demanded Mujus be a Marxist, atheist, btw?) when you insist he has a right to do that to everybody else.

"You can be sure that you've invented your own God when he likes all the things you like, and hates all the things you hate." I love that! It reminds me of a harsh statement by Nietzsche: "A thing could be TRUE, although it were in the highest degree injurious and dangerous; indeed, the fundamental constitution of existence might be such that one succumbed by a full knowledge of it—so that the strength of a mind might be measured by the amount of "truth" it could endure—or to speak more plainly, by the extent to which it REQUIRED truth attenuated, veiled, sweetened, damped, and falsified." (Beyond Good and Evil)

As usual there are two standards, we're supposed to sit here and take it and the religious beat us over the head with their bible thumping and totally disrespect the meaning and value of our ideas, our values, and our ways of life, but any criticism of these people and they flip out about our intolerance.