tam the bam said ..."Yes he did he is mentioned in the Bible which is the word of God.
However if you don't think he exited then that's your bealif and you are entiled to that."

...but the problem is, IF the Bible is the word of God, then in a very important sense, I am NOT 'entitled' to believe otherwise. That seems to be the view of so very many Christians, (for example, the recently deposed chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, Roy Moore!). He, and others, would DEMAND that everyone "acknowlege" God..., and "acknowlege" assumes that there is no doubt! And as a side note, folks like ex-justice Moore often state categorically that THEIR religion is the right one, and others are misguided. What if they are right?

The operative word in these discussions is "belief"...we are asked, "do you believe in God?"...and some say "yes", and some say "no", and some say, "I'm not sure"....All of these opinions cannot be correct at the same time, and saying "I'm better for believing" does not solve the problem.

I am not a religious person, but I try very hard to be a GOOD person, and I succeed pretty well without signing my name to some specific list and invoking the name of some long dead prophet of ANY of the religions. Indeed, it seems to me that many adherents of established religions, in the name of promoting their cause, ignore the very precepts of peace and love and brotherhood that their Holy books advise. (Yes, yes...I know we aren't supposed to judge by the worst examples...but, what if they ARE right, as they claim!)

I tried in my earlier posts to simply note the difficulty of deciding a question like "did 'X' exist", but this is at least interesting as a historical, archeological problem as we try to learn more about what made us the way we are. But what we are REALLY faced with is, "if 'X' existed, now what?"

I know that, if *I* were an omnipotent, all-knowing, Supreme Being and Creator, and had a set of rules I wanted my creatures to follow, I would not wait thousands of years between manifestations of the truth! I think it is safe to assume that if the clouds formed every Sabbath morning (no matter which day you think it is!) to form a symbol, and a voice from on High boomed out instructions and admonitions, church attendance would be a bit higher! Needless to say, I don't think weeping statues and faces in grottos and 'visions' by individuals are exactly compelling evidence!

No, NOTHING I have said disproves anything, and if certain denominations are correct, I am doomed to some sort of Eternal Punishment for daring to doubt....

fine...I'll take my chances, and keep on trying to live a decent, sane, loving, happy life in my own deluded way. I have had various evangelical zealots assure me that my soul was in danger and explain the rules and benefits of believing as THEY do....and you know what? They look quite startled when I explain that, if the rules and benefits are as they state, then I do not care to spend eternity that way! I am not worried...but you know....they just might be right. The problem is, once I am 'gone', it will be hard for us to re-debate the matter and for EITHER side to say "I told you so!"

pretty complicated, this being Human stuff..