[Azure]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

Well, it is part of it.

I suppose.

What part don't I get? The part when you said he has an influence

Yes, I said he does have an influence over a believers life.

According to the Bible anyways.

What kind of influence? Does he make him do 'good' things, be a good person, help others? No, all of those things are something we make the choice of whether or not we want to do it. But where does a believer get these ideas from?

There is only one possible way for God to speak to us, I think. I already pointed out that he doesn't do the whole 'miracle' thing anymore, nor does he reveal himself to a certain person telling them what THEY should do(which is why I'm really confused as to how Mormon's can be called Christians).

No, the only possible way God can speak to someone is through the Bible. There is no such thing as divine intervention anymore. If you call yourself a Christian, etc, etc...just about all of your influence comes from the Bible.

And I do not think I have to go into detail what the Bible says about the way a Christian is supposed to live their life. THAT is the influence I'm talking about.

and suggested that he does interfere in some things.

Well then I was misunderstood. I never meant to say that God personally interferes with anything.

He also apparently impregnated a woman and compelled a bunch of people to write his instruction manual.

According to the Bible....

All the prayers and whatnot must mean something.

Prayers are a believers way to express their faith and talk to God. It has nothing to do with God interfering in their life.

Thats one thing I don't understand. People who call themselves believers and have been very successful during their life. Made lots of money, accomplished a lot of good things, etc, etc....they ALL will say 'God gave it to me.' Well in theory, a believer will believe that God is all powerful, therefore he can 'give' someone a lot of money. But I personally do not thing God is worried about money, worried about the physical aspects here on earth. One of the posters here started a thread a while back asking, 'do you pray for the Flames?' Many people answered and said that God doesn't worry about sports. I think the same thing applies to every aspect of our physical life.

There are a lot of non-believers out there that have been VERY successful, done VERY great things for humanity. The Bible clearly points out that God will not bless unbelievers, so how come they are in fact, so blessed? All goes back to my original point. I believe God does not personally intervene in our everyday life. Our success is a byproduct of how hard we work, how much effort we put in, and at times, how lucky we get. So why pray to God that he should help you in your physical life? I seriously do not know. When the Bible talks about placing it all into God's hands, and let him have control over your life, I believe it is talking about the spiritual aspect of your life. The physical part? We have the choice to be who we want to be, do what we want, go where we want. God does not concern himself with that. Nor will he interfere with it.

Just my personal belief, thats all.

And what about miracles,

I don't believe in miracles to happen as described in Biblical times. Lets just input a little bit of natural selection here, shall we?

or "it's God's will" when something good or bad happens?

Something good or bad happens as a byproduct of the choices we make.

Not because of what God decides.

Is that just lip-service? This free-will business sounds like a part-time thing.

Its becoming more and more clear to me that you WANT to think it is just lip-service. Go right ahead, but I don't see the point in going in circles again, and again.

There are my viewpoints.

Does he directly interfere down here or does he not?

No, God does not directly interfere down 'here.' The universe was created to function by itself. Including us humans.