You would think that with the preponderance of people filling places like myspace.com with information about themselves, they’d have a good idea of who they are. In some cases, this is close to the truth, and in others, it’s far off. And many live their entire lives knowing only who they are in part.
First off, get over the idea that you’re a random act of nature. You’re not. Even if you don’t believe in God, you don’t have to believe in evolution, especially since it is a *theory* that has no real proof to back it up. Even atheists can deny evolution, and they don’t turn into “religious nuts” for doing so. The truth of the matter is that God created you. Not randomly, not without direction or purpose, and not blindly. God developed and designed your personality, your mind, your emotional state of being, whatever you want to call it. He didn’t create you with a group of others, but created *you* directly. Even if you or your parents consider you an “accident” in timing, your self was not an accident. You are a design. God made you to be like Him in that you have free will, a personality, and are capable of higher things. You’re not a “burp” in the universe.
You’re not physical. To paraphrase some characters from a C.S. Lewis story, you don’t *have* a soul, you *are* a soul. You *have* a body. The physical self you look at in the mirror is not who you truly are. That’s nothing more than a form you have been given so that you can interact with the physical world. When it dies, you continue to live, not some ethereal ghost of yourself that just floats around and hopes to contact someone through a TV or a phony like John Edwards. Who you are lives on past the death of the body. One day, you will witness your body fall away from you as you move on to the next stage of your existence. When people talk about “your soul” going to heaven, it sort of sounds like it’s not you but rather some possession of yours. This couldn’t be farther from the truth, and it’s unfortunate that people speak that way. You will exist in your full state of mind always. People who we see as retarded don’t have damaged souls, but their bodies don’t work properly as an interface between the soul and body, so they appear as far less than what they really are. Even you are limited by your body in full health, and can’t imagine what it is to exist without a body weighing you down. 
You are special. However, if you don’t feel special, no amount of people telling you that you are will matter. We usually don’t tend to think of ourselves as special, even if intellectually we know God sees us that way. Exactly how you are special, though, doesn’t hinge on your emotional state. God has determined that He values you, and He wants to have you with Him forever. How you feel about yourself does not affect how He feels about you. In truth, you shouldn’t even worry about feeling special, since then you’re just focusing on yourself. If you stop concerning yourself with how you feel about yourself, and start focusing on others, you’ll find that it how you feel doesn’t count as much as what you do. Do good in your little circle in life and you’ll start to better about things, including yourself. God sees you a certain way, and that way is quite favorable, unless you’ve decided to entirely blow Him off. Even then, though, He’s willing to put you back in that favorable light if you are sorry and sincere.
You are a being with choice. The world, put simply, is divided into two groups of people: those who follow God, and those who don’t. On one side, you have Christians who believe in the Bible and people who don’t. Jews who believe only in the Old Testament are halfway there, but haven’t accepted all of God. You get to choose which side you are on. The lie of “many ways to God” falls flat since these “ways” conflict with each other, and God is not a god of confusion. So, you are born, you live your life, and you are left to choose whether you will go with God or whether you will follow instead the world, a false religion, or some other made-up philosophy that feels good. This is what leads a person to heaven or hell, not some list of “good or bad behavior” that doesn’t exist. God doesn’t want robots, so when he designed you, he gave you the capacity to think for yourself. Let’s face it, He’s the only one who really thinks you should have that right. The world wants to squeeze you into its thought pattern, atheists would prefer that no one believed in any god, government wants you to be a good little taxpayer that never questions or complains, your boss wants a wage slave to just get to work, Islamofanatics think you should believe in Allah (who is NOT God) or die, and so on and so on. God, however, when faced with the opportunity to simply “program” people to believe in Him, choose not to do so. He gave you the right and the ability to walk away from Him. God knows a choice that you can’t turn down isn’t a choice at all. In the end, you get to make the biggest decision of your life for yourself. Your parents don’t, your friends don’t, the world system doesn’t, the government doesn’t….you do. You have the right to follow or reject the very God that created the universe. That power is yours. However, with that power comes the consequences, which leads to another aspect of yourself…
You were not created to go to hell. No human was. God doesn’t want anyone to go there, but when people are given a choice, they’ll eventually make the wrong choice. Hell, which we call the eternal fire, was created to punish rebellious angels, among whom is Satan. Hell is empty right now. Satan and his demons don’t walk around hell waiting for people, the way they are presented. They won’t be punishing humans there, either, but will instead be punished themselves. Satan doesn’t carry a pitchfork. But where angels who rebelled are destined to spend eternity there, you are not.
You do not have a bad destiny. There is no such thing as fate controlling or guiding anything. Fate is simply a word for what happens to you at some point. God has a destiny for you that is good, that will satisfy you, and that will raise you up to grow closer to Him and to become a better human being. Whether you follow this destiny is up to you, again, since you are given the right to choose. You can be a joint heir of heaven or you can be a victim in the pit. God wants you to be the joint heir. You can be a citizen of heaven….
…since you’re not of this earth, you’re just on it. You are an eternal being, not a temporary one. You are a visitor to earth, not a native. You are hanging around here until you go home, as if earth was a motel and heaven was your house. Again, though, your eternal home is the one you choose. Your time on earth is still temporary, and your choices determine who you become.
You are loved. You are wanted. Your presence is desired. Ignore your ranking in the world system, ignore how you are viewed by other people, who are imperfect and biased themselves, and ignore even how you feel about yourself. Spend a little time getting to know how God sees you, for in the end, only His opinion will matter, and it’s the only opinion you will care about. God sacrificed his Son to give you a chance to get to know Him. He wouldn’t have done that for nothing. God values you while the world will try to beat you down and make you believe you’re nothing more than a random set of molecules with no purpose, no reason to exist, and no future.
Learn who you are, then decide who you want to be.
13 comments on Who Are You?
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Interesting statement. What kind of "proof" do you require? Does the same requirement exist for the religious "creation?"
As for "proof" of religious creation, that's slightly different, based on the viewpoint. I can't believe in evolution because of the idea of a god, but because of the universe itself. The universe and the perfect balance of everything on earth reflects a design, and that by an intelligent being. From there, I would consider what kind of being, and then follow other steps to come to God.
To explain a bit, I can look at my car. I didn't see the car built, I don't understand everything about how the car works. However, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the car was designed by someone or something intelligent, since the belief that all of these parts would just be created from nothing by random forces, and then assembled randomly is the height of absurdity. I may never see the one or many who created the car, and may never see anything else they have done, but the proof that the car was designed by an intelligence is the car itself. So it is with the earth. The very universe is a testament that it was designed, whether or not you ever see the one who designed it. As Isaac Newton said: "This most beautiful system could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful being."
The arrogance demonstrated by evolutionists also keeps me from siding with them. They tend to claim that they are scientific, and yet they can't even admit that there is the possibility that we don't know it all. Do you really think that just because the human race can't see God, he must not exist? Do you know how arrogant-sounding that is? We may as well say that we have unraveled every secret in the universe. We are just touching on things like quantum physics, so who is to say that there's nothing beyond that, that would show us God? (Besides evolutionists, that is...) The utter dogma that many evolutionists use in attacking those who question them raises a warning in my mind as well. So, with all of these factors, I find evolution to be nothing more than mankind's best hope in avoiding the truth of God. It's sort of "well, we don't have anything else, so let's go with it since we don't want to face God."
I refer you to the post previous to this for a bit more information. Not everyone who disbelieves in evolution is required to become a Christian or even believe in a god that anyone else believes in. It simply means that they've examined evolution with an open mind and have found it wanting.
The proof is "in the pudding" as regards the universe, and that proof basically screams out that it was designed by an intelligence, not random energy. But as my article states, you have the right to believe as you choose. I simply choose to believe that which makes more sense.
Really? Not even the diseases that have gained immunity to drugs? Even the common cold and flu viruses have changed to overcome treatment.
Hmm! Sounds like common sense to me.
However, you still only mention one thing. Where are the mutations in animals? Where are the fossils with the "intermediate" forms, or the ones with all the failed mutations? Sorry, but your "common sense" isn't.
Belief is not proof. I am agnostic. I don't know whether there is a god or not, but I do know that his/her existance has not been proven to me.
I don't agree. Bacteria is life and it is changing. Here you have evidence of an evolutioinary process.
But hey, you know what? For the sake of argument, I'll let the bacteria thing go through. Let's just say that is an evolutionary process. Fine. Now, where are all the others? Where are the fossils of the ones that have come before? Why are species always going extinct rather than evolving? Surely some of them would have evolved rather than just dying out. You're using one example (and a weak one at that) of one organism to try and prove a huge event spanning multiple species and millions of years. Yet the only proof you offer is some bacteria? Talk about making a broad generalization...
And the other reply was to your other post, but despite saying "reply to percivel," the comment was posted above everything else.
Am I the only one who requires proof from science? Or are you arguing that I should just accept what scientists tell me without questioning it? You don't require proof from science? I should just believe in evolution even when science *disproves* it? As for God, again, it is human arrogance to assume that something doesn't exist just because we can't see it, whether or not you're talking about God or something else. At one point, the human race couldn't see atoms, so, by your reasoning, we shouldn't have believed in them, and yet, they existed. God has his reasons for not proving himself to humanity, but even aside from that, the idea that "well, we can't see it, so it can't exist" is foolishness in and of itself.
"Belief is not proof. I am agnostic. I don't know whether there is a god or not, but I do know that his/her existance has not been proven to me."
Then you need to really look around you. I point you once more to my car analogy. When I look around, I see an intelligent design to the universe, something that could not come about by accident or randomness, and the "explanation" of evolution is lacking by far. I've read that certain plants developed chemical weapons against bugs through evolution, and I find that laughable. Why? Because of this:
1) The plant is sitting around with no defenses at first. It is eaten away bit by bit.
2) Somehow, the plant *realizes* that it's being eaten. It knows something is attacking it.
3) The plant then somehow realizes that an insect is eating it.
4) The plant then somehow develops a plan to kill or repel bugs.
5) The plant becomes a chemist, studying the chemicals that are in its own form. Then, through some magic scanning beam or something, determines the chemical composition of the insect.
6) With this new knowledge, the plant then somehow mixes chemicals in itself (I dare you to try this just by willing it to happen) and experiments until it finds just the right chemical to repel the bug.
Wow....that's a mighty intelligent plant! And yes, I know, evolutionists then make the claim that many plants "mutated" until the right combination of chemicals was struck upon, but even this is laughable. On one hand, you'd have generations of plants either "remembering" which chemicals were already tried by their "parents," and trying new ones, all while somehow not being wiped out by those very same bugs that are eating them, or you have blind mutations that just happen to pop up randomly to deal with a particular bug, as if evolution is intelligent enough to realize that there's a problem in the first place, and that the problem is due to a bug.
Personally, I think it takes a lot more faith to believe in all that than it does to simply believe in a god. We're both looking at a car, and where I can see that someone built it, you're claiming all of the parts of that car not only formed into working machine parts like spark plugs, a battery, tires, and a diagnostic computer system, but also swirled together (even over millions of years) to fit perfectly into place and form a working vehicle, by blind chance. This isn't a matter of "belief," this is a matter of just looking around honestly, and not being afraid to reevaulate cherished preconceptions of the world. Honestly, it would be easier for me to be an atheist, but I can't do it, because what I see around me leads me to the belief in God rather than against it.
And really, just *why* should God prove Himself to you? Who are you? Do you think your importance in the eternal scheme of things warrants a personal visit from God? If someone in France doesn't think you exist, are you going to go over and prove that you do, or do you figure that it is their problem (or choice) not to believe that you exist?
And I have news for you: even if Jesus Himself were to appear tomorrow for an hour, and read the Bible to the world and tell everyone "hey, I'm here, see me?" no more than a minute would pass after He went invisible again before people would claim it was nothing more than a mass hallucination. That's just human nature, sorry to say.
We do not agree. Many things occur by accident or randomness. I choose to remain agnostic.
Heh...there's a huge difference between two cars getting into a wreck and the creation of the universe. Have you ever studied just how perfectly the Earth is formed, and how even a tiny difference would have prevented life from being possible here?
The most accurate statement you said was that you choose to remain agnostic. You choose to ignore the weaknesses of evolution and you choose to ignore how impossible it would be for a "car" could have been put together and made functional through blind randomness.
You're making the wrong choice, but it is yours to make. If believing a falsehood gives you comfort, I can't change your mind.
Nice post.
Understand that some... you were not meant to convince.
Here's a fact. Although it should not be construed as predistination in any way, shape or form. You and I were chosen by God before the worlds were formed, for His pleasure. But, it is up to you to believe, or not.
Your bud,
A1
And to not see that the universe isn't a random creation is just that: a choice. It's a shame that many won't believe in God until they meet Him, but by then, it's too late.