Senior Expert
Joined: Sep 2002
Posts: 8,177
Netherlands
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Exactly my point. You cannot comprehend that time has no limits. Your brain doesnt work that way. We can say "infinate" yet we cannot imagine it.
It's possible to comprehend, it's just that something without start or end seems unnatural to us since we are used to this dimension of time and off course wé ourselves are limited in time and space. Compared to infinity our lives are nothing, the time-span is ultra-mega-super-extremely (etc. etc.) close to completely non-existent actually, relative to infinity itself. To say it thus has little meaning to us or that we can't comprehend is a bit shortsighted. It's the difference between saying 'infinity is time/space or whatever is infinite that goes on forever' and saying 'infinity is 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16 etc.'. It's like the difference between "pi" and '3.14159265...'. We often try to measure something relative in absolutes, that's clearly ineffective when trying to comprehend infinity. "pi" is not 3.14159265, instead it's infinite thus the only correct way to indicate it is with the "pi" symbol. (disclaimer: as far as we know it's a infinite number, but for obvious practical reasons it wouldn't be clever to write it all down every time you use it in a calculation or whatever..)
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We cannot see how God has always been because we cannot get past the time part of it. To us there must be a beginning and end of everything because thats all we know.
Ok, I'll stop rambling. ;-) You cannot figure out God. None of us can but I do know He exists.
True, but as long as nothing indicates he exists and as long as there's no communication or whatever other form of interaction it's simply impossible to even start figuring out anything. You've got to understand that 'we' deal with this "idea of God" and don't share your faith in him or think to know he exists. Without any evidence it's simply impossible to say anything. 
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Another way I look at it is like so: If you are right then me and you both have nothing to lose. Life ends and we poof and simply do not exist anymore.
This sounds horribly opportunistic to me, I really can't believe in something "just in case it turns out to be true". That simply doesn't feel right, nor does it make sense actually. If God really knows all, he'd send you to hell perhap just for that.  Even if we assume he exists, we still know nothing about what will actually happen when the 'lights go out'. Nobody ever survived dying, you see?
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If a man chooses to not believe and lives a life full of sin, he is damned to hell. So this day the man starts to burn because of the hatred and many bad things in his life. Now imagine a solid steel ball. A very large one.. about the size of our planet. Shiny, perfectly round. One man sits on the very top of this ball. In his hand he has a feather. He is very slowly brushing the feather on the steel ball. So heres my thought.. the ball is the same size as the earth and the feather is slowly rubbed against one small spot beside the man. By the time it takes that man to brush a hole completely through the steel "planet" to the other side.. even then eternity would just be getting "started" for that man in hell.
Turn your stove on and let the burner get so hot that it turns a glowing red. Now place your finger tip to it and hold it there for 60 seconds. The pain would be unbelieveable. Imagine your whole body consumed in flames with no way to escape for all eternity.
I choose to believe. I serve God because I want to. The Bible is the greatest book ever written. Jesus Christ died for us. The commandments of God can only make your life better. If all of that is not a good enough reason to change your ways then the thought of hell should surly wake you up.
It's striking that you say the latter after explaining that you fear hell so much you'd believe in anything to not end up there. That's so opportunistic, you seem(! ) to not really believe, you just don't want to go to hell, those are two very different things. You don't believe because you think it's true, you simply fear being wrong so you'll believe "just in case".
That's about the biggest problem I have with religions, especially the ones that tell you you're going to pay for 'not believing'. It's the oldest trick in the psychological book to maintain control over groups of people. Make them afraid and make them an offer they can't refuse. Sounds very devilish to me actually,
Cheers
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