There's so much to say, I don't know where to start. Perhaps with a small background discussion. I mentioned that there has been a war against marriage and families being waged for years. But, who is waging this war and why? Let me just answer that by saying evil is waging this war. Many would try to deny that there is evil in the world. Their moral relativism has allowed them to reason away good and evil. But, deny as they may, there is evil in the world, and that evil wants you, me and everyone to be miserable just like itself. It's war is actually on happiness. It will do anything it can to destroy happiness so we will all be miserable. Destroying the family is just one way to accomplish its design; a big one, though, because some much misery come along with the destruction of the family. Just witness our current circumstances.
This evil would like us to believe it's not there. If we don't recognize it, then we can't fight against it. Just like a frog in a pot of water does not notice the temperature rising, society has been oblivious to this evil for a long time.Well, the water is getting really hot and I'm telling you it's time to get out. I'm confident that many are aware of this. Some have tried to speak out. But evil has so much control right now, that anyone who tries to raise a voice of warning or go against the popular tide, is quickly demonized by a very vocal crowd who, ironically, by their non-tolerance of opposing view points completely contradict their own claims to moral superiority, open-mindedness and desires for "fairness". It seems that for them freedom of speech only applies if what you say and belief is in line with their views and beliefs. This intolerance has recently peaked with the farced resignation of the CEO of Mozilla and the attempt to force Condoleezza Rice from the board of Dropbox.
Despite this grip that evil has on our society, truth does not change and if we want to improve our circumstances, we must stand against this tide and stick to what we know is best for society.
One more word of warning before I continue. I will be very direct and not pull any punches in this blog. I will not sugar coat things, nor be careful to not offend anyone. In fact, I plan on using my freedom of speech and rights to offend, because the truth is hard for some to take, but it is still truth.
Well, that was quite a rant, and I still have not gotten to anything of substance. So, let me get to the next topic: children. One thing our society does seem to rally behind is helping children, so, perhaps this appeal will reach some. Every child deserves a good home to be raised in. The best environment in which to raise a child is in a family with a loving father and mother. This is not always possible, but is the best situation. So, what is one of the easiest ways evil can prevent a child from being raised in such a family? Convince society that the sacred act that results in the creation of a child is just a means for pleasure. Demean it. Make it dirty. Turn it into just something to use for fun with whom ever and whenever we please. Extra-marital sex has destroyed more families, prevented more stable homes, and lead to more hours of counseling that anything else in this world.
Now, I know this is not going to be popular since our society has decided that there is nothing wrong with sex outside of marriage. No, not just that, but that it is to be celebrated and embraced. But, this is one of evils greatest tools in its war on the family and marriage. Look, this is actually very simple. Sex leads to pregnancy. That's it's purpose. You may think, but I use birth control. Guess what; no birth control is 100% effective. The only way to not get pregnant is to not have sex. So, if you are not ready to support and raise a child, don't have sex. It's not that complicated. Remember, we are doing this for the children. Every child deserves to be raised in a stable home. If you cannot provide that, don't have sex.
Society tells us that we can't control it. This is a lie. Society tells us that you have to have sex to show your love for someone. That is a lie. Society tells us that everyone is doing it. What are we, a bunch of lemmings following each other off a cliff? No, we are much better than that. We can exercise self control. It is possible to wait until marriage, and in fact, this shows much more love for someone when you are willing to wait.
Again, I could go on and on, but I think this is enough for now. The main point is that sex outside of marriage is a very powerful weapon used against marriage and the family. If we truly want to reverse the downward trends of our society, this is one of those root causes we must fix. Let's do it "for the children."
There is another topic very closely related that I purposely held off on in this entry, abortion. Maybe next time.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Reason for increasing violence
I think I was censored last night on Facebook. It's probably just as well, since I wrote it late at night and it may not have been well stated. But, I hate losing so many words that I typed. I will try to restate it here. Hopefully this will be easier anyways since I was trying to type on my 8inch tablet in bed last night.
I've remained silent for too long on this topic. We see increasing mass violence in our society. Many are shootings. Recently we've had outbreaks of mass stabbings. As we prepared to start Family Home Evening last night, my oldest son showed me a headline of another shooting with three killed in Kansas. We claim that we want to reverse this trend and find ways to stop these things from happening, but we seem only willing to put band aids on a bleeding artery. Are we as a society really willing to identify and accept the root cause of all of this violence? I am not sure that we are because it is contrary to the current trends and popular "enlightened" beliefs that frees us from all responsibilities.
In industry, where things are not as politically charged, when an incident occurs, we perform a root cause analysis. This involves many iterations as we dig deep to find the actually root cause. We do not stop at the initial, simple finding, but keep digging until we can identify policies and procedures that will help prevent the incident from occurring again. In our politically charged, political correct, easily offended society we can't get past the band aids. We blame guns, video games and mental illness, but we don't dig deeper to find the real cause.
Why? Because the real cause will offend many. The real fix will not be popular because it will require many to accepts truths they reject because they don't like them. Well, there comes a time when we must face the fact that the popular way of thinking is wrong and damaging. If we truly want to improve our society and reverse this trend of violence, now is the time.
So, enough preamble, I'll get right to what no one wants to hear and start offending. The root cause of the violent decay of our society is the deterioration of the Family and the relaxing of morals in recent generations. I will not state studies or findings in support of this (although any honest study would support it), but I base this on eternal, unchanging truths. There has been a war on marriage, the family and chastity for a very long time. Don't believe me? Look up the current divorce rate. Number of births to single, unwed mothers where the father has absolutely no involvement. There are far too many children growing up without the influence of a loving mother and father or other loving support. I would ask how we would expect anything less than unstable teens and adults when so many are growing up this way?
I could go on and on in this manner, but I will let the reader fill in more from his/her own experience. For now, I will just state that if we really want to end all of this violence, we must strengthen the family. We must reverse all of the popular trends that devalue the family and start building it up again. This will take a few generations because we already have too many people who have grown up without a good model for what a family should be; but if we don't start, we'll just continue to spiral downward.
So, done for now. I will discuss more specific topics in the future and really start offending the "enlightened, progressive" crowd.
I've remained silent for too long on this topic. We see increasing mass violence in our society. Many are shootings. Recently we've had outbreaks of mass stabbings. As we prepared to start Family Home Evening last night, my oldest son showed me a headline of another shooting with three killed in Kansas. We claim that we want to reverse this trend and find ways to stop these things from happening, but we seem only willing to put band aids on a bleeding artery. Are we as a society really willing to identify and accept the root cause of all of this violence? I am not sure that we are because it is contrary to the current trends and popular "enlightened" beliefs that frees us from all responsibilities.
In industry, where things are not as politically charged, when an incident occurs, we perform a root cause analysis. This involves many iterations as we dig deep to find the actually root cause. We do not stop at the initial, simple finding, but keep digging until we can identify policies and procedures that will help prevent the incident from occurring again. In our politically charged, political correct, easily offended society we can't get past the band aids. We blame guns, video games and mental illness, but we don't dig deeper to find the real cause.
Why? Because the real cause will offend many. The real fix will not be popular because it will require many to accepts truths they reject because they don't like them. Well, there comes a time when we must face the fact that the popular way of thinking is wrong and damaging. If we truly want to improve our society and reverse this trend of violence, now is the time.
So, enough preamble, I'll get right to what no one wants to hear and start offending. The root cause of the violent decay of our society is the deterioration of the Family and the relaxing of morals in recent generations. I will not state studies or findings in support of this (although any honest study would support it), but I base this on eternal, unchanging truths. There has been a war on marriage, the family and chastity for a very long time. Don't believe me? Look up the current divorce rate. Number of births to single, unwed mothers where the father has absolutely no involvement. There are far too many children growing up without the influence of a loving mother and father or other loving support. I would ask how we would expect anything less than unstable teens and adults when so many are growing up this way?
I could go on and on in this manner, but I will let the reader fill in more from his/her own experience. For now, I will just state that if we really want to end all of this violence, we must strengthen the family. We must reverse all of the popular trends that devalue the family and start building it up again. This will take a few generations because we already have too many people who have grown up without a good model for what a family should be; but if we don't start, we'll just continue to spiral downward.
So, done for now. I will discuss more specific topics in the future and really start offending the "enlightened, progressive" crowd.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Selfishness Continued
In my last post I discussed selfishness in the context of a mom who was all caught up in herself and her loss at not being able to attend her sons marriage in an LDS Temple. There was another part of the story that I forgot to mention. The parents of the bride, who could enter the Temple and attend the wedding, chose not to attend.They were willing to miss their daugther's wedding because they considered the feelings of the groom's parents. This selfless act stands in contrast to the selfishness of the mother of the groom.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Selfishness
Selfishness is at the root of many of our society’s problems. We have become a people obsessed with self. Everything is about me. Don't offend me. Don't take away my programs. Give me health care. Take care of me. I deserve to be provided for even if I don't earn it. Me, me, me.
I picked this topic today because of an article in the Arizona Republic about Non-Mormons not being able to attend Temple weddings and the heart break that comes from it. The article discussed a mom whose son joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and who was going to be married in an LDS Temple. Since she was not a member of the LDS Church, she could not enter the Temple and would not be present for the marriage ceremony. She was devastated and could not believe a Church would prevent her from attending her son’s wedding. She was complaining about everything she would miss. It was all about her and how hurt she felt because she was going to miss out. Not once did it mention that she was happy for her son. I wonder if she even considered that this is what was making him happy. If she had been able to put her son first and not been so selfish thinking only of herself, she would have been able to support her son and joyed in the occasion instead of brooding over everything "she" was going to miss. How sad for her.
Besides this, if she would have taken the time to learn and understand, she would have learned that what happens in the Temple ceremony is nothing like what she wants for a wedding anyways. The ceremony in the Temple is simple and sacred and does not have the pomp and circumstance she is longing for. The celebration she wants can still occur afterwards at a reception. They can enjoy all that she is longing for in the reception, without the alcohol, of course.
Anyways, the point is that selfishness is the cause of much of our issues. If people could stop dwelling just on themselves and start thinking of others, much would improve. There is a bit of a paradox in this. The more you put others before yourself, the happier you will be. Funny how the result everyone is seeking for in their selfishness can only be achieved by turning away from self and serving others.
I picked this topic today because of an article in the Arizona Republic about Non-Mormons not being able to attend Temple weddings and the heart break that comes from it. The article discussed a mom whose son joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and who was going to be married in an LDS Temple. Since she was not a member of the LDS Church, she could not enter the Temple and would not be present for the marriage ceremony. She was devastated and could not believe a Church would prevent her from attending her son’s wedding. She was complaining about everything she would miss. It was all about her and how hurt she felt because she was going to miss out. Not once did it mention that she was happy for her son. I wonder if she even considered that this is what was making him happy. If she had been able to put her son first and not been so selfish thinking only of herself, she would have been able to support her son and joyed in the occasion instead of brooding over everything "she" was going to miss. How sad for her.
Besides this, if she would have taken the time to learn and understand, she would have learned that what happens in the Temple ceremony is nothing like what she wants for a wedding anyways. The ceremony in the Temple is simple and sacred and does not have the pomp and circumstance she is longing for. The celebration she wants can still occur afterwards at a reception. They can enjoy all that she is longing for in the reception, without the alcohol, of course.
Anyways, the point is that selfishness is the cause of much of our issues. If people could stop dwelling just on themselves and start thinking of others, much would improve. There is a bit of a paradox in this. The more you put others before yourself, the happier you will be. Funny how the result everyone is seeking for in their selfishness can only be achieved by turning away from self and serving others.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Not just a religious preaching blog.
I know the first two posts are on religious topics. While this may occur frequently, I do not intend to blog only on religious topics. It just happens that the first thing I wanted to respond to was about religion.
Why so many religions?
As a follow up to my last post it may be prudent to discuss why there are so many religions. If, as I asserted before, there is only one truth, why are there so many religions? This question cannot be answered by common sense alone until we have a basic understanding of some fundamental truths. I will start with these basic truths, then the answer may be discovered with simple reasoning.
As there is a Supreme force for good, or a God, there is also a source of evil; the classic struggle of good versus evil. This is not a literary creation of a simple tradition but is based in eternal truth. This force of evil stands in opposition to God and desires the destruction of everything good. It desires everyone to be miserable because it is miserable. This force is known by many names such as Satan, Lucifer or the devil. He is real, just as God is real.
So, with this key understanding of a force opposed to God, we can deduce why there are many religions. Satan will use any means available to prevent us from finding God and His eternal truths. Because, if we can find God and His truth, we will find joy, happiness and peace. Satan does not want that. So, he employs many means to deceive us.
One of his best tools, and working well on anyone skeptical of the truth that there is a force of evil, is that he doesn't exist. If he can convince you that there is no evil then he has no need for any additional deceptions. If you don't believe there is any evil, then you cannot believe there is any good; for how could one exist without the other? And if there is no good, why would there be a God or any need to seek him? Life must have no meaning other than to just live for yourself and the day.
Another common tool that Satan uses is to provide counterfeits of things that are good. He uses half-truths to deceive those who are content with a little of the truth but unwilling to make the effort to find the whole truth. If he can provide something that looks appealing with partial truths, he can prevent us from finding the original. One of the results of his counterfeiting is the existence of many religions. There is one true religion that contains all of the truths of God and His plan, but with the existence of many, it is difficult to find it.
To improve his plan, Satan is also working to discredit religion altogether. Haven't created his counterfeits, he can then use them to deceive many others by making religion look bad. He makes it appear to be the enemy of peace. We can see this in a couple of fashions. First, since the differing religions are teaching different beliefs, how can any of them be right? For elaboration on this, see my previous post. Second, if he can have religion appear to be evil he would have a great victory. How many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion? Too many to number. And why has this been done? Because religion is bad? No, because Satan wants to discredit all religion to prevent us from finding truth and God.
Satan's plan is very effective today. There an many people who decry all religion because they have been convinced that religion is evil or that it is misleading its followers. Every religion that has commits atrocities or that promotes discord and contention has done so at the bidding of Satan. This is very important to understand, because without this key of knowledge we could be left to believe, as many do today, that there is no true religion.
However, I assure you that there is a true religion. I promise that there is a religion that truly preaches and practices principles of good. There is a religion that preaches and embraces peace, love for our fellow man, service and charity. It is a religion that expects is followers to think for themselves and learn for themselves of the truths of God. It is a religion that Satan does not want you to find because it brings true joy, happiness and knowledge. Satan has done much by way of counterfeiting and discrediting religions to hinder us in finding this happiness.
In summary, I have presented the key of knowledge necessary to understand why there would be so many religions in the world and why many have perpetuated violence and cruelty throughout the ages. This key is that there is a force of evil opposed to all things good.
As there is a Supreme force for good, or a God, there is also a source of evil; the classic struggle of good versus evil. This is not a literary creation of a simple tradition but is based in eternal truth. This force of evil stands in opposition to God and desires the destruction of everything good. It desires everyone to be miserable because it is miserable. This force is known by many names such as Satan, Lucifer or the devil. He is real, just as God is real.
So, with this key understanding of a force opposed to God, we can deduce why there are many religions. Satan will use any means available to prevent us from finding God and His eternal truths. Because, if we can find God and His truth, we will find joy, happiness and peace. Satan does not want that. So, he employs many means to deceive us.
One of his best tools, and working well on anyone skeptical of the truth that there is a force of evil, is that he doesn't exist. If he can convince you that there is no evil then he has no need for any additional deceptions. If you don't believe there is any evil, then you cannot believe there is any good; for how could one exist without the other? And if there is no good, why would there be a God or any need to seek him? Life must have no meaning other than to just live for yourself and the day.
Another common tool that Satan uses is to provide counterfeits of things that are good. He uses half-truths to deceive those who are content with a little of the truth but unwilling to make the effort to find the whole truth. If he can provide something that looks appealing with partial truths, he can prevent us from finding the original. One of the results of his counterfeiting is the existence of many religions. There is one true religion that contains all of the truths of God and His plan, but with the existence of many, it is difficult to find it.
To improve his plan, Satan is also working to discredit religion altogether. Haven't created his counterfeits, he can then use them to deceive many others by making religion look bad. He makes it appear to be the enemy of peace. We can see this in a couple of fashions. First, since the differing religions are teaching different beliefs, how can any of them be right? For elaboration on this, see my previous post. Second, if he can have religion appear to be evil he would have a great victory. How many atrocities have been committed in the name of religion? Too many to number. And why has this been done? Because religion is bad? No, because Satan wants to discredit all religion to prevent us from finding truth and God.
Satan's plan is very effective today. There an many people who decry all religion because they have been convinced that religion is evil or that it is misleading its followers. Every religion that has commits atrocities or that promotes discord and contention has done so at the bidding of Satan. This is very important to understand, because without this key of knowledge we could be left to believe, as many do today, that there is no true religion.
However, I assure you that there is a true religion. I promise that there is a religion that truly preaches and practices principles of good. There is a religion that preaches and embraces peace, love for our fellow man, service and charity. It is a religion that expects is followers to think for themselves and learn for themselves of the truths of God. It is a religion that Satan does not want you to find because it brings true joy, happiness and knowledge. Satan has done much by way of counterfeiting and discrediting religions to hinder us in finding this happiness.
In summary, I have presented the key of knowledge necessary to understand why there would be so many religions in the world and why many have perpetuated violence and cruelty throughout the ages. This key is that there is a force of evil opposed to all things good.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Do we just blindly believe in God?
I read a post by someone on an online article about James Cameron harping on Glenn Beck. Somehow, the chain of comments focused on religions. This individual posted a message in all capitals (I suppose to seem more adamant) decrying all followers of any religion. The gist of his post was that all religions are bad and that anyone who believes in one is naive and just blindly following myth and superstition. He urged all religious people to just THINK and free yourself from the oppression of religion. OK, so let's think and apply some simple logic and common sense do determine who is really naive and needs to think through his beliefs.
Let's start with the assupmtion that all religions are the same with naive followers. While it is true that many people have had some bad experiences with religions and their practices, the conclusion that all would be wrong based on a select sample is not valid. It not anymore valid that saying all apples are rotten if you have only seen a batch of bad apples. However, the fact that there are differing religions and bad experiences with them merits further investigation as to why.
To answer that, we need to get down to the very basis of religion. The basic belief of any religion is that there is a Supreme Being or Essence that represents all truth, power and morality. So, what we really need to determine in this argument is if there is a Supreme Being or God. We'll get to that later. For the sake of the current point, I will take the position that there is an ulitimate, final source for all truth, power and morality; in short, a God.
With God as the source of all truth, it follows that all truth must be consistent in one whole. However, any thinking person would realize that not all religions have the same beliefs. How can there be only one truth, but many religions with varying beliefs about that truth? The only conclusion is that not all religions are correct. It also means that only one religion can be correct and that would be the one that contains the one truth. If only one can be correct, then that means there are many more that are not. This leads many people today, such as the poster mentioned earlier, to believe that all religions are false and that the people who follow them are just naive. It's not that all religions are bad, the person just hasn't found the ONE religion that contains all of the truth and thus can provide the good and fulfillment that religion should provide.
Now, again following my position that there is a God and one truth and one true religion, it would make sense that they most important thing we could do in this life would be to find that religion. Nothing else in life could have as much import or meaning as finding our God in His one true religion so that we can receive the true joy and blessings that are available to us.
So, lumping all religions together and saying they are all wrong just doesn't make sense. In fact, the only thing that does make sense is that there is one true religion and the others false, or at least not fully correct. Many religions may have part of the truth, but it's obvious that they cannot all be right because they have differing beliefs. So the conclusion must be that there can be one good, true religion even though many seem wrong.
Of course, to make this argument, I had to take the position that there is a single, Supreme source of truth; a God. The poster obviously did not believe in a God or he could not reasonably beleive what he stated. So, we needed to visit the basic belief in God.
The poster and atheists take the position that there is not a God because you cannot see Him or touch Him. They believe that anyone who believes in God is just naive and blindly following silly traditions. This simply is not true. While it may not be possible to scientifically prove there is a God, I contend that this is necessary in His plan and not need to verify His existence.
First, let's just apply reasonably thought as the poster suggested. If there is no God and Supreme Creator, all that we know on this earth would have to be explained as a random accident that just happened to present all the right conditions to end up in a planet that can support life. And then, all the right conditions just happened to occur that would allow life to begin AND all the right evolutions would have to occur to bring us to the extra ordinary consciousness and abilities of human beings. The odds of this occuring randomly are astronomical. The time it would take for all of this to happen randomly would be far more than the billions of years of the earths existence. The only thing that make sense is that there is a Supreme Being that coordinated the conditions so that they could occur as necessary to provide a planet that can support life and to lead to human beings. In short, a Creator and a creation.
However, this is not the only nor the best evidence that there is a God. And if this is all we had, I would concede my position. What we have that assures us of the existence of a God is faith. Now, the poster and his kind would say, "I told you, it's just blind belief." Again, that is false. Faith is not blind belief. Faith is based on evidence. Faith is belief in evidence that is not seen, but most assuredly is felt. This is were it gets difficult for the poster. He has never felt faith and has not comprehension of it. Explaining the evidence of faith to someone who has not taken the time to find it and THINK or ponder about it is nearly impossible. It is similar to trying to explain the taste of salt to someone who has never tasted salt. But, everyone can experience it IF they will seek it and ask for it. This is the poster's problem. He is comfortable in his non-belief and probably afraid of the truth if he were to find it.
Faith may be difficult to explain without a common frame of reference, but there are analogies that can help us understand that it is possible to believe without seeing. Have you ever seen the wind blow? No? But you have seen the trees sway in the wind. And you have felt the wind on your face. Have I ever seen God? Maybe not, but I have seem evidence of His power and felt the assurance of His presence.
Have you seen oxygen? Probably not, but you now it is there because you can breath. Now, you may say, but people have seen oxygen molecules using scientific equipment, so we have witnesses to support our "belief" in oxygen.
This brings us to another point. I believe not only that there is a God but that He is a loving God and wants what is best for us. That being the case, He would not want to leave us here blind and not knowing Him or why we are here. To that end, He has communicated with men and women on earth through His voice and through angels. These people have even more evidence of the existence of God through visual and physical proof as the scientist who uses equipment to see oxygen molecules. These people are our witnesses to the truth about God. Many of these people are known has prophets and have recorded there testimonies in sacred books we call scriptures. How do we know there testimonies are true? Faith.
So, it all comes down to faith. So is faith just a blind belief in silly traditions as the poster would have us believe? I think I have made my case that it is not. And I promise you that there is a way that everyone can know that it is not true. Everyone can receive the assurance that comes with faith and experience this evidence of things not seen. But, it does not come free. You have to want it and seek it. If you really want to know, and I assert that there can be nothing of greater importance in this life than to know, you must approach God in prayer and humble ask if He is there. But, I warn you, if you do, with real intent and in sincerity, you will feel something in your heart and mind that you may have never felt before. You probably won't understand it at first, but it is the seeds of faith. And then you will have experienced the evidence of faith that is the foundation of all of our belief in God.
Let's start with the assupmtion that all religions are the same with naive followers. While it is true that many people have had some bad experiences with religions and their practices, the conclusion that all would be wrong based on a select sample is not valid. It not anymore valid that saying all apples are rotten if you have only seen a batch of bad apples. However, the fact that there are differing religions and bad experiences with them merits further investigation as to why.
To answer that, we need to get down to the very basis of religion. The basic belief of any religion is that there is a Supreme Being or Essence that represents all truth, power and morality. So, what we really need to determine in this argument is if there is a Supreme Being or God. We'll get to that later. For the sake of the current point, I will take the position that there is an ulitimate, final source for all truth, power and morality; in short, a God.
With God as the source of all truth, it follows that all truth must be consistent in one whole. However, any thinking person would realize that not all religions have the same beliefs. How can there be only one truth, but many religions with varying beliefs about that truth? The only conclusion is that not all religions are correct. It also means that only one religion can be correct and that would be the one that contains the one truth. If only one can be correct, then that means there are many more that are not. This leads many people today, such as the poster mentioned earlier, to believe that all religions are false and that the people who follow them are just naive. It's not that all religions are bad, the person just hasn't found the ONE religion that contains all of the truth and thus can provide the good and fulfillment that religion should provide.
Now, again following my position that there is a God and one truth and one true religion, it would make sense that they most important thing we could do in this life would be to find that religion. Nothing else in life could have as much import or meaning as finding our God in His one true religion so that we can receive the true joy and blessings that are available to us.
So, lumping all religions together and saying they are all wrong just doesn't make sense. In fact, the only thing that does make sense is that there is one true religion and the others false, or at least not fully correct. Many religions may have part of the truth, but it's obvious that they cannot all be right because they have differing beliefs. So the conclusion must be that there can be one good, true religion even though many seem wrong.
Of course, to make this argument, I had to take the position that there is a single, Supreme source of truth; a God. The poster obviously did not believe in a God or he could not reasonably beleive what he stated. So, we needed to visit the basic belief in God.
The poster and atheists take the position that there is not a God because you cannot see Him or touch Him. They believe that anyone who believes in God is just naive and blindly following silly traditions. This simply is not true. While it may not be possible to scientifically prove there is a God, I contend that this is necessary in His plan and not need to verify His existence.
First, let's just apply reasonably thought as the poster suggested. If there is no God and Supreme Creator, all that we know on this earth would have to be explained as a random accident that just happened to present all the right conditions to end up in a planet that can support life. And then, all the right conditions just happened to occur that would allow life to begin AND all the right evolutions would have to occur to bring us to the extra ordinary consciousness and abilities of human beings. The odds of this occuring randomly are astronomical. The time it would take for all of this to happen randomly would be far more than the billions of years of the earths existence. The only thing that make sense is that there is a Supreme Being that coordinated the conditions so that they could occur as necessary to provide a planet that can support life and to lead to human beings. In short, a Creator and a creation.
However, this is not the only nor the best evidence that there is a God. And if this is all we had, I would concede my position. What we have that assures us of the existence of a God is faith. Now, the poster and his kind would say, "I told you, it's just blind belief." Again, that is false. Faith is not blind belief. Faith is based on evidence. Faith is belief in evidence that is not seen, but most assuredly is felt. This is were it gets difficult for the poster. He has never felt faith and has not comprehension of it. Explaining the evidence of faith to someone who has not taken the time to find it and THINK or ponder about it is nearly impossible. It is similar to trying to explain the taste of salt to someone who has never tasted salt. But, everyone can experience it IF they will seek it and ask for it. This is the poster's problem. He is comfortable in his non-belief and probably afraid of the truth if he were to find it.
Faith may be difficult to explain without a common frame of reference, but there are analogies that can help us understand that it is possible to believe without seeing. Have you ever seen the wind blow? No? But you have seen the trees sway in the wind. And you have felt the wind on your face. Have I ever seen God? Maybe not, but I have seem evidence of His power and felt the assurance of His presence.
Have you seen oxygen? Probably not, but you now it is there because you can breath. Now, you may say, but people have seen oxygen molecules using scientific equipment, so we have witnesses to support our "belief" in oxygen.
This brings us to another point. I believe not only that there is a God but that He is a loving God and wants what is best for us. That being the case, He would not want to leave us here blind and not knowing Him or why we are here. To that end, He has communicated with men and women on earth through His voice and through angels. These people have even more evidence of the existence of God through visual and physical proof as the scientist who uses equipment to see oxygen molecules. These people are our witnesses to the truth about God. Many of these people are known has prophets and have recorded there testimonies in sacred books we call scriptures. How do we know there testimonies are true? Faith.
So, it all comes down to faith. So is faith just a blind belief in silly traditions as the poster would have us believe? I think I have made my case that it is not. And I promise you that there is a way that everyone can know that it is not true. Everyone can receive the assurance that comes with faith and experience this evidence of things not seen. But, it does not come free. You have to want it and seek it. If you really want to know, and I assert that there can be nothing of greater importance in this life than to know, you must approach God in prayer and humble ask if He is there. But, I warn you, if you do, with real intent and in sincerity, you will feel something in your heart and mind that you may have never felt before. You probably won't understand it at first, but it is the seeds of faith. And then you will have experienced the evidence of faith that is the foundation of all of our belief in God.
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