Hello everyone. I recently read a book about dinosaurs and was fascinated by them. I was inspired to draw some coloring pages to share. Feel free to print as many as you like (the file downloads onto your computer when you click it).
Dinosaurspdf
@windar12q @ekrause1406 @S.M.S. @cwh @Kirk Peters @agetoage07 @burrawang @burrawang @T_aquaticus
You are such a great artist, Elizabeth! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you ekrause1406.
My son is an artist and has drawn dinosaurs for the cover of my book..
Good work.
What kinds of art does he like?
My son has gone through most of what artists go through, the human form and even commercial adverts, Sculpture was also one of his exercises plus all in between. You don't get away with just drawing. He has done portraits and animal features, but his favourite I think, though he won't admit it, is cartoons. For a man of 59 years old to be buying comics doesn't look good, but when you are hooked on art, any old art, you are oblivious of what people think - he likes to do comic strips. Why don't you try that? Your mind will begin to fly. You are already halfway there, I can tell by your drawings.
This will give you lots to think about while you are isolating, so get to it. I will look forward to your future attempts now you know.
Though he does not do it professionally, he still paints and draws every day, new ideas keep springing forth.
Stay safe ekrause1406.
Hello everybody, I hope you are all OK. Sitting here in isolation I thought that maybe I could try and explain why I am at peace with the world and do not need the comfort of religion. It's a very complex reasoning which I will try to explain as simply as I can and may give you something to ponder; taking our minds off the present crisis.
When stepped out on that first morn,
Was I there when the first was born?
I am still here watching and still here waiting. The Earth is at home in its place in the Cosmos, but now perhaps it is the time to go outside and have a look at its surroundings. I may venture to the horizon and beyond, but before I go, let me ponder and look more closely at my dwelling and consider the energy that my Earth has endowed. It is an energy that cannot be eradicated, an energy with the ability to change its shape for whatever serves its purpose.
The Earth has an energy that characterizes every individual with a variety matched only by the diversity of life that exists on this planet. Its dependency to sustain, is correlated with its neighbours, forging the balance of nature and bringing a design that mystifies the most prolific of scholars.
Earth's energy that gives us life, also gives us death; even our flesh could not decay without energy to allow death's function. The Cosmos with all that it represents, also appears to be in a state of disorder. It is dictated by the laws of physics and add to this quantum mechanics with its spooky intelligence, bringing another dimension to confuse and mystify.
Earth itself is a progeny of this energized state of disorder, without which we would have nothing to strive for. Does this mean that our very existence depends on negativity? Is our concept of what is, being waylaid by our concept of what isn't? Beyond the realms of man's existence, there lies a conundrum of emotions, where positive and negative emotions complement each other. Think of it this way - a state of disorder could not exist without a state of order in the first place. Knowing our time limits, is what determines the outcome. Only a biological energy with its purpose to progress in the equivocal way that it does, appears to defy the odds. ( I explained biological energy by its association with emotions.) Biological energy is in a state of order; a state of order that is necessary to keep what we mistake for, as a state of disorder; which is what keeps life evolving. (Giving purpose.) It is only by understanding this, will life ever come to some understanding and maybe put a maelstrom of negativity into the bin where it belongs and bury it.
The power that sustains all that we know, is not a he or a she, it is a fundamental energy and should not be worshipped; it should be explored and nurtured. Its secrets that have battled the mind of many a great scholar for centuries, while installing more knowledge, could now with some understanding, start to reveal the truth. Maybe the single unified theory; or in other words, (The reality that explains the whole.) That is the whole up to the present.
This Earth of ours is a battleground of wonders and if given the chance, our minds will be freed to explore the knowledge that is out there; a knowledge that is waiting to be discovered, and when we have conquered the mystery of the Cosmos - where is there to go? Who knows what lies beyond the boundaries of our universe? The journey will probably go on forever and the most marvellous thing about this is; I will still be there, for I am part of Earth's energy. I have been and always will be part of that energy, which in its turn is belonging to a much more prescriptive energy - the universe.
When stepped out on that first morn,
Was I there when the first was born?
I can't wait to boldly go where no one has gone before.
"Take us out of orbit Mr Chekov."
I would like to say, "Live long and prosper" but, unfortunately, that is simply science fiction. With all due respect, what you have written is fiction. And, by the way, there IS a Man who has boldly gone where no man has gone before, into the grave of death and back out again alive forevermore. His name is Jesus. And all who trust in Him will do the same thing. Because of Jesus, we don't just live long and prosper, we live forever. I continue to pray each day for your deliverance.
Hello S.M.S,
Space and orbit are real and can be demonstrated, all you do is recite from a book. A book is proof of nothing except our vulnerability.
Keep safe
I guess I should have been more clear. Earth's energy giving us life and death is fiction. Life does not come from non-life. So you're still left with the original life question. Thankfully, the One who created life has given us the answer. You and I weren't there, but He was.
I guess we will have to differ, because having the energy that gives life also gives us purpose. Without being aware of it, you and I are purveyors of purpose, which in turn will perhaps enable us to come to some sort of compromise. However we do have a problem, I debate using facts and you debate using the tales from a book. A book is hearsay unless it can be demonstrated to be fact. On this point you can never win a debate. What you and I are doing by not agreeing, is feeding on what is the food of evolutionary intelligence - purpose. It is this that has led me to question and explore and unfortunately, your belief is making you do the opposite. Religion is going against all that nature is telling us. Religion is wrong.
Hello! I think I understand a bit better now how you feel about energy in the universe. It sounds beautiful. However, when I think of things that are beautiful, I am reminded of Ephesians 2.
"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." - Ephesians 2:1-10
I heard someone say on Tuesday that those two words "but God" are the most hopeful two words ever known to man, and it really resonated with me. We may sin terribly, but God still loves us; we may feel powerless, but God still has plans for us.
Hello everyone, I hope you are all staying safe.
I have something which we can ponder while we isolate ourselves.
Dr Donald Hoffman discovered that all life cannot see accurately - this is a scientific fact.
We look at life and into the universe and what we see is complexity.
My problem with this is - are we seeing complexity or is everything in order?
Is the illusion of complexity that keeps providing us with purpose, the result of life not seeing accurately? Does the complexity come from us, and are we the ones with the complexity? In all the universe are we the complexity and the rest is in a state of order?
I find the best way to explain complexity is to imagine you are standing here on Earth, looking out into the universe. Like science, you would see entropy, but if you can imagine yourself standing outside the universe looking in, you would not see entropy, but order.
Stay safe ekrause.
Hello windar12q! As I was thinking about your comment about the source of nature's patterns, it reminded me of Romans 1:19-20
19 "For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse."
We both believe that these patterns can't possibly be random. This verse reminds me that God designed nature in this way so that His power could be seen by anyone.
Hello ekrause1406,
Whether you choose a God or nature is up to you, but one can be demonstrated and the other can't. All creatures, great and small, the Lord God made them all. This was, and still is attributed to some greater power, but now science is beginning to understand by looking at these patterns that this is not the case - nature and life are self serving and the diversity of life is associated with these patterns and not a God.
Think about it ekrause, if we had gone on believing that the variety in life was God's work, we would never have begun to understand what life was about, and our journey to other planets would have left us unprepared for what is to come.
Our intelligence is growing by the minute and only religion can stop it - don't you see that religion is not the way to go? This is why I could never be religious.
The paragraph you send, tells the power of God, but explains nothing. Please read it again and you will see where you are being mislead. To make a statement of power is not enough - that power has to be explained and demonstrated. Anyone can make a statement, but it does not mean it is true.
Keep safe ekrause1406.
The Bible describes Jesus doing something requiring unimaginable power: rising from the dead and never dying again.
If the Bible were the only evidence this actually happened, you might be able to dismiss it as nothing more than a story. However, logic and historical documentation outside the Bible support a real, physical resurrection.
Without a real resurrection Christianity would not have survived (see 1 Corinthians 15, Acts 5:34-39).
Here are some common objections to the resurrection and why they fail logically.
The disciples made up the resurrection: This one falls short for two main reasons. One, most of the disciples died for what they professed (why would anyone do that for something they knew was a lie?). Two, the story of the resurrection isn't something that anyone trying to invent a religion would want to make up. The women were the first to hear the good news, when men would have sounded more credible to ancient middle eastern culture. The disciples admit they cowered in a locked room and doubted the early reports of Jesus' resurrection (until they saw Him personally).
Someone stole Jesus' body: If Jesus' body had been stolen by the disciples, then we run into all the problems above. If the Romans, the Jewish religious leaders, or any other opponent of Christianity had stolen the body, they could have refuted the disciples right away by proving that Jesus was still dead.
3. Many facts about Jesus' life are recorded in sources outside the Bible, such as the writings of Roman historian Josephus and Roman politician Tacitus.
Here are some sources for point 3:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/14/what-is-the-historical-evidence-that-jesus-christ-lived-and-died
https://reasonabletheology.org/jesus-outside-the-bible-1-tacitus/
The difference ekrause is, scientific theories are based on evidence and religion is not. When confronted by problems; statements are not enough. The example I sent concerning all creatures great and small should be enough to convince you. Religion has no answer, but to say it's God's doing - on the other hand, I give an explanation, which is the one energy system. From my stance, I can go on learning, from yours, you cannot.
You have mentioned in a previous letter how the neurons urge the synapses and this allows us to construct what we are seeing - religion does the opposite, because by declaring it knows without any tangible evidence, it is going against all that nature is telling us. It has stopped using nature's way of constructing. Nature has endowed us with many patterns and to construct with our eyes is paramount in our progress, without which we would be so far down the evolutionary scale that we would be of very little importance.
There is a decline in religious beliefs which I have noticed in my life time and it must go on declining because of its stance against nature - nature will win every time.
Stay safe
Hello windar12q! What kind of tangible evidence are you referring to? I mentioned several historical writers that were near-contemporaries of Jesus in my previous post. As those historians were not Christian themselves (and were actually somewhat hostile to the religion) they would not have had any motive to make up those stories about Jesus. If you were looking for evidence from science and nature, I know Burrawang has cited many articles.
Also, I would be interested to hear more about your observations of declining religious belief. I heard once that Europe is in need of the Gospel as much as, if not more than, the places we normally think of as needing missionaries. To what extent has religious observance declined where you are and why do you think it happened?
Hello ekrause1406,
I don't dispute that Jesus ever existed, it is the claims of his miracles that I see as not tangible. The past is a past of superstition and there were many 'prophets' that abounded at that time, it was inevitable that one would eventually stand out from the crowd. We see it today with people like Billy Graham and Martin Luther King etc. There is another way of predicting the human psyche by looking at the Wild West and the accumulated sense of make believe, regarding the most notorious outlaws. Some have now become legends, which are praised with made up stories and people believe them to be true. It makes them feel better, but it is a false contingency that can only lead to a fall and that is why false prophecies have no place in society. This includes religion.
Religion is on the decline for many reasons and mostly because its predictions and their source have been replaced by scientific reasoning. The ancient Greeks actually believed in their Gods the same way you do and with the same pragmatic illusion. It was the only way they could explain the lightening or the thunder. Thor, Zeus and the others were as real to them as your God is for you, but time overtook them and their Gods are now tales of myth. The same thing is happening to your God as we discover that the supernatural has a natural explanation. 'Dreams of the Future' are still believed to be that by some of the most brilliant scholars of today, but having investigated them, I have seen their true value and it lies with the evolution of life. This explains the diversity of life, which is still attributed to a God by those of faith, but even that is now on the verge of being explained by natural means. Religion and its beliefs are being whittled down every day, every second and this means it will go the same way as all Gods have gone - into mythological history. There are so many different religions, if there was a God, there would only be one religion.
Though many of faith say they have a personal relationship with their God, but which only proves that God doesn't exist - I repeat, if this was so, then there would only be one God; either that or the answer is there are many different Gods; you can't have it all ways.
Surely you can see how nonsensical all this is - it means that there will never be peace, there will always be these very personal, but different Gods, The very thing that religion keeps striving to achieve, it is destroying. Unrest is the thing it is creating and along with this unrest comes all the killings and man's inhumanity to man that have gone on down the ages and still are. It's time we started to see accurately.
I don't recall burrawang providing scientific evidence for a God, please enlighten me.
Keep well ekrause1406.
Good evening windar12q! It is interesting that you use peoples' beliefs about religion to determine whether the religion is true (you believe God only exist because we think he does). Remember that God does not depend on what people think about Him to make Him exist. However, the Bible itself states that false religion, by nature, dies out. Here is what one pharisee said of the spread of faith in Jesus. His conclusion: let the apostles go spread Christianity and let God make them succeed or fail.
34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel,a teacher of the law,who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while.35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men.36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing.37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered.38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”
- Acts 5:34-39
So, is the declining population of European Christians evidence that Christianity is false, or are there other reasons?
First of all, I decided to do a little more research on the state of the worldwide Christian population. According to Pew Research Center:
There are an estimated 2.18 billion Christians (about 1/3 of the world population). This is nearly 4x how many there were 100 years ago, though they made up about the same percent of the world population then as now.
While the Christian population in Europe and America has declined, the Christian populations of sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region have seen massive growth. https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/
It seems to me that Christianity has not declined, but the population distribution has shifted. I did some research on why this might be so.
A significant percentage of the decline of Christianity in Europe and America can be attributed to the rising popularity of being religiously non-affiliated (not atheism. Religiously unaffiliated means incorporating beliefs from various religions into your own personal belief system). Being unaffiliated is especially popular among young people across all races and levels of education.
One possible explanation for the decline of Christianity in America has to do with a shift in culture and what it means to be a "good American". There was once an expectation that you identify as a Christian whether your faith was actually important to you or not; now that expectation is no longer there. https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/november-web-only/future-of-christianity.html
One reason for the growth of the African Christian population is that large families are common. The Christian faith has grown so much in Africa that churches there engage in "reverse missions" (sending missionaries to Europe). https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/trend/archive/summer-2016/how-africa-is-changing-faith-around-the-world
In Asia, persecution of Christian churches may actually be contributing to the growth of those churches. Persecution is viewed as a sign that the persecuted have strong faith. https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/2182800/christians-asia-persecuted-oppressed-keeping-faith
This post got quite long, but I enjoyed researching it. Good night.
Good morning ekrause1406,
You mention the decline of religion in America and it is not hard to see its power being curtailed as intelligence grows. To rule with fear is not what the intelligent participants want and the realisation of how they have been duped is at last coming to the fore. The reason that religion took hold in the way that it has, is because individuals who found themselves unable to believe were still chained to that religion. To leave would have meant to forsake your family, or your family would forsake you. This still happens in America and if the count was allowed to go ahead without this fear of rejection, the count against religion would be much higher. You can't get a legitimate survey under these conditions. For some in other religions the penalty is death if you deny your faith. I ask you ekrause, how can this be allowed to be counted as a genuine picture of the world and its religions?
The guesswork relating to the future of Africa is also based on this same scenario and does not offer any true value. Religion just distorts the truth with its draconian mind-set, that needs changing if the world is ever going to live in some kind of peace. How can you ever bring children into a religion that offers them eternal damnation if they don't follow the faith that you believe. Like I mentioned before, my wife and I helped Children in Need when I was younger, and the one thing that sticks in my mind is - which is the most harmful; sexual abuse or mental abuse and the answer was always, mental abuse. If this is the only way that religion can grow, then its decline is more welcome.
If you don't agree with this, please take a step back and refresh your thoughts and ask yourself, where is your faith taking you?
With statistics you can prove anything, but it is only by seeking the truth will the real story ever be told. Just one hundred years ago, 60% of the world's population believed in fairies; which means that if a survey had been done at the time, it would have been established that fairies existed. The same applies to religion. The amount of people who believe is not proof that what they believe in is real.
And yes it is true; with all those of faith saying that they have a personal relationship with their God, is proof that God does not exist. If there was only one God they would all have the same relationship. All it proves is the world will be in conflict forever. Who would want a God like that? A God like that would be so mixed up he would need psychiatric help. It;s all a farce ekrause; the more you try to defend your religion the more of its faults will be exposed.
Sorry to be so harsh, but the truth is the truth.
Keep safe
Hello windar12q. I highly frown on the idea that teaching children to follow Jesus is "mental abuse". I am grateful that my parents and teachers have taught me about God. Their encouragement and example in faith has helped shape me into the person I am today. Think about it this way: if what the Bible says is true, then the worst possible thing a parent could do to a child is refrain from teaching them about Jesus, and the greatest gift a parent can give is teaching that child all about Him. I count myself incredibly blessed to have been given this gift; and one of the reasons I want to share my faith is because I want you to have the same opportunity.
The fact that there are many different religions in the world, all of which profess to know the truth, is not as problematic to me as you might think. Even though God wants everyone to follow Him, He does not force us. God did not design us to be machines unthinkingly following Him because we have no other choice, He made us in His image with the ability to make decisions and gave us the freedom to act on them. An analogy may be helpful to understand a possible reason why: Would you rather have a robot say it loved you or a child say he loved you? I assume you would prefer the child. While the robot only says that because that is what it is programmed to say, the child says it of his own free will because that is how he genuinely feels. God created us to be children, not robots. But do children always behave? Of course not! As humans we often misuse the freedom that God has given us by worshiping other gods and disobeying what He says. Most people who follow other religions are probably unaware that they are disobeying God, but being unaware of God's rules does not mean the rules doesn't exist.
"14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,“Abba! Father!”" - Romans 8:14-15
Hello ekrause1406,
I believe there is some good in the Bible and it has stood you in good stead, but my concern is with the more vulnerable, who are susceptible to the teachings. By what you write it appears that you think it is my personal opinion of the Bible's abuse, but you are wrong. The Bible's adaptation of what society knows is wrong would be more precise. The promise of burning in Hell forever is just a start, forsaking family for religion is another and not being able to condemn slavery, because by doing so, you would have to condemn your God. There are many more acts of abuse in the Bible, but there are too many to mention. This is mental abuse by anybody's standards. Not just my view, but society's
You still can't come to terms of whether God exists. The answer is as how I described it - if all different religions have a personal relationship with their God and there is only one God, then everybody would be on the same wavelength. How you can assume that your God is the true God baffles me; isn't it possible it could be one of these other Gods? Why is yours different from anyone else's? After weighing up all the evidence, it appears the best bet is, God doesn't exist.
You quote if the Bible is true, then why not teach it to your children; what if the Bible isn't true? Which it appears not to be, then you are spreading the misery that has caused mayhem throughout history and the misery will go on. Think ekrause.
You put it in a way that I didn't advocate when you say you frown on my saying that it is an abuse to teach children to follow Jesus, what i did write is mentioned above. Please quote me correctly.
Good evening windar12q! The first paragraph in your last post inspired me to do a little more research on the Bible's impact on society. Here are some interesting articles that I highly recommend you read:
An account of the spread of Bibles and Biblical literature in American history, with an enlightening section on how slaves viewed the Bible: https://hbu.edu/museums/dunham-bible-museum/influence-in-history-and-culture/the-bible-and-american-culture-by-mark-noll/
A collection of short essays on various topics relating to the Bible's cultural influences. I especially recommend numbers 5, 12, 14, and 16 https://fcta.org/Misc/Potpourri/BiblesInfluence.html
As for your other question, I can address it later but I need to get to bed.
Hello ekrause1406,
I know you mean well, but let me explain why stories from the Bible mean something different to me.
I have researched many religions and have found the one common denominator is, they all have a PERSONAL relationship with their God. The differences are so varied that it is impossible for a God to exist. If there was only one God and he was having a PERSONAL relationship with each member of the congregation, regardless of which religion they belonged to; wouldn't he have the same message for all of them? The fact that you call all the others false, is a contradiction in terms; you can all be wrong, but you can't all be right.
Though you dismiss it from your mind, this is the reason that religion spreads misery and mistrust, which it has been doing since religion came into being and will go on doing the same thing forever if it is not stopped. It has now served its purpose and is on the decline. (That is how evolution works.) Religion is as much a part of evolution as everything else.
The PERSONAL relationship is self inflicted to feed a necessity in the human psyche, but it is a false necessity that is proportional to our needs, the same as any story or fantasy that gives comfort. Without this need we could not progress, because seeking the realms of fiction is what finally leads to us researching the facts. The Bible is a good example of this, from Genesis onwards. Our discoveries about the universe and life itself is now beginning to show its origins and this will go on until we have satisfied the human curiosity - not even religion, as hard as it tries, can stop the wheels of evolution from turning, because like I said, religion is part of evolution.
This PERSONAL touch defies any attempt to establish a God and therefore those Biblical stories are just fodder. The same old fodder used to work for me, but now, like watching the same old movie over and over again, i find it is time to move on and watch something different. The Bible is just fiction and its stories are of no further interest to me, except in the same sense of any other story. I prefer to read Stephen Hawking.
Keep well ekrause and I hope one day you will find the truth.
Hello windar12q! I think the reason that each religion claiming to have a personal relationship to God is so much more of an obstacle to you than it is to me is a different understanding of how valid the claim is. In my view, someone can claim to have a relationship with God all they want, but it's only a claim (however deeply they believe it) unless they are actually following the real God. A more tangible explanation of this concept is an analogy: I could claim to be a personal friend of a famous person all I wanted (I am not), but that claim wouldn't be evidence against the famous person's existence (even if I sincerely believed I was a friend, even if I believed things about the person that weren't true, and even if many other people also held this false belief).
Then that brings up the question, how do we know that the Jesus I follow is the true understanding of God, and not one of the misrepresentations of His identity?
I have mentioned in previous posts the various historical writers who agree with the Bible on key facts of Jesus' life. So, I wondered, do other religions also have strong historical evidence? Here is what I found in my research.
Islam:
Scholars have difficulty studying the Quran because of the belief that it must not be questioned, and also because there are few early texts. However, many of those who have studied the earliest copies and compared them to non-Islamic contemporary sources believe that Islam evolved from Christianity and Judaism, not a fully-formed revelation to Mohammed (researchers do believe that Mohammed existed, they just don't believe the accounts of how he developed his teachings are accurate).
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/02/arts/scholars-are-quietly-offering-new-theories-of-the-koran.html
https://mag.uchicago.edu/arts-humanities/islams-origins
Hinduism:
The Hindu religion is extremely diverse with many different gods, holy books, and philosophies, which often seem contradictory to one another. The identity of the Hindu gods is viewed differently by different groups: some believe that the different gods are all manifestations of the one substance of nature or that one should relate to the god that suits you best without denying the existence of others. The sources of Hindu beliefs date back thousands of years B.C, it's founding documents being a collection of teachings by anonymous sages. I searched for quite a while but did not find any specific pieces of evidence, scientific or historical, that the gods of Hinduism are true.
https://www.ancient.eu/hinduism/
https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/03/world/believer-hinduism-nine-myths-debunked/index.html
As you can see from this information and that provided before, the Christian beliefs about God are more clearly supported by what we know from history than two of the other most popular religions. Just because God has been misrepresented in other religions does not mean He doesn't exist. Thankfully the God I know is compassionate and forgiving. Salvation by God's grace (and not by rules you have to follow) is something unique to Christianity.
Hello ekrause1406,
You are comparing like with like. To say you know someone famous is not the same as saying you know Jesus, you don't follow the famous person's laws. The famous person is not saying they created the universe or they would have to prove it.
The written evidence you demonstrate I have already approached - it doesn't matter whether it comes from a different source of writings; this is not evidence of anything. You can't prove that God exists; no one can and that means it is an assumption; I can't base my life on assumptions - no one should, but it is a lesson that all religions have got to learn.
Without meaning to be arrogant; how can you teach the fundamental basics of intelligent life, if they of religion don't want to listen? I suggest you stop reciting scriptures and look for evidence of this God and it has to be demonstrable evidence.
You will end up once again reciting scriptures without thinking whether they are right or wrong; I know this because I have many more years of experience than you and there is no way to prove a God exists. Faith alone does not prove it either.
Please don't come back with that favourite quote from theists ' Can you prove that God does not exist?' Ask yourself ekrause - how can you prove something doesn't exist, if it doesn't exist?
I have given you an impossible task and don't hold you to answer - let's leave it at that.
Wish you well.