h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Lindsay,

Read your post on your lovely saliva gland experience, did the typical 'nosey at user page' and ended up here!

I had a religious upbringing, but have veered more away from God as I've grown up, I'd now consider myself an agnostic.

Regards your shoulder - a lot of people put those things down to 'the power of God'. A lot of people are naturally empathic, to use an analogy - it seems to be like radio waves - some people are good 'receivers' of moods, others are 'broadcasters'. The person that picked up on your shoulder may have been picking up your unconscious shoulder signals without even realising it. Some people are also natural healers, which may explain your pretty amazing results

I think putting it down to God is quite an easy option, and settles people's minds better than realising they have a 'sixth' sense. Whether it really is God or not - having a sixth sense, like Evolution, is more likely. I see it as, some people have a better developed sense of taste, smell.. or empathy. I do believe it's a sense - animals seem to have it, why not us?

As for the Bible, have a read of the Quoran - I haven't read all of it, but it seems to make more sense! History is written by the winners. The bible was written by man, and man is far from perfect.

As for picking a God, how do you know which is the right one? Any western converts tend to go for some form of Christianity, because that's the predominant religion in the western world. If you grew up in China, and started getting interested in God - you may well have thought yourself a buddhist!

The closest experience I can relate, is waiting in line in school for a standard injection. I was scared, I prayed for courage, and suddenly felt a whole lot better. This may have been god, or it could be relatives in a next life looking after us - we just don't know

Oh, and I also meant to apologise for the lengthy posting

Logical stuff - and I happily take your point about the empathy thing with my shoulder. It's how I would've debunked this a year ago too

The healing...well... where do people get their healing powers from? I spent some time thinking about this (and arguing with an agnostic friend), and the only thing we agreed on was that *something* unusual happened. If it wouldn't be a complete waste of hospital resources, I'd love to have some tests done to see just how much my shoulder has improved, and to see if they could propose any other reasons.

I haven't read the Qu'ran, but as one of my best friends is a Muslim, I'm sure we can do a swap We've already had some discussions about God, Allah and Jesus (and put it this way, she frightens off the local Jehovah's Witnesses! ).

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Simple - because there's only one real one . As for what other religions think, there's nothing to say that they're all completely and utterly wrong. Yes, they're not the right answer, but some of them are closer being right than others.

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My friend (the above) is from a similar background to me, yet she chose Islam (mostly because her husband is a Muslim). Admittedly, beforehand she was technically Pagan, which seems to be the most ideoligically removed from monotheistic religions such as Christianity and Islam, so I'm not sure how useful she is an an example! I have been told that China is experiencing a huge amount of Christian converts, even though it can lead to torture and death.

I'd looked into Buddhism, Hinduism (briefly, before deciding I'd never remember all the Gods!), I'd bugged my friend all about Islam, and yet none of them quite made sense to me.

As for 6th sense, I believe I have one to some extent, and I have done for a while, and I don't feel this clashes with being Christian (or that it would with any religion). Sometimes it works in tandem with it. It would take far too long for me to list examples...

Also, and I appreciate this may sound a little weird, I have, on occasion, heard God (or what I would call God ) speak, and it is a distinctly different voice to intuition etc...

Anyway, enough rambling for now, and cheers for some reasoned debate on the matter! I just hope I'm not too preachy...

We've already got one 'Preacher' on here, he's what is termed as a 'fundamentalist', or as I term it 'slightly nuts' Not someone you can have a reasoned debate with, because we're all swine, apparently

Regarding 'hearing God', my little bro and I were playing ball many years ago, I think about 8 and 10 years of age, when we both heard a voice say "Thank you" - there was nobody else in the house, and it was neither of us. God or a ghost? I don't know, so I can't state either way.

Everybody's got a sixth sense (IMO), it's just better developed in others, and especially active if you come across somebody strong in that area.

I guess with religions it's whichever one feels right to you. The biggest doesn't necessarily mean the right one.

It's cool that you have faith, it is a great source of strength for some people. But I won't 'believe' in God until he comes down and has a cup of tea with me.

However...
Remember the bit where God says "I refuse to prove that I exist. For proof denies faith and without faith I am nothing."

And 'Allan' argues that there's no way that something as useful as a Babel fish could possibly have just 'evolved', therefore it must have been created by God.

Allan: "It proves that you exist and therefore you don't."

God: "Oh Dear, I hadn't thought of that."
As he properly vanishes in a puff of logic.

I'm happy I've found religion, but before I hated people shoving it down my throat, so I try and respect what other people think and want to hear. My parents are of the opinion that all religion is bunk, and we have an unspoken agreement that I won't try and convert them. I don't hide church stuff, but I don't want to rub it in their faces either. But I don't mind people just asking me

As for H2G2 quotes on God, I always remember the bit (I think it's from Life, the Universe and Everything) where Ford and Arthur are talking, and Ford likens God to a real git and "the sort of chap who leaves a half-brick under a hat on the pavement" (when referring to the Garden of Eden). I stuck to that viewpoint almost till the last few weeks of Alpha!

After some reading through of Genesis (the Bible chapter, obviously ) and talking to some other Christians, I believe that the story is a metaphor for something earlier man found hard to understand. But this is all quite subjective stuff, and I'm sure some would say you can't hope to understand what is God's wonder, etc.

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Could have been a ghost. An interesting experience, certainly! There are three similar experiences which stand out for me, two of which happened before I became Christian but defied explanation.

The latest was a few weeks ago, when I had to find my way to this church, oddly enough. I'd planned out a rough route but still wasn't sure (my map reading and navigation skills are really, *really* bad - I used to live in Warwick and got lost between Warwick town centre and my house!), but decided to go ahead anyway. Whenever I had to decide which way to go, and if I wasn't sure which way, I always distinctly heard the option I should take clearly - like "left!" and so on. I got there fine! You could say I had stored unconscious knowledge of the road layouts, but as I've got horrendously lost using A-Zs before, I would doubt that!

When I was at uni I was about to use a crossing when I heard someone shout my name. I stopped, turned round....and a car went blatting through the red light where I would have been walking. The town wasn't even particularly crowded, but I didn't spot anyone who I knew, let alone anyone who seemed to have just welcomed a friend. I just put that one down to coincidence, though!

Certainly in the past few weeks, I've relied on my faith a lot...some of it is very hard to explain logically.

PS - God says, here's a ( - as far as I know, God has a sense of humour!)