Does God exist? I'd like to be clear in my mind

I think it’s acceptable for him to question his parishioners motivation for attending church in private, yes. That was not a betrayal imo, so I agree we’ll have to disagree.

"Thoughtful, non-dogmatic and tentative folk protest gently that religious faith does not require us to accept as factual what is clearly fictional, mythical, poetic or interpretive, but it does require us to take seriously and celebrate the sacred and to recognise as potentially truth-bearing the stories and insights of the religious past."

extract from Sea of Faith website

Then we disagree SirChenjin, you think it acceptable to discuss his parishioners I do not, he betrayed them.

I agree that we simply cannot know; but it does seem a bit perverse of a god to leave everyone in the dark. Those who believe in a particular religion will say - ah, but she/he has, and cite Jesus, Buddha etc. etc.; but as I have remarked before, these are the products of their cultures and their time, and of the people alive at that time.

I disagree Annie - he wasn’t betraying anyone, he was making a comment about his congregation (presumably he knows and understands them and their motivations very well) to a friend in private.

It’s all down to belief, but those who state categorically that ‘there is no God’ are doing just that ‘believing’ that there isn’t, as nobody can possibly know.
We are only on the lowest rung of the ladder yet as regards space exploration and what has been discovered and done in the last 50 years would have been unbelievable at one time.

Big difference between what is said by a minister/priest to the
congregation and what is said to a friend by a priest/minster
about his/her congregation.

It cannot be defended, it was a betrayal

I don’t think he mocked or condemned them, did he? Just made a comment in a private conversation to a friend. I’ve heard worse condemnation from the pulpit about our so-called ‘sinful ways’

His parishioners

Mocked and condemned who?

SirChenjin he was the minister of the people he mocked and condemned

Suppose some have small family bibles

We have a family bible - it's on another branch of the family for obvious reasons, but it's certainly portable (miners as well, funnily enough)

I took paddyanne's post to be a paragraph of 2 halves - her friend thinks that a lot of folk who turn up on a Sunday dont have a humane or christian bone in their body and she, ie paddyann, thinks GOD is the biggest joke ever played on mankind etc.

Smileless I am so shocked, and think he is a liar,
my father and grandfather, both coal miners so not physically
weak, had to lift our family bible with two hands , it couldn’t have been tucked under their arm . Family bibles are huge.

I'm shocked too Annie and saddened.

No Minister should condemn members of his congregation to a friend or to anyone. He mocked his parishioners, accused
them of being hypocrites. And declares God a joke

I am shocked and no way would want him as a friend.

Well IMO Paddyann's minister shouldn't be a minister if he believes God is a joke; he's the joke.

How can a minister viewing God in that way have a reasonable view?.

I am baffled why the congregation in paddyann’s Minister’s church carry the big family bible to a service with their big family bible tucked under their arm .

I need two hands to lift the family bible and impossible to tuck it under the arm.

Smileless2012 - of course you believe in your Christian god as a Christian, that goes without saying surely?

Smileless wrote:
"Why did your friend become a minister paddyann, if he believes "GOD is the biggest joke ever played on mankind"?"

I wish ministers like Paddyann's kept a online blog about a reasonable view of God.

When Hetty Maud referred to God she probably meant, as most people do, a being that has feelings like a person does and who is all-benevolent, all- knowing, all- powerful, and can intervene in Earthly events .

Some people who see that all-benevolent and all-powerful don't mix, believe in God as all-knowing and all-benevolent and omit the all-powerful from their belief in God.

Does 'God' or any god exist? That is indeed the great existential question that philosophers and theologians have debated and discussed for over 2000 years. If believing in a greater benevolent being comforts you and helps you through life's struggles then perhaps a god does exist for you and is a good part of your life.

No one really knows and no one will ever know if God or a god exists. It remains the great unknowable of life. There is a vast difference between a belief and knowing. My own view is that if your god or higher trusted source is a benevolent being then that is a good and positive belief.

However if your god is source of hate, division and anger then I really struggle to see any benign, positive or helpful element in that sort of belief system. Embrace the uncertainty. It's OK to not know and far, far better to accept uncertainty and not knowing than to embrace a belief system that divides us and is the cause of anger, hate and suffering.

In fact, thinking on, those who shout the loudest about their Christian beliefs, be-it clergy or churchgoers, are usually to be avoided.

paddyann yes I’ve come across too many Sunday Christians too. I’ve also come across vicars, priests etc who haven’t a Christian bone in their bodies.