The sheer complexity of the universe, down to the cellular level, is a glaring indication that there is a creative intelligence behind everything. If one finds a book on the ground, it would be logical to conclude that the words didn't randomly jump onto the pages and organize themselves into a sensible body of text, but that an intelligent sentient being created it. Unfortunately many are trapped in a scientism/atheist/Darwinian belief system which blinds them to the fact that the same line of logic applies to DNA, the most complex coding language that exists, like a cellular instruction manual for the creation and biological processes of all life. To think the former requires a creator and the latter doesn't doesn't seem very logical to me, especially in light of how flawed Darwinian evolutionary theory is.

1) I've only just started reading the Bible and so far this is the summarization: the earth and the inhabitants are created. Looking at the world around you, can you see the fingerprints of God? Do you find any indications that we live in a created reality?


That is a hard question to answer, for me anyway. I can certainly see the imprints of God in the world, but that may only be because I have been fortunate enough to have seen behind the scenes of our material world and into the greater realities and have seen how it all fits together.

If not for having seen behind the scenes then I might not be able to see the imprints and workings of God in this world. Or maybe I would see them but not so well, I really don't know. I am what I am, and it is hard to imagine seeing the world around me without having had the experiences that I've had and without having the understandings that I have.

I will make the following related points though. They are adjacent jigsaw pieces in the jigsaw of understanding reality, and they have relevance to how I see the imprints of God all around. I have said these things before so please excuse me for repeating myself.

a. We live in a fractal existence, where all things replicate and are replications of things above, below, within and without of themselves, to the extent that dimensions and the nature of the matter in dimensions enables.

b. There are many laws of reality, all ultimately harmonious with each other. One law is the Law of Correspondences. All around us and within us, within all things and between all things, great and small, from most structured and material to the most intangible and energetic, are correspondences of everything to everything else, and between all things singular and things collective. And this in the three attributes of all things, being their structure, quality and function. Seeing the correspondences in all things, reality makes sense.

c. There are four main different kinds or categories of symbols. Here they are in their order of understanding them, for each understanding is built upon the prior:

1. Assigned or representative symbols. These are symbols that we give them their meaning.
e.g. letters, numbers.

2. Intellectual symbols. These are symbols that require an intellect to see their meaning, and an intellect sees their meaning.
e.g. the arrow,

3. Imprinted symbols. These are symbols that are imprints of realities of a greater dimension into the matter of lesser dimensions.
e.g. a foot print on the ground is a two dimensional imprint/symbol of a three dimensional foot. And there are imprints in our three dimensional world of great multidimensional realities.

4. Actual symbols. These symbols are the parts of great multidimensional realities that come into our world. They are those parts that imprints themselves upon lesser dimensions.
e.g. All natural things are symbols of greater things, are imprints and extensions into this third dimension of greater realities that exist in higher dimensions, such as mountains, valleys, rivers, all the elements, trees, animals, us and our bodies and souls, all life, the planets, moon, stars, sun, etc, etc.


By contemplating these categories of symbols, learning to recognise them in their kind and their order, and doing so in conjunction with understanding our fractal existence and the law of correspondences, enables our consciousness and its observing faculties to slide up and down the frequency scale of existence/creation and to see into and through the things/symbols of our reality and into the greater realities to which our world is part of. 

For the mind's eye cannot see where it cannot comprehend to look; it cannot look upward if it does not know where upward is. So contemplating the nature of the fractal existence, correspondences and symbols, also lines, right angles, and spatial things, gradually gives the mind the understanding of where it must reach to see through and out of this dimension. And where the mind can go, and the mind's eye can go, even the eyes can go, for they are little replicas/symbols of the soul and can see where the soul can see.
    

The categories of symbols above are not necessarily distinct from each other but may be mixed. For instance, the primary shapes such as the circle, the cross, triangle, square, five point star, etc, are assigned, intellectual, imprinted and actual symbols.
And naturally there are subdivisions/sub kinds of those categories, such as pictorial symbols, visual, audible, etc.
And relatively there are static and dynamic symbols. Dynamic symbols are rituals and ceremonies. Static symbols are related to the form and structure of things, dynamic symbols relate to energies, and together they relate to function and interaction. But again, it is a sliding scale and things are relative.

These understandings, combined with what I have said about holding a belief and value of truth above all else as described on the thread about "The validity of imagination method", and that combined with and enabled by prayer, faith and love, and combining heart and mind, is what has enabled me to see the imprints of God in our world and throughout all the other worlds that can be looked into.

The teachings of the new testament have a lot to do with it too.

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Something I do occasionally to learn about people is to go into other people's mindsets. Not into a person, but into such a mindset. It is not something I advise others to do, for it carries risks and requires safe know-how.

Not long ago I went into the common atheist mindset. Doing so enabled me to view the world as most atheists do, and enabled me to contrast the atheist mindset and view of the world with my own mindset and view of the world. It was an interesting and beneficial lesson.

I think this is wonderful by the way. Thanks Dude & 1796, and hope the beginning is a representation of how the thread will continue over time to evolve and form into a sensible and interesting body of posts.

Hehe, just eyeing the cross section you put up makes for an internal "ah, of course" and the added text is very helpful, well laid out and best of all, thought provoking. This will probably linger in the mind for a long time. Awesome!

3) This thread will be more helpful than anything I could say on the subject: http://afterlife-knowledge.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?num=1493321321

Some key points are that one should not pray in a repetitive manner, one should avoid praying in a way that informs God of what he already knows, ie "Jesus, you died on the cross", one should have the utmost faith that the message is being received, and one's prayers should be in alignment with what God wants, to advance his kingdom on Earth and carry out his will, so praying for materialistic things with a selfish motive would be an example of ineffective prayer.