Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
My basis is knowing peace within . Knowing that God and all the God represents is ever present with me cannot be explained or understood but only experienced.
Like the scripture says..... peace that passes all understanding.
Actually, I am asking how you came to believe in this God, whatever his/her attributes, whose help is generally required for individuals to treat others with love and decency, when others who have opposing beliefs, including atheists, treat others well daily?
I answered the question of how I came to believe in my first thread. Applying what I said there means that I concluded the kind of God where faith served as a faith that life was worth living, would be a God which helped people to treat others with love and decency.
The fact that you think people believing differently some how detracts from this is founded on the premise that for God to help you requires you to BELIEVE something.
Does gravity require you to believe in gravity for it to work? no.
This is requirement of belief is a premise of the sort of xtianity I am calling Gnostic legalism, though... I think I can make a good case of some atheists being for all practical purposes Gnostic legalists also, such as when they think that atheists are necessarily more rational than theists just by virtue of being atheists.
They certainly can't be used interchangeably. I know that some consider faith as a subset of belief, but I separate them a little further by considering faith as one of many processes to come to conclusion of belief.
I answered the question of how I came to believe in my first thread. Applying what I said there means that I concluded the kind of God where faith served as a faith that life was worth living, would be a God which helped people to treat others with love and decency.
The fact that you think people believing differently some how detracts from this is founded on the premise that for God to help you requires you to BELIEVE something.
Does gravity require you to believe in gravity for it to work? no.
This is requirement of belief is a premise of the sort of xtianity I am calling Gnostic legalism, though... I think I can make a good case of some atheists being for all practical purposes Gnostic legalists also, such as when they think that atheists are necessarily more rational than theists just by virtue of being atheists.
Yes. IF God is love, it would be at odds with the very nature of such a God to withhold helping someone in their endeavor to increase in love simply because of what they believe or do not believe about said God.
I answered the question of how I came to believe in my first thread. Applying what I said there means that I concluded the kind of God where faith served as a faith that life was worth living, would be a God which helped people to treat others with love and decency.
The fact that you think people believing differently some how detracts from this is founded on the premise that for God to help you requires you to BELIEVE something.
Does gravity require you to believe in gravity for it to work? no.
This is requirement of belief is a premise of the sort of xtianity I am calling Gnostic legalism, though... I think I can make a good case of some atheists being for all practical purposes Gnostic legalists also, such as when they think that atheists are necessarily more rational than theists just by virtue of being atheists.
Did you attend Seminary before or after you studied physics in college?
The Christian God is the only one that actively pursues man,
as opposed to the other way around.
Are you familiar with Krishna? Supposedly, Lord Vishnu incarnate?
Interesting quotes.
"In every thought perceive Me."
______
"The Lord said:
I consider those to be the most devoted to Me, who fix there mind on Me,
who are eternally united with Me and are endowed with supreme faith."
-Bhagavad Gita Ch 12 v 2
______
Ch12 v3-4 translation:
"But those who worship the imperishable, the indefinable, the unmanifest,
the omnipresent, the unthinkable, the unchanging, the immovable, the eternal...
By controlling all the senses, maintaining even-mindedness towards everything,
and rejoicing in the welfare of all creatures, will surely attain Me."
______________
These remind me a bit of Isaiah 23:6 He who stays his mind on me
I will give him perfect peace.
I've listened to many Christians who describe their belief system as based in faith (belief without tangible evidence), personal experience, revelations, tradition, training as a child, tangible, testable, evidence, and/or something else. I would like to know what your level of belief is on a scale from 1-100 from weak to strong, and what your belief is based on, with possible percentages.
100%
2 Timothy 3:15 and how from infancy you have known the HolyScriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Did you attend Seminary before or after you studied physics in college?
After ...or you could say both -- ie between my undergraduate and graduate studies in physics. Thus it was AFTER I came to that realization about quantum physics, which only makes sense since this is one of the reasons why I came to believe in God.
In any case, I think it is wrong to read any great significance into this. Science is almost totally procedural. It is not about making judgments regarding the nature of reality. In my undergraduate years I did take some philosophy classes (beyond the basic intro course): Existentialism, the Existence of God (atheist professor), Symbolic Logic, and Religions of China and Japan (Indian professor). Though... this is also when I had my first contact with the Jehovah Witnesses and I was listening to their spiel and evaluating what they had to say. In Utah it is predicable that my encounter with the Mormons was earlier (while in high school), so I had formed most of my judgments about what they had to say already.
Last edited by mitchellmckain; 06-30-2016 at 09:34 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I really like how he gathered evidence as an investigative reporter. It cemented my belief.
100%
