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I'm an unbeliever of all religions and I've had multiple God experiences. I wouldn't say your experience is ridiculous but I would say that your experience in no way is any evidence for the existence of the Christian God.
I'm fine with you thinking that, and I understand.
Thanks! Appreciate the comment, but I am referring to KNOWING God exists or relying on faith that God exists. The latter suggests to me a belief in something a religious person really never experienced. What you are describing is a faith in other things, or confusion about what is going on and some faith it will work out in the end. No doubt we all have such faith in a lot of things, but about God's existence. A matter of knowing or a matter of faith?
Have your spiritual experiences have you knowing God exists, or perhaps really not, and you're relying on faith that God actually exists?
I'm a little confused...maybe because it's hard for me to separate the 2. Or because I think they go hand in hand. If I'm understanding you correctly...my faith, (as I think you mean it) came before the personal spiritual experience.
This is indeed where science and religion differ. Science requires proof, religious belief requires faith. Scientists don't try to prove or disprove God's existence because they know there isn't an experiment that can ever detect God. And if you believe in God, it doesn't matter what scientists discover about the Universe – any cosmos can be thought of as being consistent with God.
Our views of God, physics or anything else ultimately depends on perspective. But let's end with a quotation from a truly authoritative source. No, it isn't the Bible. Nor is it a cosmology textbook. It's from Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett:
"Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it."
Actually, that's not quite true. There are any number of experiments that could detect God. None that can disprove God though.
well, just using the traits of life in a textbook, the system we are in matches it far more than it doesn't. So "faith in consistent with observation" is at least a start.
I'm a little confused...maybe because it's hard for me to separate the 2. Or because I think they go hand in hand. If I'm understanding you correctly...my faith, (as I think you mean it) came before the personal spiritual experience.
Little confused myself...
I'm asking if you believe God exists, is it because a) you experienced something spiritual that confirmed God's existence for you, or b) whether you don't really know God exists but maintain some faith that he does.
I'm not really interested in the specific experiences per se, but whether they are the basis for KNOWING God exists, or whether it's more a matter of faith (because of no such experiences).
Again, if I had an experience with God, I would know God exists. I would not need faith that God exists...
I'm not really interested in the specific experiences per se, but whether they are the basis for KNOWING God exists, or whether it's more a matter of faith (because of no such experiences).
Again, if I had an experience with God, I would know God exists. I would not need faith that God exists...
Not necessarily. I had that sense of knowing. Like people have said "there could be other possibilities.
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