Darth Dane

Can I meet your God in person?

Yes





DD - Love & Laughter

markfiend

You can't. But neither can you say for certain that Akhenaton wasn't genetically engineered by aliens. (Weird example I know, but I have read a book alleging this!)

Genesis and Exodus are commonly held to have been written down some time during or just after the Babylonian Exile (IIRC); to expect a complete and accurate picture from them is like expecting T H White's The Sword In The Stone to be a complete and accurate picture of the life of King Arthur.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence, and an oral account handed down for centuries before being written down does not measure up as extraordinary evidence.

(I'm assuming the Genesis/Exodus account wasn't just invented in exilic or early post-exilic times; an assumption challenged by parallels between Babylonian myths and Genesis accounts of creation, Noah, etc. see this article)

gilly54

Good post Koy.

Esther Rose? Are you going to respond to Koy's post because I would like to read what you have to say. But, I surmise that you are going to ignore it, because you can't refute it. The language is plain. No room for metaphors. So you diverted to posting about gaps in Egyptian pharaonic lineage.

Wayin

Enjoyed the post Koyaanisqasti




Minutes seem like days,
Wayin

mark9950

Great post,I really doubt that any christians would even understand it if they even wanted to.

Waning Moon Conrad

So a complete bastard who believes in Jesus will be saved and go to heaven but live in a trailer park. A really good guy who does lots of good by stealth etc will go to heaven and live in a mansion.

A complete bastard who isn't a christian will burn in hell in absolute torment and a good guy who does good by stealth but isn't a christian will still burn in absolute torment or may get a little condo in a cooler part of hell with air conditioning that works reasonably well.

Yes? Or am I guilty of wishful thinking?

theghostinthemachine

Why would a Christian ignore the chance to introduce a unbeliever to the Living God? Of course you can meet the True God. Read the Bible, accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior, repent of your sinful ways, find a good church, and get in, and stay in the Word. You will experiance a personal relationship with the True God.

I hope this helps, but I doubt it will, since your motive seems to be to mock Christians. But if you are serious, the answer is yes, you can meet God in person.

Wyz_sub10

The only place to meet god is in one's wishful thinking. Just as theghost+ thinks that many atheists come here to mock Christianity, so do many Christians assume that atheists have never followed the recipe prescribed above.

There are many here (myself included) who were Chrisitians for many years before becoming atheist. This isn't the place for me to "witness" to theists, but I will say this much:

1 - I grew up Christian and embraced it - wholeheartedly - for many years

2 - I felt very good about my faith most of the time, and believed I was right in my thinking

3 - I have no horror stories to tell - no bad experiences with the church. Really, I rather liked the priests and nuns and pastors and ministers I knew

I won't go in to my reasons for becoming atheist at this moment. I just wanted to stress, and remind posters like theghost+, that many atheists were once theists, and did not leave their faith because of some lapse in willpower or due to some tragedy.

Advice like "just open your heart to god" is little more than a metaphor for "just decide to believe." Even if one could just decide to believe something, that's hardly good - or useful - advice beyond trying to summon momentary courage or self-confidence.

Even then, you need to really believe in something to accept it. When you become familiar enough with the world to see that certain pieces of the supposed puzzle do not fit, then trying to jam them into place becomes an indicator of many things, but I wouldn't say "wisdom" is one of them.

theghostinthemachine

I know that many atheists are here to mock Christians. I read the threads. One such insult is the often heard wishful thinking bit you have just offered

That is great, and I am sorry to hear that you have left the faith. But I am not sure how you have come to the conclusion - based on my few words - that I assumed that atheists have never been theists.

Whatever your reasons were, they were not based on any rational arguments agianst Christianity. People leave the faith for personal subjective reasons, not any objective proofs against Christianity.


I disagree - faith has helped many people. It has saved their lives. Even the atheist has faith.

Neither would I, that is why I no longer would call myself a agnostic. You see my friend, it goes both ways. Many of us former atheists and agnostics chose to believe because the pieces do fit.

HRG

More correctly (based on the many conversion and deconversion testimonies which are available on the net):

You may experience something which many people interpret as a personal relationship with the True God.

However:

If you do similar actions, replacing the Bible with the Qu'ran or the Bhagavad Gita etc., you may experience something which many people interpret as a personal relationship with Allah, Krishna etc. (which according to you is not the True God).

If you use the widespread techniques of meditation, you may experience something which many people describe as a sense of unity with the (unpersonal) Cosmic All.

All those experiences may be the result of your hippocampus playing tricks on you.

Regards,
HRG.