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I don't see how you can prove this. I know about God because I was taken to church from birth (literally) and raised in a church. I know many people who were not taken to church and had parents who simply never thought about God. They didn't hear about God until some time in grade school. They had no idea what other people were talking about. I have a relative who was born to a Buddhist family in a Buddhist country. She never heard of God until she came to the west. I can't imagine how it must be for those who are on the very margins of non-western societies who have no media, and little contact with the outside world. The original inhabitants of America had 'gods' of nature because that was what they lived with and so that is what they prayed to. According to your theory, they should have had immediate knowledge of God. Obviously they did not. Europeans brought Christianity to America.
I don't see how you can prove this. I know about God because I was taken to church from birth (literally) and raised in a church. I know many people who were not taken to church and had parents who simply never thought about God. They didn't hear about God until some time in grade school. They had no idea what other people were talking about. I have a relative who was born to a Buddhist family in a Buddhist country. She never heard of God until she came to the west. I can't imagine how it must be for those who are on the very margins of non-western societies who have no media, and little contact with the outside world, but they certainly have no concept of God - otherwise, why the need for missionaries?. The original inhabitants of America had 'gods' of nature because that was what they lived with and so that is what they prayed to. According to your theory, they should have had immediate knowledge of God. Obviously they did not. Europeans brought Christianity to America.
Continuing...
Let's first look at a dependable universe. We can count on the physical world to continue to function the way it's always functioned because a personal God has promised to uphold it. If you remove the personal God then you have no reason to believe that what's been observed in the past will continue in the future. This is simply a nice thought that you embrace but it is embraced irrationally. People often try to demonstrate this using empiricism:
1. We have always observed a consistent world
2. What we've always observed will continue in the future
3. Therefore we can depend on what we've always observed.
Premise 2 is entirely without support. Scientists predict future events using empiricism but empiricism itself can give no reason to suppose that anything will continue as it has. Hume demonstrated that. Scientists also incorporate the Christian idea of a consistent universe upheld by a personal God, though they may reject the God bit. They're still co-opting the biblical idea.
If the God of the Bible is divine then all people have immediate knowledge of him.
This is a plain statement of scripture but rather than demonstrating this from the Bible I'd like to explain it with syllogism. First, defining some terms:
By "God of the Bible" I mean the person who created the world, appeared to the fathers, raised Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus from the dead.
By "divine" I mean something or someone on which all other things depend. If anything is foundational, eternal, and necessary it is divine. Divinity defined in this way is a concept that cannot easily be escaped. In this sense there is something divine within every worldview.
By "knowledge of God" I mean personal acquaintance. Knowledge means an awareness of his presence and either friendship or enmity with him.
Now some syllogisms:
[*]If God is divine then he is the ultimate cause of every event.
[*]If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
[*]If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
[*]If God is a divine person then our personality depends on his. We are persons only insofar as he is a person. Our personality is a minature model of his personality. Our personality is an image of his.
[*]If our personality is an image of God then we experience God by simply being persons.
[*]If by being a person we experience God, then by being a person we are acquainted with God.
So to be a person is to be intimately acquainted with God.
If a divine person exists it must be this way. It's not possible for a divine person to exist and us be ignorant of his existence. Yet many people claim ignorance or agnosticism toward the existence of God. What does this mean?
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God. All people are acquainted with him. The difference between belief and unbelief is a difference of friendship and enmity. Believers like God and unbelievers do not like him. They dislike him so much that they seek to explain his existence away.
...snip....
- If God is divine then he is the ultimate cause of every event.
- If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
- If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
...snip....
To say that God is the cause of Every Event leads down a road you really don't want to travel.
If Every experience at all is to be acquainted with God because "If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God."
To say that God is the cause of Every Event leads down a road you really don't want to travel.
Yes, that line of reasoning is too superficial; it would be like putting a mother in jail because her son commited a crime.
If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God.
If the God of the Bible is divine then all people have immediate knowledge of him.
This is a plain statement of scripture but rather than demonstrating this from the Bible I'd like to explain it with syllogism. First, defining some terms:
By "God of the Bible" I mean the person who created the world, appeared to the fathers, raised Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus from the dead.
By "divine" I mean something or someone on which all other things depend. If anything is foundational, eternal, and necessary it is divine. Divinity defined in this way is a concept that cannot easily be escaped. In this sense there is something divine within every worldview.
By "knowledge of God" I mean personal acquaintance. Knowledge means an awareness of his presence and either friendship or enmity with him.
Now some syllogisms:
- If God is divine then he is the ultimate cause of every event.
- If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
- If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
- If God is a divine person then our personality depends on his. We are persons only insofar as he is a person. Our personality is a minature model of his personality. Our personality is an image of his.
- If our personality is an image of God then we experience God by simply being persons.
- If by being a person we experience God, then by being a person we are acquainted with God.
So to be a person is to be intimately acquainted with God.
If a divine person exists it must be this way. It's not possible for a divine person to exist and us be ignorant of his existence. Yet many people claim ignorance or agnosticism toward the existence of God. What does this mean?
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God. All people are acquainted with him. The difference between belief and unbelief is a difference of friendship and enmity. Believers like God and unbelievers do not like him. They dislike him so much that they seek to explain his existence away.
Premise 2 is entirely without support. Scientists predict future events using empiricism but empiricism itself can give no reason to suppose that anything will continue as it has. Hume demonstrated that. Scientists also incorporate the Christian idea of a consistent universe upheld by a personal God, though they may reject the God bit. They're still co-opting the biblical idea.
Sure, van Til. Talking donkeys, talking snakes, talking bushes, parting seas, resurrections, ascensions, walking on water, multiplication of loaves and fishes, demons, angels, immaculate conceptions, magical plagues and earthquakes... it all just screams 'uniformity of nature'.
Continuing...
Let's first look at a dependable universe. We can count on the physical world to continue to function the way it's always functioned because a personal God has promised to uphold it. If you remove the personal God then you have no reason to believe that what's been observed in the past will continue in the future.
This is simply a nice thought that you embrace but it is embraced irrationally.
People often try to demonstrate this using empiricism:
Scientists predict future events using empiricism but empiricism itself can give no reason to suppose that anything will continue as it has.
If the God of the Bible is divine then all people have immediate knowledge of him.
This is a plain statement of scripture but rather than demonstrating this from the Bible I'd like to explain it with syllogism. First, defining some terms:
By "God of the Bible" I mean the person who created the world, appeared to the fathers, raised Israel from Egypt, and raised Jesus from the dead.
By "divine" I mean something or someone on which all other things depend. If anything is foundational, eternal, and necessary it is divine. Divinity defined in this way is a concept that cannot easily be escaped. In this sense there is something divine within every worldview.
By "knowledge of God" I mean personal acquaintance. Knowledge means an awareness of his presence and either friendship or enmity with him.
Now some syllogisms:
- If God is divine then he is the ultimate cause of every event.
- If God is the cause of every event then every experience of the world is also an experience of God.
- If every experience is an experience of God then every living person is always acquainted with God.
So to have any experience at all is to be acquainted with God.
- If God is a divine person then our personality depends on his. We are persons only insofar as he is a person. Our personality is a minature model of his personality. Our personality is an image of his.
- If our personality is an image of God then we experience God by simply being persons.
- If by being a person we experience God, then by being a person we are acquainted with God.
So to be a person is to be intimately acquainted with God.
If a divine person exists it must be this way. It's not possible for a divine person to exist and us be ignorant of his existence. Yet many people claim ignorance or agnosticism toward the existence of God. What does this mean?
It means either that God does not exist or that those who identify as atheists and agnostics are actually denying and suppressing what they know to be true -- the existence of God. All people are acquainted with him. The difference between belief and unbelief is a difference of friendship and enmity. Believers like God and unbelievers do not like him. They dislike him so much that they seek to explain his existence away.
You sound like William Lane Craig - you make far too many assumptions in what you write.
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