Yes, I read Freud and others and took 1 year in Psychology. Frankly, I found old Freud a bit of a wacko!! But that's just my opinion. And you seem to be equating a one time memory to an ongoing, day to day experience. My faith is renewed every day. I read my bible and I know Him. You can call it Harvey the Rabbit if you want--but God is my friend and I believe in the bible. You really can't explain an inward experience of this nature. To me---it is accurate and true and totally real. You may wish to explain it as complete self-delusion. There is no little pill that will obliterate it. It can't be put down to "I forgot to take my meds today!"
Same with every other religious claim. These "ongoing experiences" aren't just unique to your God, have you never come across an ardent believer of another religion and had a talk to them about their experiences?? You agreed that all of your "confirmations" are not direct communications with your God, they're always through the actions of others and circumstantial chance events in your favour, etc. that you simply chalk up as another confirmation of your God without so much as a thought otherwise. That's not even remotely critical examination.
I believe in the God of the bible because I can not believe in the God of the Quran, or the many gods
of Hindu, or the philosophy of Confucius or Buddha or any other god.
Yes, yes, just as every other religious adherent says exactly the same for you and your beliefs - again, we still have no difference here.
Why not? Because my God loved me, my God left His eternal body and place of immense grandeur to be born a human in poverty and then die a gruesome death to pay for my sins so that I can be with Him. None of the others did that. None of the others will give me eternal life just to be with me.
Debatable, especially if you're a woman. But this point aside, why did your God not just change the rules by which you're judged if he loves you so much? He wrote the rules after all, didn't he? He is the one who judges you based on the criteria he himself put in place, does he not? He created Heaven and Hell and he is the ultimate arbiter for where you end up. There's no need to come down in human form to sacrifice himself to himself to create a loophole for rules that he put in place to start with. After all, these rules do change and there's not even a need for them to be written down - take eating shellfish and wearing of mixed fabrics for example. Same with working on the sabbath, getting tattoos, eating pork, etc. All of these commandments are apparently non-existent now despite Jesus explicitly telling you in Matthew 5:17-19 that "Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." - earth is still here, yet Christians rarely uphold any of these commandments, let alone the "least" of them.
There are plenty of religions that have eternal afterlives, each with their own requirements, of course.
He values me as an individual. The others do not. You have to placate an angry god in all the others, this one whatever He asks of me, even to the giving of my finances, is for my benefit and He rewards me for it.
Yes, yes, the Eternal creator of the Universe, who has existed for an eternity and guides every fateful event and breathes life into every living thing, needs 10% of your paycheque every month... I can see why he values and rewards you.
He will not let me live a life of self, the others are more interested that you have wealth or stuff, or will supposedly do your bidding to get rid of or make someone else's life miserable so you can have a better one. Mine won't do that for He loves the person that offends me also and wants to give Him the same as me--eternal life with Him.
Unless of course you don't placate your angry God to have this eternal life with him, because then you'll go to Hell and burn for eternity, right?
Mine already died to give me that gift, I don't have to do this or that for it, just accept it.
Who wrote the rules that says in order for you to get this "gift", someone had to die? Why couldn't you just be given this "gift" without this needless death?
In so doing there are ways to learn about what He is like so we may become like Him, and live in harmony with all His creation. yes, there are rules to follow--such as the 10 commandments--but those are done out of love for Him and for our fellow man, they are not done to "get on His good side."
but ultimately, are you saying there's no need to placate your angry God by following the ten commandments if you accept the unnecessary sacrifice happened, or could you still go to Hell and burn for eternity at the hands of your angry God?
sorry--but an explosion has never produced order and mathematical precision. To me, that is not evidence but faith in an explosion and the passing of time. All I can see time do is provide decay.
I agree. No explosion has ever produced order and mathematical precision as far as I know either, good thing that has nothing to do with how the universe came to be how it is now, right?
That my god chose to die for my sins is significant me because no other god would that just to be with me.
Still have no reason to believe this is the case.
The concept of sin is what bother you.
Not in the least. If there were a God to transgress though, then I'd revisit my position.
My God is a pure and holy being and sin can not live in His presence. Just like a drop of water can not possibly live in the presence of the sun. Sin is a germ, a bacteria, in His light. For want of better words.
Well, even the Bible states otherwise - it states he created evil, it also states he is a jealous God and he routinely orders the complete extermination of entire races, right down to babies and livestock in their name. If any modern society did that, they'd be rightfully labelled inhumane barbaric monsters.
It is nothing to you, because you harbor it, it is an extension of who you are.
Oh? so does that make me evil? is that what you're labelling me as? Is everyone who doesn't believe in unverifiable claims of your particular religion also harbouring "sin", or is this a special place you're going just for me?
If you can point out anyone I'm transgressing against, I'll make amends. Is that "sin"? If your God exists and I transgress against him, then I'll gleefully make amends to him too.
To Him, it is an ugly, loathsome, parasite that ends up corrupting your heart and mind and will destroy you and so He wants to get rid of it for our own sake and that of the rest of the universe. The only way that anyone with sin in them can be saved is for someone to cover those sins--and Jesus chose to die so that His blood paid the price of our sins and we will not die in the presence of God.
So we're still talking about Sin, right? as in specifically transgression against your God? Why did God have to kill himself to create this loophole, why couldn't he just change the criteria by which we are judged? after all, that's really all that's happened - only he added the unnecessary extra step of killing himself in honour of himself as well.
You sin you die---that is the simple truth of things for, as I said, sin can not live in His presence.
But everybody sins according to your religion. So everybody dies, right? According to you, that's not what happens. Instead, if you can bring yourself to believe in something for which there's no tangible evidence, then you will be magically covered from this death, even though you weren't there to see this "sacrifice", nor does your God ever turn up to explain it personally. For rational people who understand how to evaluate evidence, we can't just decide to believe in something without the prerequisite evidence - your God would know this, so why doesn't he?
But God is not only love--He is justice. Justice requires each of us to pay for our own sins. When Jesus covers those sins, there is no death, those who refuse His blood for their sins, can not therefore have their sins covered and will loose their lives and pay for their sins according to how much and how bad their sins were.
This statement is in direct conflict. Your God's Justice doesn't require you to pay for your sins at all, you only have to believe on no evidence that your God killed himself in his own honour, and this will allegedly wash away said sins. This isn't justice.
Yes--I would not have lasted long in a physics class--I simply am confounded by numbers. I don't even like delving into the bible prophecies that involve dates--too many numbers! Science and religion do not cancel each other out. Our faith has many mathematicians, scientists, meteorologists, and all the rest---we have Universities that teach those sciences. We also have those that were atheists who now are not. We have hospitals all over the world. Loma Linda is just one. In fact, most SDA's are in the medical field.
Same with Islamic, Jewish and Hindu hospitals, respites, schools and universities too. Also, there are just as many Secular institutions of health care and education in the civilised world as there is for any one particular religion.
Same with all forms of religious believers who are now atheists too - I can easily make the argument that more believers having become atheists than there are atheists who have become believers, so not sure why you point this out...
Yes--I believe we can be. Jesus kept His humanity--He still bears the scars. If tempted (and there will be no one to tempt us)all that is needed is for Him to show His scars. It is out of love that we are with Him. It is out of love I never cheated on my husband, it is out of love that I did everything I could to make him happy and he me. It is that love that will keep us from sinning.
Ahh, so you are perfect then? I thought only Jesus was perfect? Any case, if you can spend an eternity not sinning, how come we were made sinners here on earth? Why not give us the "heaven" standard of character while we are here on earth? Wouldn't that be far easier for God? after all, if you can go to heaven and not sin for an eternity, then either you aren't you (those dreaded robots that God didn't want) or it's possible for us to be sinless in nature after all and God could've made us in this image with this sinless free will in the first place. Why didn't he just do that?
The whole universe now knows what sin does--they all saw it at the cross. Sin will not rear it's ugly head again.
Nope, not so. I don't know, every contemporary record of the time of Jesus supposed crucifixion shows no record of it, the Jews of which Jesus was one, didn't record any miracles and resurrections, so on. So really, it's the most underwhelmingly recorded very important event in all of history. As has already been mentioned, the Bible is simply not considered a reliable record outside those invested in it by faith.
