What do you all think of this?

[nightflight]

Look anew at the question of God’s existence completely apart from the Bible, Judeo-Christian theology, and the theology of any organized religion. The doctrines and Scriptures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims need have no bearing on the elemental question of whether a personal and loving God exists. If he does, we can conceive of him apart from all established theologies and Scriptures. We can commune and build a relationship with him directly without intervention of a rabbi, priest, minister, or imam.

http://www.shanehayes.org/blog/2014/09/29/PURE-THEISM-One-Step-Out-of-Atheism.aspx

I kind of do this now. I struggle with believing in Christianity, but I do believe this universe was spawned by a singular consciousness.

 

[amariselle]

We may be able to "conceive of Him" in a general sense. The Bible itself speaks of that, (through His creation for instance).

However, the Bible is God's word, and we cannot fully know Him without it. In its pages we meet Jesus, who was God in the flesh, and who has made it possible for us to enter into a personal relationship with God, to receive forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. Anything apart from this is a mere shadow of the truth.

 

[LionL]

The doctrines and Scriptures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims need have no bearing on the elemental question of whether a personal and loving God exists.

These doctrines can lead us away from God if we follow them blindly.

I struggle with believing in Christianity, but I do believe this universe was spawned by a singular consciousness.

I think you are on the right path nightflight. It's the one I'm on too.

 

[Lukaris]

There is no other truth than that of the Lord Jesus Christ.
John 14:6

Beginning with the apostles, He appointed men to minister & preach His word.

John 20:20-23

He knows those who are good and not good even those who honestly did not comprehend the Gospel but by grace honored Him by virtues.

Matthew 5:1-12

John 5:22-30 (especially John 5:29).

 

[paul1149]

If you believe in a loving God you have to explain the problem of evil. The Bible maintains God's holiness explains that evil was introduced through rebellion, and goes on to show how a just God has taken care of it through His Son. There is no better explanation.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

I wrote the following in another thread, but I think it is equally applicable here:

"This Antinomianism regarding religion I find strange.

To me, Religion is like a map. It is a representation of the real thing, not the thing itself. Every now and then someone experiences God, but that is only a small part, a view on the beach or a piece of forest. But by mapping it all together we get a better idea of the whole, although we lose the immediate 'reality' of it, but as that was someone elses 'kernel of inspiration', it was never my reality anyway. I might never see the ocean or the forest, but I will be able to see it mapped out for me and thus vicariously know it exists. You can't use a few photos to represent the earth's surface, you need a systematic map to do so.

In the same manner religions adopt systems and metaphysics to explain their 'kernels' or 'photos' of God. It is like science, which makes an observation and then builds huge fantastic structures of clades, equations, theories etc. on a few base observations. People don't reject the whole structure because they haven't done the experiments themselves, nor do we string together various observations without their related theories and think that now we are approaching some coherent truth.
Everything needs structure and explanation for it be anything more than a moment or an instance, for it to have any staying power.

For all religions are grasping at human terms to try and explain something which at heart is beyond comprehension, so will always come up wanting here or there. To reject religious structure in your spirituality makes no sense to me, it feels as if people are missing the forest because of the trees."


You can follow this path though, for I am sure if you are sincerely seeking a relationship with God, He will lead you to Him. If you go it alone you will get lost in the bushes however and may hopefully stumble to your destination eventually. Instead you could follow the path laid out for you by God himself as a Man which seems far easier and far more likely of leading you Home.

 

[Hieronymus]

Look anew at the question of God’s existence completely apart from the Bible, Judeo-Christian theology, and the theology of any organized religion. The doctrines and Scriptures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims need have no bearing on the elemental question of whether a personal and loving God exists. If he does, we can conceive of him apart from all established theologies and Scriptures. We can commune and build a relationship with him directly without intervention of a rabbi, priest, minister, or imam.

But what if He left his revelations in a book?

http://www.shanehayes.org/blog/2014/09/29/PURE-THEISM-One-Step-Out-of-Atheism.aspx

But you then can only conclude:
There must have been a Primary Causer who created everything, and possibly some conflict followed so that this creation has problems (like death, suffering and evil).
How are you gonna find the solution without revelation?

I kind of do this now. I struggle with believing in Christianity,

So do i.
But i do believe in Christ = God.

but I do believe this universe was spawned by a singular consciousness.

Sounds like a good start.

 

[bling]

Look anew at the question of God’s existence completely apart from the Bible, Judeo-Christian theology, and the theology of any organized religion. The doctrines and Scriptures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims need have no bearing on the elemental question of whether a personal and loving God exists. If he does, we can conceive of him apart from all established theologies and Scriptures. We can commune and build a relationship with him directly without intervention of a rabbi, priest, minister, or imam.

http://www.shanehayes.org/blog/2014/09/29/PURE-THEISM-One-Step-Out-of-Atheism.aspx

I kind of do this now. I struggle with believing in Christianity, but I do believe this universe was spawned by a singular consciousness.

I will try to address you logically, but there is a base we need to establish:

The problem is there is no quick answer.

I will address this “generally” and then you can ask specific questions.

Generally:

Without getting to philosophical: “Something has had to always existed since it is illogical to think something comes from nothing. Now some atheists have try to get around this by saying nothing is really “something” and there is no such thing as really “nothing”. The bottom line is there has always been something. Now did that something at least include intelligence or was it just mass/energy/time/space? The problem with “excluding” intelligence is there appears to be a huge amount of intelligence that went into the design of this universe and life that makes it virtually impossible to happen by random “luck”. If there is one thing we have learned it is: “the more we know the more we realize we do not know”, so that means an ever increasing complex universe and the more complex it is the more random chances you need to make the right conditions without intelligence and the more likely scenario is there was intelligence involved.







If there is this eternal intelligence it would be at the epitome of the best it could be and not in the process of improvement. It would be the ultimate bad or good but not somewhere in-between. Why be bad when He can be good just as easily? The ultimate “good” would be what is called Godly type Love (to be defined later) and is totally unselfish type Love. Since this God would be able to direct our thinking, why would He have us think of him as being totally bad, when He could make us think bad was good and thus He would be worthy of praise? If God were bad and we praise a “Good God” than we are not praising Him.



Why would God have a totally unselfish type of Love, since He personally would not get anything out of it? If God’s “Love” is some kind of knee jerk reaction then it is really meaningless (something like; gravity which is nice to have, but everyone automatically has it). God Loves us in spite of what we have done, who we are or what we will do, so it has to be by His choice.

This Love would compel God to make beings some of which would obtain this Love and thus become like He is.



----

If there is this Creator of the universe out there, His “creations” could not really “do” anything for Him, so this Creator would have to be seen as a Giver (Unselfish Lover) and not trying to “get” something from His creation.



So God would create the right universe for the sake of the individuals that will accept His gift (the most powerful force in all universes that compels even God to do all He does) and become like He is (the greatest gift He could give).



What keeps the all powerful Creator from just giving whatever He wants to his creation?



There are just something even an all-powerful Creator cannot do (there are things impossible to do), the big inability for us is create humans with instinctive Godly type Love, since Godly type Love is not instinctive. Godly type love has to be the result of a free will decision by the being, to make it the person’s Love apart from God. In other words: If the Love was in a human from the human’s creation it would be a robotic type love and not a Godly type Love. Also if God “forces” this Love on a person (Kind a like a shotgun wedding) it would not be “loving” on God’s part and the love forced on the person would not be Godly type love. This Love has to be the result of a free will moral choice with real alternatives (for humans those alternatives include the perceived pleasures of sin for a season.)



This Love is way beyond anything humans could develop, obtain, learn, earn, pay back or even deserve, so it must be the result of a gift that is accepted or rejected (a free will choice).



An unselfish God would be doing all He can to help willing individuals to make that free will decision to accept His Love. Again, since God will not be forcing these individuals, they have to be willing (it is their choice) and God cannot “make” them willing since that is robotic action. God can only at best make them free will agent (like God is) and capable of make the right decision without the selection being worthy of anything (it is a gift of pure charity).



This “Love” is much more than just an emotional feeling; it is God Himself (God is Love). If you see this Love you see God.



Let me just give you an example of How God works to help willing individuals.



All mature adults do stuff that hurts others (this is called sin) these transgressions weigh on them burden them to the point the individual seeks relief (at least early on before they allow their hearts to be hardened). Lots of “alternatives” can be tried for relief, but the only true relief comes from God with forgiveness (this forgiveness is pure charity [grace/mercy/Love]). The correct humble acceptance of this Forgiveness (Charity) automatically will result in Love (we are taught by Jesus and our own experience “…he that is forgiven much will Love much…”). Sin is thus made hugely significant, so there will be an unbelievable huge debt to be forgiven of and thus result in an unbelievable huge “Love” (Godly type Love).

 

[CodyFaith]

A personal loving God does exist, and the relationship exists too, through Christ. From my personal experience, a relationship with God, without Christianity, is cold.

 

[aiki]

Look anew at the question of God’s existence completely apart from the Bible, Judeo-Christian theology, and the theology of any organized religion. The doctrines and Scriptures of Jews, Christians, and Muslims need have no bearing on the elemental question of whether a personal and loving God exists. If he does, we can conceive of him apart from all established theologies and Scriptures. We can commune and build a relationship with him directly without intervention of a rabbi, priest, minister, or imam.

http://www.shanehayes.org/blog/2014/09/29/PURE-THEISM-One-Step-Out-of-Atheism.aspx

I kind of do this now. I struggle with believing in Christianity, but I do believe this universe was spawned by a singular consciousness.

How does the author of the quotation above know any of what he is asserting? How does he know that God wants any sort of direct relationship with any part of His creation? What is it about the superficial things that might be known of God via His creation that indicates that we can "commune and build a relationship with God directly"? Except, perhaps, that God exists, I don't see how the author of the above quotation can make any declarations of any certain sort about God whatever without some special revelation from God Himself. It is this fact that makes the Bible so crucial to the Christian worldview.

Selah.