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Re: My Journey To Freethinking by 9inches(m): 10:12pm On Jan 06, 2019 |
raptex:Don't be misled, raptex. Use your brain and follow the truth wherever it leads you. But I'll advise you to ask a lot of questions. In this adventure of truth-seeking, don't even pull/hold back what is in your mind. Infact, when 99% of your questions have been answered but one seems unclear or shady, don't assume it's as good as the 99%. That might just be the one (big) lie that will discredit the whole pack. Note: you will hear different things from Christians of different denominations which could confuse you the more. Also, watch out for confirmation bias. You can't afford to lie to yourself. Ask questions Listen/pay attention Ask a follow up. |
Re: My Journey To Freethinking by 9inches(m): 11:02pm On Jan 06, 2019 |
raptex: How do we know there's a God? Why do we believe in God at all? That's the foundation for the whole spiritual life. The great theologians and spiritual teachers have used different approaches to this question over the centuries. One of my favorites is the approach that begins with desire. We human beings desire the truth. Our minds seek the truth and we get it sometimes. But no matter how much truth we get out of this world, it's never enough; the mind remains unsatisfied. We seek the good and find it a lot of ways in this world, but no matter how many goods we attain, we’re never really satisfied. We seek justice in all kinds of ways and we achieve it sometimes to a remarkable degree. Think of in our own time, civil rights movement, the end to apartheid, the breakdown of the Soviet Union… all those were wonderful things that were attainment of justice but no matter how much justice we attain, we never have enough. There's something in us - this desire for the good, the true, the just, that pushes us beyond this world. This approach is called the argument from desire. You can't desire what you don't know. Therefore, if we are desiring something that transcends anything in this world, in some way, we must already know it. Therefore, we do know the truth itself; we do know the good itself; we do know justice itself… and that's who God is! God is not one of the true things in the world, but God is the truth itself which has seized the mind of any scientist, any philosopher, any seeker after the truth. God is not one more good thing in the world, but God is goodness itself which has seized anybody when he's living the moral life or seeking the ethically good. God is not one more just thing in the world, but God is justice itself which has seized the will of the lawyer or the judge or anyone seeking justice. The Bible talks about the primacy of God. When you're seeking God, the most important to realize is you've already been found by God. Remember the Russian cosmonauts who went up into space and they kind of sarcastically radioed back to earth “well, we're up in the heavens and we haven't found God.” Of course, any biblical person would know he'll never find God that way. Of course not, you don't find God anywhere in the cosmos he's made, but God is the creative source of all that exists in the cosmos. So that's one approach to God beginning with our own deep desire. Here's a second approach and it comes from Pope [Benedict XVI] who wrote a great book in 1968 called introduction to Christianity. In that book, he formulates this argument and what I like about it is it shows the link between religion and science because very often those two are seen as enemies. He says “no, at their depth, religion and science come together.” Here's why: what does every scientist assume? Whether you're a physicist, a chemist, biologist, psychologist… whatever you are, you assume that ‘being’ is intelligible. That means that the world can be known. Even the name ‘psychology’ designates ‘logos’ (word). The scientist goes out to meet a world that's imbued with meaning. Well how do you explain that? How do you explain the universality of the meaningfulness of the world? Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) said it's because it has been thought into being. In other words, the world is not just dumbly there. Rather, the world is filled with ‘logos’; it's filled with reason, which is why when we understand the truth, we say we “re”-cognize” it. He says, “right, you ‘re’-cognize it” (you think it again) because it's already been thought into being by God... So, he argues from the objective intelligibility of the world to the existence of a great intelligence which has thought the world into being. Here's a third approach the philosophers and theologians have used. it's called the argument from contingency. It's a fancy way of saying that the world as we know it exists but doesn't have to exist. You and I are here but we don't have to be here; there's nothing necessary about our being. It's true the world as we know it is fleeting (it's passing). Therefore, we have to go outside the world to God. God who does exist through himself and who therefore grounds and creates the whole of the world that we know. |
Re: My Journey To Freethinking by MuttleyLaff: 5:56am On Jan 07, 2019 |
"Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don't believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don't understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God." - 2 Corinthians 4:4 |
Re: My Journey To Freethinking by Freh(m): 6:49am On Jan 07, 2019 |
Ihedinobi3:The problem is that the people you're talking to don't see the God you see. So if you say things like we've all rebelled against God it makes no sense or even things like sin. |
Re: My Journey To Freethinking by Freh(m): 7:04am On Jan 07, 2019 |
So let me pop a few questions If man has a spirit where did it come from? Assuming you would say 'God' Is that Spirit created separate from God or did he take of his own life force and Spirit to put in man? If we are all 'cut from the same rock' as a scripture in Isaiah says and we all have the 'Spirit of God' in us to be alive on earth, were is the distinction between spirit of God in every man and Holy Spirit. Where does God end and where do we begin? Hoping this would strike a cord in someone. Note to self the answers can be found in the Bible and are glaringly apparent. |
Re: My Journey To Freethinking by Ihedinobi3: 6:28pm On Jan 08, 2019 |
Freh:They are not the only readers on Nairaland. 1 Like 1 Share |
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