Yes, Rev, here's the deal.
Your claims, like any other theist of any other religion, are based on several things:
1. You think the Bible is true. You no doubt don't think the Koran is true nor the Book of Mormon nor the scribblings of L Ron Hubbard. And you no doubt have good reasons. Our reasons for rejecting the Bible as truth are also very good. Very very good. Just as good as your reasons for rejecting all the others.
2. You claim to know things based on personal revelation. Awesome! Unfortunately, utterly meaningless for those not receiving such revelations. Also unfortunate is many before received revelations -- Mohamed and Joseph Smith and that JW guy for example. Do you accept their revelations? I'm guessing not.
3. Lastly, you can try and logic your way to your god with arguments such as first cause, design or whatever. Again, most unfortunate as logic alone (and the misuse of logic) has proven to be virtually worthless in describing reality. Examples abound -- the ancients thought heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Nobody thought to test empirically until Galileo. Logic was wrong. Then there was Ptolemy and his epi-cycles. "Proof" for how the celestial bodies moved. Again. wrong. The world is made of fire, earth, water and air. Obviously. Obvious, but wrong. And now, we have quantum mechanics where it is a virtual certainty weirdness abounds. We don't get to "knowing" much of anything without repeatable, testable observation. That's it. Works like a charm too. Better than anything any god can do.
Faith as a way of "knowing" is worthless.
Your claims, like any other theist of any other religion, are based on several things:
1. You think the Bible is true. You no doubt don't think the Koran is true nor the Book of Mormon nor the scribblings of L Ron Hubbard. And you no doubt have good reasons. Our reasons for rejecting the Bible as truth are also very good. Very very good. Just as good as your reasons for rejecting all the others.
2. You claim to know things based on personal revelation. Awesome! Unfortunately, utterly meaningless for those not receiving such revelations. Also unfortunate is many before received revelations -- Mohamed and Joseph Smith and that JW guy for example. Do you accept their revelations? I'm guessing not.
3. Lastly, you can try and logic your way to your god with arguments such as first cause, design or whatever. Again, most unfortunate as logic alone (and the misuse of logic) has proven to be virtually worthless in describing reality. Examples abound -- the ancients thought heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects. Nobody thought to test empirically until Galileo. Logic was wrong. Then there was Ptolemy and his epi-cycles. "Proof" for how the celestial bodies moved. Again. wrong. The world is made of fire, earth, water and air. Obviously. Obvious, but wrong. And now, we have quantum mechanics where it is a virtual certainty weirdness abounds. We don't get to "knowing" much of anything without repeatable, testable observation. That's it. Works like a charm too. Better than anything any god can do.
Faith as a way of "knowing" is worthless.
