(January 16, 2025 at 3:32 am)born_to_be_a_loser Wrote: despite not being able to proof that he existed for starters 

 And in your opinion why some of them assume that their type of relationship (its even questionable if it is their or they just obedient sub - u know usual one is sex only in marriage) is the correct one and how their view on what`s virtue vs vice is the right and universal/inherent one?

People are terrified of the unknown. It's a lot easier to say "if you're good you'll go to heaven when you die" or "this happens because god works in mysterious ways" than admit you don't have the answer. Plus people like to think god or Jesus or whatever you subscribe to is working for them. "Maybe if I pray god will answer it". "Jesus died for my sins so I don't have to feel guilty". God is like a teddy bear. It's a very childish mentality.

I think that every deeply christian person has done some unspeakably terrible thing - at least in their own minds. Something that they think they can never atone for themselves. If I boarded a plane that was going to go over the andes and I found out it was full of evangelicals on a mission, I'd pop the lever and slide down the escape hatch. If I learned that fact in nasty turbulence mid flight, I'd strongly consider jumping. Not kidding.

     Firstly, I was raised Christian, both of my parents took me to church since daycare and I was only 5 years old when I first prayed the sinners prayer and asked Jesus into my heart. Ever since then, I would say that I have been a faithful believer. However, there was a brief period of time when I was 17 where I was heartbroken and struggling to find someone who I could relate to. I became obsessed with the band Nirvana at this time and felt like Kurt Cobain was the only person who I could relate to. I distinctly remember a moment where I was in my room and I was laying on the ground with the version of the Bible that my mom gave to me in elementary school. I thought to myself, 'God can't comfort me now' before I pushed this Bible away with the assumption that reading it wouldn't bring me any comfort or guidance.

     As far as I know, this was the moment where I felt like I was the furthest from God as I have ever been. I was sleep deprived and dealing with mood swings and even schizophrenia. I felt like me and Kurt had developed a spiritual bond, that he was somehow communicating with me from beyond the grave. I started noticing things, like the fact that before he commited suicide he was working on an album titled "in Utero" and I was in my mother's womb at the time of his death. I began to believe that his spirit had been following me this whole time and that he had left prophetic hints in his music that I was a kind of 'chosen one' someone who would someday take up his mantle and perhaps make music like him. I didn't realize it at the time but I had made an idol out of Kurt Cobain.

     Needless to say my behavior was concerning for my parents so eventually they had me checked into a psychiatric care facility. After something like 2 weeks of an inconsistent sleep schedule, I was forcibly placed in a brand new environment, one that I did not trust in the slightest. Eventually I was able to get some sleep there and when I calmed down I returned to my Faith. However, I was still very much shaken up and dealing with a mixture of optimism, paranoia and depression. I distinctly remember going to a church family camp and getting re-baptized because I felt like I had drifted pretty far from the Faith.

     From that moment on, my Faith has done nothing but improve steadily. More than a decade later and I am beyond convinced that God is real and that I have personally communicated with him. Most of the evidence that I've observed is subtle, but I've just seen too many conincidences to count. Examples of small prophecies being fulfilled, synchronicities and coincidences that simply couldn't be accounted for as mere chance. But beyond that I know 2 members in my Bible study who claim that they both have been miraculously healed by God after receiving prayer from people who they know personally.

     Some of this evidence that I have observed I am willing to share but a lot of it is personal and I don't think that it will convince any of you regardless. But simply put, if you are asking me for the reason that I have for the hope in my heart then this is that reason. Obviously I don't need your guys approval to believe that the Word of God is true. But I will leave you with one simple idea. How many testimonies do you think are out there? How many videos are there on the internet of people who claim to have had a life changing encounter with the Holy Spirit do you think that there are? How many ghost stories and how many stories of demonic posession or para-normal events exist? These stories probably stretch well past the millions. But my point is rather simple. How many of these stories need to be true in order for there to be something else out there beyond the material world?

How many stories of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster are out there? Quantity does not equal quality.

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: More than a decade later and I am beyond convinced that God is real and that I have personally communicated with him.

How? Verbally/orally? Via writings? Other means?

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: Most of the evidence that I've observed is subtle, but I've just seen too many conincidences to count.

Tons of believers of other religions claim the same. Who is right and why? Why/how does "not coincidence" point to the christian god and not the muslim one?

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: Examples of small prophecies being fulfilled, synchronicities and coincidences that simply couldn't be accounted for as mere chance.

See above

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: But beyond that I know 2 members in my Bible study who claim that they both have been miraculously healed by God after receiving prayer from people who they know personally.

Tons of believers from other religions claim to have been miraculously healed as well Whom shall i believe? whom shall you believe?

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: Some of this evidence that I have observed I am willing to share but a lot of it is personal and I don't think that it will convince any of you regardless.

Would you be convinced if a muslim told you exactly that?

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: Obviously I don't need your guys approval to believe that the Word of God is true.

I fully respect your right to believe in whatever you want. I have zero respect in what you believe and the silly reasons why. "Personal experience" or arguments from incredulity stuff you are touting are exactly that....and thats what you would tell every muslim out there if he told you what you are telling us.

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: But I will leave you with one simple idea. How many testimonies do you think are out there? How many videos are there on the internet of people who claim to have had a life changing encounter with the Holy Spirit do you think that there are? How many ghost stories and how many stories of demonic posession or para-normal events exist? These stories probably stretch well past the millions.

When did the supernatual become true? After 1 million videos or after 2? Your argument from numbers is utterly non-convincing. If a majority of the videos online were by muslims about Allah, would you convert to Islam?

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: But my point is rather simple. How many of these stories need to be true in order for there to be something else out there beyond the material world?

How many of them are true?...and why?


Look, you can believe all what you want. I am not gonna stop you, but the moment you come here and make these public claims and bring those horribly bad arguments to the table, you gonna experience some pushback.

Your arguments are horrible, and utterly unconvincing to anyone by yourself. Particularly personal experience is useless for anyone but you. Would you accept personal experience from anyone other than you? Your standard for believing such extraordinary claims being personal experience is shockingly low. If you would apply this standard to any professional stage magician, ignoring anyone trying to explain why and how its only a trick, you must think there are hundreds of real magicians out there. Do you?

Your argument from (high) numbers is also very unconvincing. You wouldnt be convinced by someone elses numbers either, would you?
Your incredulity, that there are "too many coincidences" is also an incredibly low bar to cross. Your lack of imagination, your lack of curiosity (to investigate those "coincidences) are not a good reasons to believe in god, its a good reason tho to believe that you are a very unimaginative person completely lacking curiosity.

Does your god exists nevertheless? Maybe, but your arguments are bad, really, really bad. Nobody should be convinced by your arguments, not even you.

A personal experience is just that. It's not a universal truth that can be used to convince or even guide others. And it being subjectively personal doesn't make it realistic despite the comfort it provides, because people are notoriously good at deluding themselves into a false sense of security.

(June 8, 2026 at 9:21 am)h311inac311 Wrote: How many testimonies do you think are out there? How many videos are there on the internet of people who claim to have had a life changing encounter with the Holy Spirit do you think that there are? How many ghost stories and how many stories of demonic posession or para-normal events exist? These stories probably stretch well past the millions. But my point is rather simple. How many of these stories need to be true in order for there to be something else out there beyond the material world?

I know this was part of a larger post, and there are certainly some things worth unpacking in all of that...particularly with respect to how you just might have shifted the object of your ideations from kurt cobain to a god and left the rest of the details more or less the same....but this part I think is more productive.

What if all of those stories being true still wouldn't mean that there was something beyond the material world?  You are talking about material people having material experiences with their material brains after all. I don't personally doubt that people who believe in gods on the basis of a compelling personal experience had a compelling personal experience. It does seem to me, though, and especially in light of your post, that you would be familiar with truly having a compelling experience that does not map to any external reality?

Well it's good to be back isn't it? anyway:

To Angrboda I say, "How do you know that the loch ness monster isn't real?"

     Good afternoon Mr. Deese, I'm not sure that we've ever had a conversation before but allow me to ask you a simple question. If I tell you that I think that Allah is a false god, what do you think I mean when I say that? 

     
     Yes it would. If someone makes the claim that they've seen objects levitating (fairly common for haunted houses) especially in response to someone naming a dead person, in like fashion; "bloody Mary are you here?" and then Mary responds by throwing pots and pans around the kitchen. Well if just one of these stories is true then it points heavily towards the fact that para-normal spirits (my best guess is demons) are capable of interacting with the physical world in a way that violates the laws of physics.
     
     Here's another fairly common claim that psychics, mediums and even regular people will make with regards to communicating with the dead. "A spirit spoke to me and told me something that only my grandmother could have known." and later they find evidence (that they weren't aware of before, such as a personal diary) which proves that the spirit which spoke to them told them something that they couldn't possibly have known otherwise. If just one of these stories is true, wouldn't that mean that there is something beyond the physical world which can communicate with us?
     
     "It does seem to me, though, and especially in light of your post, that you would be familiar with truly having a compelling experience that does not map to any external reality?" - Nudger:

     Well I have had experiences that couldn't be explained by mere chance. To reference the evidence that I gave earlier, I know 2 people in my morning Sunday Bible study who have both had miraculous stories of being healed by God. There are many stories like this, but let's speak hypothetically for this. 
Let's say that an individual makes the claim that they went to the doctor and received a really bad diagnosis (cancer lukemia, scoliosis etc...) but instead of pursuing surgery, or western medicine, instead they simply go to their local Bible study and tell their fellow man about this issue. The saints pray for him and a week later he goes to the doctor and the doctor says, "Well, I don't know how this happened, but based on our most recent test results your cancer is in a state of full remission. You should be fully cured and back to your old self within one week." 
     
     So we have test results on both sides of the diagnosis and the middle part is marked by healing prayer. If just one of these stories is true then that would point us towards the idea that there must be something outside of ourselves which can heal us in a super-natural way, no?