What Would It Take?

[Godscreated]

 I've personally met God on many occasions. A person can learn a great deal by reading about others, only way you'll learn about people of the past.

GC

Remarkable! Until just now, I had no idea that I've personally known Socrates, Julius Caesar, Nero, Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, Bonaparte, and many, many more people I've read about. Hell, I thought my knowledge about such people was at best second hand. But it's not because, thanks to you, I now understand that I personally know these people, and personal knowledge of a person cannot be merely second- or third-hand. I personally know Hitler . . . just astonishing!

But there's more! I've also "personally" known Apollo, Zeus, Medea, The Wife of Bath, Don Quixote, Hamlet, Prospero, Gulliver, Faust, David Copperfield, Sherlock Holmes, and Frodo. What's that? That's not what you meant? These are fictional characters?

Guess to which of the two groups above I would assign Yahweh? You'll object, of course, but according to your very words you've personally met God on many occasions by . . . reading about him. Sure, you believe he's real. But you've never met him in any ordinarily meaningful sense of the word, and really, really believing something doesn't make it real. He is, and always has been, the main character of your favorite book -- in many ways one of the most fantastical characters ever invented.

In any case, if one can personally know someone by merely reading about him, then why do you Christians go on and on about the need for the rest of us to have a personal relationship with Jesus? According to the low standard you've set in this thread, I already have a personal relationship with Jesus. I read about him! Oh, right . . . it doesn't count until I clap my hands and repeat the Christian equivalent of "I believe in fairies". Then I get to say I personally know Jesus, right? But this gets back to the way you guys weasel your way out of anything by butchering the language. Do we actually personally know Jesus by reading about him, as the post I quoted seems to indicate, or is a sprinkling of pixie-dust faith also necessary? If the latter, does that also apply to Hitler and Bonaparte or do you apply the standard selectively as your faith requires?

 What a dimwit, I said nothing about my reading about God being the same as meeting Him on a personal level. you have tried to twist what I've said into your own delusion, have fun with that because you seem to think it entertainment.