(November 8, 2016 at 5:25 pm)ParagonLost Wrote: Because i imagine Jesus, I use the word optics for this kind of experience. Something that is perceptible by the sense of sight or perceptible by the mind. The mind is very complicated and so is consciousness, Don't ever let anyone define your experience of the world at least that's what i say. When i was younger I would imagine Jesus because iv'e seen pictures of him in art and the Renaissance. But i now realize its my mind trying to picture him. So my mind has convinced itself that whatever I imagine is not the real physical phenotype of Jesus. That's not important to me in any case but what is, is this.
In Christianity since Jesus is God we have to understand what that means. " I and the Father are one" as we all have heard in John's Gospel. What does this mean based off experience alone? In Christian mysticism, It's not that Jesus is above everyone else but were on a equal playing field with God. All Children of God, including Jesus. So the destination is to become Like Christ, which is called the transforming union. We can all become sons of God, John 1:12.
So through experience you can grow and become close to God. And John's main message of who God is , is that God is love. As said in the gospel, and the only way to know that is to experience God. Now the trick is you don't have to define it as God. This is what i meant by standards in my initial post. You can just call it Love except for the fact when you experience something like this you will realize it is strong in nature so divine in theological language.
I don't think you've mentioned it yet, but I am curious.
In your cherry picked version of Christianity, what happens to us nonbelievers after we die?
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
