Dear Atheists

[ParagonLost]

Dear Atheists,

A warm welcome from a friendly Christian who is interested to hear from you and is willing to listen deeply. I respect you so much, you have courage of your convictions and are truly free thinkers in a complicated world. One thing I don't understand is your constant rejection of God. Does that mean that your standards aren't met with the right definition of God? In classical Christianity God wasn't debated like it is today. One may ask back then "does God exist? "Well Yeah, I mean of course!".

Thank you for your respect I suppose. What do you mean constant rejection of god? In my day to day life I barely ever think about any mythological deities, maybe with the exception of when I'm interacting with fellow atheists on this forum. Besides that, I usually don't think or talk about any god or gods. It never comes up in conversation with most people I interact with. I feel no need to talk about it... The same way I don't feel the need to discuss the nonexistence of vampires or unicorns. What do you mean about the definition of god? What do my 'standards' have to do with a supernatural being? Standards for what? And so what if god wasn't debated like in 'classical Christianity,' whatever that means? Just because a large number of people accepted something as fact once upon a time does not give said thing any more or less validity.

Lets get the Definitions of God right because I mean it in a plural sense, I do believe in multiple definitions. It could be the ground of being, a transcendent being wholly apart from the Universe but immanent and involved in the Universe. But how do you see God or feel him? Feeling is the key word and synonymous with personal experience. Let's forget about Christianity for a minute and look at wider cultures in our beautiful world traditions. Mystics though out the ages have practiced deep contemplation, meditation, and prayer. They have all reported findings that are so important when once experienced, may be one of the most life changing phenomenon we can have. Neuroscience is trying to understand prayer and meditation at the level of the brain so it's very much in concordance with evidence. Now the question is how creative are you going to be? Are you going to use your experience in prayer or meditation to link or confirm your experience or contact with God in Christ and believe he is Lord? Or Allah? It's up to you to interpret your experience in the confines of a religion or no religion at all, which is fine too.

I don't know if I've seen that definition of god in any dictionary, did you just make that up? Also, deep contemplation and meditation CAN have some real world effects on the human mind, but prayer? Not so much.  And to say that one can interpret their experiences with meditation and such differently illustrates that there is no ONE TRUE answer to explain all of these experiences. I have had amazing LSD trips that have completely changed the way I see the world. Does that mean the experience had anything to do with god? No, it doesn't. Meditation can produce some amazingly intense experiences and I actually practice meditation myself from time to time. But a connection with a god? I don't think so.

The reason I'm a Christian is because I feel the presence of God and that is evidence. The second is I believe he historically existed but I don't believe he said everything the same way as reported in the gospels. I don't even think he considered himself God. Why am i placing so much importance in the presence of God in my life? I think because it correlates directly to the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Disciples had a strong experience of the Lord after his death that he is a living reality in the present. But the reality they experienced was so strong that it was a "divine reality" being one with God and at the right hand of God.

Many of these experiences were visions or revelations. I don't believe in a physical or literal resurrection: as if the corpse of Jesus letter-to-letter transformed to another body. What are visions? I think it's unfair to classify them as hallucinations as if its a drug induced thing. But in a vision you can see a person, for example a passed away relative. You can see them and hold them and even talk to them. They can talk back and tell you things. Because the disciples had physical contact with the real Jesus in his real body when he was living on earth, I believe their memories of him telling them things was re introduced in their visions and experience: so I can imagine they're memory off shooting and repeating the phrase " I love you Peter" for example in the vision. So the Lord would have said that twice to Peter. Once in real life and once in the vision.

There is no reason to believe that 'visions,' religious or otherwise, are anything BUT hallucinations. If you went to a psychologist or psychiatrist and told them you had visions of jesus or heard god in your head they would probably diagnose you with schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia.

People might say well they're just visions, its just a experience they had why hold it to such high self esteem? Because anybody who's had a experience or a vision doesn't say "it's only a vision". It's rock solid fact, and it creates reality. And its one of the most important things they will ever remember even in their dying breath.

Thank you so much for reading, I hope you Always stay blessed and think of Good.

Best Wishes

P.S I hope this doesn't come across as proyselytizing.

I have had VERY intense hallucinations from different hallucinogenic drugs. Hallucinations that have changed, even to this day, how I think about myself and the world around me, but I will be the first one to tell you that they WERE JUST HALLUCINATIONS. Nothing more.

You sound just like every other christian and bring nothing new to the table. 

I don't think it's fair to compare vampire or unicorns with God. For example there aren't many people who say they experience unicorns or fairies. It's a non word it has no substance in reality. But with God the experience can be knowledge granting, and in fact confirm his existence. Mysticism is a perceptual thing; a participation with divine realities. In the plural because it can be more than one reality. It is filled with phenomenological content and it's directed towards an object. In my case Jesus. Or Christian symbols and language. Phenomenology refers to a person's perception of "meaning" as opposed to the event as it exists outside of his mind. Lets take for example you're a outsider looking in. It's impossible to do, I don't even know how you do something like that but imagine your on the inside then you can be creative and interpret your framework as to what "feels" right or tactility. It must be said that feeling isn't just a emotion I'm talking about but feeling embraced or held.

There are theistic and non theistic mystical experiences. Numinous Theistic Mystical Experiences are dualistic in nature and there's a division between characters, You and God 2 separate objects in the experience. Non Theistic can be a experience of filling one with the universe or nature. Sometimes Theistic intimacy can help you declare "I am God".

Do you think you could explain your experience you had on LSD in words. I would imagine it would be hard. I understand that you may believe my experience of the resurrection is not vernacular but self deceived delusions. In my opinion It means three things. 1. Jesus is a divine reality based off experience
2. Jesus is Lord the object of my reality. 3. Jesus was raised from the dead. Spiritual Resurrection.