(September 23, 2019 at 7:18 pm)Lek Wrote: I've probably stated ten times in this forum that I believe because God has personally impressed it on me. How many times do I need to say it? As I searched different faiths and had discussions with people like you and people of faith, combined with daily prayer, I came to believe. I never got the evidence I needed to believe from other people or material sources.
God "impressed" it on you. "Impressed" is one of those Special Words we used in a sense not quite like anyone else's usage when I was in the faith. I guess it evokes the "still, small voice". Oh, and not just any impressing, it was "personal".
It is phrasing like this that I think people have trouble figuring what exactly you even mean. No one can relate to something being "personally impressed on" them, so it's like you can say it a hundred times and you might as well be saying "oogah-boogah".
Translation: you believe in god because you claim / believe that he gave you a private direct revelation of himself. You did not require any evidence, other than a personal subjective experience that you describe as divine revelation.
The problem for any skeptic is that you can't explain how anyone would be able to tell such a revelation from things like wishful thinking, confirmation bias, daydreaming or just being deluded. That, I think, is why Christians have their Special Words, to make it seem to themselves and maybe to others that this isn't the same thing as the more mundane and less flattering explanations.
But it is.
