(August 29, 2023 at 10:25 am)FrustratedFool Wrote: Thing is, the church and the bible promise all manner of things to the believer: answered prayers, spiritual gifts, miracles, angels, inner peace, prophesy, love between believers, etc.
Nothing happens. Life is the same for the believer as the unbeliever. The promises fail.
Appeal to mystery isn't adequate and just prolongs the cognitive dissonance or religious abuse.
I mean, that's the really weird thing. Stuff does happen. That quote from William Temple “When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't.” has been the experience of many Xians, which is why it's still flourishing.
Apart from externals like the (earlier mentioned) back pain of my close relative vanishing overnight, some utterly bizarre timing stuff that happened to another close relative, Lourdes, The Cross and the Switchblade, people I've met with healing gifts, bla, bla...I've also personally experienced some very strange things. Real answers to prayer. I remember at the end of one lengthy, painful, off-the-wall episode thinking that if I ever felt tempted to stop being a Xian, just to go over the events and the feeling would go away.
No doubt the replies will come in that I am deluded/seeing patterns when none exist/lying/misreading things/anything. Those options are open to the rest of you. They are not open to me.
