(December 31, 2011 at 10:26 am)Voltair Wrote: Godschild, from a theological standpoint I will agree that Jesus made things easier through bringing in the New Covenant. However what I am speaking of is evidence that it is actually true.
I understand the idea of well just have faith and trust that it is true but are you being equal in your trust? Do you trust the writings of other ancients who make theological claims? If you do not trust others but only trust the Christian writers what is your criteria?
First it is faith that there is a God, then it is faith that the men who wrote it down actually saw what they said they did, then it is believing that although miraculous events are impossible now that they can really happen. If I told you I had an invisible dragon in my garage, thanks Sagan, you could put enough trust in me to believe me but why should you?
The skeptics here are not believing just because they really really don't want to. Don't get me wrong a lot of us REALLY don't want to as well but we can't see a reason why we could even if we wanted to. If the solution is to just have faith and throw evidence/reason to the wind then there is no rational way for us to get to faith.
This is why claims such as miracles etc could/should be easily validated by an all powerful being. Most people are going to agree with me that this being will NOT prove his existence in any direct way but they believe that for a different reason than I do. There is usually some theological justification that is mustered/attempted to explain why God cannot do something that would make evangelism and Christianity a whole lot easier. That thing is to actually prove that he is real.
I understand what your saying, no evidence, no God, belief without reason is no belief. However God has not chosen to work in a way that you think He should. There are many things I could say but, I'm sure you have already heard them, what I do know comes through personal experience and after years of study, prayer and those personal experiences I have no doubts about God and what He has done for mankind. I can not give you or anyone reasons why God exist unless one is willing to believe through faith. When I came to this forum I knew what to expect, my reason to be here is to learn from the questions that challenge what I believe (know) and to defend what I see as the truth when an argument seems to merit a discussion. God works miracles all the time but, with today's knowledge people dismiss them as mere chance, how is it the unexplained is no longer a miracle but mere chance because of knowledge. This does not make sense to me, the unexplained is still unexplained regardless of the amount of knowledge man has.
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.