RE: Why are you a Theist?
April 2, 2013 at 12:26 pm
(This post was last modified: April 2, 2013 at 12:41 pm by jstrodel.)
(April 2, 2013 at 12:21 pm)pocaracas Wrote: If a god is to be accepted, it needs to be self-evident, given that, thus far, no amount of experimentation has yielded any god.
In order for it to be self-evident, everyone must have the same kind of experience. And I mean literally everyone! Like the experience we have of gravity. Gravity exists, no one questions that.
This all to say that an individual's experience isn't worth anything to another individual (or shouldn't), unless the other can have the same experience.
If your god can bring forth such wonderful experiences, then I just can't wait for it to give them to me as well..... and to all human beings. Thus far, it hasn't provided such experiences... and I'm sure as heck not going out of my way to convince myself that I can have them, so that I will then interpret anything as such experiences.
I'm impartial, and will remain impartial. People will never sway me towards any god with their words and experiences. Only god can do that... and, so far, I've seen nothing.
Why does God have to be self evident to you without seriously seeking Him? What is that based on? That statement is not clear to me.
(April 2, 2013 at 12:21 pm)Joel Wrote: Alright, so if we assume that they are 'false spirits' in the sense that they are bad and deceitful - how is it that they can affect people born straight into religions other than Christianity? Does your God allow this?
Because the spirits stay inside of people. Yes, God does allow this. People can suffer many things on the earth and be deceived. But not necessarily everything that the spirits say is false. In the Bible, God uses a pagan prophet, Balaam to bless Israel. God also recognizes the reality of the pagan magicians in Greece as well the fortune teller possessed by a spirit in the book of Acts.
In the end, God will judge all peoples, and God will be fair to all people. God allows people to to be born into cults and things like this but in the end everyone chooses whether to "look to me, all the ends of the earth, and be ye saved" (Isa 45:22)
Romans also talks about people being able to discern between light and darkness, whether they have the law or not.
I think it is also possible that God could use evil spirits or unclean spirits to teach people things. I think that when many people that may have had some sort of experience of God in another faith that may not be legitimate, that it, came from the Holy Spirit, I do not necessarily thing they are condemned, if they practice a form of religion where they acknowledge God and obey something similar to the 10 commandments or follow God.
God is fair to everyone. Mystical experience in other religions is complicated, but it does not conflict with Christianity, it supports Christian claims. The similarities between the different enduring religious traditions are deep, and interesting. They serve to strengthen Christian claims.
The fact that many of the primitive religions, idol worshipping societiies, people that practiced human sacrifice, etc, have died out, and by far the most influential civilizations have come from monotheists serves to bolster the claims of Christianity.
The fact that there is some minor sect of idolaters does not disagree refute Christian claims, but the fact that most people in the world are not idolaters or practice a diverse form of religion but follow the God of Abraham is furthur evidence for Christian claims, and other such as Buddhist and Hindu's have other similarities with Christianity, which are deeper than just a man worshipping a piece of stone or practicing voodoo.
