Believing Vs Claiming to Believe

[The Reality Salesman01]

you were leading to a deceptive end, your only care is to deconvert.

The end I expect can easily be changed by the answers provided for my questions. I anticipate the conversation will ultimately arrive at its usual point, yes. However, this doesn’t mean that it necessarily has to.

Does God approve of something because it is Holy?

-or

Is something Holy because God approves it?

If I remember I told you it was neither.

Should I ask the question that’s being begged, or do I just assume you don’t know?

Surely someone that runs around here proclaiming to have a firm grasp on God's will knows how to determine what it is that makes ones actions holy or otherwise...

I know exactly what God considers holy, the scriptures describe it well.

So something is holy if it is in the scriptures? If this is true, then any interpretation of the scripture can be equally viewed as holy. But, I don’t think this is true, and I don’t think you do either.
Clearly you know of some standard by which the scriptures are determined to be holy. The floor is yours. I don’t feel that I’m being at all threatening here, I’m just asking questions.

I'm not at all sure what being in person has to do with being able to provide a legitimate answer to a straight forward question.

Looking someone in the eyes is the easiest way to determine their intentions, yes I could answer the question, and yes it's straight forward, it's your intention that's not straight forward as you have proven.

My intentions are evident in my questions. My goal is to examine what you say you know to be true. If it is true, then I will adopt it. I will have no choice. I will be incapable of avoiding it.
If your words are convincing enough, I will believe you. That's how it works. If your message is not as convincing as you had hoped, try again. Try a different tact. The things you say have the potential of reinforcing my lack of belief, but it could also change it entirely, or even replace it.
If you think that not looking in my eyes is somehow a barrier in properly conveying your message, then I am sure I don’t understand, as that is only a requirement should your plan be to hypnotize me, and I doubt very seriously that’s what you aim to do.

You assume Christians have not considered the things you did to lose their faith, you assume if we had we would no longer be Christians

I assume from things observed. It is not a blind assumption. If you think I am wrong, provide me with answers that show me different. If you choose not to, then you are not in a position to criticize my assumption. Wouldn't you agree?

Christians here have gone deeper into questioning God than you ever did, ever consider that's why we are not fooled by the ridiculousness of what atheist have to say

That may be, I don't deny it. If you know it to be true, then share with me your answers. I know from my own experience what answers were available when I sought God, and it is this experience combined with the testimony shared by people such as yourself that empower my assumptions.

Did I consider that your questioning of God gave you answers that make my question appear ridiculous?

I considered my personal experience as a Christian, and retrospectively I assess the psychological barriers that prevented me from truly questioning God without fear or artificial guilt. I remember the state of denial which instilled a sense of artificial confidence about my faith in the face of adversity.

This artificial confidence shielded me from the reality of my beliefs. For me, looking back, “Faith” was pretending to know things I did not know.

By pretending to have such answers for so long, I started to actually believe it. This sense of entitlement to answers would cause me to dismiss challenges such as these as being too “ridiculous” to warrant my attention.


In short, given your responses, or lack there of in some cases, you fit into my assumption perfectly. If you say that I am wrong, tell me why, and explain yourself.

I don’t doubt that you’ve questioned God, but I suspect you do so in much the same way that I did, which is to say, blinded by confirmation bias and a false sense of enlightenment. So far, that's the impression your responses have left on me.

could it be true we've already worked through much with God. That's what you need to consider.

It is that very thing I consider when I offer you the opportunity to share what you’ve claimed to discover. I have said over and over again that I do not deny this a possibility, however, my doubt of it actually being true increases at every failed attempt to establish such truth.

You say you have the answers that you’ve discovered through God.
I do not, so I ask the questions in hopes of examining your claims.
If you don’t answer them, it is unclear why you would criticize my skepticism toward your claim.

I do not take offense at challenges to my knowledge of God, I do take offense when others think I practice religion or when insults are hurled because I believe differently than atheist do

Retrace any honest exchange you and I have had, specifically, this one. I am giving you the floor, and asking you direct questions that you have claimed to have answers to. The choice to answer them is obviously yours, but be aware of the reasons you provide should you ignore them. If I’ve provided you with an unobstructed opportunity for you to present your case, and you decline, then it is you that has failed to present information, and not an unwillingness on my part to listen