Quote:'Texas Sailor'
No, God hasn't ’t revealed anything to me, there is no God that I know anything about. I know nothing of God and very little of you, so I would not pretend to be able to speak for either. There is no single version of man’s God, but every version I’ve heard comes from a man. If your God does not have a hell, or in some way is incompatible to the way I’ve depicted it, then by all means, offer clarification of your position if you think it may reconcile the things I find incompatible with an allegedly loving God. Your God does not have a hell, or a devil involved in his doctrine I take it?
My God is of Love, and Mercy. I don't know any other.
Quote:I have hope. Faith is pretending to know when I obviously cannot. I can’t know something by hoping it is true. That’s quite absurd. If you are claiming to know God exists through Faith, then it appears you are being intentionally misunderstood when you use the word “faith” to describe your anticipations toward your children’s future. In one instance you use faith to depict how you know something. In the very next you are using it as something you hope for. The reason these threads get confusing is exactly because of this. You think “Faith” is a virtue, something to be admired and valued. When you look at these two instances, it is clear that “faith” is an incoherent word used to describe one’s position when they are at a loss for reasons to support a claim. It’s a failed epistemology. Sure, it’s used interchangeably with hope and belief within the context of important issues such as love, an ideal society, and our children, but let’s be honest here…
You can’t KNOW anything through faith. Your persistence to substitute the word “hope” in the place of it to describe an unknowable future should make this apparent to you. I’m willing to bet that you wouldn’t find a babysitter on the internet based on Faith, right? Would you like to revise the definition again?
My "faith" is knowing. My "hope" is you knowing.
I think you, as well as a few others need to look at the first line in the definition. Where is religion in that sentence?
faith
fāTH
noun
noun: faith1. complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
Quote:My mother is still a devout Christian, and I know she still loves me too. At times, the things you say remind me all too well of the things I’ve heard her say on the subject.
My son believing in God will not affect my love for him. If he was struck with a mental disorder, I wouldn’t love him any less, and faith is like a mental disorder.
I’m going to make sure that my son knows about ALL religions, not just Christianity, (just the facts, no values) and without my personal views being solicited to him. Every child in the world deserves to make an informed decision. A successful democratic system depends on an informed society. If people are not informed, there’s no freedom in that. Parents that impose their personal religious constraints on their young are doing their child a disservice by depriving them of truth. If their faith is the right one, and they believe their God will protect their child, they should have no problem exposing their child to all the other religions that think the same thing, and allow the child to decide for themselves whether one is right, or they’re all delusional. I expect the latter to be concluded, but any conclusion he makes won’t affect my love, but it also won’t prevent me from challenging his views and making him defend them critically. It’s my duty to my son to make sure that he learns to be as critical on himself as he is on anyone else, and to use his mind to guide him to truth.
Well, I respect your love towards your child. But, faith [again] can mean things other than religion. I didn't see "delusion" in the definition of faith. Also, tainting your childs descision making with your views is not condusive to open-mindedness. Even if you add a disclaimer. I've never once tried to say atheists are bad people to my children. Also I have been a role model of my faith in God. We don't force our kids to believe, go to church, or fill them with anything but positive values.
2 of my older children have come back to the Lord, w/o our prodding, or meddeling. And 2 of my teens call themselves atheists. So, you can't tell me anything about raising children to be themselves. Our Love is unconditional.
Quote:Why are you saddened? Are your kids not good people?
Because I see them struggle w/o God. No Peace.
And most of us are "good people". Or, not bad people. It has little to do with God. That is a choice we make.
Quote:It would be trivially easy for God to reveal himself to me if he existed.Are you "hoping" I'm saying that "I hope God is real"? I'll repeat my earlier quote so as you don't mis-quote me again: My "hope" is you knowing.
Could a God positively impact my life if It existed? Of course. But what I won’t do is arbitrarily attribute good things that happen in my life as being from God, and pretend to know that its true. Such a thing discredits the personal effort put in to accomplish them. I take responsibility for my failures as much as my successes. People that chalk things up to God or plea to the sky for help are avoiding their responsibility in some degree.
The difference between you and I is that I’m not pretending that things are God when there’s no evidence to posit that they’re not Zeus. You are pretending to have knowledge and justifying this knowledge by a failed epistemology.
That’s a deepity and indistinguishable from a description of a delusion. The evidence is “within”? That’s something crazy people say…I’m not calling you crazy, but surely you can recognize that such a justification for how one knows what they believe is true is synonymous with delusion or psychopathy.
Again, you’ve strayed away from your original position on faith. Are you now saying that you hope God is real?
"Trivially easy" for God to reveal Himself to you? How can you even know that? That is if you don't have any concept of what the "true" God is? You know not where He comes, goes, or what He does... so why would you know "how" He would reveal Himself?
You are the one pretending. Pretending you know or have absloute Faith there is no God.
God isn't an arbitrating entity in my life. There are no minute by minute decisions to be made. He has total control, and it works for me.
Who are you to call me delusional? You don't know a thing about me. You have no clue in anything about my life. Or how God has blessed me. Rather, you degrade me and my experiences with no explainations other than YOUR non-belief as proof of my delusion.
How about me calling you delusional in your ignorance of God?
When a quasi atheist Einstein says we "know one millionth of 1% of what there is to know about the universe"..... "You say there is no God!"
Well... I say, I have FAITH that Einstein is right.
Quis ut Deus?
