Quote:The experiences were not just transcendent love, peace and joy but also things which happen in the world. I started to experience numerous coincidences until it seemed they were not coincidences but deliberate orchestrations. For instance, going across country and meeting the same two people a thousand miles away at the same place and time when they didn't know eachother, weren't traveling your route, and were actually headed in two completely different directions.Same two people as what? I think I'm missing something here.
Quote: Needing a certain amount of money and having someone slip you the exact amount anonymously when you hadn't told anyone. Needing certain items and having people come out of the woodwork to give them to you.This happened to my family when I was growing up numerous times. I'm atheist.
Quote:Having one leg that was shorter than the other grown out to be even with the other leg.An evangelist from Argentina visited our church when I was 15 and prayed for my legs in front of everyone. One of my legs is slightly longer than the other (not really noticeable, unless you get to know me and are aware of my lack of self esteem. My lack of confidence does not resemble the way my hips move when I walk lol). Anyway, this dude prayed for my legs in front of everyone and we all saw my leg grow. We all saw it. I spent the following days making myself walk different with fear of the god taking the miracle away for lack of faith, though I could clearly see that my leg was back to normal already. Funny thing... but... we all saw it. Yes, we did. I mean it. I'm not kidding.
Quote:Dreaming about something and then having it repeated to you by people multiple times.I had a dream at age six and I had it again several times through out my life. All of it came true, unfortunately.
Quote:Studying something specific and having it repeated to you by people multiple times.I studied many specific things, too. For example, math. More specifically, fractions. Every time I go to the store and ask for a kilo of beef, the guy behind the counter weighs it and replies, "Is 3/4 ok?" Some business guy, the poor fellow.
Quote: Things of that nature.Naturally.
Quote: I couldn't really begin to describe how many of these things have happened. Individually you might write some of them off, but taken together they add up to a chain of evidence of the actions of an all powerful God. Not absolute proof but they certainly helped me to see that God is in control. Looking back on my life I can clearly see that the amazing things I had written off as coincidence were the hand of God over my life.So, basically... if it's extraordinary, it's divine. If it's divine, it's the Christian god.
Quote:The revelation was about the triune nature of God. I kept getting signs about God being 3 in 1 (literally hundreds and hundreds of times) but I didn't get it until I read the bible. The signs were usually in numbers, like 333, and I could feel God showing me something about Himself, but I didn't get it until I read the bible.I like sex and I see 69 everywhere. Again, I'm not kidding.
So, what I'm trying to say is that yeah, man, things happen. extraordinary things happen. Sometimes those things are great, sometimes they're awful. Sometimes people will do things that seem to hit the spot and leave you speechless, "Oh, my FSM, how did you KNOW?" And maybe they didn't.
Sometimes people will see a leg grow. Sometimes a sugar pill will heal a person that thought the pill was real medicine.
Sometimes I will study something that sticks on my mind... and I will start noticing that people bring it up all the time all of a sudden. You know, like when you buy a car that you didn't see a lot before, but now that you have it, you see it everywhere.
Sometimes you will have extraordinary sex and start seeing 69s everywhere (the number of posts on a thread, the number of kudos in a week, the number of people going to a play, etc.). Shit happens. Why does is happen?
hmmmm... there could be many possibilities.
Aliens.
Allah.
Jehovah.
I giant baby from a planet far, far away.
An invisible creature we have yet to discover.
A force.
Coincidence.
Hypnosis.
Illusion.
Delusion.
Subconscious.
Triggers.
Conspiracy.
Mother in law.
I don't know, therefore, Jesus? You say you read the Bible. Did you also read the Book of Mormon? The Quran? How exactly did it make sense that all of it had an explanation in Christ?
If you were an atheist, were you atheist because you didn't know enough about any gods to even take notice, or was it a conclusion reached by critical thought and reason? This reminds me of the Catholics around here. I ask them about the original sin and the stare at me with googly eyes. They are Catholic by default. They grew up around it and they consider themselves Catholic, yet they know nothing about their own "beliefs". They believe that what their parents believe is true, but don't really know what it is that they believe in. Why were you atheist? How did you determine that there was no reason to believe in any gods? Could it be that you were like an empty vase ready to be filled with something... anything? Because... I am skeptical of an atheist who had researched deities and science, who had given things some thought in order to reach a logical conclusion that believing in a god does not make sense would consider these things you mention... evidence, supernatural phenomena, and revelations.
Pointing around: "Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, you're cool, fuck you, I'm out!"
Half Baked
"Let the atheists come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of heathens belongs to people like these." -Saint Bacon
Half Baked
"Let the atheists come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of heathens belongs to people like these." -Saint Bacon