RE: Q: do you, Christian, claim that God exists, rather than you believe that he exists?
February 23, 2014 at 2:07 pm
(February 23, 2014 at 11:00 am)discipulus Wrote: The error in this reasoning is not unique to you, but a great many atheists I have dialogued with commit this error. It is called a "category mistake". You essentially are asking for non-transcendant, empirical, scientifically verifiable, conrete, material evidence for a transcendant, immaterial, incorporeal being that MAY exist beyond the scope of scientific observation and measurement.
Fixed that for you. Just because you create a category for things transcendent, immaterial and incorporeal doesn't mean that there must actually be anything in that category. What reason do you have to think there are?
An honest Christian will admit that they believe in God because they feel His presence and it is that presence they address in prayer. Christians feel this Gods approval and disapproval. That is why so many have a hard time imaging how an atheist can even have a conscience. Christians don't test to see if this sense of God is real and it would seem abhorrent to do so. This is where faith comes in.
Well and good. I can allow that this is common and sound enough manner for a human being to experience their consciousness. It is an ageless pattern to be sure. What I cannot allow is the jump to the bible.
There is no justification for the belief that the bible contains the literal history of this God you experience. People have experienced the immediate presence of gods or God for a very long time alright, but have done so while cleaving to a vast variety of narrative stories concerning the nature of those gods. Apparently having a culturally agreed upon narrative to inform ones direct experience of the God's presence is indeed the norm. But it is rather primitive to go on believing that only the bible is illuminating and that all others must surely be in darkness.
You can never justify the claim that only your cultural narrative is true. If you can't accept that every other God narrative in which people believe is as justifiable as your own, then you simply refuse to become fully modern and take your place as a citizen of the world.
