(March 16, 2014 at 12:52 pm)whateverist Wrote: Out of curiousity Jacob, who is the one person you know who became a xtian on the basis of examining the evidence? (ChadW?)
Someone I know from real life. One of my dearest friends actually. She's a jehovahs wittness.
Quote:As you ask me again about faith, it appears that my response was aimed correctly. I presume that you missed my meaning
I think perhaps I must have. You refer to this?
What is Faith:
Quote:Being persuaded and fully committed in trust, involving a confident belief in the truth, value, and trustworthiness of God. When it comes to Christianity, 'faith' is defined by three separate but vitally connected aspects (especially from Luther and Melancthon onwards): notitia (informational content), assensus (intellectual assent), and fiducia (committed trust). So faith is the sum of having the information, being persuaded of its truthfulness, and trusting in it. To illustrate the three aspects: "Christ died for ours sins" (notitia); "I am persuaded that Christ died for our sins" (notitia + assensus); "I deeply commit in trust to Christ who I am persuaded died for our sins" (notitia + assensus + fiducia). Only the latter constitutes faith, on the Christian view.
Consequently, notitia and fiducia without assensus is blind and therefore not faith. This shipwrecks the egregious canard that faith is merely a blind leap. Faith goes beyond reason—i.e., into the arena of trust—but never against reason. From the Enlightenment onwards, faith has been subject to constant attempts at redefining it into the realm of the irrational or irrelevant (e.g., Kant's noumenal category); but all such attempts are built on irresponsible straw man caricatures that bear no resemblance to faith as held under the Christian view: notitia, assensus, and fiducia.
It seems to me that this takes a lot of words to say something very simple, That faith comes from an analysis of, belief in, and trust in, the truth of the gospels.
Now you said,
Quote:I hate superstitious idiots, and you appear to be one. Sorry.
People come to BELIEVE in God through faith.
Seems to me that what I've done here is say that most of the Christians I know came to Christianity by route A, and your response was "no, people come to Christianity by route B". And then provided a pseudointellectual and needlessly obfuscated description of what route B is in an attempt to represent your bald assertion as a definitive fact.
As much as I'd love to concede to your total knowledge of How People Come To Believe, I'm afraid that your statement remains one of opinion, not fact.
Tell me frodo, do you have a relationship with God? Is your believe a pure intellectual thing? Or did you have some sort of conversion experience? At baptism perhaps?
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken."
Sith code
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken."
Sith code
