(August 18, 2014 at 1:33 am)Michael Wrote: F2R. I don't know if we'll ever know anything for certain. I'm not the best person to talk to about certainty as I rarely have it about anything. Perhaps the only certainly I have is that, at least somewhere, I'm wrong. For me, faith is commitment in the absence of certainty. There's always been a certain agnosticism to my faith. But I also hear this from my friends, the monks. They make an amazing commitment of their life to the monastic way of life, and yet do that in the presence of uncertainty ('doubt', if you will). But I can understand that. I think Keirkergaard understood this all too well - faith requires, and begins with, a risk.
Then let it be known to God (as he already would know) that my damnation into hell was caused by his inability to successfully establish the knowledge of his existence.
(A) Punishing a child for not having known his father's expectations isn't just at all. So if God wishes to punish, then it seems approriate for him to show himself.
(B) A child being able to lead a life deemed "good" by his father without the child having ever met his father makes it seem like contact with his father wasn't actually necessary. So now Jesus Christ just comes across as arbitrary and unnecessary.
Ultimately, these are the issues I see, both of which put Christianity in the position of not being true, given the claims of Christianity to the best of my knowledge.
"It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it" ~ Aristotle
