(January 19, 2015 at 4:15 am)robvalue Wrote: That's OK. I respect very much your desire to have honest discourse, it is probably the greatest I have seen from a theist on these boards. Obviously I don't agree with what you say, but I don't see you trying to trick me and worm out of things as is the norm. So props for that.
I made a little rant in another thread that religious beliefs are, in my opinion, mostly emotionally lead beliefs rather than logical. Would you say that is the case for you? And in such instances, logic cannot "trump" emotion because they are not in the same spheres.
I've known people who have become christians for emotional reasons, but they seem go be the ones who fall away quickly. I would say that most people become christians for practical or spiritual reasons. A practical reason might be someone who has overcome drug addiction and attributes it to their coming to God, or someone who has been healed from a major disease. I think most of us, like myself, believe for spiritual reasons. i look at the universe and how it may have come about or the fact that we appear to beings made up of more than physical matter. I recognize a difference between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom in our ability to reason and to seek the supernatural. I see the natural world as verifying the existence of a supernatural being. I don't think that science can ever answer the questions of how the energy or matter that makes up the cosmos came into existence or if it has always existed and never had a beginning. Or on the other end, what exists beyond the end of the universe or does the physical universe extend into infinity with no end? From what I read in this forum, most atheists are content to not know and don't worry about it. I have a craving to know about that kind of stuff and I'm open to a supernatural explanation. As for being a christian, rather than another faith. Of course, I was raised a christian. I see it as a historical faith. It's not something that was just made up by some individual, but rather was passed on and developed through the centuries, by numerous inspired writers culminating in Christ. It would have to had been some conspiracy. Finally, and I don't know if this is emotional or not, I just have an assurance within me that I'm on the right track.
