Proving The Resurrection By the Minimal Facts Approach

[Tonus]

I've never met anyone either, I have been made aware of the fact Satan exists, it comes from God and now by what I see in many people. God has made it abundantly clear He exists in my life and has everything to offer that's good. Satan on the other hand is called the deceiver, he would rather people believe he doesn't exist, it's to his advantage for people to believe this and Satan has nothing to offer, he's now a pawn in God's great plan and he hates it.

If Satan gets what he wants when people aren't able to get close enough to god, then god should foil his plans.  Why give Satan what he wants?

You know what I find really strange about Eve's attitude when she dealt with the serpent, she told him before hand she would die and even added to the commandment from God about toughing the fruit as if to emphasize that she wasn't going to eat it. Seemed to me she knew that no matter what the serpent said she would die if she disobeyed God.

God said they were a stubborn, hardheaded clan and that this attitude would come to bite them, low and behold it did. The great problem the Israelites had was they believed they owned God because He told them they were a special people, they forgot to ask why He considered them special and when God told them they didn't believe what they heard.

That's what I mean.  Even a stubborn person who had seen what they had seen would have had to understand the situation, and why acting against god made no sense.  I may not like that it is raining outside, but if I have to go out I will get my umbrella.  That these people made such bad decisions in light of what they knew is impossible to believe.

Right they had a physical encounter with Christ and understood clearly what God was capable of.

And this is something that is not offered to everyone today.  If the people who experienced Jesus were capable of stumbling or even turning against him, then it means that there is something in our design that leads us to make extraordinarily bad decisions.  If this were the case, then god has deliberately stacked the deck against most of humanity.  That goes completely against the idea that he is a loving person who wishes for everyone to be saved.

Christ told Thomas you have believed because you saw, but blessed are those who will believe without seeing. Because of our faith in the unseen God we can be blessed with the same knowledge that those who saw Him had, does this make sense to you?

I think that Jesus was telling Thomas that --having seen all the things that he had done already and his predictions about his own resurrection-- he should've trusted his fellow disciples and not been so suspicious.  I don't think it means that we are blessed if we believe something with no evidence whatsoever.  Otherwise we are blessed for not believing in god just as you might be blessed for believing in him.  Without a basis for belief, faith is meaningless.

Since there is a God that doesn't have a leg to stand on.

But no one has convinced me that there is a god. And the evidence leads me towards the conclusion that there isn't one. For me, the world as it exists makes more sense as the result of unguided events, not the hand of a benevolent and loving deity who wants me to be saved, but leaves me in a situation where the odds make it very likely that I will fail, and blames me for failing. That's not what good, fair, and just people do.

Enjoy the weekend and stay safe.