Godschild, I understand the idea of personal experience but, as I think you have stated in your posts, you know that your own personal experience doesn't really help any of us here. I believe some members here used to have things that they thought were personal experiences with divine but under further investigation determined that they were not.
I suppose I wonder what more can we do if we are honestly looking and still can't make ourselves believe that it is true. I know you say accept on faith but if I said I believed in God, no matter how hard I tried, I would know that I do not. I cannot force myself to believe something that I do not think is true... maybe after psychologically damaging myself I could but deluding myself on that level is a tall order. I am not trying to insult anyone but for those of us here who are unconvinced we can't force faith either.
So ultimately, assuming we are being honest, are we to be punished for something that seems to be out of our control. I don't know if you will say it is in our control but I fail to see how. I have seen the arguments, in fact I used to use some of them to argue with atheists, and I simply do not think they are valid. What else can I do besides lie? Of course lying would in of itself make me damned in God's eyes anyway so there really isn't a way out for me or many others here either.
I suppose I wonder what more can we do if we are honestly looking and still can't make ourselves believe that it is true. I know you say accept on faith but if I said I believed in God, no matter how hard I tried, I would know that I do not. I cannot force myself to believe something that I do not think is true... maybe after psychologically damaging myself I could but deluding myself on that level is a tall order. I am not trying to insult anyone but for those of us here who are unconvinced we can't force faith either.
So ultimately, assuming we are being honest, are we to be punished for something that seems to be out of our control. I don't know if you will say it is in our control but I fail to see how. I have seen the arguments, in fact I used to use some of them to argue with atheists, and I simply do not think they are valid. What else can I do besides lie? Of course lying would in of itself make me damned in God's eyes anyway so there really isn't a way out for me or many others here either.
