RE: List of reasons to believe God exists?
December 4, 2017 at 12:43 pm
(This post was last modified: December 4, 2017 at 12:50 pm by henryp.)
(December 4, 2017 at 12:30 pm)SteveII Wrote: People come to the place where they are willing to believe in God/supernatural for all kinds of reasons. Most are wired with something. Some are raised that way, some have events happen in their life (bad and good things), some encounter people who's testimony is compelling, and some read and find the person/message of Christ compelling. A further category of existential reasons would include purpose, meaning, value, morality etc.
Yeah, that stuff is fine. But as I said in the op, I stick this in the 'wishlist category.' Things I would like to be true about the world. I'd like there to be meaning, purpose, value, morality, afterlife, my parents to be right, a more 'meaningful' explanation for events, the compelling ideas to be correct as well.
But I think to conclude those things are real, first you need to establish there's God.
If I say "I'd like to exist forever. For that to be true, I need a place to go. Maybe some sort of alternate dimension. Maybe a God sees over that. Therefore, God exists." doesn't really make sense as an argument.
The reasons for establishing there's a God in the first place, is what I'm curious about.
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A side note, I read a fiction book a few years back, and the main character discovers that there is an afterlife, but it's horrible. And it struck me, that there are no 'when you die, things are awful' pitches around. We've got nothingness. We've got, if you're good you go to heaven or are reincarnated as a fuzzy bunny or whatever. But there is no "Yeah, it's going to suck forever. You should definitely be terrified of death." I think that says something about what I mean when I describe things as a wishlist. The unknowable stuff always seems to be perks. It's never, "If you believe in Baal, you only get raped once every 5 hours instead of once ever 2 hours." (well, I suppose less getting raped is a perk, but I think you can get my point)