Assertions about The Unknowable God

@fmf said
No. You are mistaken.

Does an irrational person know they're being irrational?

@fmf said
When you talk about "knowing God", all you are saying is that you believe the narratives in the Bible are true.

Do I know a particular celebrity because I believe the "narratives" about them in the newspapers and magazines?

Of course not! I only know "about" him or her because of what I hear or read.

@fmf said
Whether he actually exists or not has no bearing on your belief in what the Bible says about him.

That is an obfuscation, and makes little or no sense.

I'm not making an argument for the existence of God. I'm simple pointing out that there's a difference between just knowing about God and actually knowing God.

Better yet known by God.

@josephw said
Does an irrational person know they're being irrational?

This is just feeble banter.

@josephw said
I'm simple pointing out that there's a difference between just knowing about God and actually knowing God.

No, there isn't. I am fully aware, from personal experience, of how faith makes believers think there is some special extra substance to "knowing God". It's just a religious creed that you have internalized. Faith is a function of cognition and comprises a set of complicated interdependent opinions about oneself and the universe.

@josephw said
Knowing God requires no religious component.

Claiming to "know" God is, at its very essence, what religion is.

@josephw said
You are a religionist because while you know "about" God you don't know God exists and are in a vacuum void of substance with regard to actually knowing God.

You don't seem to know what the words "religion" and "religionist" mean.

@fmf said
This is just feeble banter.

Deflection.

@josephw said
Deflection.

Your feeble banter was the deflection. Calling you out for it wasn’t.

@fmf said
No, there isn't. I am fully aware, from personal experience, of how faith makes believers think there is some special extra substance to "knowing God". It's just a religious creed that you have internalized. Faith is a function of cognition and comprises a set of complicated interdependent opinions about oneself and the universe.

"...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

You are unknowingly equating faith with cognition, which is a mistake. You think if you're not cognitively aware of something it doesn't exist.

You lack the "substance" of true spirituality because there's no evidence of faith in your cognitive function.

You have nothing to prove, only a spurious set of narratives with which to attempt to disprove something you don't know is real or not.

@fmf said
I am willing to accept that you self-identify as a Christian but the whole idea that belief in the Christian God is NOT a religion is just a kind of sophistry.

You think it's sophistry because you refuse to accept as valid the biblical narratives.

Try reason and logic. Christianity is not a religion because religion is defined by the practice of rites and rituals designed by man for the purpose of putting man in a state of right standing with God.

You're missing some vital information. God needs nothing from man. Man has nothing to give to God. Especially not man made religious institutions.

Whether you understand what I'm saying or not you'll proceed to gloss over the point.

@josephw said
You are unknowingly equating faith with cognition, which is a mistake.

No, it isn't a mistake. Cognition means thoughts and thinking and it gives rise to things like aspirations. Faith is thoughts/thinking and opinions and aspirations. Faith is a function of cognition.

@fmf said
Your feeble banter was the deflection. Calling you out for it wasn’t.

I wasn't bantering with you, but if it makes it easier for you to deflect away from points being made then by all means do it.

@josephw said
Christianity is not a religion because religion is defined by the practice of rites and rituals designed by man for the purpose of putting man in a state of right standing with God.

Religions are defined by their scriptures ~ and religious beliefs are defined by the narratives laid out in those scriptures. These narratives result in specific beliefs about the God figures at the centre of those religions. The same goes for Christianity. To try to argue that Christianity - and the beliefs attendant thereto - are somehow not a religion is weak and strange.

@josephw said
I wasn't bantering with you, but if it makes it easier for you to deflect away from points being made then by all means do it.

It was you who was deflecting, not me.