Originally posted by josephwHow many are there? How do you make sure you are addressing the right one? Is there a secret password we must use so he knows that we are praying to him?
Maybe you prayed to the wrong God.
Surely a prayer addressed to 'whatever God exists' cannot be addressed to the wrong God.
Originally posted by twhiteheadThe secret password is not a secret. It's Jesus Christ!
How many are there? How do you make sure you are addressing the right one? Is there a secret password we must use so he knows that we are praying to him?
Surely a prayer addressed to 'whatever God exists' cannot be addressed to the wrong God.
Originally posted by PsychoPawnI keep harping on this in this forum because it's the best and most obvious evidence I can think of. It's really the only evidence that our senses can detect. Since the evidence that everyone seems to be looking for is what they can detect through the senses, then that evidence is, all that exists. What's more, the fact that it, i.e. everything, does exist, is evidence as well.
I just love this argument about there being no evidence. Is it really necessary that God should appear physically in the sky and announce .
I didn't make that argument. I didn't say anything about that did I. I asked for evidence - I didn't say what form that evidence had to take.
You have claimed there is evidence - show it to me!
[i]
...[text shortened]... Just like if you show me evidence the tooth fairy exists, I'll believe in the tooth fairy.
I'm thinking that what the atheist is looking for, for proof of God's existence, is supernatural enlightenment by God, to the degree that they would then have no doubt. That proof does in fact exist as well. God is not hiding from us. One may think God doesn't exist because they don't perceive or recognise the evidence by strictly physical means alone, but there is a dimension of thought that the atheist is not apprehending that opens the mind to the knowledge of God. As one who knows God, and don't be thrown off by that statement, I know why they don't apprehend it. The reason for the "blindness", if I can safely say it that way, has nothing to do with the lack of evidence per se, and more to do with things spiritual. Thought is spiritual. It's not in the words, it's in the spirit. Which is why an argument for the existence of God using words falls short of convincing anyone for the existence of God. Words are brush strokes that paint the spiritual picture not apprehended by the physical senses.
Originally posted by josephwGod is not hiding from us. One may think God doesn't exist because they don't perceive or recognise the evidence by strictly physical means alone, but there is a dimension of thought that the atheist is not apprehending that opens the mind to the knowledge of God.
I keep harping on this in this forum because it's the best and most obvious evidence I can think of. It's really the only evidence that our senses can detect. Since the evidence that everyone seems to be looking for is what they can detect through the senses, then that evidence is, all that exists. What's more, the fact that it, i.e. everything, does exist, ...[text shortened]... sh strokes that paint the spiritual picture not apprehended by the physical senses.
And I did go through a time when my mind was open to god and I actually did try to pray to have god make himself known to me. He didn't. I still consider myself open to god to a certain extent in that if I truly felt /found something that I could not deny then I would believe. I just have stopped praying to find something that has failed to respond.
If god is not hiding from us then he seems pretty incompetent at making himself known. He is the omnipotent hide and seek player, that's for sure.