I think that religious people are grouped into the "stupid' category because stupid people often turn to religion. I've had my doubts about religion, but have been turned back each time without fail.

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Not mentioned in signature: Rebal <3
Lammiespace.

*Hip Thrust*

I have no interest in arguing against the existence God, I just would like to hear the "reasoning" that goes into your faith.


TMNT

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The Dark Knight = God of movies

Faith is just like a number of any other undeniable but irrational feelings that one can experience. Love is another. I have both and cherish them with equal amounts of enthusiasm.

It's really a manner of "feeling" the presense of God. There are certain times in a Christian's life where they experience what is called a "mountain top experience" where you feel as if you are as close to God as you could ever be, and it's quite overwhelming. To feel so small, insignificant, to feel so unworthy in the presense of a holy being is unreal. I believe that the God I know was and is there is the God described in Christianity.

You could call me crazy. Colostomizer calls it an internal placebo. I can definitely say that neither of these are true, but it's your job to believe me.

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Not mentioned in signature: Rebal <3
Lammiespace.

*Hip Thrust*

Love, as I understand it, is an emotion. Faith I don't think falls into that category as easily as you make it seem.


TMNT

__________________
The Dark Knight = God of movies

I don't believe that love exists within the confines of the ideological definition we as a society have given it.

In all likelihood, I imagine that I will prove myself wrong one day, but until then I enjoy arguing about it.

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Not mentioned in signature: Rebal <3
Lammiespace.

*Hip Thrust*

I don't think you're crazy, I know what you are talking about because I used to be of the same religion as you. However, I would disagree that it is my job to believe you that it was God that made you feel this way. It's only my job to believe something if I have a reason to. As intelligent as you may or not be, you are no where near the level of intelligence to where I would take your statements regarding the existence of God based on the authority principle of knowledge. However, the part where I believe that people fall into that sort of trap is where parents teach their kids this stuff practically from birth. I was lucky I guess that my parents divorced and my dad never went to church, cause that got me out of that habit real fast and I saw it for what it really was, an unnecessary distraction in my life. I have seen many, many reasons for people believing in God and being religious, all I'm saying is that non of them are founded in reason and can therefore, by definition of the word, be called stupid.

If you are saying that you have real "evidence" that God exists then what you have is, by definition, not faith. Therefore, you actually "know" that God exists. That is a claim you are welcome to make, but would be hard pressed to prove.


TMNT

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The Dark Knight = God of movies

When I said it was your job to believe, I was not implying that you were required to, or that you even should, convert to Christianity. My statement was essentially "Here is my story, take it for what you will." It was a figure of speech. I don't expect to convince you in 2 paragraphs, or 100 parapgraphs for that matter.

I consider myself different from the people who have been a Christian for "their entire lives". I was raised a Christian, but once I got smart enough to doubt it, I lived the life to appease my parents and church authorities, but didn't really believe. I think this gave me an advantage because I was and am knowledgable about the religion but didn't believe it at the time.

Since the time I accepted Christ about 4 summers ago, I have gone through many periods of questioning of my religion. There hasn't been anything yet to shake me enough to stop believing all together, but there have been times when it is close.

I do not claim to know 100% for a fact that there is a God. If I made that notion in a prior post, I apologize. I acknowledge that I could be wrong, as does MarkedAchilles with his conclusion about there beind no God. However, both of us are very confident in our view points. From our perspectives, it would be irrational to NOT believe what we believe.

My 'evidence' is worthless to anyone but me.

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Not mentioned in signature: Rebal <3
Lammiespace.

*Hip Thrust*

As I understood it, people put faith in science, put faith in any kind of belief. Faith, to me, is personal affirmation; it holds no real value to other people, but the value to the individual is credible enough.

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The problem I find with people as I've said is that there is just not enough thinking going on when it comes to religion. There are a bunch of religions in this world, and many of them make conflicting claims meaning somebody is probably wrong. The devout followers of these religions are pretty much 100% confident that they are correct in there beliefs. That almost everyone doesn't see a big, bright red flag when they ponder this is astounding to me. To a nonsubscriber to religion like myself, it appears as if you are all delusional, and worse that you see the believers of other religions as equally delusional as they do you. Not you personally, Lammie, but I suspect you know what I mean. This is just one of the conundrums involved with religion that has recently been brought to my attention and that I would need resolved to have any notion that religion is not "stupid".

I'd like to point out again that I am not arguing against the existence of God, merely that religion is "stupid".


TMNT

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The Dark Knight = God of movies