@mark noble,
Quote:
Hi All,
Why, indeed? Have you ever sought God?
I would be happy indeed, if some of you would take the time to answer any or all of the questions below.
1) Have you ever sought God?
2) Why?
3) Did you find what you sought?
4) Are you still looking?
5) Are you convinced that there is a God?
6) Do you follow your faith to the LETTER?
7) Do you sin?
8) Do you believe in an afterlife?
9) Have you ever had an epiphany)
!0) Did a traumatic experience flower your search?
All your replies will be gratefully appreciated.
Thank you, and journey well.
Mark...
Sometimes the questions we ask reveal our own biases. Your bias is that you believe the religious people are afraid and unsettled, and use religion as a security blanket. Let me disillusion you.
People seek out religion because life is made of objective and subjective components. Things like gravity work regardless of how strongly you want them to be otherwise, likewise no matter how much anyone says Trump or Biden is not your president, as long as they took office they kinda are. These are called objective reality. They are facts. An atheist believes that there is nothing but objective reality (this belief is subjective, it is an opinion). But actually, when one looks at such reality closely enough, there is something missing.
1. If everything is a result of cause and effect, then in order for something to start, there has to be a First Cause somewhere. A being or law that is something that is not caused by something else. Atheists never examine this.
2. While events play out the same way for everyone, a believer who views life as something that persists after death looks at a car accident and doesn't see a tragic end, but sees a reality that is more than just what we can see.
3. If objective reality really is all that there is, that only the empirical world of the senses can be trusted, why do we have thoughts and feelings and opinions? These are part of a world that can't really be seen or heard or tasted or touched or smelled.
4. The growing sense of pointlessness. In your thirties, you work hard to acquire stuff. You get married, you earn money, and you raise children. You follow the same path as your parents, and your grandparents, and their parents and grandparents. You never question things. In your eighties, with life behind you and a house filled with stuff, everything you did was meaningless. The job you had at a newspaper place, well people don't read newspapers much anymore. The novel you worked on wasn't published and all of that time was wasted. Everything you work for would be gone with your death. What then, is the point of living? There must be more of a reason to life than what we see.
On to your questions:
1) Have you ever sought God? No.
2) Why? I didn't seek God because I grew up in the church. I took it for granted that there was a God. What I didn't expect to find was a personal relationship with God.
3) Did you find what you sought? Of course.
4) Are you still looking? Not really. But after COVID, I'm looking for a renewed relationship with other people, who seem to think avoiding others is socially acceptable (quick hint: it's not. Get back to life and living)
5) Are you convinced that there is a God? Yes.
6) Do you follow your faith to the LETTER? Christianity teaches that all of us fail and fall short. So no, I make no such claims.
7) Do you sin? Yes. See #7 of your questions.
8) Do you believe in an afterlife? See #4 in my reasons above. If there is no afterlife, then whatever we do is pointless.
9) Have you ever had an epiphany? I don't think that is essential to faith. But sorta?
10) Did a traumatic experience flower your search? No. And this is why I say these questions are biased. It seems you have some idea that religious people are somehow traumatized and using faith to cope.
