Timmy, wanted to check with the dictionary to refresh my memory what agnostic meant. Do any of these definitions define how you are now perceiving God? Just curious.
Definition of agnostic:
agˇnosˇtic noun
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. Synonyms: disbeliever, nonbeliever, unbeliever; doubter, skeptic, secularist, empiricist; heathen, heretic, infidel, pagan.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
3. a person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a topic: Socrates was an agnostic on the subject of immortality.
adjective
4. of or pertaining to agnostics or agnosticism.
5. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.
6. holding neither of two opposing positions: If you take an agnostic view of technology, then it becomes clear that your decisions to implement one solution or another should be driven by need.
Def 1 is pretty close.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
well when you get serious, you'll stop looking for someone to prove God to you, which is impossible, and not even accessible with your mind, and get busy doing your best to disprove God; and then see what happens.
In order to grasp the number "quadrillion," all the grains of sand on all the planets in the universe is often used. If the energy in the universe was off by one grain of sand, our universe would not be possible.
This one particular answer was plausibly denied for years, as being just too impossible to happen. I suggest that the props are quickly disappearing for gnostics or atheists.
well when you get serious, you'll stop looking for someone to prove God to you, which is impossible, and not even accessible with your mind, and get busy doing your best to disprove God; and then see what happens.
In order to grasp the number "quadrillion," all the grains of sand on all the planets in the universe is often used. If the energy in the universe was off by one grain of sand, our universe would not be possible.
This one particular answer was plausibly denied for years, as being just too impossible to happen. I suggest that the props are quickly disappearing for gnostics or atheists.
I feel no obligation or desire to disprove God's existence. Why should I? If it's just an exercise (to see what happens, as you say), well, I don't even know how I'd go about trying.
Unlikely does not equal impossible. We are here. Any miraculous explanation of how we got here is speculation.
If there is a sentient being that created everything, fine. He appears to have wound the clock and stood back to watch (if He is even watching at all). I think if He gave us a written instruction manual, He would have done a better job than any of the candidates I know about. (Not that I have studied them all.) One of the many scriptures that make sense to me and ring true is this one: God is not the author of confusion.
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
I feel no obligation or desire to disprove God's existence. Why should I? If it's just an exercise (to see what happens, as you say), well, I don't even know how I'd go about trying.
Unlikely does not equal impossible. We are here. Any miraculous explanation of how we got here is speculation.
If there is a sentient being that created everything, fine. He appears to have wound the clock and stood back to watch (if He is even watching at all). I think if He gave us a written instruction manual, He would have done a better job than any of the candidates I know about. (Not that I have studied them all.) One of the many scriptures that make sense to me and ring true is this one: God is not the author of confusion.
Well, lucky for you, apparently sheep aren't separated from goats based on the sounds that come out of their mouths when asked "what do you believe," as God apparently has a better idea. Perfectly acceptable definition of God bolded.
And working backward, a continuing realization over time that you aren't really sure what you believe, or are often in confusion on a matter because of the contradiction in premises this may cause, a serious student can turn around 180 degrees, and attempt to disprove what you (say you) don't believe (uh, good luck with that)
Well, lucky for you, apparently sheep aren't separated from goats based on the sounds that come out of their mouths when asked "what do you believe," as God apparently has a better idea. Perfectly acceptable definition of God bolded.
And working backward, a continuing realization over time that you aren't really sure what you believe, or are often in confusion on a matter because of the contradiction in premises this may cause, a serious student can turn around 180 degrees, and attempt to disprove what you (say you) don't believe (uh, good luck with that)
OK, not quite true: I have a vague idea of the gist of your post. You are claiming that I don't really believe what I say I believe, namely that I do not know whether God exists. It's a weird claim, but OK, go ahead and think that. And I have a hunch I know why you (say you) think that: it's because you have to believe that everyone, deep inside, believes in God; that God made us that way, that we see God in the stars, that the Bible is true (and we have no excuse, as Paul said), that there is no possible way the universe could have come into existence except by God's conscious work (and that God is exactly the same God the Bible talks about, of course), etc.
Close?
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Hebrews 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty
OK, not quite true: I have a vague idea of the gist of your post. You are claiming that I don't really believe what I say I believe, namely that I do not know whether God exists. It's a weird claim, but OK, go ahead and think that. And I have a hunch I know why you (say you) think that: it's because you have to believe that everyone, deep inside, believes in God; that God made us that way, that we see God in the stars, that the Bible is true (and we have no excuse, as Paul said), that there is no possible way the universe could have come into existence except by God's conscious work (and that God is exactly the same God the Bible talks about, of course), etc.
Close?
Um, I wouldn't presuppose an answer for you here, so much as suggest that no answer becomes personally unsatisfactory, and a common method of illumination in one direction is pursuing its opposite.
While, yes, I do agree with your post, I believe one can find God absent any preconceptions, and don't mean to say that you "don't really believe what you say you believe," rather that what you believe is often the stance of someone who, quite fairly, has simply not discovered enough "evidence" to decide, and that this ultimately becomes unsatisfying; which seems counter-intuitive, actually--you would think a lack of certainty here would feel normal, hmm...
Hybrid Mode
