If God did appear to you personally what kind of proof would He need to provide you that He is indeed God?
Ask God to carry you over it then.
I don’t particularly have any reason to want to in the first place.Ask God to carry you over it then.
You don’t have to do it by yourself. If you really want to jump that gap God will help you. Maybe that is why He has brought you to these forums.
Doesn’t the possibility that an infinite God exists, and that you can have a personal relationship with Him, and become more fully yourself than you’ve ever been and share eternal happiness with Him pique your interest?
Not particularly; and I think that if there is a deity, it is not likely to be so personable and anthropomorphic as the Christian. I am myself already, God may be God.
Informally, as a one-sided conversation with whatever might be listening – as I hear one is supposed to, if not using a rote prayer. Thanking for stuff being generally pretty great, occasionally asking a favor or two, occasionally asking ‘where’s the accountability here?!’ Transcripts would probably scandalize the delicate ears of many a forumgoer, but it’s how I converse with friends – and let’s face it, God would know what I was thinking anyway. Better to be honest and upfront about it.
A personality change, resulting from an injury to or illness of my brain.
Well, since I do not know that there can ever be evidence for the existence of God, then I suspect that personal revelation would do it. That said, due to my way of looking at thing, I would likely think that I was going mentally ill.
If God is all powerful, and infinitely superior to us who is to say that it would not be likely that He would be a personal God? How could a finite being determine what an infinite being would be likely to do?
Prayer should not be a one-sided conversation. You must spend a good portion of time listening to God as well. Next time try asking God to help you understand and then REALLY listen.
Simple: I cannot comprehend what divinity is like. The gulf of divine superiority is so great I cannot see across it; in order for me to properly perceive a god on a personal level, it would have to lower itself to mine. It is possible that it might do so, but I cannot see why for the life of me.
I don’t see how.
I have not read much of Lewis’ theological work, though I’m familiar with many of the concepts he goes over. I know that the first part of Mere Christianity is devoted to a natural moral law, a concept I find no reason or justification for.
It was only one-sided in that it was kinda like talking to a wall. The wall didn’t respond. I specifically did not pray for faith – it’s hard to think of something more self-defeating or circular.
A two-sided “conversation” on the strength of a self-inflicted cognitive bias?
What evidence do you have to support that prayer is a “self-inflicted cognitive bias”?
)I have no history of hallucination. I don’t do drugs of any kind. I am not under very much stress or anything else. People don’t just spontaneously go into psychosis.
In general, though I’m not an atheist, thoroughly unimpressed. Isn’t the Prime Mover argument dead and buried?
It follows (by definition) from your set of instructions:
You are effectively asking Mirdath to elect a preconception (god exists and obliquely answers) and then apply a confirmation bias (a type of cognitive bias) in support of the elective preconception. You’re also asking him to neglect the probability that prayer is nothing but him talking to himself, another cognitive bias. There are also elements of selective perception, clustering illusion, and illusory correlation.
I am not terribly impressed. Mr. Kreeft’s arguments appear to be written to reassure people who already believe, not to convince those who do not.
.Could not the same cognitive bias then be applied to the preconception that God does not exist and/or is unable or unwilling to answer prayers?
But again, we are finite creatures and God is an infinite being, so it should not surprise you that you cannot comprehend His ways.
Again, how do we know what an infinite being is likely to do. Maybe He has been trying to tell you that He is a personal God and you have not been listening.
Why do you feel that there is no justification for a natural moral law?
It is only self-defeating or circular if you begin with the presuppostion that God does not exist and/or is unable or unwilling to answer your prayers. Which kind of defeats the whole purpose of prayer anyways, and is not very scientific or open minded to boot.
