Why doesn't God reveal himself to those who doubt?

[djeter]

He seems to have retired from the fray in the face of so much opposition!

http://payingattentiontothesky.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/michael-novak1.jpg?w=450&h=455

That’s too bad. I haven’t followed the whole thing here but I wonder how many of you are familiar with the work of Michael Novak and his 2008 classic No One Sees God. Some reading selections here.

What I liked about it was that it demonstrates the common ground with Atheists:

Two Classes Each Fearing The Other
"All others are in the same predicament. We are all in the same darkness. It is not so hard, of course, to evade the rain on the windowpanes, the tapping of the night on the doors and shutters, the darkness, the mist, and the fear. Not so hard to hide from it in the protected circles lit by comforting scientific reason.

I have met people who, when you ask them how they account for the unexplainedness of life, the puzzle of it, the pain of it, smile and say: “When someone raises questions like that, I turn away, sit down, and enjoy a good lunch.” Afterward, they think of it no more.

Some people live in a protected circle of light. I notice this especially about two classes of people: first, the unquestioning Christian minds, full of light and sweetness, never doubting a doctrine, seeing in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ the answer to all things. Second, the more scientifically minded, the people of reason, the pragmatists who see no reason to wonder about where it all came from, or where it is going, or how mad it may be. Serenely, both classes race through life — each at times fearing the other."

Hope this finds you all well,

dj

 

[ProdigalAnglicn]

God already HAS made Himself known (see Romans 1:20), but I guess you want some kind of personal, concrete, undeniable revelation, yes?

Well, I don’t want to sound harsh, but what makes you so special that you think God owes you that when there are billions, living and dead, who believed and believe fully in God without a close encounter of the first kind? You have as much, if not more, evidence than they did. We are all “without excuse”.

In any event I think someone who really, truly doesn’t want to believe in God may not even be convinced by a direct revelation or something similar. See the end of the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus.

 

[jsaldar]

God did reveal Himself to those who doubt. This happened 2,000 years ago. Even after 2,000 years there are still those who will not believe. It is ultimately up to us to decide to believe or not.

 

[ProdigalAnglicn]

God did reveal Himself to those who doubt.

Indeed. And did those who really, really, wanted to disbelieve change their minds? No, they conspired to crucify Him on trumped up charges in a kangaroo court!

 

[Faith1960]

http://payingattentiontothesky.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/neuroscience.jpg?w=300&h=401

I see we have some blinded by science folks signing on to the discussion. I would be interested in your response to this article by Donald D. Hoffman, a Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science, University of California Irvine, California.

Dr. Hoffman makes a clear case here as to what neuroscience knows and doesn’t know. Give it a whirl and tell me what you think…

dj

DJ, I gave the article a whirl and want to THANK YOU! I wish I’d read this a week ago. In fact, I think I may have stumbled upon it when googling but thought it would be way over my head. Parts of it was, but the last two paragraphs said it all, in an easy to read manner.

 

[St_Francis]

*I hear this a lot too, and all it tells me is that the people saying it need to learn how science works. No scientific theory based in any way on faith will be accepted. Not everyone who practices materialism as methodology accepts it as philosophy. It’s odd that science is criticized for being a faith, and then criticized for relying on material investigation instead of faith.

This is a better explantion than I could have given for what I was trying to say wrt scientific “faith” in materialist evolution:
The atheist, then, can marshal an array of evidence that there is no God, and the theist that there is. In neither case can the evidence logically prove the claim. Both choices are, equally, a step of faith.

David Hoffman

 

[ConstantineTG]

Yes, people would believe. Those of old believed in God, but they had a very different idea of who the Messiah would be. This isn’t a “debate” about what idea of God is correct as it is an allusion to the fact that if God won’t make his existence known, then there is no point in believing in his existence.

In addition, Jesus didn’t perform many miracles during his lifetime (at least, from what we can ascertain from Scripture). Indeed, Paul states that Jesus took on the form of a “bondservant” (Philippians 2:7) and was therefore somewhat of a normal person. So it wasn’t as if Jesus performed many miracles and people were just covering their eyes in willful ignorance. No. He performed only a few miracles, and the emergence of Christianity did not come until decades later.

No they wouldn’t. Jesus performed miracles and rose from the dead, yet Israel didn’t convert en masse to Christianity. Thats the point of the parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man. At the end Abraham said that if people didn’t believe when they were on earth, they wouldn’t believe even if one is to come back from the dead and tell them. God already did a lot of this back then, and there have been many miracles happening since then. Yet many still refused to believe.

 

[PHSshamrock]

Hi everyone,

As a non-believer who has often been on the receiving end of evangilization attempts by various people of faith, I have often wondered why God does not simply reveal himself to me, or any other doubter, so as to simply remove the doubt.

I’ve been given many reasons as to why he cannot, but none of them ever really seem to hold up. For instance, I’ve been told that if God were to reveal himself to me, it would violate my free will. But this seems nonsensical to me, and in any case, throughout the Bible God constantly appears to people, such as Moses, Abraham, Peter, and even those who were outright hostile towards him, such as Paul. Presumably he did not violate their free will by doing so?

What I’m saying is, if God could save my soul, and the souls of people like me, by simply appearing to us, why has he refrained from doing so? It seems like in our increasingly secular world, he would be willing to take any help that he could get.

Have you ever tried asking Him to? I’m not saying this is why He hasn’t- God being all knowing often acts in ways hard for us to understand- but it would definitely increase your chances of something like that happening. I know many non-believers feel like they’re being hypocritical to pray to a God they don’t believe in, but what could it hurt? Either He’s there and He hears you or He isn’t. Anyways if I were you I’d just ask Him to show Himself to you, it definitely can’t hurt anything and it might lead you closer to the truth, which I’m assuming you being a logical person want to be

 

[PHSshamrock]

Hi everyone,

As a non-believer who has often been on the receiving end of evangilization attempts by various people of faith, I have often wondered why God does not simply reveal himself to me, or any other doubter, so as to simply remove the doubt.

I’ve been given many reasons as to why he cannot, but none of them ever really seem to hold up. For instance, I’ve been told that if God were to reveal himself to me, it would violate my free will. But this seems nonsensical to me, and in any case, throughout the Bible God constantly appears to people, such as Moses, Abraham, Peter, and even those who were outright hostile towards him, such as Paul. Presumably he did not violate their free will by doing so?

What I’m saying is, if God could save my soul, and the souls of people like me, by simply appearing to us, why has he refrained from doing so? It seems like in our increasingly secular world, he would be willing to take any help that he could get.

Have you ever tried asking Him to? I’m not saying this is why He hasn’t- God being all knowing often acts in ways hard for us to understand- but it would definitely increase your chances of something like that happening. I know many non-believers feel like they’re being hypocritical to pray to a God they don’t believe in, but what could it hurt? Either He’s there and He hears you or He isn’t. Anyways if I were you I’d just ask Him to show Himself to you, it definitely can’t hurt anything and it might lead you closer to the truth, which I’m assuming you being a logical person want to be