Help me find the Truth. (Personal question)

For the sake of a discussion, let's assume that I am a brand new neighbor of yours. We have only met each other in passing. You play the part of the Christian and I will play the part of the agnostic. (BTW, none of the below is true about me. Upfront, I am Mormon, but I have tried to get into this discussion on this forum for some time, but haven't been able to do so.)

(I also realize that there are some of you who are more than eager to post anti-Mormon material on this thread and I request that you don't do so. I don't even want Mormonism mentioned in this thread beyond this point.)

Let's assume that I'm out trimming the hedges between your house and mine and that you are working in a garden close to the hedges.

My wife and three kids, ages 3, 8, and 13, are all out with me. My wife keeps telling me I need to paint the house before it gets colder, my younger children are throwing little rocks at me to get my attention and laughing and giggling, and the oldest is pestering me about buying her a cellphone and about the promise I made a year ago about letting her pierce her ears for earrings.

In a calm moment, my wife and I get into a neighborly chat, well would be my wife, I'm a science/math teacher at the local community college and it's very hard for me to just sit down and chitchat and you tell us you are Christian.

My wife tells you she is a Christian also, but doesn't go to any denomination and hasn't been to church in several years, since marrying me, but that I am always peppering her with questions that she doesn't know the answers to. She says that one of the reasons she has stopped going to church is because she likes to spend Sundays with me since we don't get a lot of lone time together. I spend a lot of time helping students at the college and when I'm home, I have to spend a lot of time with the kids. We do have a date night every week, but that's just not enough.

She also says that she is also tired of seeing so much hypocrisy among the church members and the preacher is always asking for money, that she had decided to stop going. She says that her preacher, when she was little, told her she was saved as did her parents, so her salvation was guaranteed.

I tell you that I really don't go to any denomination, but I have read the Bible, the Koran, the Tao Te Ching, the Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, some of the writings of Marx, and some New Age books. I tell you that I don't know what the right way is or even if there is a right way?

I tell you that I tend toward Uniterianism, but Buddhism has some attraction to me also, but it's a little too esoteric for me. I tell you that I also have some problems with life after death, reincarnation, or any supernatural miracles.

I tell you my parents were Catholics before they died, but they died when I was very young and I have been to church only a couple of times since their funeral, but the people who adopted me were strong agnostics and never directed me to follow any particular path. I'm thinking about going back to the RCC, but haven't made any decision yet.

You realize that I am fairly knowledgeable of the Bible when it comes to knowing where what is, but you realize that I don't interpret them at all as you do. In fact, I have a very shallow understanding of them. I think the Bible is good literature and can help a person do a lot of good in this life, but I don't know anything about being saved and what that means.

I ask you what you believe and how I can find the happiness and joy you have in your life.

Wow, can't believe how you have attracted just a huge response, why do we care? But you mustn’t pride yourself on thinking that the huge response means that you are in the truth. I could say many things about the Mormon faith, but because you do not want any remarks or backlash I won't. Your seeking the truth? Yes you must be because you are restless, that is obvious. Humility is necessary. There is a truth, the pure recipe, the core of where the Holy Spirit moves in truth. Much prayer is needed on your part, for your journey in seeking truth. Jesus Christ is the truth, you are a believer in Him I presume....but where has deposit of truth been given in this big world? I could tell you, but you must seek it out on your own, and when you find it you will not be restless anymore, you will be free. The road is rocky and narrow, and the enemy is lying in wait, always ready to push you off the path...but Jesus answers the desires of our heart. Be persistant in your search, He who sees all hearts will guide you. It may take a little time, there is a reason for that, but you will know and you will be at peace. I will pray for you urroner.

Atheists are, by definition, materialist naturalists. Materialism cannot account for immaterial things...ie...abstract concepts, rationality, reason, logic, love, mercy, conciousness, sentience. Therefore their worldview must borrow these very concepts from the theistic universe.The atheistic worldveiw, in essence, provides the evidence for proof of the existence of God from the impossibility of the contrary. The transendental proof for God's existence is that witout Him it is impossible to prove anything. The atheists worldview is irrational and cannot consistently provide the preconditions of intelligible experience, science, logic, or morality. The athesists worldview cannot allow for the laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, the ability for the mind to understand the world, and moral absolutes. Without the existence of God it is impossible to prove anything. That is because in the atheistic world you cannot justify, you cannot account for human life, from the fact that it is more than electrochemical complexes in depth, and the fact that it is more than an accident. That is to say, in the atheists conception of the world, there is really no reason to believe anything....because in the athistic worldview everything is conventional. All laws are simply conventional...the laws of logic are determinined in the athistis world by agreement, not by logic, but by simply something which occurs in the brain as a neurotransmittor. As laws come down to being materialistic entities, then they no longer have their law-like character. If they are only social conventions, then of course, what we might do to limit any discussion is just to define a new set of laws which make us feel better.

Yet noone is satisfied without a rational procedure to follow. The laws of logic can not be avoided, the laws of logic cannot be accounted for in a materialistic universe. Therefore the laws of Logic are one of the many evidences that without God you cannot prove anthing at all. The denial of the Christian God and a Christian Theistic Universe leads inexorably to the denial of rationality.

The Bible says 'the fool hath said in his heart there is no God.' That is not name calling, but is a description of someone who is imbued with the knowledge that God is. Paul says in I Cornithians chapter 1 that God has made foolish the wisdom of this world. He says, "Where are the wise? Where is the debater of this age? Romans, chapter 1:18-following, says God is making Himself known continually and persuasively to all men, so that men do not have an excuse for their rejection of the existence of the Christian God. Some continue their fools errands and rationalizations of why they refuse belief in Him. People can know the truth and yet work very hard to rationalize the evidence, as Paul says, "suppress the truth in unrighteousness" in order to convince themselves that there is no God.

Finally, people are not made into theists by miracles. People must change their world view.

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