Posted on 02/07/2016 10:35:14 PM PST by TBP
Although I’ve been a content atheist for a decade, somehow God has found a way to stick around in my mind. Not the God of the Bible who created heaven and Earth — the God that lingers with me is harder to explain.
The idea of God pesters me and makes me think that maybe I’m not as devoted to my beliefs as I’d like to think I am and would like to be. Maybe I’m still subconsciously afraid of hell and want to go to heaven when I die. It’s confusing and frustrating to feel the presence of something you don’t believe in.
According to a Pew Research Center poll about religion and atheism last year, 8 percent of self-identified atheists believe in God or a “universal spirit.†Not a huge proportion, but considering that an atheist is by definition a person who denies the existence of God, that 8 percent highlights something very curious about belief.
[O]ur brains demonstrate a physical response to spiritual activity. In one study, Franciscan nuns, Tibetan monks and Pentecostals all showed similar brain activity on a scan when engaged in prayer, meditation or speaking in tongues; blood flow changed between different lobes of the brain, inducing powerful emotions. As the researcher on the study, Andrew Newberg, put it, “It certainly looks like the way the brain is put together makes it very easy for human beings to have religious and spiritual experiences.â€
According to Pascal Boyer of Washington University in St. Louis, research suggests our cognitive systems evolved in a way that makes believing easy. In a 2008 essay for the journal Nature, Boyer wrote that several features of the human brain predispose us to religious belief.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It seems we're hard-wired to believe, even if we question the traditional orthodoxy. This is a fascinating area of study.
Most atheists can give you a detailed description of the God in which they do not believe. Present them with a different idea and they can't accept that anyone could describe God that way.
To quote Dr. Ernest Holmes, "I thank the God that is that the God they told me about isn't."
“I swear there ain’t no heaven and....
I pray there ain’t no hell...”
Great old folk saying...that’s why only
the great old folks understand it. A prayer
to a God unknown can sometimes be the most sincere.
Some take up boxing. Then it finally dawns on some of those.
Arms -- too short.
Well said.
Perhaps it’s that nagging fear of eternity....and....”what if I’m wrong?”
Dear Elizabeth,
Blessed are those who are pestered by the Holy Spirit. You ignore Him at your peril. He is leading you to Jesus. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." Listen to Him. Say yes to Him. It's the most important decision you can ever make for the most important relationship you will ever have.
Agreed! C.S. Lewis was a remarkable writer, and a remarkable person. And I'll take your post as a reminder that I need to go back and read his works again.
Yes, but the problem seems to be that we are convinced that all beliefs must be common and shared, when in truth, everyone's relationship with and belief in God is unique. And I believe he designed it that way for a reason.
I stole the saying. Rearranged it. I don’t know who I was plagiarizing.
“Great old folk saying”
IT’s part of a song by Blood, Sweat & Tears. “AND WHEN I DIE”
The radio wonders if it really has an orchestra inside it, or if, on the other hand...
The answer is, we don’t KNOW. No one does.
She’s really an agnostic, she just doesn’t know it.
Being an agnostic is the most logical stand given the available evidence.
Really.........
Atheists will probably be saved before me.
Actually, the fact that everyone wonders about the issue, is proof that we do know, we just do not want to accept.
Ultimately, every knee will bow.
The atheist says that he does not believe that God exists.
God says (in His Word) that atheists do not exist.
Who do you think is right?
Rom 1:18
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
That doesn’t make sense - wondering whether something is or isn’t doesn’t mean that it is, otherwise you wouldn’t be wondering.
And no, ultimately we will not necessarily know. If when we die, we stay dead and unconscious we won’t know.
The Bible specifically states that everyone has the still small voice telling them that something is wrong.
You do not have the knowledge of what happens after death. You are making an assumption with no facts.
Romans 2
15Â They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.
The claim that you don’t know happens when your philosophy plays games with your intuition.
There comes a point at which one who wishes to observe finds that it needs a blinder faith to believe there is no God.
Hell, among other things, is a state of affairs that we embrace for ourselves when we let our philosophy stop our belief. Because then anything that might be a manifestation of God, rather than being worthy of followed up on for more attention, becomes perforce relegated to the “suspect” bin.
Any real God who wants relationship is not going to brook this kind of treatment.
The actual problem was documented well in the fall of humanity in Eden. We wanted a private righteousness and got it, but at the cost of divorcing ourselves from belief.
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