I followed you up until step 3. I'm missing the part where God asks up to suspend our rationality. Is it not possible to "worship with our minds" by thinking on things that are pure, lovely, and holy while still continuing to live our daily lives? Or possibly, "worship with your mind" means to educate yourself with the scriptures and historic background of your faith, growing your intellect in a different way
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What evidence? Scripture written decades after his death by people that never actually met or even saw him in person? Pretty compelling evidence. Also, you are asking the impossible, proof that Jesus was not the son of god? How would we get that, a 2,000 year old DNA sample of his real father? Even with that impossible evidence in hand, Christians would still find a way out of believing in the rational. Faith is not based on evidence, and any believer who claims it is or even could be is deluding themselves.
Jesus' divinity cannot be proved either way, which I agree with. What's interesting to me is that we are both relying on faith. If it can't be proven, your belief that Jesus was the same as everyone else is based on faith as well.
Your statement that it was written by people who had never met or seen him, however, is not accurate. The resurrection was accounted for in the gospels by people who were Jesus' closet friends.
My main confusion with this entry is that I don't understand how you got that God would require you to abandom your rationality in order to worship Him with your mind. Could you explain?
"For me to change my mind about my beliefs, Jesus would have to be exposed as a regular man and not the son of God."
This is a perfect example of an a priori belief. You start out believing it, and then constantly reaffirm yourself with your bible and your community of fellow believers. But the evidence to believe that Jesus ever even lived, is not all that great.
Maybe there should be another step.... like: ask your self, "What evidence would I need to believe that someone else (not Jesus) was the son of god?" (although that might belong in step 4) This may help to preempt what happens when Christians start to think the word "Jesus" in their head, they're conditioned to at that point get fuzzy and start thinking with their emotions.
Contrary to what you might think, I have gone through much doubt and deliberation in my search for "the truth".
"You start out believing it, and then constantly reaffirm yourself with your bible and your community of fellow believers."
I have personally looked into the life of Christ because it didn't seem very plausible to me. I had grown up hearing about it, but to me it still seemed like stories people would tell themselves for reassurance. I did research in arena's outside of the Bible and the ideas other Christians had, and secular records do exist affirming that Jesus did in fact perform miracles. One of the best resources I uncovered was 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel. Before you discredit it by saying that he is a "believer", know that when he started his own research he was a cynical, athiestic journalist who was annoyed by his wife's faith. He set out to prove her wrong. He explains what I discovered much better than I can.
I have read "The Case for Christ," and the difference between you and me is that you thought it was convincing. Robert M. Price is coming out with a book soon that is supposed to be a blow for blow rebuttal of "The Case for Christ," in any case I don't have time to do that here
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Your statement that it was written by people who had never met or seen him, however, is not accurate. The resurrection was accounted for in the gospels by people who were Jesus' closet friends.
My main confusion with this entry is that I don't understand how you got that God would require you to abandom your rationality in order to worship Him with your mind. Could you explain?
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This is a perfect example of an a priori belief. You start out believing it, and then constantly reaffirm yourself with your bible and your community of fellow believers. But the evidence to believe that Jesus ever even lived, is not all that great.
Maybe there should be another step.... like: ask your self, "What evidence would I need to believe that someone else (not Jesus) was the son of god?" (although that might belong in step 4) This may help to preempt what happens when Christians start to think the word "Jesus" in their head, they're conditioned to at that point get fuzzy and start thinking with their emotions.
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"You start out believing it, and then constantly reaffirm yourself with your bible and your community of fellow believers."
I have personally looked into the life of Christ because it didn't seem very plausible to me. I had grown up hearing about it, but to me it still seemed like stories people would tell themselves for reassurance. I did research in arena's outside of the Bible and the ideas other Christians had, and secular records do exist affirming that Jesus did in fact perform miracles. One of the best resources I uncovered was 'The Case for Christ' by Lee Strobel. Before you discredit it by saying that he is a "believer", know that when he started his own research he was a cynical, athiestic journalist who was annoyed by his wife's faith. He set out to prove her wrong. He explains what I discovered much better than I can.
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