How do you know he doesn't know god? There are people on here who clearly have a better biblical knowledge than you. Many of them now appear to be agnostic or atheist. Some of them have made a judgement on him.

I know they don't know God because they spend a lot of time on here arguing God isn't knowable.

God's children are like blooms in His garden. How are they going to bloom without His personal touch? The easiest place to get in touch with Him is by reading the bible.

Symbolic interpretation doesn't appear "rational" yet a lot of people practice it when they read and interpret literature. It could be a spiritual gift people possess that they never realize is a spiritual gift.

Where does that gift come from?

That "gift" as you confusingly call it comes from growing up in an environment that fosters creativity and in-depth thinking, among many other things.

You may as well say, "I really like slasher horror films with lots of gore, my friends do not... where does that gift come from?"

But I guess since you seem to be operating with the assumption that our skills and hobbies and interests are apparently beamed down to us from God rather than being the product of our environment, I doubt this line of inquiry is going anywhere.

Some say he isn't knowable, and some decide he is and they've made a valid judgement on him.

That's your explanation but anybody that identified a metaphor or symbolic language while reading a great work of literature would probably say they don't know where it came from.

I think there's a lot of bowing and scraping to the atheists "heads" on here and a lot of them say God is unknowable and that there could be many gods. OrP posted as much the other day in another thread.

But imo God is knowable. If God isn't we can't have the scriptures. All the prophets from Moses on down knew Him. Some people like Job knew of Him and promptly shut his defiled mouth when God spoke to Him.

Nobody has made a judgment on God. If you reject the gospel message and give it no place in you, you have only allowed yourself to be judged. Think of the gospel message as the judge. It finds a home in the hearts of those inclined toward its nature. If it does not confirm itself in your heart, why look to blame God? You are the keeper of your soul. You decide what memes you are going to embrace. You decide what idealogical seeds you are going to water and tend.

When I hear that someone has "judged God," I know that they really don't have an accurate picture of God. God is love.

Ahem...somebody just made a judgement.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Doggg
Nobody has made a judgment on God.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doggg
God is love.
Quote:
Originally Posted by asdfasdf32
Ahem...somebody just made a judgement.


That was too easy

"You decide what memes you are going to embrace. You decide what idealogical seeds you are going to water and tend."

isn't god omnipotent? if he has infinite knowledge, he's already made that decision for me.

What if He allows you to graft in?

....what? This isn't even remotely true. Prior to being a poker player I was an English teacher, and prior to being an English teacher, I was an English Literature major at a Christian college. Finding, enjoying, and discussing metaphor, symbolic language, and great works of literature was a massive chunk of my life for about ten years; on top of that, it was also the dominating force in the lives of my friends and colleagues, on top of that, all of us were conservative Christians, including our professors.

I don't think I ever heard, even one time, anyone suggest they "didn't know where it (the inspiration for the metaphor or symbolic language) came from."

To be honest, your post is so far from correct I'm considering posting it on facebook so all the literary folk I know - primarily conservative Christians, mind you - can get a good laugh.

Yeah, mocking is such a socially acceptable behavior. As if the crowd's reaction was ever an accurate barometer to go by.

A lot of people credit the bible as the source of all great literature.

It preceded Homer.

How can Religion Lose it's power?

The answer is in the Law.

Take away the former law (God's, Torah) and replace it with something else, then claim the new law is more authoritative, claim it's more reasonable. Ignore the evidence, even prohibit the discussion of said evidence in the new law. Chant the new paradigm over and over...badda bing...you have the present situation.

oh boy. If there was evidence then everyone would believe as you.

Assuming everyone is reasonable and that that evidence isn't suppressed.

Like the New Testament.

The new testament does not create a new legal system. There just isn't enough content to even try.

Matt 17“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18“For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19“Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Hey i agree. Now you just have to get the millions of Christians who dont follow OT law, and changed it, to agree.

Here is a post I just posted elseware on a pretty "free flowing" site. I hope it's not too...well I'll just say much. I think it fits in okay with this thread.

Have you ever farmed?

Meh, how hard can it be.

But no. I mean, I don't need to be a huge commercial farmer, just feed my family right? Get some livestock going, bury some seeds...

Much harder than you imagine. You have to be in a place where you can rotate your crops, otherwise you're going to need to refill the ground with synthetic nitrogen after every harvest. Who makes the nitrogen in this magic land where everyone farms? Also, do you know how hard it is to get goods delivered to a house rather than a store? The sort of infrastructure required would be tremendous, and realistically impossible, as everyone would need mass produced goods and the distances between people would be incredibly far.

We'd still need gas stations, and things of that nature to move around. Basically, a lot of the things we have now are necessary for a society that relies on farming because a majority of the world can't do it without synthetic nitrogen. On that point, a German around the time of the first world war named Fritz Haber created a process to pull nitrogen out of the air. His synthetic nitrogen is what has allowed the population of the world to explode, currently 50% of the nitrogen in our bodies was made through the Haber process.

So yeah, farming isn't easy, isn't feasible for everyone, and this idea is ludicrous. I really only explored like 1/100th of the reasons why.

On the religion front, I see it as a inoculation. It makes you a little sick at first, circulates all through your body, then it dies off and you're not susceptible to such foolishness in the future. I say this, because people aren't getting more religious as time goes by, all the liars who initiated these things are gone, as are the days of people who thought the sun was a god because they didn't know what it is. People are getting less religious, and knowledge is the reason why. Within 10 years we'll create artificial life. We've already made synthetic DNA that replicates, we're close.

Yeah its easy you should have no problem.

I'm not sold on the synthetic nitrogen must have premise.

There are some agricultural laws such as ... you can't grow anything on the seventh year. Perhaps this replenishes the soil?

I mean, they did it back in the day...we should be able to do it again.