Questions from Jaselynn:
If you take the subject as a sign that I am a pushover, do not be fooled. It is true that I grew up in a “Christian” home…and it is also true that the home fell apart, but not because of God. Because of my father. My father molested my sister. Horrid, I know. But despite how much I tried, I could never hate him. I hate what he did, but not him. Would you have me hate my father? I don’t. I love him. I really don’t hate anybody.
I used to be consumed by anger. You know nothing of anger unless you have felt what I have. It was like a fire burning in me at all times…just waiting for an excuse to explode. I could have killed someone once. Thank the Good Lord that I didn’t! I hated God. Everything I did was just a show. It wasn’t real. And then it changed…it was slowly…an evolution, of sorts( I mean no disrespect when I say that.)
It started with a friend. Just one person. Someone reached out to me. Of all the people in the world Christians, Athiests, Catholics, Mormans, Hindus. And I know people of each of these religions or nonreligions as the case may be. And only one friend reached out. And she was a Christian. I know that some Christians are fake. I know that some of them are the most horrid people in the world…but that is because they don’t really Know God. But Emily was different. She actually cared. She lived it.
What do you say about the Christians who do live differently? Do you believe they exist? I’ve met them. The real Christians give from thier heart, put others before themselves, give to the poor, and love no matter what. NO MATTER WHAT. Do you think that it is a different God? I just don’t understand how you can lump all Christians into one catigory. You get angry when we lump you laws, theorys, beliefs in one category, why do you do it to Christians.
Answer:
All we tend to say about Christians in general is that they are most likely wrong about one specific set of beliefs: those related to the truth claims of Christianity, like that a god exists and that Jesus rose from the dead. I guess that’s just one category, but it’s a very broad category.
That doesn’t stop Christians from being kind, loving, forgiving, generous people. As you mention, neither does it guarantee that they will be thus, as some Christians simply aren’t. Nice people and nasty people can be right or wrong about the same things. So we call Christians out when they do bad or dishonest things, just as we would anyone, but we try not to generalise their character to encompass all Christians. Few generalisations apply to two billion people at once.
Emily apparently did a great thing for you, helping you forgive your father and deal with your rage. Christianity is the tool she used to do it, though she might have used others. (For example, what would it say about human beings if the only good reason to forgive someone were because we’ve been ordered to by an authority?) The fact that it worked says little or nothing about the actual existence of the god by which her actions were inspired.
Therefore I’m glad Emily was able to help you, and I think she’s a good person, but I still think she’s probably wrong about God nonetheless. There are good Christians just are there are good Hindus, good Muslims, good atheists and good agnostics. Simply having the wrong or right religion, if any, doesn’t say much about a person’s character.
– SmartLX
“I don’t understand.”
“Nice people and nasty people can be right or wrong about the same things.”
i couldn’t agree more and i have seen this in my life too. within the Thai community in my city (who are majority budists) there is a large group that have converted to christian. However, these people mostly go a very radical christian church where the regularly practice speaking in tounges, faith healing, etc… and has left a very distinctive impression on the remainder of the thai community. It seems that most the thais in the community view chistians as this type and frankly see the religion as a joke. Which i do understand to a point, but then i think damn, my mother and father and many other family members are christian and i cant help to think that my friends ignorance would cause them to view my family as these type of people…. as you said putting any group together as one is not fair
Thank you for your response. I was really curious. I try not to put people into categories, and I am sorry it sounded like I did. I have trouble articulating my thoughts sometimes. I do believe in God. I know God personally. Thanks for the time you put into answering my questions.
Peace,
Jaselynn
You don’t know god personally. I understand that you believe you know what god is, but I’m 100% sure that you have never seen a god, touched a god, or have any verifiable evidence of your gods existence. So to say that you ” know ” your god personally, is a lie.
What I meant when I said ‘know God personally’ is that I know who He is. Not by meeting Him or touching Him, but by speaking to Him and with Him. I’m sorry to say that you can’t know what goes on between myself and God.
100% sure, huh? Me, too. 100% sure of God’s existence.
You look at creation and think it happened by accident? That just blows my mind. The world works too perfectly for it to just happen. In my humble opinion. Are you the pray to Jake, guy?
Yes, Jase, he’s the Jake of Prayers To Jake.
Regarding the rest of your last paragraph, see my earlier piece on the subject of creation and my other one on design and fine-tuning. Follow up with comments on those articles if you like.
You don’t know god personally. I understand that you believe you know what god is, but I’m 100% sure that you have never seen a god, touched a god, or have any verifiable evidence of your gods existence. So to say that you ” know ” your god personally, is a lie.
Following the theory that it is necessary to know something exists through the senses, so touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing, it is not a criterion for proof of the non existence of a God. Can you see, touch, smell, taste or hear your own brain? How can you know it exists except that someone has told you, because that is what is most likely? You have to have faith that science is right. You believe the Earth is round, not because you have experienced it, but becuase you have been told. You believe gravity exists becuase of effect scientist tell you. You cannot touch, taste, hear, see or smell any of these things and yet you believe in their existence. It is the same with the existence of a God. This argument is flawed and doesn’t disprove the existence of a God, however I am neither saying that my response proves the existence of a God – I am merely discrediting yours.
Jake isn’t trying to prove that there isn’t a god, Annie. It may well be impossible to do that. He’s merely pointing out that Jaselynn has no evidence for a god that anyone but him can reasonably accept.
Note that after Jake talked about seeing and touching, he offered an alternative: verifiable evidence. That’s what we have for the things you mention, such that we can be confident enough that they exist without having seen them for ourselves.
In the case of our brains, we see pictures of the brains of others, we see scans of our own brains (sometimes), we see the obvious impairments of those with head injuries, it makes international news when someone is even able to function with reduced brain capacity.
In the case of the round Earth, there are photographs of it. There’s the horizon, which we can see from anywhere and travel over to see what’s beyond it, thus demonstrating the curvature of the Earth. There are maps of every square metre of the Earth’s surface, which do not mesh together in any shape except an oblate spheroid (slightly squashed sphere).
This is the difference between a real skeptic and a straw-man skeptic like the kangaroo in Horton Hears a Who! A real skeptic accepts that there can be evidence besides direct experience, and is open to such. But there still has to be evidence.
You haven’t seen or touched your God any more than most of the rest of us have seen or touched our own brains, or seen the Earth from space, but what other evidence do you have which is equivalent to the above? Can you demonstrate that His existence is more likely than unlikely? If not, why should we think that’s true?