You've frankly never really replied to my posts or any criticism of your claims. You've even refused to respond to empirical evidence disproving your claims. There has been no "exchange." You've only proselytized and then complained once finding yourself in debate and discussion in a debate and discussion forum. Feel free to actually engage one day. I won't hold my breath. You've never actually responded to even the most basic challenges or observations. You've only preached and blindly dismissed anything that presents any challenge to your preaching. You could learn quite a bit from that whole elephant parable if you reflected on it some more.
No I often respond to salesman like this, if someone makes an amazing claim about their product I want proof that it works. Now if you can prove that by following your suggestions I will find god I might be interested, but here is the catch, you cannot prove it so you are selling a product that you might well think works but cannot prove it. Again I am not calling you a liar I am sure you really believe to your own satisfaction what you say, but some of us require a much greater standard of evidence than you. It is fine to say that you have found god, but to tell others how to do so without any proof that you have done so is wrong.
One brilliant near death experiencer was shown that there are FOURTEEN Elohim..... the seven Spirits of G-d.... but they are twins...... seven male and seven female...... (sort of... .but male and female with G-d gets somewhat complicated). She was shown that one of these fourteen Elohim provides the spark....... that volunteers to incarnate into the body of each human being..... even previous to conception. Aurora Ray Salome Grassbeh.. .was her name if I remember correctly. Here is a similar concept by another near death experiencer: http://www.allaboutchristian.com/spirituality/ G-d ... is very busy at this time vicariously experiencing what it is like to play out the role of eight billion humans....... and also much cattle......! Jonah four verse eleven ..... "And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?"
You might want to take a look at the Helen Wambach Ph. D. research...... she proved that the human soul or spirit or whatever it was that she discovered in her hypnotic regression research...... existed for vastly longer than this one lifetime that we humans experience. (I suppose that perhaps she tapped into information from familiar spirits who also know a lot about history due to their being millions if not billions of ears old)????? What she perhaps proved is somewhat subject to debate... but she herself became convinced that there really was something valid about the idea of reincarnation in some form. http://www.carolmoore.net/articles/helenwambach.html
There was evidence, she believed, that there was a decline of up to 95 percent of the population within a few generations. Concerned, Wambach asked one of her students to progress to a specific date in the late 1990s but had to bring the woman out of hypnotic trance rapidly after the woman found herself "choking to death on a big, black cloud". Wambach found predictions for the last years of the century to include severe earthquakes, a new US currency, severe weather patterns, financial crises, bank failures, an increase in volcanic activity and the decimation of a large number of people. In 1999, there would be an isolated incident in which a nuclear explosion in Europe kills many people. Sound like 1999 to you?
To me.. this sounds like the 1999 of another time line that would parallel very well with the prophecies given to near death experiencer Dannion Brinkley in his nineteen seventy five brush with death...... where he was shown a really dark future for the USA but....... Dannion went all out after his near death experience and I believe he and others prevented that horrible future from being repeated. I believe that the horrible future that he saw probably did already happen.... but we can all learn from it and have a vastly better future in the time line that we are now in. https://www.alamongordo.com/Prophecies_of_Dannion_Brinkley.html (Scroll down to Boxes of Knowledge to read all that Dannion had been shown about a future..... that did not become our future). https://www.near-death.com/science/research/future.html#a03
Well it sounds to me like this woman made a prediction and it was false, your witness failed on the only account we can easily check. Now your suggesting other "timelines" why not accept the most obvious answer, she was wrong and was proven to be wrong?
I read both of her books back in the 1990's but I didn't read her third book that she co-authored along with Dr. Chet Snow. If you were to search for the word "Multiverse" in politicalforum by author.... AboveAlpha.... you would begin to understand why I don't feel comfortable with the idea of simply writing off the Helen Wambach Ph. D. research but...... I admit.... that the Dr. Ian Stevenson research is much more impressive and easily verified again and again and again using similar methodology. 3. Birthmarks and Birth Defects Corresponding to Wounds on Deceased Persons SOURCE: Dr. Ian Stevenson, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia, School of Medicine, Charlottesville, Virginia 22908
There are a few different phrases at play here. I think "desire to know" can sometimes be at odds with "seeking the truth". In areas like religion, where truths are hard to pin down, a "desire to know" incentivises us to decide that we know stuff, even when the truth is that the truth of the matter is unclear. "Desire to know" fuels medical research for vaccines as much as it fuels attempts of crystal healing and snake oil. Desire to know is not what sets truth apart from untruth. My objection is not that the desire to know cannot lead to truth, it is that it can lead to truth as well as falsehood. I.e. it is not reliable. I would say the human does not get the choice between self-delusion and truth, because at the time of choosing, they can't tell which one is which. The choice they do have (which is the same as between vaccines and snake oil) is whether they are willing to engage honestly with the idea that it can be false. The desire to know doesn't differentiate between truth and self-delusion. I'm not really decided on that topic. I think probably because I'm not really sure what the words mean.
God makes this really easy actually. You just have to ask him to come to you and remain open to it. It's what I did. Say, "God I don't know if you are real but if you are I would like to believe" and that's really all it takes. God is a force so far beyond us that it's not even comprehensible and He will find a way to bring you in, when He feels it's the right time. As soon as you ask that however then you are on the hook and as long as you never outright reject Him He will always have you on His radar. Once you are saved then that is it, Jesus promises He will never leave you and though you may not be aware of Him working in your life, He is. Will your life be better as a Christian...it's no guarantee, plenty of bad things still happen to me and I wondered why even after years and years. The people claiming God is a mass murderer of children also got to me and eventually God led me to understand that what happens in this life is essentially irrelevant when we are talking about eternity and our only reason for being here is to accept God and open ourselves up to be part of whatever grand plan He has cooking. That being said, I have often gone through great turmoil but God has never left me hopeless and has, on more than one occasion, pulled of a saving move for me that is simply too far out there to just have randomly have happened. (I tend to get in big trouble once in awhile) Either way, the point is that if anyone is seeking to find God then simply go directly to the source and ask for help. God will help you in a way he wants and more than likely in a way you don't expect. In fact you may just be sitting somewhere or driving around one day when all of a sudden everything just clicks and you are like "whoa" is that what's really been going on right in front of me? Trust God, He tells us we can and if not then you've lost nothing but you do need to be sincere.
A doctor in Texas claims that she treated three hundred and fifty high risk patients (who already have COVID)... with this hydroxychloriquine and she never lost even one patient. I will try to find that video... it is encouraging.
~ Some have a difficult time with "faith". I see many angry atheists. Not sure what that's about. I have heard some say "God will find you - when you are ready". I think this happens with those who experience near death. ~ Yes there are many doctors like this. Two are on media : Dr. Drew & Dr. Oz. A doctor in India did a paper about Hydroxychloroquine used as a prophylaxis for healthcare providers.
On logical theory that I heard about Hydroxychloroquine is that because one treatment of it only costed about one dollar last year BigPharma wanted to hide from the general public how effective it actually could be. A Dr. Lance Wallnau put forward that idea and it made sense.
The problem is that your advise is too vague and generic to be actionable, like "seek God". Do you have a specific set of actions an atheist must do, and the specific things he will experience that will confirm that Christianity is true?
Back around 1990 I got rather angry at Messiah Yeshua - Jesus so stuck my right hand up in the air toward the north and quoted Isaiah chapter forty five verse one and asked G-d to take me by the right hand as G-d had done with Gentile ancient King Cyrus who did not even know G-d. Within a very short period of time after that I was led to near death experience accounts. http://www.politicalforum.com/index.php?threads/the-cyrus-challenge-experiment-proposed.556427/ The Cyrus Challenge Experiment proposed....
~ Something similar happened when the first statin medication went generic. The "newer and better" statins were pushed. However even today with many statin drugs off patent the two original are the most prescribed - Lipitor & Crestor - at a cost of about $5. per month, because they work .
That problem is unavoidable. Seeking God, with all your heart, is something internal, and is a soul transaction between the individual and the Almighty. A fellow blind man, offering tips, cannot complete this transaction. He can only point the way. This is not a formula, or done via the scientific method. No! It is a SPIRITUAL event, and the one who attempts this must do so .. in Spirit and in Truth.. as Jesus said. It is something that dazzles the angels, baffles human explanation, and exceeds the imagination, yet it is simple enough that a child can do it. In fact, Jesus said one must become as a child, with innocent sincerity, in order to see Him. No human agent can make this happen. It is between the Living God, and the seeker of Truth. So seek Him.. make it a priority in your life. What would it matter if you gain wealth, fame, glory, love, and every joy of life, but miss the very purpose for your existence? What else could matter more, than knowing the Creator, and becoming reconciled to Him? Truth, not illusion, or wishful thinking, is the goal. If you set your mind in the pursuit of Truth, no matter how uncomfortable or inconvenient it might turn out, the pattern among human beings, from history, and the experience of multitudes, including myself, is that God will reply. He will grant an eye opening experience, to those who seek Him with sincerity and diligence. I am not out to 'prove the bible!', or promote any religious faction. My directive here is as a philosopher, to seek God, as a sincere individual. It is my firm belief, that it is the Man Jesus.. the Messiah, that is the One we must meet, to find reconciliation with the Almighty. But there are many paths to God, and dogmatism is an enemy of the human soul. I know not what part of the Elephant you might encounter, but whatever glimpse you may have, it is yours, between you and your Creator.
~ Interesting concept of faith. A personal relationship with each. This could be why some who experience near death see different entities. For some it is a 'God' , for others it is Jesus or a Christ like figure, and others see light and spirits. They all have this in common along with overwhelming feeling of peace and calm. None fear death after this experience.
Draw the essential deity or deities as you will. It’s fun to pretend and reminds us all of a simpler time when mom and dad protected us. Paul got very few things right but he did get this right: “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
Your Elmer Gantry interpretation of that passage is not the historical consensus, in Christianity. So, if you accuse everyone who believes in God, as being 'fun to pretend!', this applies to you, equally. You might think it fun to pretend there is no God, and breathe a sigh of relief, believing you have no accountability to your Creator. Accusations of motives and psychobabble projection have a way of coming back to roost. As a famous Man once said, "Be careful how you judge. For in the manner you judge, you will be judged." Conclude a godless universe, if you wish. ..Everybody gotta believe something... But it is no more scientific or logical than concluding a Creator. The actual evidence is more compelling for a God made universe, than a godless one.
In a thread like this, i find the best Authority on knowing God, and the process of reconciliation with the Creator, to be Jesus Himself: Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 'Personal relationship', according to Jesus, IS eternal life.. it IS the purpose of our existence, to know our Creator, and be reconciled to Him. I am certain that many people have encountered God, near death, or otherwise. In reality, we are ALL in a 'near death experience!', as we grope about the planet. Some just realize it.
I am always happy to debate, or reason. That is what i live for, in these forums. But repelling personal attacks and ad hom laced fallacies, is boring, and a pathetic substitute for reason.
11. Pride A couple thoughts. In the end it comes down to faith. If you "seek with all your heart" you already have faith that something is there to seek... otherwise how can you be seeking with all your heart? If you already believe that there is something there, did you really need to go looking for it? (For some reason when I read this back to myself, it is in George Carlin's voice) One will either continue to look for empirical evidence that does not exist thus never finding what they seek or have to learn to take it on faith that some things exist without empirical evidence. The reason I mention these things is that I was caught in the same circular loop for a long time. At the moment I realized I knew nothing was when I learned everything.
