Not religious, but if everyone in heaven agrees fully with God’s justice and therefore recognizes the same sins in their hellbound friends and family that drove god to punish them to begin with, their reaction would be the same as Gods (presumably: to hell with the scum, and never look back).
Alternatively, and to my mind more likely, God’s presence is like a drug; it makes you happy, at a basic level, no matter what. You may or may not remember that your friends and family are in eternal torment, but if you did, you just wouldn’t care.
Here again, we are not talking about religious experiences, we are talking about people experiencing God. The large numbers come from statistics. It is estimated that over 12 million people have had NDEs in America alone. I think it is reasonable to assume at least a couple of million of these contained meeting God episodes.
I think you you did well. The concepts of Heaven and Hell do not explain the afterlife. It is far more than that. I would like to hear more of your beliefs. Always interested in new ideas.
However, as I said, I have read accounts that you yourself have posted about supposed God encounters in NDEs, and they were not in agreement with one another in the general or the specifics, leading me to believe that the level of commonality between such God experiences tends to be low. And, to avoid hijacking this thread completely with the NDE thing, let’s just assume that I am totally bull-headed and cannot be convinced otherwise. Fair enough?
It still boils down to the fact that they Just “believe” it was God
s presence, The feeling came from with in themselves, if it helps them to be a better happier person and do not try to force it on others than fine, to each his own.
Do you believe you had bacon for breakfast or do you know.
Personal experience is everything, without it you couldn’t find your way to work or school. Those that say personal experience is unreliable, let them try to do without it. They are only breaking down your confidence in yourself as all cults do.
They know they were in the presense of God because they experienced it.
Considering your extensive record of providing opinion pieces, book reviews from people who already believe, and anonymous and unvarifiable stories whenever you are asked for cites, and considering your utter disdain for the scientific process, I just have to ask: What would you accept as a suitable cite?
Pretty simple, he claims I have posted links where people have had an experience with God that don’t show that God is love. I asked him to show those links so I can see for myself. Not just any links, but links where the experiencer has been in the presence of God.
Not to hard to understand, now is it.
P.S. the only thing you got right was my distain for science doctrine. Same as my distain for religious doctrine. Truth only is needed.
What the hell does that mean? Does the person quoted have to use that term? Does it mean that if a person makes the claim but doesn’t confirm that “God is Love” he/she wasn’t really in the presence of God?
About as easy as anything else you’ve posted, I guess.
Everyone else has doctrine, you have Truth. Got it.
You are mischaracterizing my position, which is pretty stupid since it’s right here in the thread above. But, I’ll repeat it for you: I have stated that the links you posted described experiences that were not in agreement with one another in the general or the specifics. This statement is absolutely true. (I’m not sure how to search through my past posts though, plus it would be a waste of my time since you clearly would misrepresent everything anyway, so you can search this board yourself and find your own damn cite.)
Jeez, I give you the benefit of the doubt, and you come back with this spewage. I wouldn’t take your unsupported word for anything.
I can prove if I have had bacon for breakfast or not,but it is something I know not just believe ,it is something that others would be able to see me eat it, not just take it on faith that I said I had or did not have bacon…a big difference! Since you cannot prove that God even exists but Just believe it, you cannot state in truth that you were in the presence of God. Something your brain created could make you think it was God but I have had things happen that can not be explained but I know that the human mind is capable of many things. I even had (years ago) a NDE experiance, but later I talked to my doctor and he told me I was not near death, so it was the effect of the anesthetic.
I was in the hospital a couple of months ago and after I was in the recovery room. I would see beautiful pictures(Like a slide show) I knew it was in my mind, and when I talked to my doctor she said it was an after effect of the anesthetic.
I think that if believing you were in the presence of God and it helps you, then that is not a bad thing. But it has little if anything to do with there being free will in heaven or on earth.
Since you have distain for science and religious doctrine,Why do you use the Bible quote"The Kingdom of God is with in you"? You base your beliefs then on what some human said, and I fail to see how that can be any more right over what a lot of dopers say that disagree with you.
So heaven is a lot like North Korea, without all the starving. Now I understand why it was such a sacrifice for Christ to go there as payment for our sins. This Christian theology is starting to come together for me.
So human souls in heaven have free will, but God does not. Got it.
Most experiencers do not have anesthetic, yet know they are in the presence of God. There is no need to prove it to anyone, a person knows when they experience God.
Knowledge is being able to discern between reading the Bible, and not being religious. The difference between truth and doctrine, religious and spiritual, these are the things that knowledge consists of.