Well I asked Him if He was the head Honcho and He said yes. No I didn’t get His ID or DNA but I knew He was God in every part of my being. Like a child knows its Father. Love
I thank you for your honesty - but you realize of course that this is circular - “he is because he says he is” - but if you believe it - fine, I guess - I think you have said before that you don’t take the bible literally, but for others that do, you should know:
[QUOTE= 2 Corinthians 11:14]
And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
[/QUOTE]
This is one problem with “very powerful entities.” It isn’t all that hard to deceive humans. There was a Star Trek (Next Gen) episode where a “very powerful entity” (VPE?) deceived an entire world into believing she was their theological devil. If Zeus existed, or Odin, he could probably trick us into thinking he was “The Almighty God.”
Hell, he could probably imprint the belief forcibly right on to our brains. “You WILL believe!” Like drugs, but more effective.
The problem of “false positives” is significant here.
Still your belief that it was the creator ,or you could prove it, and there is not yet any proof that anything exists that is of a god, just belief. It gives you something to cling to and that is good for you, but it doesn’t prove anyhting except you had a feeling you were in the presence of a creator. Maybe the creator was just a gas, light, or your imagination. what is truly known can be proven, until then it is just belief or desire.
The father you speak of( that you say is love),was named that by another human being , this father of yours has never revealed hiself to all people, nor does he act like a good father that we humans know as our father. Most (if not all) good fathers,make them selves known to all his children ,and they don’t go just by faith but actual fact that can be proven by DNA!
This seems to help you so for you it is a good,but many others like facts,so until it is a proven fact many will not see it your way until you have more to say than you feel it!
To paraphrase Human Action, “…there is lack of evidence of the existence of God.”
That’s true, but it’s important to decide what is acceptable evidence. If you decide that only empirical evidence is acceptable then the lack of evidence is apparent.
But if intuition and revelation are acceptable forms of evidence then the existence of God is obvious.
I once had a similar experience. I woke from a deep sleep and I felt a presence at the end of my bed. I did not see its face, it was just a dark outline in a dark room. As if all the light had been sucked out of that particular area in space. It was human shaped but I could feel it was not human. There was a tremendous feeling of malevolence associated with that figure. What’s more, I could not will myself to move, let alone fight back or run. Could not even utter a sound. I was gripped in an all consuming sense of fear that seemed to last an eternity. What’s more, I was absolutely certain that I was completely awake. I mean, it was me, in my bed, in my room. Completely familiar surroundings. As real to me as the dark figure at the end of my bed, edging closer.
Then I actually awoke, none the worse for wear. And I googled for explanations to find:
Among many other reasonably good explanations of sleep phenomena that did not include demons or extra-ordinary beings as the leading cause.
You are ready to believe this explanation and not your own experience.
I am aware of sleep paralysis, experienced it myself many times. The problem is do we believe in a spiritual world where our consciousness continues to live or not. For you there is only the material world, but for me there is a spiritual world and a physical world. We learn about the physical world through experience and we learn about the spiritual world in the same manner. When one becomes so intently focused in the material world he shuts out the spiritual world and don’t believe in what he can’t see.
I can’t prove to you the existence of other dimension nor can you prove to me something doesn’t exist that I am aware of everyday. The only answer is everyone having a spiritual experience, but there are reasons that will not happen.
I wonder why you are so against anything linked with God or spirits.
I spend nearly all my free time helping people overcome fear of God or religion. There are no devils, demons, hell, or punishment from God. It does not exist in reality only in the minds of those who fear. Some people fear God and what He may do to them so much that they commit suicide. I try to prevent this with real knowledge of the Bible and God.
The evidence for sleep paralysis is overwhelming compared to the evidence of gods and demons and aliens. I am predisposed, I suppose, to accept evidence based explanations. Perhaps I am missing the god gene that would enable me to accept extra-ordinary explanations that come so readily to you.
As to the spiritual experiences, I believe I have some knowledge of those, despite my atheistic stance. I’ve spent enough time in houses of worship to understand how one can get caught up in the moment and feel a kind of kinship with people of your own traditional background and commonly shared history. Humans are programmed to connect and identify on that level and rituals and traditions re-enforce that sense of spiritual euphoria. So I get it. I just don’t attribute it to a necessary existence of a higher power.
As frustrated as it may be for you to hear that some of us do not accept what you so obviously believe to be true, on some level I feel the same frustration (and frankly, puzzlement) that you would sooner make extra-ordinary claims than accept far more compelling evidence to the contrary.
I don’t want to suggest (but I will, )that believers like you may lack rigor in your analysis of personal experiences. However I must admit, it’s the conclusion that I most often reach in these kinds of discussions. Which always end with, “Well, this is what I believe. YMMV.”
I respect your position and I am not frustrated by you beliefs. I was once an agnostic for most of my life. I have nothing to sell you and I don’t want to change you. Now having said that I will share the spiritual explanation of sleep paralysis.
During sleep the spirit leaves the body and returns to the spirit world. It does not happen every night but often enough to keep the spirit refreshed. Without this process the spirit has trouble keeping control of the body. Sometimes upon reentering the body the spirit is not fully within when the body wakes up and the person feels he can’t move and becomes frightened. If he would only wait a few seconds movement will return.
I’m sure it sounds glib but maybe for the same reason he is against anything linked with unicorns and leprechauns. Lack of supportable evidence.
I’m sure you feel this is the right thing to do. But it’s internally inconsistent. If god is benign (or benevolent) those ending their life sooner get to be with their god that much sooner. Wouldn’t that be a win/win situation?
)that believers like you may lack rigor in your analysis of personal experiences. However I must admit, it’s the conclusion that I most often reach in these kinds of discussions. Which always end with, “Well, this is what I believe. YMMV.”