:snort:
But Euty, that would mean that all the books weren’t actually written by God!
jenkinsfan wrote:
I figure, if God wants me to know how He feels about me, I wouldn’t have to read about it in a book.
Whether said book is In The Grip of Grace, or the Old and New Testaments.
Once you cease to challenge your faiths with your doubt, they become fossilized and dogmatized. A true, living faith is one that you can use all of your faculties of doubt upon, and that still makes sense to you. Otherwise, you’re just accepting it because someone told you to. That’s not a faith, that’s a dogma.
Once you cease to challenge your faiths with your doubt, they become fossilized and dogmatized. A true, living faith is one that you can use all of your faculties of doubt upon, and that still makes sense to you. Otherwise, you’re just accepting it because someone told you to. That’s not a faith, that’s a dogma.
How, exactly, would he do this? Hit you upside the head with a rock? Stand on top of a building with a megaphone? What could he do that would get your attention?
Are you sure? Sounds rather dogmatic to me.
What if I had an encounter that pretty much removed all doubt?
Are you a believer?
No, I’m not sure. That’s the point. As to matters of faith, you should never be sure. Once you’re sure, it’s a dogma, not a living faith. Then you get into nasties like Phelps and Robertson. I bet those people never doubt anything either.
That’s not to say I don’t think my beliefs are right - if I didn’t think they were right, I’d believe something else. But I am continually doubting as a conscious process in order to maintain that belief as a living faith.
No, I’m not sure. That’s the point. As to matters of faith, you should never be sure. Once you’re sure, it’s a dogma, not a living faith. Then you get into nasties like Phelps and Robertson. I bet those people never doubt anything either.
That’s not to say I don’t think my beliefs are right - if I didn’t think they were right, I’d believe something else. But I am continually doubting as a conscious process in order to maintain that belief as a living faith.
What should I not be sure about? Are you saying that I should go around telling myself daily that God might not be real? Should I not be sure he loves me? What is any of that supposed to accomplish, save paralyzing me and making me pretty nigh worthless to society? Should I obsess about it to the point where it consumes me? Or trust that, in the end, all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well, and get on with living my life?
I made a conscious decision to accept this as true. I had the truth of it reinforced through an encounter that still humbles me. Time to get on with doing what I was put here to do.