I wish there were a Jesus who magically could fix all my problems. But there is no Jesus. There is nobody to help me but myself and my friends and the community, the real world.
There highly likely is a God, when I look at the absolutely amazing world / nature. But I don't think about it, other than marvel and appreciate. I take it as it is, and hope to contribute, that's all I can do. But a cultist I will never be again.
Jesus supposedly said, "I will set the prisoner free, unbind the chains, give sight to the blind". Themickey says, " When you free yourself from the cultist mentality, then you will truly taste freedom". But it isn't easy, granted. We have friends, family, wives, children, church who have a tight grip on this situation and wrenching does not come without pain.
So generations ago, when asked whether the Earth was flat, you would have said, "I have absolutely no idea. And I'm completely comfortable with not knowing. I haven't been high up enough to know." You would reject what you've been taught since childhood, because you couldn't "know" for certain and personally? How 'bout now? QUESTION: What's the smallest particle? (Google search allowed) Is your answer 'quarks,' because that's now what's being taught? Or is your answer, "I have absolutely no idea. And I'm completely comfortable with not knowing. I can't see them." Surely you can't conduct thousands of your own little experiments to confirm all the information that's in text-books/web-development-manuals before you believe, or act on as if you believe those texts. Information from prior experiments, and test, is passed down through the generations ... in books (or equivalent). Each generation doesn't have to, and doesn't in fact, start from scratch. But the person biased against religion places a higher standard on religious texts, they unrealistically want to be an eyewitness before believing anything relating to scripture; but they don't apply this same energy to secular knowledge/texts. No man is an island, we all trust others. We can say, I trust some men, but not religious texts. We can say, I trust some men, and some religious texts. But if we say, I trust no one but my own eyes, few will believe us. Life would be way too 'extra' needing personal proof for any and all secular knowledge. Believing that a prophecy has been properly fulfilled doesn't require faith; just someone not afraid to consider the possibility, and willing to learn more about it. Any work that claims to be inspired, AND has made prophecies that were later fulfilled; HAS MY ATTENTION AND CREDIBILITY. and would deserve my research. If THAT same text explains the origins of Earth, I will believe it before the far out guesses of current science. If mankind starts making fulfilled prophecies on the level of those in the texts ... I'll rethink my conclusion.
That's correct and it would have been the truth for me at that time. Are you saying it would have been better for me to say "I believe the earth is flat?" when in fact later on that belief would have proven to be absolutely FALSE? Again, it gets back to this one premise: Just because you believe something to be true because the story or theory was handed down to you from parents or others from prior generations doesn't mean that it's actually true at all. And we've obviously learned that from your simple flat-earth example. Name one biblical prophecy that has been fulfilled in the last 100 years. Or how about the last 300 years? Ok, I'll give you 500 or 1000 years if you need it. When I was growing up, my father taught a class on Revelations on Sunday nights to a group of adults. I was only 8 or 9 years old at the time, and he tried his hardest to tie in modern-day events to what was spoken about in Revelations, and much of it at that time was trying to connect what was written in Revelations to what was going on in Russia, Israel and other parts of the world at that time. This would have been in the late 70s and early 80s. Then in the late 80s and early 90s I was also subjected to hearing these same prophetic events on the radio and on TV from personalities such as Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, and Pat Robertson from the 700 Club, which just so happened to be down the street from where I grew up in Southeastern Virginia. Luckily for me, I've been blessed with a pretty extraordinary memory in my life and I never forgot those things that were so-called modern-day prophecies. The theme was always the same, which was basically that Jesus' return was imminent, and although no man knows the exact day or time, the events were stacking up left and right that was leading straight toward the end times. And then as we approached the year 2000, things really started to heat up. The Y2k bug became a major subject of discussion and the year 2000 was yet another signal that the day of Christ's return would soon be near. The final result from listening to 35 years of interpretations of Revelations and analytics of other Biblical prophetic scripture? 100% failure rate. I repeat... 100% failure. Not a single prophecy or event that any of the above-mentioned evangelists professed would happen ever panned out to be true. And when I revisit any of the modern-day experts of today, now they've moved on to saying the same bullshit but with different labels, namely trying to tie in Covid to the plagues talked about in the Bible, and here we are once again with the same end-times prophecies and nonsense. But the track record is so bad it's just embarrassing. Meanwhile, despite the billions of prayers said over the last couple of years from countless religious groups, Covid continues to mutate and rips through churches and kills people just like it does with any other public gathering. Now you have a choice. You either come up with another religious excuse about why things are happening the way they are, or you just get real and honest with yourself and see it all for what it really is.
No. I haven't said anything is better or worse. I noted how you judge biblical knowledge differently than secular knowledge. Whichever way you judge, and/or whichever metric you used, you should be consistent if you want to be regarded as being fair and impartial. This is obvious. Believing something is true doesn't make it true, but it also doesn't make it false. Same with believing something not to be true. And no one is arguing to any of these effects. Challenge accepted. But first, I ask why is the artificial time frame requested. Sounds like what you're saying is that you've seen men that have misinterpreted the scriptures to say something it didn't. And you want to blame the scriptures for their failure. If not, then give us an example of a Biblical prophecy that is regarded as being failed by a preponderance of proper scholars. Again, we must not conflate failed scripture with failed human interpretation. Again, this concept doesn't just apply to religious studies. The same scenario happens in the secular world, but you failed to speak on that. Again, all Christians aren't the same. Just because I can find a whacked out scientist, it doesn't mean that the whole field of science is worthless. Name names, I might just agree with your assessment of an individual. But an individual does not represent the whole industry. Just so we're on the same page, what excuse do you believe that I've come up that explains "why things are happening the way they are."
But God does give us evidence and reasons to believe. It is not blind faith. But it’s also not absolute proof in a philosophical sense. The Bible also uses the word “understood” when teaching the concept that things are so clearly understood by people about God that they have no excuse. God says there is sufficient evidence to give an understanding of Himself. There are at least three basic ways the Bible discusses that bring about this understanding that can lead to belief or suppression of the truth leading to unbelief. 1. The Testimony of Creation Psalm 19:1-4 1The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. 2Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. 3Without speech or language, without a sound to be heard, 4their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. Rom 1:19-20 19For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship, so that men are without excuse. Basically, from God’s perspective, the evidence is so plain that you have no excuse if you don’t see it. This is not blind faith. God shows people that He exists. Rom 1:18 says people suppress this knowledge because of their sin. They don’t want it to be true because of their sin. 18The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. The typical way people suppress this knowledge has been to turn to idolatry. Idolatry was universal until recent times when it has been replaced by evolutionary theory. See Romans 1. It seems that God has even predicted that in the last days people would reject and mock Him and the promise of Jesus return because of evolutionary theory. 2 Peter 3:4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” Could this verse really have been a prediction that evolutionists would teach natural selection? Does it tell us that evolutionists would believe that all things have continued without intervention by God or any beings, but natural processes only? The Big Bang is certainly the evolutionists version of creation. It would appear that saying the following would not be inconsistent with the meaning of this verse: They will say, "Where is the promise of His coming? For all things continue since the Big Bang, through the time of our ancestors, and into the present, by natural processes, without Divine intervention." (My own revision of the verse). The timing of this will be in the last days. 2. The Testimony of Prophecy Fulfilled This brings me to the second way that God has provided us with evidence for belief, and that is through prophecies fulfilled. Many times in the Bible God says that prophecy is given so that we can know that the Lord is God, or so that we can believe. Jesus even told his disciples, “I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.” The Bible is a big book. Scholars generally say that over ¼ of it was prophetic when it was written. Much of it has already been fulfilled. Prophecies would often be given in one book of the Bible and then the fulfillment confirmed by other authors in later books. There are still many prophecies that apply to the future and seem to be extremely relevant to the time period we are in, based off of the many passages of Israel’s return to her homeland and the events described in Ezekiel 37-39. Ezekiel 39:28, 29 “...then they will know that I am the LORD their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign LORD.” Ezekiel 39:28, 29 3. The Testimony of Direct Revelation of God Direct revelation was sometimes given to prophets during Old Testament times. Some of these messages have been recorded for us in the Old Testament. In several places parts of the New Testament also claim direct revelation or guidance from God. There is also the work of the Holy Spirit in an unbeliever’s heart to reveal the validity of the message of the Bible, see John 3:8. Jesus also described the work of the Holy Spirit like this, And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. John 16:8 There is a conviction that can come, as described in John 16:8, from the Holy Spirit, that does not exist in any other religion. I have experienced this myself many times. Here are two passages that I think do a good job of showing what I mean: Isaiah 6:5 shows the response Isaiah had to seeing God: Then I said: "Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts." Luke 5:8 tells Peter’s reaction to a miracle Jesus did that Peter had doubted beforehand. Peter suddenly realized some of Jesus’ majesty and power. When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” Idolatry and other religions do not teach of a good and holy God who is very offended by our sin, yet still offers reconciliation without any personal merit. This is unique to Christianity. The message of the gospel speaks to our hearts. We know we are guilty, and when we come to realize a glimpse of the absolute perfection of God’s character and how fall short we fall, this should drive us to pursue reconciliation with God through the salvation He promises through simple faith and repentance toward Jesus. However, we are given a choice to respond correctly or to continue in our own ways. The main reason people do not want to believe this is because, as Jesus put it, “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19
If you are looking for darkness you will find it in religion. The Christian church is just one of hundreds if not thousands of religions. The christian church is a man made organisation, full of contention and splits. Once in it is easy to be trapped by dogma, rules, regulations, expectations, conformity, group think, bondage, bs. Oh! Except the church you go to, it has it right.