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| Obtained from http://pw0nd.com/tag/faith |
A Christian will no doubt place his faith in God. He does this because the Christian God is considered omniscient, omnipotent and wholly benevolent. These traits ensure that God is capable of knowing all things, and is not going to lie to us. Thus Christians put their faith in this God that anything He says to us, such as in the form of the Bible, will be considered to be wholly truthful.
Atheists on the other hand, have no such source of truth, so they must transfer this yearning for truth and authority to some other source; science.
In fact, they will boast that their source of authority is a superior source of truth than putting ones faith in an invisible God. But is it really? Does it take any less faith to believe that science is the fountain of all truth?
The fact is that all sources of truth and authority have to be taken as such by faith, especially science. The scientific method of investigation is not some sort of holy and infallible fountain of truth. It simply can not be if it is operated by fallible and biased operators. The truth of this is demonstrated in the fact that science textbooks go out of date every few years or so. Very few texts last longer than a decade, and you can be sure of the fact that they too will be superseded at some point in the future.
You can be guaranteed that what is known to be scientific truth today will most certainly be overturned some time in the future. Is science really an appropriate source of authoritative truth? Only through faith, can so many atheists say yes.
The Christian has faith that our God is the ultimate source of truth, which is what would be expected from an omnipotent and omniscient creator deity. But atheists only have the scientific method which is constantly in revolution.
Faith in God or faith in science, take your pick.
What if I don’t want to pick faith in God or in science? What about having faith in yourself? I think to put all of your faith solely in one source is both ignorant and foolish. There is nothing wrong with having absolute faith in God, but is it so wrong to use science to prove the existence of God, truth and authority anyway? Or to use science to prove who and what we are? Science evolves (as we do :p) with new technology, theories and scientists themselves. Quantum Physics proves spirituality every day. Many spiritual leaders have taught for thousands of years that we (as both human and spiritual beings) are "one" and the Entanglement Theory of Quantum Mechanics sets out to prove this. But at what point does one develop faith in themselves? When are human beings going to finally stand up and take responsibility for themselves and their actions and learn to trust THEMSELVES?... When are they going to trust the fact that at the core, they KNOW what is true and they know what is right; not because the bible or some other theory or guru told them so, but because they intuitively know it? Do you not think that relying on something/someone else to tell you what is truth is giving away your personal power? That feeling you get in the pit of your stomach or your chest when you know something is wrong is not God, it is YOU and your intuition. I have faith that God and the Universe will always be there for me when I need, but I am liberated because I don't rely on being told what to do or what not to do. I know when something is wrong, I know my truth, and I have absolute faith in MYSELF. THAT is the power that God gave you and I, brother. I challenge you to reclaim it!
ReplyDeleteWould you not rather be in complete control of your own life and actions? You can still be a vessel of God's Peace and carry out God's will by living your life in a way that you KNOW is righteous by having that trust in yourself rather than being a puppet of the church.
John 8:32: "you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that you have free will, you can live your life as you please because God has faith in YOU that you will do good because it is what you know in your heart of hearts underneath ego, and underneath what the robotic and sheep-like society of today has created. We are only truly liberated and set free once we realise this and take that stand to let our light shine for others to follow, and once we realise that we are worthy of doing so; not because Jesus Christ died for me and saved me, but because I saved MYSELF from the cycle of society.
The meaning of the bible has been taken out of context. Jesus wasn't talking about being the slaves of Abraham, he was talking about being a slave to The Man, or to society, or to your own ego. You have the right, you have the strength and you have the power to stand up, go against the norm and fight for what is right but you need to have that faith in YOURSELF to do so.
My guess is that you and I share the same belief and opinion on this matter, the only difference being that I perceive that the strength to do so comes from within because we are God, and you perceive the strength to do so as coming from God as being a third party.
We create our lives and we create ourselves, and in doing so, we create our own truths. My truth comes from a mixture of science/physics, Christianity, Buddhism, Ayurveda/Hindu, Zen, Spirituality and Western Psychology. It's my opinion that to only stick to one doctrine and completely take on its entire philosophy and teachings is a bit narrow minded... but then again I'm blessed with the ability and resources to be able to research these things for myself. Poverty is hell on Earth... that's where people like you and I can make the choice to do the work of God by liberating others... not because God told us to do it, but because we know within ourselves that it is right to do so.
Namaste.
Kiera,
ReplyDelete“When are they going to trust the fact that at the core, they KNOW what is true and they know what is right; not because the bible or some other theory or guru told them so, but because they intuitively know it?”
There are certainly some things that we do intuitively know, like the existence of God or the spiritual realm (though many people go to great lengths to suppress this feeling).
But other than this, there is very little that we can know for sure on intuition alone. We can’t know the age of the earth; the existence of extraterrestrial beings; how life came to be; who created us; what the purpose of life is etc….. These fundamental questions can not be intuitively known. It is these questions that we have to rely on some other source of authoritative truth.
“That feeling you get in the pit of your stomach or your chest when you know something is wrong is not God, it is YOU and your intuition.”
“Would you not rather be in complete control of your own life and actions?”
Yes there are some things that we may know what is right or wrong through intuition alone, like murder or rape. Buy what about other moral questions such abortion; polygamy; bestiality; licentiousness; genital mutilation; honour killings?
A lot of people’s intuition would have no problem with these things. In fact, each of the above is considered to be totally normal in various cultures around the world. They have no intuitive basis to guide them away from such acts. Yet I’m sure that you would almost certainly say that all these things are undoubtedly wrong.
The difference is that you are from a different culture to them. In fact, there may also be a few people of those cultures saying that their intuition is AFFIRMING genital mutilation and honour killings! The reason is that that is the culture that they have been brought up in is totally different from the Western culture that you have been brought up in.
Unless you have some Devine mandate, then you have no basis what-so-ever to elevate your culture above theirs and condemn their actions!
What is intuitively wrong for you in this culture is certainly going to be intuitively right in somebody else’s culture. That is why we as humans must rely on the omniscience of God to tell us what is morally right and wrong. He should know, He created us! He didn’t create some random set of morals for just fun. The rules that He has set out for us are there because they provide an accurate set of instructions for the proper functioning of a human body, mind and society.
Just like an operating manual for a car sets out the rules for the proper function of the car, God has kindly done the same in the Bible. We inherently fallible humans really aren’t in a position to tell God He is wrong.
“My truth comes from a mixture of science/physics, Christianity, Buddhism, Ayurveda/Hindu, Zen, Spirituality and Western Psychology. It's my opinion that to only stick to one doctrine and completely take on its entire philosophy and teachings is a bit narrow minded”
Do you have advanced degrees of study in each of these above philosophies? If not, then how do you know that you are right and the omniscient God is wrong?
The Bible isn’t my only source of truth, but it is the only source that I will trust 100%. I do not think that this is narrow-minded. I am relying on God for my ultimate source of truth, and He has been prove right every single time that I have researched it. Human-sourced truth on the other hand is almost always wrong; the earth is not flat; the sun does not revolved around the earth and life does not spontaneously generate.
I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God because it has been heavily vetted by millions of intellectuals for thousands of years and has been shown to be entirely consistent and rational. It answers all the fundamental questions of existence.
What does your worldview say about the following questions;
-Who created the universe and us?
-Why were we created?
-Why is there so much suffering?
-What is the future hope for us?