Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:03 pm
Wouldn't your conclusion then have to be that nobody has any way of knowing God? Or would you suppose that maybe some might, but you don't know who they'd be?
That's exactly my position.
And here's another thing. I don't know if Jesus was God incarnate. I'm not interested in reading the Bible. I'm not interested in praying. I'm not interested in going to church. I'm not interested in begging for forgiveness from a being who demands those things of me. And I'm not going to pretend I love a being who is going to demand those things of me or else threaten to send me to hell if I don't.
If God doesn't approve of that and is going to send me to hell for those things, then I guess I'm screwed. But at the very least I didn't try to con God into thinking I'm someone or something I'm not. If God can read minds, then God knows already that I'm not going to do those things. If he's not OK with that, then there's nothing I can do except try to lie and cheat him into thinking otherwise.
We do our best. But imagine if this view of the punishing jealous God is something invented from limited knowledge based on, for example, trauma. Then we go on for centuries believing in what is essentially a tyrannical God, just to be safe. That would be painting ourselves into a corner.
Wouldn't your conclusion then have to be that nobody has any way of knowing God? Or would you suppose that maybe some might, but you don't know who they'd be?
Immanuel Can wrote: ↑Wed Mar 04, 2026 8:03 pm
Wouldn't your conclusion then have to be that nobody has any way of knowing God? Or would you suppose that maybe some might, but you don't know who they'd be?
That's exactly my position.
Which one of the above? There are two.
Both. I don't think anyone has a way of knowing for sure that they know God since it's all ultimately speculation and it's possible that some might have their speculations accurate, that's possible and I don't know who they'd be.
