If their were no Christianity, would the non believers still be non believers?
__________________ 1 Corinthians 1:18For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.http://thegloryland.com
When I was a non-believer, I was an agnostic: I didn't know whether there was a god or not, and didn't know of any way to know. But I also knew there were lots of things out there in the unknown or unknowable category, and I never could accept disbelief as the default option. But I was also a deist and perhaps a bit of a pantheist: I believed in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, Locke's theory of Natural Law, in philosophical Taoism and parts of Zen Buddhism. If I had never become convinced Christianity was true, or if it never existed? Likely my belief structure would have remained similar to what it was. I would have been an eclectic deist, more Taoist than anything else.
__________________
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found,
have they counted the cost it'll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
When I was a non-believer, I was an agnostic: I didn't know whether there was a god or not, and didn't know of any way to know. But I also knew there were lots of things out there in the unknown or unknowable category, and I never could accept disbelief as the default option. But I was also a deist and perhaps a bit of a pantheist: I believed in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, Locke's theory of Natural Law, in philosophical Taoism and parts of Zen Buddhism. If I had never become convinced Christianity was true, or if it never existed? Likely my belief structure would have remained similar to what it was. I would have been an eclectic deist, more Taoist than anything else.
Standard Christian apologetics, nothing you're not already familiar with I'm sure. Starting with C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity and others of his. His spiritual autobiography, Surprised by Joy, had a big impact on me. It didn't convince me that Christianity was true, but it convinced me that an intelligent, well-educated person (an Oxford don no less), an atheist with a skeptical mind and rationalist worldview, could come to believe it was. If that was possible, maybe there was something to it. The concept of "true myth" as Tolkien explained it to Lewis, was and is important to me.
So I read more apologetics, focusing particularly on the things that I thought would either prove it true or not: the reliability of the gospels as journalism; the evidence for the resurrection (Frank Morison's Who Moved the Stone? created a lot of doubt in my doubt); and the many OT prophecies that Jesus fulfilled.
I didn't start with an a priori assumption that miracles were impossible; they're impossible without divine intervention, but if I'd assumed that divine intervention never happens, there'd have been no point in continuing. I'd already have answered the question "Is there a personal God who at least sometimes intervenes in human affairs?" in the negative.
I concluded that the case could not be definitively proven one way or the other, but that it was more likely true than not, as with the civil court standard of a preponderance of the evidence. That left it a matter of will: I could choose to believe or not, and either choice would be reasonable. That it was that way made sense to me: it seems God wants us to believe in Him with pretty good evidence, but not with absolute proof. After much pondering (at least a couple year's worth), I chose to trust God.
__________________
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found,
have they counted the cost it'll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
When I was a non-believer, I was an agnostic: I didn't know whether there was a god or not, and didn't know of any way to know. But I also knew there were lots of things out there in the unknown or unknowable category, and I never could accept disbelief as the default option. But I was also a deist and perhaps a bit of a pantheist: I believed in Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, Locke's theory of Natural Law, in philosophical Taoism and parts of Zen Buddhism. If I had never become convinced Christianity was true, or if it never existed? Likely my belief structure would have remained similar to what it was. I would have been an eclectic deist, more Taoist than anything else.
Is there anything you haven't been?
__________________ The only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance is atheism. It is not a creed. Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
__________________
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found,
have they counted the cost it'll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.
__________________ 1 Corinthians 1:18For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.http://thegloryland.com
The views and opinions expressed on this web site are not necessarily those of the Fighting Fundamental Forums management. This is an open and unmoderated forum. The content of each post is the sole responsibility of the poster. Participants are expected to follow the simple rules of the forum. Within these wide parameters various views are welcome to be expressed freely.
The college names used on the FundamentalForums.com web site are trademarks of their respective schools. The forums are not officially sanctioned by any of the institutions represented.
What is a non believer
Linear Mode
