God does not exist

Actually this is an excellent example of what I'm talking about. You continue to argue that I am saying

• if "you have the correct interpretation" (premise)
• then "The Bible explains itself" (conclusion)

because you assume that is what I'm saying but I am not. Your assumption does not allow you to read and understand what is being said.

Please reread this:
"Even then, I was saying that the Bible is always self explanatory, it is just that if you have the "incorrect interpretation" that "incorrect interpretation" interferes with you allowing the Bible give you that explanation. In other words if a person has an explanation for his actions and you don't allow him to explain, that doesn't mean he doesn't have an explanation, it just means that your actions or beliefs have not allowed him to explain."

So just as your "assumption" does not allow you to "understand" what is being said to you, I person who does not have a "correct interpretation" of the Bible does not see that the Bible explains itself.

 

Doesn't matter.

The perceiver. We cannot escape the effects of our own thinking. The only truth we may perceive must pass through the gatekeeper of the mind.

 

lol

So it does matter?

 

To the extent then that it makes this question moot.

 

thedope:

Thank goodness it isn't our altar. Do you think I would benefit from a change of heart regarding 'god'?

Yes, and I feel the same, but we don't all feel good at the same time. No-one is god.

As potential. I'm only human.

 

thedope:

lol So how doesn't it matter again?

 

You believe you know what the bible says?

I believe I know what the bible says.

If we were to compare, the interpretations might appear different.

How do you explain the potential differences in our witness on the subject?

 

That god may or may not be embodied outside of belief.

In this world we believe to see and we see to believe. We cannot escape the measure of our own convictions. This is why blaspheme against the holy spirit is said to be the only sin that cannot be forgiven.

If we deny the goodness of our own holy spirit then we are thoroughly dispirited.
By holy I mean, awe-inspiring: having a character that evokes reverence.

 

If your heart were weary and heavy laden. As I know you, you are gods gift of joy.

What potential do you imagine?

 

I can't say that I know all the wisdom of the Bible, no but with with study, prayer and application the Bible does become clearer from day to day. (Proverbs 4:18)

I know that is what you believe.

They wouldn't just appear different, they are different.

I believe what the Bible says, you believe what ever your spirit guide tells you.

 

thedope:

lol But that's how it matters!

Pfff, as though it were possible to blaspheme forever. lol

Sure. Which is why crediting 'god' with our goodness is a form of denial.

 

thedope:

Not my own? I belong to everyone, everyone who wants me alive and joyous that is! ) :-D

Potential we have yet to imagine, and imagine together.

 

Not that I'm questioning the validity of what you have said but since this is the Christianity forum, isn't the validity of the Bible and the existence of God some what interconnected?

 

I'm saying it doesn't matter because we cannot see beyond our own conceptions. Thankfully some things we conceive together.

Who said anything about forever? The contents of our mind are in a constant state of becoming. As long as we deny spirit we are inconsolably dispirited. We can change our mind.

I do not create myself. My capacities are greater often than my efforts and I am grateful for grace. Although I enjoy your company, you are not the author of that grace. All the same I recognize you as part of it. The whole defines the parts but the parts do not define the whole.

Are you happy to live? I am. That boundlessly grateful invocation of my heart, I call god. I don't know what you call such if it exists in you besides your expression. However it is not up to us to determine what our inheritance is, only how we treat it, nurture or extend.

The eye is the lamp of the body, if the eye be sound the whole body will be full of light.

 

You belong to your enemies as well, if you have them. Possession is regardless whether prized or demonic.

You can no more name superman it seems, than I can name god.

 

Do you know what the bible says or not? I didn't ask you about your level of wisdom.

If you know what I believe, then why do you say,

When I have said, I believe I know what the bible says?

 

Are you saying the bible is evidence of god? What we can say for sure is that it is evidence of human devotion to certain/uncertain ideas. Anything you say beyond that is evidence only of your belief.

 

Oh yes, there are many other ways to debate existence of God and if this was in the Philosophy Forum rather than the Christianity Forum, I would not bring up the Bible and would be expected to be chastised for doing so but the OP put this thread in the Christianity forum and then to expect the Bible not to be used seems a little, shall we say naive. And of course when the Bible is used, it's validity is going to be questioned and voila.

I can understand that, perhaps this discussion should be moved from Christianity to Philosophy but I believe that the OP might object since it would seem that his likely objective in putting this topic here, was to stir people up rather than to have a honest debate of the subject.