When God speaks to you directly, that pretty much ends that. Fine, I was curious about God; my reason told me that He must be there, but I didn't know anything much about Him. We were not religious; my mother will tell you her childhood home was atheist, but that isn't true. My grandfather became an "atheist" when some people who don't speak for Jesus told a young lad that he was too young to receive baptism, too young to enter into a loving personal friendship with the Lord of the universe. (Baptize your children,--or, I should say, have them baptized--brethren; if you don't, you're putting an arbitrary human thing on to when that relationship can begin.) He may not be the best Christian I know, but he has been the sorriest excuse for an atheist his entire life. And that is a good thing.
I read this book when I was 17. With all due respect, it's a terrible book. Even at 17, I reasoned that if God existed, He must be all-powerful. There must be a better explanation for suffering than to deny it. This was after God spoke, anyway. I would have had to believe I was crazy, and that is something, joking aside, that I'm not able to do.
This is why Hume and Russell hold no charm for me, but as agitators. They are deeply invested in denying what I know by personal experience. Not that my senses are enough, but when I read the Bible, I knew it was the same Jesus who had spoken to me.
I don't suppose I'm the best apologist to atheists; frankly, most of the ones I've met are unhappy and angry people. Goodness is fairly obvious to observe (or its lack) and I cannot account for its reality with a materialist explanation.
The circumstantial evidence of the Apostles is all I need for the reasonableness of Christ's resurrection from the dead. These dejected men, who'd followed him at the cost of everything, initially--they turned around and became bold proclaimers, after something--Someone--convinced them they'd been right all along.
I read this book when I was 17. With all due respect, it's a terrible book. Even at 17, I reasoned that if God existed, He must be all-powerful. There must be a better explanation for suffering than to deny it. This was after God spoke, anyway. I would have had to believe I was crazy, and that is something, joking aside, that I'm not able to do.
This is why Hume and Russell hold no charm for me, but as agitators. They are deeply invested in denying what I know by personal experience. Not that my senses are enough, but when I read the Bible, I knew it was the same Jesus who had spoken to me.
I don't suppose I'm the best apologist to atheists; frankly, most of the ones I've met are unhappy and angry people. Goodness is fairly obvious to observe (or its lack) and I cannot account for its reality with a materialist explanation.
The circumstantial evidence of the Apostles is all I need for the reasonableness of Christ's resurrection from the dead. These dejected men, who'd followed him at the cost of everything, initially--they turned around and became bold proclaimers, after something--Someone--convinced them they'd been right all along.
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