I think history tells us that only humans have an innate sense of spirituality that leads them to want to worship. The deities they have chosen over the millenniums however, are not ones I could worship. I see that this spiritual need in humans has led them into a mess of different religions with varying degrees of ridiculousness with no apparent reason for their existence or their performances. In the beginning, there was one God, no long list of laws, and no religion. I believe that we will return to that situation again in the not too distant future.
To me, faith is not just a condition of the heart, but one that must also be accommodated by one's intellect. If God is intelligent and made us in his image, then we should expect our choices to reflect intelligence too. If the religion we choose is unintelligent, has meaningless or empty rituals or appeals to lifeless idols, then it isn't from God. If what we believe leads to violence, hatred or bloodshed...it is the wrong religion.
Oh dear! What a recipe for indecision
Do you believe everything you read? There are so many conflicting opinions out there, no wonder people get confused!
I weigh things up very carefully and I only believe what can be demonstrated to be logically true. I view the Bible that way. It has to make sense in the overall picture, or it isn't worth believing. I came to realize early in my life that that Judaism had lost its way when Jesus walked the earth....I don't see Jews in any better spiritual condition than those in Christendom. And I don't see God's blessing on any of them. Jesus actually foretold that Christianity would go down the same path as Judaism....this was due to sinful human nature manifested early in history when humans chose to follow a rebel into disobedience.
Can I ask you....who told you that the authors of the gospels were unknown? Who told you that they didn't know Jesus? How do you know that the Genesis account is not true? What troubled you in Deuteronomy? What contradictions did you encounter? What issues did you have with Paul? What do you see in the universe that could possibly make you think it was all a colossal accident?
(Your issues with church history are shared by God, I can assure you.)
So, if you could give me a run down on those things, that would be a good place to start. We can tackle them one by one if you like.....I'm up for that. What about you?
How can God be unnecessary? Isn't that like seeing a really nicely decorated piece of pottery and assuming that a potter is unnecessary? Or seeing a well executed work of art and assuming that there is no artist?
I guess that depends on what you mean by "naturally"?
Faith is required to believe in anything....even evolution. We exercise a measure of faith every day in a multitude of things. When our faith is shown to be misplaced, it is an awful feeling. But faith in God requires more than the kind of faith that your co-worker in a car pool will be arriving on time. Does God reveal himself to us in ways we can see? I believe he does. Verification can be seen or experienced in more ways than one IMO.
