You constant demands for proof, I turn proves that Faith is a choice of Spirit.
Why do theists think that atheists are going to them for proof or even evidence of a God? We know there is none, which is why people that need empirical evidence before believing are atheists.
I don't know what 'faith is a choice of spirit' means to you, but I see it as a choice to hold unjustified beliefs. I don't see it as a virtue like you do. Faith is nothing more than the deliberate suspension of disbelief. Why is that respectable? They say that faith transcends reason, but only in the sense that a thief transcends the law. Faith is a disregard for the laws of reason the way that crime is a disregard for the laws of society.
The abyss of hell is our own selves in preference to God.
You must be projecting from your own life experience, otherwise why would you believe that, especially with so many people, including me, telling you that their lives improved when they replaced an imagined god with themselves?
I recall driving the rural roads of Missouri, where there would frequently be turtles crossing the road. I would always stop the car, and move it to the where it was heading, but off the road. And I would have a spiritual experience in the process from the satisfaction. It was a godlike experience that filled me with satisfaction. This is what tri-omni gods ought to do if they existed, but none were doing it, so I did.
Yes, I know how horrible that sounds to a theist. I used to be one, and it was always assumed that it was pride or sin or rebellion or trying to avoid accountability, not to mention blasphemous, that one would see themselves as capable of replacing God in their lives with themselves. But I did it, and I assure you there was no abyss. Life got better once I stood up on my own two feet and put myself back in the pilot's seat of my life.
a person can demand proof for eternity, but not be given it until one's own self chooses to look for it.
And not even then. One will never find any god, just his own mind and mistake his mental state for an apprehension of God. He'll misinterpret the cognitive dissonance caused by the imperatives from the limbic system, the animal urges, contradicting his higher self, his reason and conscience (cortex) sending a contradictory imperative. And he mistakes this for a God and a demon warring in his head - you know, the devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, having an argument talking through his earholes to one another.
It's a well-known phenomenon. The ancient Greeks, who apparently didn't have a concept of the mind being creative, assumed that all creative impulses came from muses whispering in their ears, once again mistaking one's inherent mental state for something outside of his head speaking to him.
Once I recognized this in myself, I realized that the god I was worshiping was my own mind, and made the substitution.
Isn't it a bit presumptuous to imply that anybody that hasn't found a god hasn't chosen to look for one? I could say the same about the theist - if he hasn't found reason and discarded his gods, he just hasn't tried hard enough, and I would be correct. He hasn't made the effort that any successful former theist has made. It wasn't easy. For a year, I was praying to a god I no longer believed in, asking Jesus to give me a sign if I was making a mistake. No answer as usual. Tunneling out of that mental prison that had me talking to a nonexistent god even as I was tunneling was very difficult, just like quitting smoking. It's so much easier to maintain the status quo, but there is a reward in store for whomever remains steadfast and sees the transition through. I'm still a non-smoker and a non-theist. Asking me to try to return to theism is about as appealing as returning to cigarettes.
