I have yet to find any proof or fact of a deity. Perhaps i'm not looking hard enough.
Perhaps you could point any of it out for me.
I'm not makng fun of you here, i'm actually interested.
Thankyou,
-Q
You have found god. Perhaps what you have not been able to do, is accept it as proof of a deity. Nobody can go to a particular place to see God in person. Not yet. (Not since Jesus, who was the exact reflection of Gods glory in the form of a man). But proof of Gods existence is all around you. Can you say that you have never seen nature? Certainly not. So you have found God in the glory of his creation, yet it has not been sufficient proof to you of His existance. You have valued the find to be nothing other than nature. You cannot deny that you have seen the glory of God, which is a reflection of His being, in nature. Therefore you cannot deny that you have found Gods reflection. But what you have not been able to do, is treasure that find to lead you to believe in Him. You have determined that the value of creation as the reflection of the Glory of God is not a valuable proof, and therefore might have discarded it as such.
When somebody has found God's glory, they have found a reflection of who He is. A reflection in the mirror of yourself, is not you in real life, but its a very true picture of your glory. If someone points to your reflection in a mirror, and say, its not there, or its not you it would be frivolous. Nature is perhaps not the total Glory of God, but certainly a significant part of it. If you look at nature, you cannot behold it and deny you have 'seen' God.
God's glory is not only reflected in nature, but in anything and everything that reflects in some form his character, majesty, power and goodness.
When we see the glory of God, then comes the choice, do we value it, or do we discard it? And when we trade the Glory of God, for things that are man made, we make an aweful tradein. And when we ascribe more value to the things of man, than we do in the glory of God, we cannot begin to believe in Him, but believe in ourselves and in man and the things made of man, making ourselves and the world of more value and ascribing it more glory in our hearts than we do the glory of God.
Now I know that atheist would not say that nature is the reflection of Gods glory. Yet, if I have found a diamond, i cannot deny that I have found it. Yet I can deny its value or worth, and can even determine to not call it a diamond. But a diamond it still is.
Just to clarify, nature does not gaurentee that we will become close to God, but it does gaurentee that none can stand before him and say, I did not have any proof. This is why the bible says, everybody that comes to HIM, must believe that he is (exists). And for that reason God has placed ample proof of His existance everywhere around us. Yet, its not valuable enough proof to some. However, therein lies the problem. If the proof is not valuable enough, and the glory of God, which is the reflection of his being is not sufficient for us to believe in His existance, its not because the proof isnt there, but because we dont value the proof. And WE are the ones that decide what we value and what we dont. But we cannot avoid bumping into nature. Therefore Believing in god is a choice in as much as we choose to find value in His glory, but finding God is not a choice, since we cannot avoid nature.
I have used nature as an example here, but there are other forms of God's glory as well. I hope I have been able to explain myself sufficiently? If not, please afford me the opportunity to clarify in the future.
God bless you richly!
Heneni
I gather. Whats odd is normally I am the opponent of free will and here many are arguing actions we take without being consciously aware of why means we have no free will as we did not choose are just products of our environment and upbringing. Like robots.
