In other words you know, but don't know how you know. Another in-depth intellectual response.
I told you how I know. I said: “it is an inner sense of knowing, but
it is based upon the evidence. That is how I know.”
You know just enough to think that you are right, but not enough to know that you are wrong. It is just an argument from ignorance, and a shifting of the burden of proof. Typical. Why can't you just admit that this is a belief that just makes you feel good and move on?
Because I am not going to admit what is not true, since I am not a liar. It is not a belief that makes me feel good,
it is a belief I have based upon the evidence.
You are free to believe I am wrong and I am free to believe I am right since we both have free will. I am not trying to convince you that I am right because that is not a job I have been given to do by Baha’u’llah. I just state what I believe. I have no interest in convincing anyone of what I believe.
How again do you know what God needs or don't need? The Egyptian Gods, the need for ten commandments, the flood, the many stories of vengefulness, jealousy, and Genocides in the Bible, seems to disagree with your version of the independent and subsistent nature of a God. He seems hands-on with extreme prejudice to me. So again, do you think that people would willingly choose eternal suffering over joy, whether they are dead or alive? For most of us, the answer is No. But, I won't hold my breath for a direct answer.
I know that God does not need anything from anyone because Baha’u’llah wrote that God is self-sufficient.
“This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future. Let him that seeketh, attain it; and as to him that hath refused to seek it—verily, God is Self-Sufficient, above any need of His creatures.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 136
No, I do not think that people would willingly choose eternal suffering over joy, whether they are dead or alive. However, that is essentially what they are doing when they choose to reject Baha’u’llah and what He wrote. The fact that they are not
aware they are doing that is irrelevant.
More deflecting and avoiding. It is irrelevant what the motive for the rules are, or who they might benefit. My point is that these rules are all EXTRNALLY IMPOSED, with the purpose to control and make obedience.
Motives are always relevant because motives are what cause people to act by virtue of their will. No, the purpose is not to control and make obedience.
You are the living proof that this statement is true. Even the Constitution comes from the will of the people, and is therefore dynamic (changing). How dynamic are the approved literature of the Baha'i faith?
The will of the people is not the SAME as the Will of God.
The Word of God once recorded is not subject to change by human beings. Anyone who knows anything about the Tanakh and the Bible and the Qur’an knows that once scriptures are recorded they cannot be changed by humans.
There is no such thing as approved literature of the Baha’i Faith. People can read whatever they want about the Baha’i Faith. We do not believe in censorship.
What we have are “authoritative writings” of the Baha’i Faith because they are ORIGINAL WRITINGS from the Founders of the Baha’i Faith.
This is probably the silliest statement I have ever heard. Do you think that dying is taking a chance, or do you think it will be inevitable for everyone? The difference between us, is that I am prepared either way. So hope has nothing to do with it.
No, you are not at all prepared. You are a little ahead of the game only because of what I have told you about the Baha’i Faith but since you reject it and do not believe or follow it you are not prepared.
We all know what the afterlife will be like. It will be the same as non-existence, or the hours we missed before we wake up every morning. Making truth claims about the existence of a spiritual world, must also join the mind-numbing category of, I know because I know, but I just don't know how I know. There is no afterlife, only the continual state of nonexistence.
All I can say is that you will find out in due time that you were wrong. Anything else I say could get me in trouble on this forum so I am not going to say it. Before I responded to any of your posts yesterday, I had already planned to post a new thread about the afterlife (the Second Death) so you can read what I have to say there
if you are interested.
You have NO objective evidence, except just enough to convince yourself. We've been down this rabbit hole before. You will simply parrot your scripted responses, that man can't expect objective evidence to prove the existence of God or His Messenger. Again, answering questions that are not asked. And worst, implying that the lack of evidence is evidence in itself. More ignorance.
I have plenty of evidence of the spiritual world, and not just from religious scriptures. It is not just me who believes in an afterlife. MOST people in the world believe in an afterlife. Only the 7% of atheists in the world do not believe in an afterlife, but they are wrong, and they will find out eventually because we all die physically.
Of course I do not have objective evidence of God or an afterlife because those are not subject to objective evidence since they do not exist in the material realm. Only an idiot would ask for objective evidence of that which is
immaterial. But just because we cannot SEE or PROVE what we cannot see objectively, that does not mean it does not exist. The spiritual realm is another realm but there are those who can communicate with people in it and that is one proof that it exists. The spiritual world is the real world; this material world is just a shadow stretching out. Thos world is very temporary; the afterlife is our permanent existence. As such, it seems like a complete waste of time to focus on this world, except to do what we have to do and prepare for the afterlife.
“The nature of the soul after death can never be described, nor is it meet and permissible to reveal its whole character to the eyes of men. The Prophets and Messengers of God have been sent down for the sole purpose of guiding mankind to the straight Path of Truth. The purpose underlying Their revelation hath been to educate all men, that they may, at the hour of death, ascend, in the utmost purity and sanctity and with absolute detachment, to the throne of the Most High.” Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 156-157
Most people engaging in rational discourse will end in both parties walking away with some new knowledge. This seems to be true for falsifiable claims only. Religious and cultists claims are different. Reality itself must change, in order for their argument to become valid. It is not a search for any compromises or any truths, it is simply an argument of pure rhetoric. Like a filibuster in congress. Rationality is the ultimate casualty.
This world is not the true reality so your reality must change in order for you to know what reality is. I already know.
“The world is but a show, vain and empty, a mere nothing, bearing the semblance of reality. Set not your affections upon it. Break not the bond that uniteth you with your Creator, and be not of those that have erred and strayed from His ways. Verily I say, the world is like the vapor in a desert, which the thirsty dreameth to be water and striveth after it with all his might, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it to be mere illusion. It may, moreover, be likened unto the lifeless image of the beloved whom the lover hath sought and found, in the end, after long search and to his utmost regret, to be such as cannot “fatten nor appease his hunger.”
Gleanings From the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, pp. 328-329
