Experiencing God

[psychoslice]

I cannot prove God, but God can prove Himself, and He has to me.

That's nice, I am very happy for you, and I am happy with anyone else who doesn't see what you or I see, its all the same circus and it can be fun.

 

[Sunstone]

No, it's not a good point. There are experiences that people have. There is nothing to show that the experiences that some people have who do not associate God with their experience are experiencing anything like that experienced by those who do associate God with their experiences. They could be completely different experiences.

No one can "prove" that you experience seeing the same tree I experience seeing. Nor can anyone "prove" that when two separate people claim to have experienced deity, they have had the same experience. So what's your point?

 

[Sonofason]

With respect, I don't think you've read up on psychology if you truly are of the impression that people don't feel burned without heat, don't hear sound without molecules vibrating, or -- possibly -- don't experience deity without deity. Psychology has very well documented that people do, in fact, sometimes feel they are burning when there's no fire, or sometimes hear noises that "aren't there". You can be as convinced as you want to be that your experiences were experiences of deity, but you will have to do better than you've been doing if you wish to provide compelling evidence of such. Your current line of reasoning does not provide that evidence.

Wake up!! You're dreaming. You're not really hear typing on your keyboard. None of this is real.

 

[psychoslice]

Wake up!! You're dreaming. You're not really hear typing on your keyboard. None of this is real.

And yet you answer.

 

[Sonofason]

The title 'G-d' means different things to different people. I had a discussion a while back on RF, I literally didn't know what the person was talking about, but we were both using the word 'god' or Deity, turns out we had totally different definitions for the term, and both of us were pretty incredulous that the other was associating the definition we each were using with the deity concept we have. That was also the time that I realized that many or most people were using the title differently from me, talk about a surprise.
ps I had always before that just thought people were being descriptive or something, anyways I didn't really realize how much of a different deity idea it was.

God is God. Some people call Him God. People of various cultures have various names for God. Every persons perception of God varies somewhat from the next guy, and even greatly between cultures, where religions of men become intertwined in the people's understanding of God.
But God is God.

 

[psychoslice]

God is God. Some people call Him God. People of various cultures have various names for God. Every persons perception of God varies somewhat from the next guy, and even greatly between cultures, where religions of men become intertwined in the people's understanding of God.
But God is God.

So, which god do you believe in ?.

 

[Sunstone]

Wake up!! You're dreaming. You're not really hear typing on your keyboard. None of this is real.

Now, that was bonkers. Pity, the thread had potential. Sorry to see it devolve into dogmatism.

 

[Sonofason]

To assert such a claim without compelling evidence is irrational. I am beginning to suspect you are not really ready yet for a genuine conversation on this topic. Perhaps it was premature of you to bring it up.

Sorry, I was actually thinking more of the word mystic, which to me relates more to the occult, or fortune telling, and that sort of stuff. So I rarely use and identify with the term.

However, I have reviewed the definition of mysticism, and perhaps I dismissed the term too hastily, as mysticism can be, "having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence"
Mystical - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

But even still, I can not apply this term to myself nor God, as God is able to touch us, and we can feel His touch. God can speak to us, and we can hear his voice. God is reasonable, and this is indeed obvious to my intelligence.

Perhaps it is a word used by those who don't experience God, when speaking of those who claim to experience God. To those people experiencing God is most mystical.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Sorry, I was actually thinking more of the word mystic, which to me relates more to the occult, or fortune telling, and that sort of stuff. So I rarely use and identify with the term.

However, I have reviewed the definition of mysticism, and perhaps I dismissed the term too hastily, as mysticism can be, "having a spiritual meaning or reality that is neither apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence"
Mystical - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary

But even still, I can not apply this term to myself nor God, as God is able to touch us, and we can feel His touch. God can speak to us, and we can hear his voice. God is reasonable, and this is indeed obvious to my intelligence.

Perhaps it is a word used by those who don't experience God, when speaking of those who claim to experience God. To those people experiencing God is most mystical.

Christian mysticism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Sonofason]

No one can "prove" that you experience seeing the same tree I experience seeing. Nor can anyone "prove" that when two separate people claim to have experienced deity, they have had the same experience. So what's your point?

Well, I have shared my experience of God with some other believers, and come to find out that they too have the same experience that I do. We know we are having the same experience because we can tell each other what we experience. If the experience is the same, it is relatively safe to say the experience is the same.

 

[Sunstone]

Well, I have shared my experience of God with some other believers, and come to find out that they too have the same experience that I do. We know we are having the same experience because we can tell each other what we experience. If the experience is the same, it is relatively safe to say the experience is the same.

Just as there seem to be certain underlying commonalities between people who identify a certain kind of experience with god and people who don't. There's actually a fairly extensive literature on this kind of experience. It happens to people who come to believe all sorts of things about it.

 

[psychoslice]

All experiences of god are just that, an experience, the experience itself isn't god, the experience is contaminated by the mind, so no two experiences are truly the same, or even real.

 

[InChrist]

So you believed first, and then you experienced. Is that right?
The question that follows would be more difficult. What caused you to believe?

Two things caused me to believe I needed a Savior.
1) I saw myself in a very realistic light and had to honestly admit I was sinful.
2) I saw the demonic realm and knew I was powerless against such evil and realized I needed someone more powerful to save me and that was only Jesus Christ.

 

[chinu]

Mother gave some toys to her child to make him busy. Child started playing with those toys. After some time child got fed up with those toys and started crying :sad4: Again mother gave some new toys. Again child started playing with those new toys, but again after some time child got fed up with those new toys and started crying :sad4: Again mother arranged some new kind of toys for him. Every time mother repeated giving him new toys again and again whenever he got fed-up with old toys.

Finally, child got tired, felt sleepy, and started crying :sad4: Again mother gave him some new toys. But this time child didn't stopped crying :sad4: because this time he don't want any toys he just want to sleep by sticking to the breast of his mother.

Now, this time Mother have to come in front of her child to pick him up because now very well she knows that none other thing can make my child stop crying.

Similarly, when one is tired of this world, felt sleepy, and starts crying, that time God have to come in front of his child to pick him up because now very well Father knows that none other thing can make my child stop crying

 

[Desert Snake]

Two things caused me to believe I needed a Savior.
1) I saw myself in a very realistic light and had to honestly admit I was sinful.
2) I saw the demonic realm and knew I was powerless against such evil and realized I needed someone more powerful to save me and that was only Jesus Christ.

You saw the demonic realm? Care to elaborate?

 

[Twilight Hue]

God is real to the person who is convinced god is real. Seems you can't ever extract God from the person because if you do, God will cease to exist.

I had those same experiences when a Christian, and discovered that when the experiences rises, runs it's course, and passes, so does God also. Such experiences remain with the person and nowhere else.

 

[Sapiens]

It is not unusual for people to fantasize in a similar fashion.

 

[Sunstone]

It is not unusual for people to fantasize in a similar fashion.

Translation: "I myself have never had such an experience and I am possessed by the simple faith that because I haven't, no one else has either."

 

[Sonofason]

So, which god do you believe in ?.

There is only one God.

 

[Triumphant_Loser]

There is only one God.