What Makes You Think…

[Nakosis]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

 

[SalixIncendium]

I don’t. I trust my own experiences and validate them through what others have experienced/written.

 

[Quintessence]

I don't study the bible. I'm not a scholar of biblical history, and will absolutely defer to the academics on relevant matters.

I've heard that the bible was written over many, many years. As in centuries. As such, the people who directly had the mystical experiences of that god - the characters in the stories themselves - were not the people who wrote the bible. I don't doubt that people then and today do experience that god, directly. Whether or not the writers also had these experiences? See: scholars on biblical history. I have no idea.

In any event, there are many ways of knowing. Whether or not the writers had direct experience of their god, while not irrelevant, doesn't mean they knew nothing of their god. When it comes to knowing the gods, and building a cultural phenomena out of these experiences (aka, a religion), it is simply not practical to do all the lifting yourself. Part of building the religion involves listening to those who have had experiences with the gods, comparing notes, building the theology, the rituals, the practices. You learn from each other's experiences. And that's a good thing. It's how all traditions get built, religious or otherwise.

 

[Sand Dancer]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

Any good God will speak to each person currently, IMO. No texts needed.

 

[SalixIncendium]

Any good God will speak to each person currently, IMO. No texts needed.

At least not until someone gives God an iPhone.

 

[The Sum of Awe]

I don’t. I trust my own experiences and validate them through what others have experienced/written.

May i ask what personal experiences brought you to your understanding of Brahman. You are Advaita right?

 

[Alien826]

At least not until someone gives God an iPhone.

The trouble with developing an iPhone for God is that it would take a huge amount of research, given that it has to be immaterial so God can use it and also able to interact with material cell towers. Apple would probably say it wasn't worth the cost, given the very limited potential customer base.

 

[Alien826]

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like.

Right. And then turn round and claim that God is unknowable by humans.

 

[Left Coast]

I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

Personally I would love to know more about God's personnel. Can you imagine working in that mess of an HR department?

 

[F1fan]

I think a big error is assuming these ancient people had the same understanding of "what is true" as we do in the 21st century (or even the 19th and 20th centuries). We have the advantage of hundreds of years of science and skilled thinking (reasoning) to guide us to an understanding of truth. We see modern theists struggle to make ancient religious stories fit in with more factual and realist approaches to meaning and life. They often have to take sides, and reject science, facts, and reasoning to various degree to alow themselves their religious illusions.

I think it is interesting how ancient people thought and believed without a set of valid knowledge (apart from learned trial and errors) as we have with the modern sciences.

 

[Mock Turtle]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

I don't accept the Bible for much other than evidently being written long ago. I'm not sure as to anything written in the Bible relating to real people or events, and I have no real way of discovering such, given there is no independent corroboration of such from reliable sources. And it hardly bothers me that I can't, given I might have to do such for all the other major religions too. Just too much work for too little gain in my view, when the more obvious sells - that they were created by the people around then and reflected their beliefs more than much else - whether true or false.

As to knowledge of God, these too seem more like projections. Hence my beliefs about such are more based on what might be possible than anything else - there being a slim chance of such.

 

[SalixIncendium]

May i ask what personal experiences brought you to your understanding of Brahman. You are Advaita right?

Yes and yes.

My first was spontaneous in nature and took place when I was in my preteens. I used to work on weekends and during the summer with my step-father, who was a plastering contractor in Chicago. We lived about 60 or so miles northwest of the city in a little town called Woodstock, so the commute took around an hour and a half with the morning stop at the material yard.

One morning, I was staring out the window of the truck at the buildings, the traffic, the people, the El (the elevated/subway train system that runs through the city) when out of nowhere I felt a sense of familiarity and intimacy with all of it...everything...as familiar as my living room or the back of my hand...like it was a part of me. I don't recall, even at the time, how long this lasted...probably just a few seconds...but the gravity of the experience made an impression on me that I would never forget, even though for years I wrote it off as some sort of an anomaly.

It wasn't until many years passed that I was talking to someone about the experience, and they suggested that it might be what they referred to as a spontaneous mystical experience. It was at that time which began to investigate, research, talk, contemplate, and meditate on the experience. I learned more about it, and it was able to find validation in Hindu scripture that verified with me that it was not just an anomaly. It pointed to what I am in my true nature.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

We understand God a lot more right now than when the Bible was written. The only problem is, most people don't consider God to be God anymore, and instead call God by its individual parts instead. As a 50%/50% pantheist/syntheist I understand God is both what nature was but also what it is becoming too. Spinoza, the most God-intoxicated person, incorrectly labelled an atheist for years after his death, had the idea of God right all along. The only difference between him and I is I see the organization of intelligent life proof that God is becoming more divine than it used to be. And one day, that intelligent life will create intelligent nature, and a concentration of divinity will commence into the Syntheos of The Omniverse - the being of God.

 

[sun rise]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I think a big error is assuming these ancient people had the same understanding of "what is true" as we do in the 21st century

@F1fan partially answers @Nakosis . I can say that those who lived millennia ago put down their understanding in language that would be understood at the time. The same is true today for teaching little children rather than teaching those in higher education. Little children can't grasp what they will when they get older.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

The only reason to trust is by analogy to going to school. If I want to study physics, I attend gradually more refined courses taught by those who have mastered the subject. Similarly if I want to learn about God, I can find a tzaddik, murshid, guru or similar figure who I believe knows what they're talking about. But I'm also free to learn on my own if I choose.

 

[Nakosis]

@F1fan partially answers @Nakosis . I can say that those who lived millennia ago put down their understanding in language that would be understood at the time. The same is true today for teaching little children rather than teaching those in higher education. Little children can't grasp what they will when they get older.



The only reason to trust is by analogy to going to school. If I want to study physics, I attend gradually more refined courses taught by those who have mastered the subject. Similarly if I want to learn about God, I can find a tzaddik, murshid, guru or similar figure who I believe knows what they're talking about. But I'm also free to learn on my own if I choose.

Of those teachers you have come across, are there any that you’d now be critical of their teaching?

 

[Nakosis]

I don’t. I trust my own experiences and validate them through what others have experienced/written.

But why trust their experience over your own?

Is there reason they can trust their own experience any more than you can trust yours?

 

[Wildswanderer]

Because I believe God inspired and guided the biblical canon.

 

[SalixIncendium]

But why trust their experience over your own?

I never said I did.

 

[Kenny]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

Why not?

I find the authors very consistent as we look at the message from beginning to end.

 

[Twilight Hue]

The writers of the Bible knew anything about God?

I’ve heard from several people who feel they know God. They will say with certainty what God is like. The problem of course is that what they claim is not consistent with each other.
I understand people feeling they have personnel knowledge about God.

I accept these biblical authors feeling they had reliable knowledge about God, doesn’t mean they did.

Why trust any claims made by other people about God?

Because when there is no actual existing God, it's only ever going to be people doing all the talking and doing.