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How did you switch from not believing to believing? That's something I find really interesting. I feel like I would require such an enormously convincing proo

How did you switch from not believing to believing? That's something I find really interesting. I feel like I would require such an enormously convincing proof that there is some sort of higher power, that I can't ever see it happening, unless God himself appears on Earth in front of millions. And then there are people who say to me "oh, I just close my eyes and feel His presence", and it's just mindblowing to me that they take something so clearly subjective as proof.

afpx 6y ago
Honestly, I had to read the New Testament (David Bentley Hart translation) a couple of times to come up with a cosmic scenario in which my beliefs made logical sense to me. And, what I did come up with did make sense, but it is complicated to explain.
- myWindoonn 6y ago
  How did you get around the minor calendrical errors (e.g. Quirinius being appointed before Herod's death) and the idea that the Gospels are secondhand? These were showstoppers for my belief as a teenager, and they're still showstoppers today in my adult life.
  - afpx 6y ago
    To be fair, it requires a lot of mental and spiritual creativity to jump from non-belief to belief. And, one probably needs to have an instinct for it (like, I probably would have been a tribal shaman, had I lived 50,000 years ago) and some motivation to go in deep just for the experience.
    - myWindoonn 6y ago
      I don't think that your reply answered my questions. Don't the historical and scientific details matter?
monktastic1 6y ago
There's another way to go about it, and that is to realize that everything is purely subjective. It is no more "likely" that reality is what you think it is than that it is a simulation, dream, etc. That doesn't necessarily lead you to decide on God as the answer, but it becomes no more difficult to believe than anything else. I've written more about this here (though it does lead the reader to a particular conclusion): https://www.lifeismiraculous.org/ https://www.lifeismiraculous.org/

afpx 6y ago

Honestly, I had to read the New Testament (David Bentley Hart translation) a couple of times to come up with a cosmic scenario in which my beliefs made logical sense to me. And, what I did come up with did make sense, but it is complicated to explain.

myWindoonn 6y ago
How did you get around the minor calendrical errors (e.g. Quirinius being appointed before Herod's death) and the idea that the Gospels are secondhand? These were showstoppers for my belief as a teenager, and they're still showstoppers today in my adult life.
- afpx 6y ago
  To be fair, it requires a lot of mental and spiritual creativity to jump from non-belief to belief. And, one probably needs to have an instinct for it (like, I probably would have been a tribal shaman, had I lived 50,000 years ago) and some motivation to go in deep just for the experience.
  - myWindoonn 6y ago
    I don't think that your reply answered my questions. Don't the historical and scientific details matter?

monktastic1 6y ago

There's another way to go about it, and that is to realize that everything is purely subjective. It is no more "likely" that reality is what you think it is than that it is a simulation, dream, etc. That doesn't necessarily lead you to decide on God as the answer, but it becomes no more difficult to believe than anything else. I've written more about this here (though it does lead the reader to a particular conclusion): https://www.lifeismiraculous.org/ https://www.lifeismiraculous.org/