> > I know what the voice of God sounds like. > And you are certain that it isn't from another agent like the devil? Yeah, pretty sure. Experience. When you

> > I know what the voice of God sounds like. > And you are certain that it isn't from another agent like the devil? Yeah, pretty sure. Experience. When your mother talks to you, are you sure it's her? > I kind of wonder how you evaluate someone else as having that ability They describe a similar experience. It's not all that different from determing that you and someone else know the same person. > You don't accept that the Oracle of Delphi was legitimate right? No, of course not. Just because I think there were legitmate prophets, and are people God chooses to speak to today, that doesn't mean I think all such claims are legitimate. In fact, most are bogus. A lot of the Christian ones, even, are bogus. The existence of pseudoscience in no way leads me to doubt real science, and the existence of pseudoreligion has nothing to do with the reliability of real religion. > Anyway, I think you are right that your claim is closer to out of body experience claims than other unfalsifiable ones. Indeed. That's why I don't usually bring it up in apologetics. Sometimes I do, as it gives you an interesting dilemma -- I'm lying, confused, or . . . maybe telepathic space aliens? It's actually a tougher dilemma than it looks like. But I agree, it isn't really accessible evidence to other people. That's not what it's for, anyway. > Still though if your claim proves to be false, that doesn't mean that God doesn't talk to humans. That claim is still unfalsifiable. Well, it would mean that God doesn't talk to humans in the way I thought he did. It doesn't falsify the idea that he could sometime, somewhere, I suppose, but it does reduce it to zero evidence. I would have to change my answer from "of course" to "I don't know" plus a reasonable level of skepticism. Practically, I think that's about as good. > I also have to ask if people can communicate with God then why don't people use that to finally solve all of the differences between the different denominations? It doesn't work like that. God chooses when, where, and how to speak to us, and what he's going to say. We don't control him; he's the soverign one in the relationship. Remember what I said earlier, about how faith doesn't revolve around miracles and personal revelation? It doesn't. We are intended to work things out, to work with evidence and history and reason. This is an age of scripture and faith, not prophets and temples. What God does supernaturally in people's lives . . . believe or not, that's at the fringe of modern Christian experience. It's not the core. And that's by his choice. > Is Jesus really against minimum wage? I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. I never claimed to know. You mean, would I ask him for you? No. It doesn't work that way.