Armorofgod -
1. I assume the person in the first video is you? Is that correct?
2. Unlike many, I have never had a "doubting" or "questioning" period of my life. I grew up in a very "religious" family, very active in the church. And I loved it, as a kid I always really looked forward to church and prayer was a very natural and common thing. I'm glad about that. I DO think that EMOTIONS ebb and flow... RELATIONSHIPS can too. So how one 'feels' about faith and how one 'relates"to God and the church will ebb and flow... and I've experienced that. But that's a different issue, IMO.
3. I've rarely met any "atheist" (people who DENY God and the supernatural) - they hold to a religion, often very passionately. Like you, I've always wondered what drives their religion, what's in it for them, what do they get out of this religion of theirs, this Atheism? Always puzzled me... but then I've known only a couple of Atheists. However, MANY I know are Agnostic - people who simply have "opted out", people who simply have no position, who deny NOTHING and embrace NOTHING on this. They are perfectly okay with people of faith, they just aren't one of them. I "get" that....
4. I do think some get "hung up" on "proof." I have a Ph.D. in Physics and ONE of the many, many things I learned in that is that "proof" doesn't really exist.... I'm NOT a relativist but I do think that "proof" as people often think of it is a phantom (perhaps true in Mathematics, maybe, but not outside that). But there is "reasonable". We ALL "see" everything through our glasses, our "worldview", our assumptions.... scientists do this as much as others. EVERYONE is biased... For me, if theoretical physics tells you anything, it's that reality is WEIRD. Even a brief study of string theory and the "multiverse" suddenly makes heaven and hell very possible, God very possible, being outside of time/space very possible. Indeed.... as one with a doctorate in physics, I have a hard time insisting that just about anything is impossible. Do I have a lot of "answers?" NO! but then I've come to know... that's pretty elusive. BTW, I know many fellow physicists.... none who are Atheists and only a few who are Agnostic. Most fully embrace the "supernatural" but that doesn't necessarily mean Christian. They may be more akin to Deists or Monists but rejecting that idea that what is (????) is all their is, THAT seems inconsistent with physics.
5. I think of the quote from Soren Kirkegaard about the "leap of faith." He noted that in EVERYTHING (yes, absolutely everything) - we eventually come to a cliff.... into the dark. We cannot know here but we can sense that our "leap" is reasonable. We do it (faith). The leap of faith. This is not so much about "KNOWING" as it is about trusting, relying - and acting on it. To ME, Christianity is not so much about 'answers' as it is about relationship, "knowing" in that sense rather than a cognitive thing.
6. COULD it be that the "UNIVERSE" that we experiencr is all there is? That there is no reality beyond/outside this? Of course! Could it be that Christianity (and all religions) are baseless and false? Yup. If so, what damage is being done for me? Comfort? Hope? Courage? Meaning? Love? Morality? Yeah, I could be spending my tithe on booze or porn rather than to the church but otherwise, what great harm is happening? Especially to motivate Atheists in their religion to deny all this?
Blessings!
Josiah
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