garvey0 said:
sapphi_snake said:
garvey0 said:
I understand, but consider this: If there is a being who is responsible for creating this earth and for creating the life on it, isn't it reasonable to think that this being might try to communicate with human beings at some point or another? And isn't it also reasonable to search out the writings of those who claim to have received such communication to try to draw conclusions about which amongst these people (if any) were telling the truth about their encounter so that we can learn more about the Creator?
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How can you tell which are telling the truth and which aren't? These people could very easily be lying or possibly be schizophrenic.There really is no way to determine which, if any, have had authentic encounters.
Plus the quest for knowledge regarding the Creator is pointless if the existence of such a being is itself questionable. First one would have to absolutely be sure such a being exists before setting out to learn about him.
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Investigative work on the prophets themselves and finding inconsistencies in their testimonies or claims they made that have been disproven can often times rule them out as being truthful. I admit that sometimes these sorts of things aren't so black and white and require close examination. I try to use what Jesus said: "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit."
You can use this as a guide even if you don't believe in Jesus, because it would make sense that the Creator wouldn't send prophets who were "bearing bad fruit" (doing bad things.)
And before someone brings this up: In the old testament examples where the prophets did do bad things, it was pointed out that what they were doing was wrong and God often addressed it Himself Though this particular segment of the topic has been discussed already at great length in this thread so I don't want to get back into it unless sometime new comes up.
As for not believing in a Creator at all, I can't speak to that as much because I began believing in God before I believed in any of the religious scriptures. I went from not believing, to believing, to searching out the texts to see who God is. Though I have heard of people who have began believing in God while studying religious texts, I'm just not sure how that works from personal experience. Maybe there are some people in this thread who can talk about this.
I know that none of this will necessarily convince you, but I hope that you can at least be persuaded a little bit more that it isn't completely futile to consider these sorts of things.
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The problem I have with this is that if you truly look at all the claims about creators that everyone has ever made, it's clear that they are hopelessly numerous and contradictory. There is no sufficient reason to conclude just from examining different claims that (a) one of them is correct, and (b) the Christian God is that correct one.
It sounds like you searched among the beliefs to see which one most accorded with what you had come to believe, which is much more reasonable.
So if the innermost quoted post is simply saying that if you already believe in God or have had a personal belief event of some kind, it would be beneficial to look at many other stories of revelation to see which fit your own, then that's fine. But it sounded more like you were saying that such examination could demonstrate that one particular set of stories was true (not just honest), which is really not the case at all.
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