The Sermon Part 2 (Agnosticism)

by Carl, Friday, July 25, 2008, 16:26 (5963 days ago) @ dhw

Perhaps I should not interject myself into what is a conversation between dhw and Mark, but I will. First, my previous remarks about atheists were directed mostly at David, since I understand dwh's position.
In a previous reference to divine inspiration as telepathy, I was referring to the spiritual communication between religious believers and God. The belief is that you must first approach God with your appeals and questions, and he will respond. The communication from you to God can be either aloud or simply as thoughts. God will read your thoughts or hear your words and respond. One way of God responding is to place thoughts in your mind. So, in effect, you are having a mental conversation with God. Another way of God responding is a "sign" in the form of an event in the physical world. Since you must first approach God with complete sincerity, the point can be made that you must concede the outcome before you begin the process. - My roots are in a rural area with a strong evangelical tradition, so I have some familiarity with the beliefs. A common belief is that God has a plan for each of us, and you must pray regularly to stay in concert with God's plan. - I recognize that this form of knowledge is totally inadmissible to anyone who relies exclusively on logical arguments and natural evidence, but it is the ultimate source of knowledge for many theists. - As far as Mark's statement,"only the whole church knows the truth", I think this references the emphasis on the importance of the Church. Each person gets a bit of knowledge about God, and they have to come together and share in order to get a fuller knowledge of God. George was justified in calling it "mystic", but a large portion of the population makes important decisions based on knowledge acquired this way.