Thanks for your reply! I wasn't trying to be spicy, just trying to write up a semi-thorough response in the middle of some tasks. I appreciate your feedback. There is something certainly to be said about logical proofs of God being inherently a very odd thing. How do you "prove" something that is Being Itself. In my religious journey I read a lot of philosophical books and while I was convinced by some of the philosophical arguments, they did indeed leave me a little empty. For example, I think the argument of contingency is a very good one, but even when accepting that I cannot say that I "know" or "see" or "believe" in God. It is like being told that some guy named Bob exists in a different city. Ok, so what? I haven't seen him, heard him, touched him. Until you see him, the abstract really doesn't bring you across the finish line so to speak. I look at philosophical arguments more about "clearing the ground" for God, placing Him within a "why this is a reasonable belief" context. T
To actually encounter God is completely different, which is also why I found the historical arguments far more effective for me in my journey as we have in Jesus, so we are told, the God-Man making Himself known to us. We get to see God. I personally became very convinced of the historicity of the gospels after about 10 years of intensive study, having started out as somebody who enjoyed them as "myth".
Yet this God is also peculiar: He suffered complete desolation on the cross. And here I find myself in this strange life, full of trials and sorrow, and I see Christ as fully explanatory of how suffering and hope possess meaning. I encounter Christ in these moments as I know that Christ doesn't remove suffering but transforms it. He doesn't take away my crosses, he makes them light and even, dare I say, full of love.
I really appreciate your responses – while I basically remain at my POV, unable to really invest in religion in an ontological way, I do feel as part of an aged, Christian-based culture and feel very deeply about some aspects of this heritage, without really being Christian myself.
For me, emotional experience of the world and expanding my mind has certainly led me to see religion differently than as a 15-year old, meaning much more reapectfully.
I still fit into the atheist ane agnostic cohort but I see religion as part of the fabrics of civilization today. And transient, like language.
But I value a lot of Christian culture (e.g. Bachs music and prior art) and some Christian values (e.g. ethics of forgiveness and human rights)
Bach, man, if you look at my HN comments you'll probably see Bach mentioned at least 10% of the time. His music is unlike anything else out there: all individual parts unique and interesting yet everything forming a unified whole, constantly, across every single measure. You can listen to a cello line and be fully entranced and then listen to a violin going at the same time, likewise love it for itself, and then have the ability to then listen to them simultaneously and hear the harmonies. Every other composer I've listened to has a "dominant" section/theme, for example let's say the violins are playing a melody and the cellos are acting as a harmonic filler. It's beautiful, but listening to the cellos by themselves could be pretty boring. But with Bach, every single instrument is doing something enjoyable at the same time.
It sounds pathetic but sometimes I think his music has saved my life at a certain point. The fact that all voices are always "singing" makes it also very enjoyable to practise his music.
To actually encounter God is completely different, which is also why I found the historical arguments far more effective for me in my journey as we have in Jesus, so we are told, the God-Man making Himself known to us. We get to see God. I personally became very convinced of the historicity of the gospels after about 10 years of intensive study, having started out as somebody who enjoyed them as "myth".
Yet this God is also peculiar: He suffered complete desolation on the cross. And here I find myself in this strange life, full of trials and sorrow, and I see Christ as fully explanatory of how suffering and hope possess meaning. I encounter Christ in these moments as I know that Christ doesn't remove suffering but transforms it. He doesn't take away my crosses, he makes them light and even, dare I say, full of love.