[Ridingmyego]

I really don't understand how "doubting", or "questioning" your faith in anything is a bad thing. Tthe only way to gain supreme confidence in an idea is by questioning it consistently. Then when you have an idea that answers every question which you pose to it (and provides emperical evidence), then it deserves your loyalty.

[SpiggyTopes]

Hallucination.

[Flash7]

David Blain is a great street magician. Camera crews follow him around while he performs magic tricks out in public. What you do not see on TV is the numerous times when his tricks fail.

I have heard many of these types of stories where someone calls a person out by name and tells them that God is working through them. The stories you do not hear about are the numerous times where they get the person's name wrong. The conversation stops and there is not message from God, they just move onto the next person and try to guess their name to convey a message from God. Many pastors use this trick so that they have something to discuss the next Sunday-- of the miracles that they perform in God's name.

[Ineluctable]

The person in question is an intelligent young man and not a liar. Stop trying to make things up to argue against what I am saying. This type of religious experience is not unheard of and is very powerful evidence for the divine because the people in question are unassociated.

[Philbert]

This happened to me once. Someone came up to me and asked me for directions and thanked me, using my name. I was like and then realised that I still had my work name-tag on. Lulz were had by all.

[Insanity514]

This happened to me once too. I was getting a haircut and the barber said "goodbye [insert my name]" when I hadn't told him my name. Doesn't mean anything special to me though.

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by katehlouise)
Word of mouth doesn't prove anything.

Chinese whispers is funny though

[Dmon1Unlimited]

(Original post by Ineluctable)
The person in question is an intelligent young man and not a liar. Stop trying to make things up to argue against what I am saying. This type of religious experience is not unheard of and is very powerful evidence for the divine because the people in question are unassociated.

Still doesn't mean there aren't plausible reasons... Bias for wanting proof of gods existence is not justification for ignoring this.

If it happens to me, I'll be more likely to take your thread into consideration

[Good bloke]

(Original post by Ineluctable)
Stop trying to make things up to argue against what I am saying.

I didn't make anything up, yet you failed to answer the question I asked in post number nine.

[Antichrist666]

(Original post by Cephalus)
I am a Christian and I have asked God for messages/signs in times of uncertainty. I have never received one. I don't think this is God's work. Messages are for the faithful, not the faithless

Do you know WHY you have not received any messages?Because neither God nor Jesus exist.I have a little challenge for you:in the bible it says that if two people are gathered in Jesus's name,and pray for him to appear, he will.So get a friend and do that for a while.If it's pitch black outside and he does not appear,I and a lot of people who have thought about that part in the bible for more than 30 seconds have debunked the bible.

[Cephalus]

(Original post by Antichrist666)
Do you know WHY you have not received any messages?Because neither God nor Jesus exist.I have a little challenge for you:in the bible it says that if two people are gathered in Jesus's name,and pray for him to appear, he will.So get a friend and do that for a while.If it's pitch black outside and he does not appear,I and a lot of people who have thought about that part in the bible for more than 30 seconds have debunked the bible.

lol fair point. But the Bible says, "Do not test the Lord", which is exactly what your experiment is doing.

[Dinnes]

(Original post by Ineluctable)
I know of at least two people who have been spoken to by God when they were in a time of uncertainty, bringing their faith and commitment back. I'll give you an example. Someone I know quite well was on holiday in America and he heard a woman with a small child singing and praying. She came over to him and told him that God sent her to deliver a message to him, but addressed him by his name, despite having never met her before. They prayed together and afterwards his commitment and faith was redoubled. This is not the only time I know it has happened.

I think the only possible explanation for a stranger reaching out to somebody with doubts is because God is working through them and rekindling their faith.

Either:

a) Some kind of religious thing
or b) She knew his name, either subconsciously or consciously+waslying
or c) The story was a fake (I don't know this person but it's a possibility)
or d) Your friend misheard - what's his name? his name might sound like another word that could have been used in this context.
or e) The woman heard him use a phone, saying his name
or f) Your friend was with someone else who called him
or g) Your friend had some kind of name tag on something which she saw

The bit about the small child singing and praying is a bit irrelevant really, more of a sensationalist device than a narrative one.

That's just a few ideas to get you thinking, so actually

the only possible explanation for a stranger reaching out to somebody with doubts is because God is working through them and rekindling their faith.

isn't true in this case, even though it could be that.

Dan

[Dinnes]

(Original post by Cephalus)
lol fair point. But the Bible says, "Do not test the Lord", which is exactly what your experiment is doing.

Mm. The Bible says a lot of things, a fair proportion of which conflict - after all, most of it is accepted to have been written by humans, who are inherently flawed and who have their own vices.

[Cephalus]

(Original post by Dinnes)
Mm. The Bible says a lot of things, a fair proportion of which conflict - after all, most of it is accepted to have been written by humans, who are inherently flawed and who have their own vices.

Written by humans yes but inspired by God

[Dinnes]

(Original post by Cephalus)
Written by humans yes but inspired by God

Then why the inconsistencies?

[Cephalus]

(Original post by Dinnes)
Then why the inconsistencies?

You answered that yourself. It was written by humans.

[Dinnes]

(Original post by Cephalus)
You answered that yourself. It was written by humans.

Eegh, ok, fair enough. I was assuming you were trying to make a point beyond what you said. I agree that (assuming God's existence for sake of argument) it was inspired by God. I do also think though, that since it is partially influenced by the infalliable human condition it can't be taken as God's exact word, only the main messages.

[Antichrist666]

It's impossible to test the lord,because the lord does not exist.For example, you cannot test the tooth fairy.

[Cephalus]

(Original post by Dinnes)
Eegh, ok, fair enough. I was assuming you were trying to make a point beyond what you said. I agree that (assuming God's existence for sake of argument) it was inspired by God. I do also think though, that since it is partially influenced by the infalliable human condition it can't be taken as God's exact word, only the main messages.

Exactly. I don't interpret the Bible literally. Every holy book falls down at the literalistic interprteation. But I don't think the main message(s) of Christianity are flawed.

[Vonlenska]

Pure conjecture, holding no intellectual merit whatsoever.


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