wisdom from a fellow Christian (evolutionist)

[acroyear]

"VBM" on talk.origins:

In short, the whole ID argument can only be convincing to those, like myself, who already believe that this current state of the universe, with Man sitting here as we are, is how it had to end up. Thus, it is an argument that can only preach to the choir, but has no logical or persuasive effect to those who do not share this pressuposition. Atheists, I must reluctantly admit, are right to reject it.

"But then how do we know God exists?!", the Christians exclaim (and atheists too, for that matter).

• Faith. The evidence of things NOT seen.
• Experience. The personal relationship with the all-powerful.
• The Word. God's timeless message to all of us.

If we are to reach the non-believer, Chrsitians must do so on a theological, philosophical and relational level, not by an attempt to "prove" God must have designed everything.

Comments

Analogies

[maccuswell.livejournal.com]

My favorite analogy is the carpenter and the table he has just make. The table doesn't know about the carpenter; can't even begin to understand the carpenter.

Similarly, our own feeble understanding can't even begin to encompass God. We can define our world, measure it, analyze it, but we don't have the tools or understanding to comprehend Him because He is so much greater than us.

I also am not a fan of trying to "prove" my faith is right. Religion is a great bridge for comparing beliefs and reaching out to one's Fellow Man(tm), but as soon as it turns into one-upmanship you start tweaking some very fundamental parts of people's beliefs (pun intended) and the reaction is knee-jerk defensiveness.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

Converting me runs into a problem. I'm with you on faith and experience. I believe in the divine. But my faith and my experience directly contradict the bible. The timeless message that I see in the world, has nothing to do with the bible, at best and contradicts it at worst. And no preaching I've ever encoutered has changed that, even a very small amount.