Is the Big Bang Proof of God?

Changed hearts can stagnate or continue to grow (in a nonliteral healthy sense :slightly_smiling_face:), I think. Bonhoeffer’s hermeneutic comes to mind.

Yes and no. Yes, make sure it wasn’t rigged by actual person s because people can and sometimes do behave badly. But no, not by a supernatural agent. Even if you believe in such beings, what would be the motivation? Do you think God engages in brinksmanship regarding His hiddenness? Does he look for little ways to convince each one of His special children so as not to broadcast it to the deficient ones? None of that seems appealing or likely to me.

I think if there is anything like salvation it comes from engaging life more with your heart and less with your head. Ideally we’d use both, but as a culture we put reason on a pedestal and distrust feeling and intuition - not for the better. The trouble with reason is that we’re really bad at not acting for narrow, self serving ways. Those who tell themselves it is all a matter of rationality are probably adrift where salvation is concerned no matter how hard they work to chart an endgame to paradise.

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Make that singular.
 

Love.
 

Was there any in Lydia’s case? (Or mine.)
 

The heavens declare the glory of God,
    and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
    and night to night reveals knowledge.

 
Psalm 19:1-2

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
 
Romans 1:20

Nothing is hidden except maybe by motivated reasoning?
 

No charting required, just the humble acceptance of a gift with love.

Suggesting that in Maggie’s case is pretty far fetched! (Maybe you need to reread it?) Or Rich Stearns’ (and his was not about charting any endgame, just the next chapter of his life).

The only one talking about Maggie’s case is you. I have nothing to say about that.

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I guess you were not aware that you were talking about Maggie’s case.

No, I wasn’t but it isn’t pertinent to anything I’m talking about.

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We were talking about rational vs. emotional reasons for belief.

Would it not seem rather presumptuous to bring up Maggi’s example to the thousands and millions of women who lost their children to starvation and illness because of poor medical care, in Africa in the famines of the '80s; and then in the centuries before, when people cried to God for salvation from plague. Prior to 1900, even in Europe, half all children died before the age of 5. How can we point to Maggi when a young mother loses her life to a chance tree limb that falls on her head while on a walk? Did she deserve saving more than these? And the countless trillions of examples of lives lost, parasitized, and tormented by the ages of evolution–what shall we say of them?
Rauser points out that the apologist who acknowledges that the problem of evil and suffering alone is reason for some to lose faith in God, is the one to listen to.
All of us Christians --even Mother Theresa–have gone through “nights of the soul,” when we cry for God, and, like C S Lewis lamented, only the sound of a door being bolted, and double bolted, responds.
How are we to judge others of bad faith, when we ourselves are a knife’s edge from loss?
One of the things that keeps me in the faith is the belief that if God exists, then He must be just; and if I were to become an atheist, He would know exactly my heart better than anyone else. If He were not just and would blame me, I could not believe in Him. More, I hope much more of Him–that more will come clear when we meet Him. At present, all is not clear.
So, I think that we have no right to question someone’s heart. It seems that we can only discuss Aslan as we can–from our hope.
Thank you.

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Indeed. I didn’t and wouldn’t. It seems like your argument is one massive red herring or straw man (I can never decide which is the more appropriate).

We were talking about rational vs. emotional reasons for belief, and also bad arguments.

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I am again reminded of the woman in Tim Keller’s church… you have seen this before:

During a dark time in her life, a woman in my congregation complained that she had prayed over and over, “God, help me find you,” but had gotten nowhere. A Christian friend suggested to her that she might change her prayer to, “God, come and find me. After all, you are the Good Shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep.” She concluded when she was recounting this to me, “The only reason I can tell you this story is – he did.”

Tim Keller, The Reason for God, p.240

 
Believing in God or not is not just an academic exercise or a decision about merchandise to purchase. He is personal and he is “in the room” as we are talking about him. Reflect on his feelings for a moment and consider whom we are ‘deciding about’. There are true seekers and there are the just casually interested in entertaining conversation. It is about our hearts’ desires, and we kind of need to be desiring him. If we are not, maybe we should be asking why.
 

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
 
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.

 
Matthew 13:44-46

 
Maybe God does need to use some brinksmanship and bring some of us to desperation before we will seek him. As I have noted before, temporal contentment is quite dangerous.

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  Spurgeon 9/3 a.m.

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