Are you serious?Thats a theory.Several philosophers have proposed it.Do you suggest they were talking about their beliefs?
Some people do for that reason theres no doubt. It was just my thoughts
I though people here were intelligent enough to know what a theory is .Guess not
Heres a quick definiton
a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something
It’s a reflexive definition, so logically, they have to be. But no, I don’t think that is true in practice.
How does a person know if God is working in their life?
There is no "if ". But any person who wishes can eventually be granted the eyes of faith to see how God has been working in their life. Not necessarily as some apologetic persuasion (though for some it might be used in that way), but as a sign to the persons whose lives are affected.
I’m not sure to whom your ‘some’ refers, whether the ‘apologist’ or the unbeliever, but I know of some (not that I can document easily) whose ears were opened by hearing of God’s acts of providence in someone else’s life. In any case, believers can rejoice in them (like I do in Maggie’s testimony and Glenn’s, not to mention Rich Stearns’ or George Müller’s).
We are also told in many places in scripture to ‘make known’ his deeds, so I have no apology (speaking of apologists 
).
Not all believers
Oh yes! And I didn’t mean to make it sound so “exceptional” as that post did make it sound. We are all part of a large and growing “cloud of witnesses” about what God has done in our lives. With perhaps some notable exceptions, it seems to me that daily stories of that (such as what I might offer) aren’t the “empirical smoking gun” that a materialistically determined skeptic typically insists they want. If one wants, they can just hold out for “non-God” explanations, if explanations are what they think all religion should be about. I’m simply point out that eyes of faith can be opened to see God’s work in our ordinary lives and to recognize it as such.
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Yes, a theory is an educated guess we make in order to explain something. But the theory has to make sense. It’s not the case that just anything goes. And if it is such that if even it were true we could never know it to be true, then it is not a good proposal but one that is self-defeating.
Why it doesnt make sense?
Also i guess its not a theory because some people do belive in God for that reason.So no longer a theory but a fact
The theory proposes that all beliefs are forced on us by our emotional needs. That means the theory itself is forced on us by our emotional needs and is therefore not a judgment we have arrived at by evidence or reasoning. In that case we can’t KNOW it is true - even if it were. Any explanation that cancels it’s own truth is worthless as an explanation.
It’s a lot more than that even! But the “…to explain something” starts to get there. A good theory explains a lot of things. (note: It doesn’t explain everything - and nor is it expected to.)
In what seems like a couple eons ago, I wrote a poem about this and published it in this very forum for the first time. Check it out and let me know what you think.
You are getting caught up at words .You see the trees but you lose the forest.
Clever rhyme, Mervin. You have grasped the concept of a theory.
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I’m sorry you can’t see that a theory can be self-defeating. There are actually quite a number of ways this can happen. Being self-referentially incoherent is only one of them. Tell me: can you see anything wrong with the theory that says no statements are true? Wouldn’t that have to apply to itself? Wouldn’t it then be self-defeating?
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You get caught up in words. Im sorry. This kind of thinking gets you nowhere
Moderators, forgive me if posting the same thing to two different threads is not acceptable here but this just went along with both so well. If you feel you need to remove one, please remove this one. Thank you.
The following words are very helpful for coping with this life and having God work in my life. As I keep them in my mind they direct me and give me peace.
These words of Jesus and the Spirit of God through the apostle John, encourage me and bring me hope (a confident expectation) for the future.
Mark 8:34 “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
This is such a STRONG exhortation not to love my life here. I am free to stop caring about myself and to fully set my affections on following Jesus by living a life in obedience to the Spirit’s leading. It’s a command not to hold on to this short, temporary life but to live for an everlasting life that is just around the corner.
1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world — the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does — comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
This command also brings hope and peace. God orders me to be free from loving this world (present time), the character of this present time. His command frees me from the power of sin, lust of the eyes, boasting of what I have and do, and all the cravings of sinful mankind. He is commanding me to be free.
Thank you Father for such a gift of freedom. Now I am free to love God and my neighbor as myself. And when I die tonight or tomorrow I have an everlasting life to live with my Father.
The closer I get to natural death and physically leaving this world, the closer I get to being with Jesus and the Father.
Don’t you just love it?
“No statements are true.” ← Is this a statement?
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