Hi Nilsen,
Sorry about the delay in replying, I've been extremely busy trying to help people based on made-up commands from a persistent mass-hallucination.
Hopefully, sometime soon I'll start saving the world by coming to my senses and go back to doing whatever I want and simply using people for my own selfish ends like I did up to the age of 23, eh?
Originally posted by Nilsen
Seagoon sir.
"I wonder for instance what psychological need for God a 24 week old baby has and how projection could have had a positive health benefit in his case"
None and none.
Show me the proof that god in whatever shape or form is out there and ill be happy to listen. For most of us the bible or any other holy scripture is stories that have been written down to try and explain things that people at the time could not yet explain with sience and to provide comfort for those in need.
Nilsen, what kind of proof would you require? Fossilized angel wings? Photos of the resurrection? I think we both know that there is no level of evidence in this case that would be considered adequate, and in any event evidence alone isn't sufficient to overcome the natural inclination not to believe the Gospel. It certainly wasn't in my case.
And it isn't simply the modern mind that is so inclined. The New Testament accounts are literally full of people who would not believe Christ or his Apostles even when confronted by the evidence of miracles that had occurred right in front of them. Even these miracles, in and of themselves, weren't sufficient to make someone believe. Peter makes the point in his sermon to the assembly in Jerusalem in Acts chapter 2 that they saw the miracles that Christ did, and yet crucified him anyway:
"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know -- Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; "whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it. " (Acts 2:23-24)
Had they
not seen these signs and wonders, they would have greeted Peter's sermon with laughter. They didn't though, because they didn't dispute the signs themselves, but rather what the origin of the signs was or what they pointed to. Even after these miracles, opponents of the gospel called Christ a "deceiver" (Matt. 27:63) and would have continued to do so no matter how many signs and wonders (or physical evidences for the truth claims of Christ if you will) were piled up in front of them.
In the same way, even if you were to give the ample evidence a considered examination I sincerely doubt that would be sufficient to overcome an insurmountable hermeneutic of suspicion. I'll try to give you a few examples of what I mean.
You probably do not doubt for a moment that there was a great Greek Philosopher by the name of Socrates or that he was famously executed by being forced to drink hemlock. However, the hard evidence for the actual existence of Socrates is actually far weaker than the evidence for Christ and the Christian faith. What we know of Socrates is almost entirely based on the word of one man, Plato. And the manuscripts we have from that man are fewer and a far newer than the collossal number of New Testament manuscripts and writings of contemporaries (Clement, the Didache, etc.) that we have going back to the late first/early second century. And yet it is not Socrates, but Christ who is treated to almost universal skepticism despite being the far better attested of the two.
You know as well as I do that any proof I present here will not be treated in a neutral fashion, but rather disbelieved immediately. This is because the Christian faith and all its core beliefs are held to be impossible and preposterous from the outset. Your worldview cannot allow for them, therefore
they must go rather than a worldview I would say is fundamentally flawed and itself unprovable.
I have read what you have written and I have no reason to doubt that the people you speak to are what you say they are. What kind of job they have doesnt affect whatever spiritual needs they have.
Two points, first I would argue that you have it the wrong way round. No one with the weak, needy, and credulous character you presuppose could do the job they do for long. Even the
selection course for the Green Berets tends to chew up and weed out the spiritually weak.
Second, perhaps if the "projecting" you were speaking of was of the false "kindly granny idol" I mentioned before, it might have more weight. But as I mentioned we are talking about a religion that calls them to live the examined life and constantly be bringing themselves and their beliefs to the table. They also have to accept that believing the Christian faith as they do will make their lives here on earth, much more difficult, not easier. Certainly it would be easier not to have to undergo the kind of continuous mocking one receives for being an evangelical in our present society, and not believing would make fitting in easier as well. They follow a savior who tells them " In the world you will have tribulation."
Certainly in terms of relations with the world, I had far
fewer problems before I became a Christian. In many ways, my life, my responsibilities, and that which was expected of me was easier as an unbeliever. In fact I even have to study and think more than I once did.
I won't pretend I'm not infinitely happier and more content today - but that has nothing to do with life being "easier" or more "comfortable."
Anyway, hoping this message finds you and yours well, I remain...
- SEAGOON
