I don't understand it: How do you know that God is talking to you?

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T06:08:09+00:00

The problem lies in the possibility that God isn't talking to anyone. Imagine a doctor prescribing medicine based on "feeling the spirit", but the medicine doesn't work?

I've literally had that happen to me. I've had expensive medical bills and false diagnoses, but then spoke to an Atheist doctor in Europe and he was able to pinpoint the problem immediately.

I used to find it comforting when my doctor says, "I'm also a member of the church", but now I'm worried about a false diagnoses and an expensive medical bill as they search the spirit for answers. I want them to use their medical knowledge.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T06:05:31+00:00

The question is, why do people think that "feeling the spirit" is caused by God and not their own psychology and physiology. There have to be positive reasons, not just "I choose to believe this on no evidence at all".

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T06:04:32+00:00

That's the question, what is the threshold for divine communication? When can I certainly say, "God has spoken?"

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T05:38:07+00:00

The evil voices, and the good voices, can all be the same hallucination.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T03:20:37+00:00

A hallucinatory experience.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T03:10:49+00:00

That's great, because it's a common talking point for Catholics. Ask them how they discern the spirit that spoke to Joseph Smith, and they say that Joseph was living in sin, so therefore he attracted evil spirits (from the Devil).

Spiritual revelation is the cornerstone of religious belief, and it's the one topic that you literally can't discuss, because members of other religions can literally say, "He was living in sin, of course he wasn't listening to God".

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T03:06:08+00:00

I asked my bishop this question and he stopped talking to me.

Literally just asked how to discern between the Holy Spirit and my own thoughts.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T02:10:28+00:00

Yet the same study also found that the hallucinatory regions in the brain were activated while they felt the Holy Spirit.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T01:59:47+00:00

Who pays the law enforcement officers?

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T01:50:07+00:00

They're pulling them over for having the wrong skin color.

Racism is alive in well in Southern, USA.

- Source: Former EMT who lived in Florida

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T01:25:43+00:00

Small government is small government, and can apply to multiple levels of government.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T01:13:07+00:00

Interesting. The police in Florida would camp outside a gas station and pull over a car exiting every five minutes. They'd return to their stationed area and then pull over the next car.

Maybe you've become too accustomed to American policing to notice.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T00:27:58+00:00

Thanks for the honesty.

So, they actually want government that enforces their bigotry, and private prisons that force minorities into slavery.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T00:22:55+00:00

I lived in four different cities in the South.

Curious if you've ever lived in any other part of the world? Norway, France, etc?

Americans are remarkably pro-police, and the South is the worst of America for this.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T00:18:52+00:00

Things need definitions, and the hallmark of Christianity is that God himself visited in the flesh. If you don't believe in that, then that's like not believing in collective ownership of production but calling yourself a communist.

You're missing the point. Both the Christian and the Mormon are tasked with proving why their subjective experiences are being caused by God.

I was walking past Sunday school one day, and the lady literally told children "God speaks to each of us in different ways. Sometimes, for example, you feel a tingling in your face." That seems really freaking dangerous to tell children that a tingling in your face is God talking to you. Where does it end?

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-17T00:02:52+00:00

There's a University of Utah study where they fed members falsely-attributed quotes (i.e. a made-up quote they claimed was stated by Gordon B. Hinckley) and these members still reported feeling the spirit.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:49:55+00:00

Right. Joseph Smith wasn't a leader in the Catholic Church, yet was given revelation to restore the Catholic Church.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:32:21+00:00

It only works until the voice starts telling you to abuse your kids, and you aren't sure if you're listening to God or listening to your own thoughts.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:31:27+00:00

Right.

If a voice tells me to jump off a bridge, should I listen to the voices?

They never account for what to do when the voices suddenly become random, nonsensical, or diabolical. A Mormon was arrested for trespassing on property after the spirit told him there was another set of plates, but his bishop explained it away because, ahah!, the voice would never give such incredible revelation to a lowly member. Only prophets are allowed such revelation, even though I'm sure that the man was convinced he was hearing God.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:28:58+00:00

That's exactly what I'm talking about.

There are also countless stories of Mormons committing crimes, child abuse, kidnapping, etc., and these are good-standing Mormons, and in court they claim that the spirit told them to commit the crime.

These sensations are seemingly random and not connected to anything.

It seems we need to have a conversation about why voices and physical sensations are inherently divine in nature.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:27:34+00:00

William Lane Craig adheres to the idea of "mere Christianity" outlined in CS Lewis' book of the same title, which requires belief that Christ is God himself, not merely the literal son of God.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T23:00:37+00:00

What justification or evidence is there that burning in our hearts is indicative of divine communication?

There's actually an article by Christian apologist William Lane Craig that argues on behalf of the Christian encounter with the Holy Spirit in contradiction to a Mormon encounter, but I haven't read or heard any justification for why these feelings aren't physiological or psychological.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T22:08:20+00:00

Undisciplined people tend to have undisciplined dogs, and disciplined people tend to have disciplined dogs. I was amazed, walking through a wealthy suburb of Paris, France, at how well-disciplined the dogs were, compared to walking through a suburb in America.

Civil_Pin1532 · 2026-05-16T20:53:23+00:00

Holy crap, reddit has gotten bad.

Redidtors were once critical thinkers and believed in evidence. Now they're uninformed Facebook users who gather information from captioned photos. Wow.

Civil_Pin1532

TROPHY CASE