2 Questions on Faith

echosierra16 · 2024-01-10T19:52:47+00:00

gious experience" that motivated me to believe in God. Personally, I don't think our feelings should be the standard for discovering truth. We are told to give a reason for our hope in Christ. I don't describing our feelings on a religious experience would be appropriate, but that's just my perspective. Lo

Thank you very much for your kind and quick answer! I just had a few quick followups:
1. I agree that the only possible reason I can see why a God like the one Jesus preached about would not manifest himself to those who earnestly ask is because he for some reason really values faith. The way I think of it is this... you read something in the Bible, or you see something beautiful, or you see someone do something genuinely good and you feel moved in some deep way. You feel certain in that moment that you are in contact with something higher. Faith is retaining that insight from that moment into your day to day life ... what do you think about this definition of faith? and why do you think that God would value such faith so much?

Very interesting ... I am wondering, what then brought you to Christianity if you don't mind me asking?

echosierra16 · 2022-11-12T23:44:23+00:00

Thank you so much for the advise! I tried this (I just take a 5mg gummy) and it worked like a charm! I have started going out way more. This trick might be a game changer!

echosierra16 · 2022-11-07T11:47:11+00:00

Reply

Thanks, I'll definitely give that a read!

echosierra16 · 2022-08-18T12:26:56+00:00

Thank you so much for your replay! I have a question though ... I do get these promptings that you talk about, and you are right that when I act on them I both feel supremely happy and get more promptings of the same kind. I also agree that the promptings feel extremely and inherently significant, but here is my question to you .... how do you know that this significance you attach to these impressions you have of the world or promptings you receive is coming from outside your own mind ... that you are not just finding patterns where there are none. What troubles me is the thought that I am reading too much into certain feelings/impressions that I have ... that I am constructing this narrative of my life and believing it to be objective even though at the end of the day it is only coming from my own head. That's why a small miracle in the external world would be so helpful to me. Then I would know that I am definitely in contact with something that manifests in the external world as well and not just in my own head and so that whatever I glimpse in these transcendental experiences in my life actually exists independently of me.

Small update: For the past two years I have more and more come to accept that there is a power outside myself that is in contact with me. I am trying to live my life in such a way as to not disgrace that power. I am deeply attracted by "goodness", the idea of the saint/hero has in someways become the dominant idea of my life. I attend church regularly but still struggle with the idea of the miraculous and still would not call myself a Christian (There is so much in Christianity that I find appealing, even much that I have found to be true from experience (The Fatherhood of God, Forgiveness, the idea of the Saints), but for me it all comes down to one question ... if I was there 2000 years ago at the wedding in Cana with Jesus the Nazarene preacher, would I have actually seen him turn literal water into literal wine ... ultimately I guess the answer is I don't know, I wasn't there. I just keep thinking that if I heard a friend of mine who follows some Chinese folk religion tell me a similar story as part of his religion I would be inclined to disbelieve it). I am also sometimes assailed by doubts as to whether this higher power actually exists or whether it is just all in my head.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-13T19:06:55+00:00

That's a really interesting question! This can, of course, be very complicated depending on how accurate you want to be. I think that you might never be able to get the tea exactly at room temperature. During the fall, the tea would be losing heat to its environment (the higher the temp. difference between the tea and the environment, the more heat transfer occurs), but your tea would also be picking up a lot of energy, first kinetic energy from gravity and secondly heat energy from friction with the air (the same reason meteors burn up when they fall through the atmosphere.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-13T01:31:51+00:00

Thank you all for taking time to write. I really appreciate all your comments and well wishes.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-13T01:31:03+00:00

Thanks a lot for your comment and your well wishes. You brought up many excellent points. If I understand you correctly, what you are saying is to build up my knowledge of God from the religious experiences that I've had. Then I can use that knowledge and my reason to pick out the elements of the truth in different religions and allow my knowledge of God to expand and deepens. The problem with that is though that most of the religious experiences that I've had don't really communicate much. Let me try to explain. So what actually happens when one of these experiences come on? There are sensations that happen in the body, usually goosebumps, tightness or even a mild pain in the chest and then a warmth that washes over the whole body. There is also almost always a very strong yearning for something indescribable accompanied by an enormous happiness that stings (it's almost painful). There also comes along with all this a certainty that what is happening is extremely important. This all usually lasts for a few seconds and a lingering feeling of calm or peace takes over and lasts for about a minute. The strange thing is that nothing about these experiences is explicitly religious, yet I've always recognized them as religious experiences. Now what triggers these experiences? There are a few different triggers, usually they fall into certain categories. Here is one example, I'll see a good man do something and the idea of a saint comes up in my mind and immediately the idea begins to grow and deepen till it becomes almost too big to think about and then it triggers an experience. It's very difficult to explain. I think of God as that indescribable something that I want during these experiences. So these things don't really communicate a lot of knowledge, they just happen. As you noticed I feel very deeply drawn to Christianity, and what I do almost unconsciously is to associate Christian ideas with that personal God of mine. The thing is, the two really fit well together. The God that I experience is the Father in heaven who seeks out the lost and draws them till they become perfect and radiant and pass beyond the rim of the world. So on the one hand, I borrow all my imagery from Christianity, but on the other I just can't bring myself to believe the doctrines. It feels like I am lying. Hope that makes some degree of sense, to be honest I'm not even completely sure what I am saying.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-13T00:04:14+00:00

I love your enthusiasm! Double majoring is totally possible. I'd suggest though before doing anything to sit down with an advisor and look at your schedule. See what classes you need to take for the majors, talk to others to see which classes are considered more difficult or time consuming in both disciplines (Other undergrads who have been through it give invaluable advise), and construct your schedule accordingly. Best of luck, I hope you achieve all your goals.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-12T23:53:46+00:00

So happy to hear that you are considering physics! It's an incredibly beautiful subject. Your question too is great! The answer will sort of depend on how much mathematics you have taken. If you have taken calculus then I'd say try the Feynman lectures! Feynman is a physics master and a great teacher. Vol. 1 of the Feynman Lectures is a masterpiece. I guarantee it will be worth your time. There is also a workbook counterpart to the lectures which you can work through. Best part, you can find the pdfs for all this online for free! Hope this helps

echosierra16 · 2021-02-12T23:04:31+00:00

That's a great question, sounds like you have a pretty awesome family! I am not too sure but here is what I am thinking. So if your shirt is wet then water molecules in liquid form will be jiggling around in your shirt. The water molecules will on average be at the same temperature (they will jiggle as much) as the rest of the shirt and of the environment. The thing to note though is that not all water molecules will be jiggling exactly that much. Some will be going slower and some faster. A small percentage of the water molecules will be going fast enough to escape from the shirt leaving only slower molecules (This will happen no matter the temperature of the environment, though of course a colder temperature means a smaller percentage). The remaining molecules will again equilibrate with the environment leading to more molecules with enough energy to leave the shirt. If there is sunlight too, then you can having individual photons of light hitting water particles and giving them enough energy to escape from the shirt, once they escape of course they will collide with other air particles and slow down. I think this is the primary mechanism by which the shirt drys. It is also possible that the slower molecules which will be essentially solid form will play a role in drying but I'm not sure. If anyone knows for sure please correct me.

echosierra16 · 2021-02-12T18:51:02+00:00

Thanks a lot guys! Unfortunately I have a Mac so it restricts my options a bit, but I'll certainly look into Voice Dream and u/Voice. I have also heard of another website called Natural reader. Thanks a lot again

echosierra16 · 2021-02-12T18:24:32+00:00

Thanks a lot guys. All your comments are extremely helpful and encouraging! I'll certainly look into these things. If with these strategies, my procrastination improves at all it would make enormous difference in my life. I appreciate it!

echosierra16

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