Note to Reader:
While I often incorporate biblical scripture in my writing, for the most part, I sneak it in. I say that because whether you realize it or not it is in there, to be perfectly honest I just don't often site its source.
You may be asking why, or if doing so is my attempt at some sort of trickery.
Fair enough, but quite simply the answer is no, it's not.
The actual reason that I do this is so that any bias that may otherwise be extended against it, solely by virtue of its source, will be removed from the equation and it might then be considered simply for the profoundness of truth it contains.
All that said however, because of the nature of the subject matter herein, I have not extended you, the reader, that luxury this time.
This time I feel you should know quite clearly, where it is I'm coming from.
Enjoy, or don't, whatever.
d(-_-)b
So, to those who have asked in the past and to those who will undoubtedly ask in the future, please...
Stop asking me questions whose answers you clearly have no desire to hear or reasonably consider except perhaps in an attempt at some sort of "clever" rebuttal in the hopes that you may trip me up or show me my folly.
I welcome sincerity in earnest inquiry, to even the most perplexing of questioning, but without that sincerity behind it, it feels pointless.
Like I'm simply being baited into wasting my time entertaining futility for your amusement.
If you cannot, will not, consider the responses I provide as even potentially valid, even if you aren't convinced, I'm not sure how you believe that I should or could extend the same courtesy to yours.
It is a double standard that I should not be subjected to.
You're wasting your time, and you're wasting mine.
In other words...
Stop asking me for tangible "scientific" evidence of the truth, the God, in which I have faith, as though you truly thought it provable in such a manner. The evidence you claim to seek, by design (in my opinion) will not be found in the manner or the means by which you are seeking it.
Please, don't get me wrong here, allow me to restate:
I don't think the questions that are being asked, to me of God are wrong, but the intent and the way in which they are being asked clearly is.
Not to mention that I am not God, the author of truth, I simply bare witness of it. Sorry if this disappoints you, but the reality is I may not in fact have all the answers for even the most sincere of questions that may come my way.
I would never claim to. I will answer for you that which I can, but that is probably very little, and you in fact may have more to offer me at times.
Faith was once described to me as a process, not a product. I believe that to be true, that said, I too am in that very process.
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7)
When you seek the answer, then ask the question.
I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me. (Proverbs 8:17)
Until then however the questions you ask to which no answer will suffice that satisfies your liking, then serve simply as a mockery to that which I hold dear.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked,
for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to
his own flesh will from the flesh reap
corruption,
but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap
eternal life. (Galatians 6:7-8) Faith: from Anglo-French feid , from Latin fidēs
trust, confidence
That is the nature of faith.
Trust
Confidence
Asking me for the answers to many of these questions is about like explaining to a man with no legs what is to walk, or to a deaf man what it is to hear. It means very little to those who are unable to, and even less to those who are unwilling to experience it. So faith too must often be experienced personally to be understood fully.
It is a process.
I believe that the kind of truth I am speaking of is meant to instill change in us by our conformity to it, for by its very nature will remain unchanged, and will not be conformed to us whose minds change with the wind.
It is the truth.
Regardless of our response to it, or our perceptions of it through our limited experiences, the actuality of that truth remains as it always was and always will be. It in no way needs the approval of any man, nor does it seek such.
Simply put...
God is God. It is, what it is.
No more, no less, unchanging to either our discontent or difficulty in accepting it rectifying it with our own sense of fairness.
As it is written:
The LORD Almighty has sworn, "Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand.
(Isaiah 14:24)
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
(Isaiah 55:9) I will say to you this however in regard to evidence:
While I believe that the evidence of my faith will be seen in my life, I also see that it's validity is in large part very plainly evidenced by the very absence of it in the lives those who (for whatever reason) have chosen to disbelieve it.
No disrespect, just calling it like I see it.
I will close with this story which addresses very plainly the type of evidence you seem so to desire so desperately:
Luke 16:19-31, The Rich Man and Lazarus
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
So he called to him,
‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
“But Abraham replied,
‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
“He answered,
‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
“Abraham replied,
‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
“‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
“He said to him,
‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets,
they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”
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Think about it.
Please.
Think about it like something very big depended on it.
d(-_-)b
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You know you want to, so say it already...no one's going to be offended.