Comments on: Do We Really Believe in God?

By: Joseph A.

Joseph A. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:28:35 +0000

Just piping up to second the response to the ‘why grieve over the departed?’ question. Likening death to a vacation in the Christian worldview is a gross oversimplification for the reasons stated and more. Imagine a loved one going on an exciting and pleasant space trip for 30 years. I doubt seeing that person off would be without sadness, even deep sadness, even if it were assured that after 30 years they would be back.

One thing being implied here that I reject is the idea that, if a person ever experiences doubt or confusion, they aren’t really a theist. If a person accepts the possibility, even likelihood of God, but isn’t utterly certain, are they therefore not a theist? I think this question is actually one of the largest hidden issues confronting the modern church.

By: Reconciling actions with belief « Bradley Monton’s Blog

Reconciling actions with belief « Bradley Monton’s Blog — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:47:26 +0000

[...] with belief Posted by bradleymonton under General Tom at Thinking Christian wrote a thoughtful post inspired by my previous post on whether people really believe in God. Tom picked up on this claim [...]

By: Tom Gilson

Tom Gilson — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 10:30:34 +0000

Steve, thanks for encouraging me even when you couldn’t figure out what I was saying! That was gracious of you. I’ve edited the paragraph, and I hope it makes sense now.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 06:35:02 +0000

I much agree with you, Steve. I sometimes struggle with the part about trusting in my own abilities – or worse. We’re all sinners so this kind of thing is to be expected, but certainly not to be tolerated or to get comfortable with. I expect myself to say “I don’t care about doing what God wants” every once in a while (which I sometimes do), but I’m reminded not to tolerate that kind of behavior or get to the point where I’m comfortable thinking it.

God gives grace to the humble. My job is to be humble.

By: steve martin

steve martin — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 05:16:51 +0000

The other (darker) side of this is that those of us that are Christians (philisophical theists) often act as if God deoesn’t exist or doesn’t care ie. we trust in our own ability to make decisions & to care for our families. In other words, we may not be philisophical atheists but for all intents and purposes, we are practical atheists.

By: SteveK

SteveK — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 04:50:26 +0000

Beautiful post, Tom. I have one issue though…for the life of me I can’t figure out the context of the final paragraph.

So this question is not so hard to answer from a Christian perspective at all. Had he just stopped after that one clause, he would have had his finger pointed at the really tough one, the one that continually concerns me more than all the logical questions that have ever been thrown at me.

Which question? Who is ‘he’ and what clause are you referring to? What is the ‘tough one’?