I think I can see why you are not understanding what I am trying to say...and I apologise for not being able to say what I am thinking clearly.
No need to apologize. I understand what you are saying. I am not certain of what it has to do with what I said, is all.
OTWO, I know what confirmatin bias is, and of course I am willing to be wrong. Takes a lot to make me sure of something, and even then I am open to something changing, or adding to the growth of, my understanding. May I ask how you were sure you weren't engaging in confirmatin bias. Because I tend to see the same thing in even the atheists here. Something causes them to discard or lose their faith; then everything that comes after shores that decision up as the correct one.
Twitch, love that quote too. Goes with 'the wise man knows that he knows nothing'. (which tends to make very few people on jwn wise,lol)
Fernando - thank you.
mP - thank you as well. I am not the one who said that someone dying for their belief was evidence of the belief being true, though. It is just evidence that THEY believed in it enough to die for it.
Passwordprotected - thank you for replying. Please note that I did not ever say that I could prove there is a God. People offer evidence for things that they see, for their opinion, for their conclusions, in every day life that is not proof. It is then up to the other person to weigh that evidence for themselves (unless it IS proof, in which case no weighing is necessary; just acceptance)
Tec - like I once did - wants to believe there was this all powerful, sovereign being who created the universe and has a "plan and a purpose" for his/her life, and that this God was best represented in a man, his son, Jesus Christ.
It really has nothing to do with 'wanting' to believe. I simply cannot dismiss the evidence that I see. I am at this place in my faith because there is, quite simply, no other place that I can be. Not unless I ignore what I have seen, heard, and understood. I realize that my testimony is not enough to be proof to others, nor should it be. No one else's testimony was ever enough to be proof for me. I had to know for myself.
Not all believers hear or helieve such things.
True. But not all have the same strength or weakness... so also not the same gift. It is described as a body with different members, because people are so different. So are those who might approach Christ, themselves, after hearing the testimony. I also think that some hear and just don't realize... however, their understanding is the same as someone else who does profess to hear, so perhaps they listen without knowing it, or perhaps they simply have the same spirit so as TO understand. People also tend to believe as they are told, unless they manage to become truly free people. Some believe that Jesus is dead, and accept only in theory that He is alive... because it is not emphasized that He is alive; that he can and does speak, knock, call... except in theory. Some teach that He does not speak altogether, that hearing voices (even though it is a voice, and not actually audible) is demons or mental illness. So there is fear associate with hearing, and we tend to shrink back from something that causes us fear.
The above tends to boil down to faith. No faith, no hearing any call. And there is a difference between faith and belief.
Belief is something that you can choose or discard, and it does not necessarily mean that you are certain in anything. Faith, however, is a knowing. It is more than belief. It is stronger than belief. To help illustrate this point, think about faith in someone (your mother) for a moment. You don't believe you have a mother. You know you have a mother. This is a given. Faith IN your mother is more along the lines of trusting that she is who she says she is; and that she will keep the promises that she has made, do the things she says she will do. You trust her. That is faith In your mother.
Same with faith in Christ. It isn't... I believe He is real. Knowing he is real and alive is a given, same as knowing your mother is real and alive. The faith IN Christ comes in trusting Him... that He is as He said, that He will do as He has said, that He will keep his promises, etc.
Peace,
tammy