Slimboyfat— Some reasons people have for believing in God in the first place include: 1) the fact that anything exists at all rather than nothing 2) personal experiences or encounters with the divine ....
It would be wrong to ignore this thought, slim. It very likely is root and branch where the idea of god arose in the first place —with rigid theologies soon to follow.
Many of us have had experiences so compelling that we are forced bear witness that they did indeed occur even if we are loathe to admit it. If it were universal and normal experience then others wouldn’t be suspicious of our mental state and our motive.
Some weeks ago there was a thread that invited us to share our experiences of the supernatural. (For obvious reasons this applies to your second point for why folks might believe in god. ) It drew a lot of stories...and a few critics.
What am l wallering around is the notion that when we elevate these strange encounters and make them a point of theology we do harm. To call these events an encounter with the divine can be harmful. Framing the tale to prove or disprove god might give hope to some but often inflicts a great deal of pain for those l not similarly “blessed”.
There would be no stigma attached to simply recounting strange happenings if religion and theology didn’t demand to co-opt our story. It would be delightful if we could learn to tell our stories without having to fit it inyo another’s moral framework
We could if the theologians let us alone. And if science would not judge us either.
But we too are at fault . We have to let go of the need to force others to believe along with us. After all, what is divine anyway?
The effort to “true up” all these stories and theologies is unending. Your point #2 is where we should let the mystery be .