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Oh whatever. 
ANYWAY I know you're joking pokey...and I know you're fogged and I promise I'm not trying to get you to convert or anything just trying to help you understand Christians a little better. Sometimes I think false ideas are the biggest obstacles to people understanding Christianity, thinking it a delusion or that we are crazy rednecks. It is okay to sweat the details, especially when you're fogged.
I completely understand where you are coming from because often what people talk about Christianity isn't what is in the bible or what people practice or think. The evidence of God is in everything around us. Angels don't have wings and you don't have to accept anything to be a Christian except that Christ is God in the flesh. Spirits walking on streets? We won't be spirits we will have bodies...Christians don't believe half of the stuff you're saying unless they are a social Christian which is kinda like that Norway bomber guy. It has nothing to do with the actual religion or what it teaches; it's a misconception. We can't keep pretending that any of that stuff makes Christianity false.
It is written that Jesus performed miracles. Just looking back on history and how it is gathered you can make a decision on if the bible is credible. Jesus was an actual person who lived in Judea and it is acknowleged in historical writings from Christian, jews and pagans. He was put to death and after his death we was worshiped by men because he had performed miracles throughout his life. They have been written down in the first generation of people who saw them. Again, understanding human behavior and motivation we know that the people who wrote this and people that switched religions to worship Christ, their OWN religion before would forbid lying and to make a false witness. They wouldn't get any money or honor; why would they do it? People died for it. Do people die for a lie they knew was made up or a lie they had made up themselves? Plus I understand the importance with historical proofs you have to rely on the testimony otherwise all of history collapes, really. Other types of historical proofs are accepted on no other ground but themselves.
"If men know anything with assurance, it is the facts; and of everything that falls within their knowledge, there is nothing in which it would be more difficult to deceive them and over which there would be less occasion for dispute. And thus, when one will have made them see that the Christian religion is inseparably attached to facts whose truth cannot be sincerely contested, they must submit to all that it teaches or else renounce sincerity and reason"
So...after thinking about it you should be able to determine that neither lack of direct access to the past or really neutrality can stop us from learning something about Christianity if it does not stop us from learning about other history. But really, those were not my initial assumptions either so I'm not sure that is the right road to go down in attempting to explain. You do not have to accept it as infallible or anything just keep an open mind; change perspective. Christianity isn't about the inches that fell in the flood or how long a man spent in a fish stomach. The bible describes a very real God because of the way it's revealed. All of those authors over all of those years come together and make sense when looking at the big picture of man's struggle with our nature, God's nature, and the final solution to our selfishness.
The miracles...I understand that it would be difficult for many people to accept Christianity because of the problem with the miracles. It's hard to go into this because to even start here I (personally) presuppose the existence of God. If God exists miracles are not really that incredible. However, all of this has been argued and written over the centuries. You are not the first person to think this, this was argued back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. If you're interested you should look into theologian Jean Le Clerc, philosopher-theologian Samuel Clarke..there's more..it would take me hours to type it all up...and I don't have that kind of time this evening. The only reason that someone would dismiss the bible only because of the miracles contained in them has to assume that miracles defy natural law. If you just do some digging the world might be a much more fun place than you imagine
So, I guess what I'm trying to say that I understand finding it hard to believe the miracles but once you starting thinking more about God and trying to understand him (I guess) they stop being a problem(at least they have for me) because for me all of that stuff came later. As far as God building us to know him, we are supposed to seek. Somewhere along the line humanity "fell" and lost touch with God. It helps by thinking God as the ultimate libertarian (because that is what he is!) He puts a "tree" there with no fence, no police, nothing to stop us and says "dont eat it". He gives us free will. He risks the destruction of everything, why? Because He values freedom.
ANYWAY I know you're joking pokey...and I know you're fogged and I promise I'm not trying to get you to convert or anything just trying to help you understand Christians a little better. Sometimes I think false ideas are the biggest obstacles to people understanding Christianity, thinking it a delusion or that we are crazy rednecks. It is okay to sweat the details, especially when you're fogged.
I completely understand where you are coming from because often what people talk about Christianity isn't what is in the bible or what people practice or think. The evidence of God is in everything around us. Angels don't have wings and you don't have to accept anything to be a Christian except that Christ is God in the flesh. Spirits walking on streets? We won't be spirits we will have bodies...Christians don't believe half of the stuff you're saying unless they are a social Christian which is kinda like that Norway bomber guy. It has nothing to do with the actual religion or what it teaches; it's a misconception. We can't keep pretending that any of that stuff makes Christianity false.
It is written that Jesus performed miracles. Just looking back on history and how it is gathered you can make a decision on if the bible is credible. Jesus was an actual person who lived in Judea and it is acknowleged in historical writings from Christian, jews and pagans. He was put to death and after his death we was worshiped by men because he had performed miracles throughout his life. They have been written down in the first generation of people who saw them. Again, understanding human behavior and motivation we know that the people who wrote this and people that switched religions to worship Christ, their OWN religion before would forbid lying and to make a false witness. They wouldn't get any money or honor; why would they do it? People died for it. Do people die for a lie they knew was made up or a lie they had made up themselves? Plus I understand the importance with historical proofs you have to rely on the testimony otherwise all of history collapes, really. Other types of historical proofs are accepted on no other ground but themselves.
"If men know anything with assurance, it is the facts; and of everything that falls within their knowledge, there is nothing in which it would be more difficult to deceive them and over which there would be less occasion for dispute. And thus, when one will have made them see that the Christian religion is inseparably attached to facts whose truth cannot be sincerely contested, they must submit to all that it teaches or else renounce sincerity and reason"
So...after thinking about it you should be able to determine that neither lack of direct access to the past or really neutrality can stop us from learning something about Christianity if it does not stop us from learning about other history. But really, those were not my initial assumptions either so I'm not sure that is the right road to go down in attempting to explain. You do not have to accept it as infallible or anything just keep an open mind; change perspective. Christianity isn't about the inches that fell in the flood or how long a man spent in a fish stomach. The bible describes a very real God because of the way it's revealed. All of those authors over all of those years come together and make sense when looking at the big picture of man's struggle with our nature, God's nature, and the final solution to our selfishness.
The miracles...I understand that it would be difficult for many people to accept Christianity because of the problem with the miracles. It's hard to go into this because to even start here I (personally) presuppose the existence of God. If God exists miracles are not really that incredible. However, all of this has been argued and written over the centuries. You are not the first person to think this, this was argued back in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. If you're interested you should look into theologian Jean Le Clerc, philosopher-theologian Samuel Clarke..there's more..it would take me hours to type it all up...and I don't have that kind of time this evening. The only reason that someone would dismiss the bible only because of the miracles contained in them has to assume that miracles defy natural law. If you just do some digging the world might be a much more fun place than you imagine
So, I guess what I'm trying to say that I understand finding it hard to believe the miracles but once you starting thinking more about God and trying to understand him (I guess) they stop being a problem(at least they have for me) because for me all of that stuff came later. As far as God building us to know him, we are supposed to seek. Somewhere along the line humanity "fell" and lost touch with God. It helps by thinking God as the ultimate libertarian (because that is what he is!) He puts a "tree" there with no fence, no police, nothing to stop us and says "dont eat it". He gives us free will. He risks the destruction of everything, why? Because He values freedom.
