First off how dare you assume you know how I think! I do know how serious my statement is, what the ramification are and how I arrived at that conclusion.

No offence taken at all Zoo.....it's a really good question, and in fact if your assumptions were true or accurately communicated people's experience with God, it would be kind of unbelievable that they would be so devout. 

Of course, the other possibility is that people to "hear" God and "see" God.  Honestly, I think this is a much more likely possibility because, often when folks are indicating such experiences, there is transformation in their lives that accompanies their "witness".  But, since I think speaking in generalities can be difficult, the one specific life I can talk about is my own.

When I was a young person, I was seriously addicted to hard drugs and had been for a long time.  I went to several drug rehabs and was in and out of locked wards of all kinds.  At 22 I was considered "a lost cause", but in a very unusual way, I heard God and took a risk that God was actually there and knew me.  In short, I got healed of heroin addiction. When I say healed, I mean Friday I was a junkie with a sizeable habit and Saturday I was not. I did not go to a church service, no one prayed for me,.  There was nothing "religious" externally but it was a loud enough statement to me, personally, from God that it began our relationship.

That was 25 years ago.  It wasn't like I believed completely right from the get go, but little by little, when faced with decisions, I tried to trust God and our relationship grew.  There have been many amazing happenings over the years and though I have had trouble and disappointments, I have always sensed God with me.

This is the bedrock of my faith because God did for me what I could not do for myself.  I owe my life to this intervention, and the life of my oldest child, as I was pregnant with her at the end of my addiction.  This is why I know there is a God.

JOA

ps

I have never relapsed

I agree 100% Elie. Religion is man-made, nothing more. No religion has it all right no matter how much it's followers believe it does. As a matter of fact I believe they've got more wrong than right.

I recently started going back to church, but thru out the many years I didn't go, I never stopped believing in God. I have to be honest and say I have yet to get use to this church, I was born and raise Catholic so it's not easy to get use to a different church (Baptist) but it's not that bad. But it has always been my belief that regardless whether I go to church or not, I will always believe in God and believe I will have my place in Heaven if I earn it.

Interesting question. But then the same can be said about one's girlfriend or boyfriend. How does one love someone one just met? A person you know little or nothing at all yet in a short amount of time one can believe they are everything we evre dreamed of. Sure, a boyfriend or girlfriend is not like God, we get to see and hear them and even touch them. But love can manifest itself as if you have known this person all your life.

In my case, I have hadenough experiences in life to believe in God. I can't help but being a see to believe kinda person, I was created that way, so naturally I had to be shown to believe and man, do I believe.

I dont know how anyone thinks MM, i am mearly saying that i think none of us, especially nowadays, can really approach the true meaning of the statement "I love God". If you are the exception, then you really achieved something remarkable and great. That of course is possible, nothing is impossible when it comes to God and his gifts to us. 

The reason i included you with the rest of "us" was your statement that "I find all Religion an anthema" ... but there is the religion of God... I agree with you that humans distorted His religion in many ways but it is still there.

Good Morning Everyone,

MM, thank you for this article and, Zoo, for that question.  And thank you, as well, Leauki, for your question. How do we "know" anything?  Epistemological questions are one thing when directed at the empirical world, but a wholly other when directed at the metaphysical or religious worlds. 

Some of would say that our experiences in the world can be held as empirical evidence of God.  When we say this, however, we are still left with the epistemological question of how do we know the "evidence" is "of God"? Or, the "truth" of any one religion.

I take the position of symbolic interactionism.  I believe that we are subjective creatures who create our worlds through symbols and the interaction of symbols between and within groups. This is a phenomenological approach which denies empiricism of its ground.

I do not believe, therefore, that empirical evidence as such, is possible.  We know what we "think" we know, but that knowledge is always limited to our own conceptual frame of reference and the symbols we use.

It is therefore possible to have multiple truths.

I do believe it is possible to "know" God or "the Infinite" however.  But this "knowing" is intuitive and experiential: as soon as we create a thought or word about it, we have actually lost it. Zen practice is all about this: we practice to stop using our mind's eye to see and instead experience directly the universe as it is prior to knowledge.

Be well.

That was my point in saying that regardless of which religion you believe in, it is all essentially the same  ... and they all lead to the same God. So arguing about which one is the true God is really meaningless. All religions essentially say the same thing ... the only difference is "who" that God is. and to that i said He will be the judge of that ... we have no say to each other about it... He (whoever He is) will judge us all about that ... so why should we argue about something that WE can not settle ourselves?

Anyone who believes in something regarding "faith" thinks that they "Know" it is the true one ... you are right to a degree in that every believer have some doubt every once in a while ... that is the nature of things in this life ... nothing really absolute ... even "knowing" can never be absolute ...

You see that's the problem RELIGION has led to was to many times to count with people of one religion killing anyone of a different religion in the NAME OF G-D, what a joke! IF I had my way all religion wiould be banished from the planet.

all good points, the only thing I find difficult is your use of really big words. makes it hard for this poor tenth grade educated fellow to follow.

And there is the crux of the whole situation, every "RELIGION" thinks their way is THE ONLY WAY" no proof needed. they just "KNOW!"

Judaism makes such claims only about Jews.

Islam accepts and respects other monotheistic religions as true (enough).

Buddhism is very tolerant towards other faiths.

Zoroastrianism traditionally accepted any religion in the Persian empire.

Hinduism makes no claims about other people's beliefs.

Until the Romans insisted that their emperor is a god people must worship the pagan religions accepted each other and everyone followed their own god.

I think we are too used to Christianity (and modern day fanatical Islam) to appreciate that GENERALLY religions were local to specific tribes or nations and made no universal claims.

I think it is clear that we disagree on one very simple point. You think that religion IS the problem, i think PEOPLE ARE the problem.

and let's assume All religions were banished as you wish? then what? ...

You know better MM !!! people will find a way to do their miserable fights ... and if they cant find it ... i can assure you that they will invent it ...

I personally think religions are keeping those fights to a minimum !!!

At least no one can deny that religions are giving all of us very similar codes of morality ... can you imagine what kind of mess we would have if every group invented their own code????