tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post5868990479302100798..comments2024-01-12T04:58:49.069-05:00Comments on Kyrie, Eleison!: Atheism?Anastasia Theodoridishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16092531121989260111noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-51236851876907624312008-06-08T15:03:00.000-04:002008-06-08T15:03:00.000-04:00Samuel SkinnerAnd yet noone bothered to write down...Samuel Skinner<BR/>And yet noone bothered to write down what happen except his disciples...<BR/><BR/>Seriously- you think, I don't know... raising the dead in Jerusalem wouldn't have attracted attention?<BR/><BR/>According to the Gospel of Matthew, after Jesus's resurrection, many of the dead saints came out of their tombs and entered Jerusalem, where they appeared to many.<BR/>-wiki<BR/><BR/>Nothing was ever heard from them again. No mention, no record, nothing. Seriously- makes no sense unless it is false.<BR/><BR/>I don't care if God is evil or mean- only if he exists. <BR/><BR/>If he exists and is mean you get this<BR/>http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Warhammer40000Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-18146121821559540042008-06-06T11:18:00.000-04:002008-06-06T11:18:00.000-04:00Thank you, Samuel, for your comment. I wonder if ...Thank you, Samuel, for your comment. I wonder if you'd kindly gratify my curiosity by also posting a response to my earlier post, "Try This on for Size" found at http://anastasias-corner.blogspot.com/2008/05/try-this-on-for-size.html .<BR/><BR/>Also, another blogger earlier this week wrote in her blog that the atheists with whom she has spoken say one of their main complaints against "God" as they understand that word, is that He is so MEAN! Do you agree with that?Anastasia Theodoridishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16092531121989260111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-87179941368667415982008-06-05T15:06:00.000-04:002008-06-05T15:06:00.000-04:00Logical incongruity, anonymous atheist? The fact i...Logical incongruity, anonymous atheist? The fact is that people DID swarm from everywhere to see Jesus and experience his miracles first hand. This is recounted numerous times in the Gospels. And this was not "the world today". It isn't as if there was internet or television to spread the stories quickly, and His ministry only lasted three years. It took months, if not years, for news to travel very far. Yet he fed 5000 MEN (they weren't counting women and children) in one miracle, and in another story he had to get in a boat out in the water to escape the huge throngs of people there to see Him. I find nothing incongruous about this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-66623520629457364422008-06-05T12:08:00.000-04:002008-06-05T12:08:00.000-04:00Samuel SkinnerPersonally I view as a case of where...Samuel Skinner<BR/>Personally I view as a case of where the author didn't think out what they where writing. Why? Because if you look at the world today, people swarm around self described prophets and holy men. Our sources about classical times show they exhibited the same behavior. <BR/><BR/>Given that, any actual miracle worker would have been inundated with people all across the empire. The people of Roman times may have been a little less... humane, but they were no less human. I mean, if you have a man who brings back the dead... you could get your kids back. You husband, your wife, your parents... it would be worth it to travel across the empire just for that chance.<BR/><BR/>You don't see that. People don't react the way they would if Jesus performed the miracles he is supposed to.<BR/><BR/>Yeah, logical incongruity is one of the reasons I am an atheist.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-78566600434987427802008-06-05T10:42:00.000-04:002008-06-05T10:42:00.000-04:00Hi Anastasia!Regarding your comment (copied and pa...Hi Anastasia!<BR/><BR/>Regarding your comment (copied and pasted below this message):<BR/><BR/>I've often thought about the distinction in 2-D paintings between figure and ground. It seems to me that some people tend to know the Lord more as figure, and others know Him more as ground. Not that it's cut-and-dried. What do you think?<BR/><BR/>Blessings,<BR/>anonymousgodblogger<BR/><BR/>Your comment:<BR/>There are indeed many who have come to believe in God because of some voice or vision, such as St. Paul received on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). There are many others, however, who have never undergone particular experi¬ences of this type, but why can yet affirm that, present throughout their life as a whole, there is a total experience of the living God, a conviction existing on a level more fundamental than all their doubts. Even though they cannot point to a precise place or momentAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-7155549937822913742008-06-04T13:27:00.000-04:002008-06-04T13:27:00.000-04:00Yup.And then there's this important point from Bis...Yup.<BR/><BR/>And then there's this important point from Bishop Kallistos, in The Orthodox Way:<BR/><BR/><I>A distinction, however, needs here to be made between ‘experience’ and ‘experiences’. Direct experience can exist without necessarily being accompanied by specific experiences. There are indeed many who have come to believe in God because of some voice or vision, such as St. Paul received on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9). There are many others, however, who have never undergone particular experi¬ences of this type, but why can yet affirm that, present throughout their life as a whole, there is a total experience of the living God, a conviction existing on a level more fundamental than all their doubts. Even though they cannot point to a precise place or moment in the way that St. Augustine, Pascal or Wesley could, they can claim with confidence: I know God personally. </I>Anastasia Theodoridishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16092531121989260111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-59695752032061052532008-06-04T11:41:00.000-04:002008-06-04T11:41:00.000-04:00Good point. There is no one size fits all approac...Good point. There is no one size fits all approach to the way the Holy Spirit grabs our attention. The intellectual approach certainly played no small role in my journey to Orthodoxy.Dixiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08511317203353075644noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-5775227591937391492008-06-04T11:34:00.000-04:002008-06-04T11:34:00.000-04:00Agreed, but remember that the living encounter may...Agreed, but remember that the living encounter may not even be sought after or entertained as a possibility for many unless the intellectual arguments against it have been at least somewhat dispelled. As in Chris' remark the other day about C.S. Lewis and his writing, if that's what it takes to get someone to pause in their wrong thinking long enough to see the POSSIBILITY of something else, and perhaps even the LOGIC of something else exisiting, then it is a seed planted for God to water. That's how it happened for me. I was not met on the road to Damascus and did not encountere a burning bush, and few of us are that lucky. It's when someone or something is able to turn down the other noises in our heads that we might hear Jesus knocking and start thinking about opening the door and meeting Him there.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6546468339418636140.post-36612542106289730052008-06-04T08:29:00.000-04:002008-06-04T08:29:00.000-04:00One of the reasons I think these kinds of "proofs"...One of the reasons I think these kinds of "proofs" are so popular is the whole protestant approach to "missions". Mission is more about telling and less or not at all about showing.<BR/><BR/>I have written before about my sister-in-law who ran into a neighbor at the grocery store. They both exchanged the news that they had been on a mission trip recently. My sister-in-law (a Roman Catholic) told her neighbor how she worked at an orphanage in Jamaica with severely disabled children and adults...the rejects of society. No electricity, no hot running water. They all participated together in the prayer and worship life of the community. Her neighbor (a Baptist) told her about her trip through Europe on an air conditioned bus with a DVD player. Each night they would hold tent revivals and she "saved" over 300 people. <BR/><BR/>It's a whole different mindset...the intellectualized argument verses an ontological reality and experience.<BR/><BR/>But...don't get me wrong. I don't want to discredit the protestants for working so hard at the way they know to work. We have a lovely young Russian mother in our parish who got her first Bible in Russia from protestants. The point is, as in everything Orthodox, there is more than just intellect involved. <BR/><BR/>So...the coldness you feel is like light without heat.Dixiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08511317203353075644noreply@blogger.com