Let’s say I want to worship the true god. Can someone recommend a religion that will facilitate this?
In the recommendation of your specific religion and deity, can you please cover the following questions:
1. Can your god speak to me directly, without human intervention (books, preaching, your response to this thread etc.)?
2. Would your god allow me to test his/her its divinity by performing repeatable, testable supernatural acts so that I can identify its
truthfulness; or would that not be allowed?
3. What advantage does your god impart on his worshipers in this reality and time, that can only be experienced by worshiping
him/her it, and not by natural means?
4. Did you yourself consider such questions or criteria as mentioned here when deciding which god to worship, or did it just start with
belief?
Thank you in advance.
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@Fallen
Let me be the first to attempt this one, as I find it to be a very interesting question. I will address it from the Orthodox Christian POV.
"1. Can your god speak to me directly, without human intervention (books, preaching, your response to this thread etc.)?"
Yes. There are many examples of humans like you and I communicating with God. I assume you are looking for examples outside the Bible, so I will ignore the countless examples there. When you read about the lives of the Saints in Christianity, there are detailed accounts of communication. Here is one: While Saint Anthony the Great was residing in a cave, the devil came to him with temptation. He was badly injured but did not transgress. As he laid on the ground in the cave, he exclaimed to God, “Where have You been, O Merciful Jesus? Why didn’t You appear from the very beginning to end my pain?” And God replied to him, “I was here, Anthony, but wanted to see your struggle. Now, since you have not yielded, I shall always help you and make your name known throughout all the world.” And Anthony recalls that immediately after the Lord spoke to Him, his wounds were healed and he was able to stand.
"2. Would your god allow me to test his/her its divinity by performing repeatable, testable supernatural acts so that I can identify its
truthfulness; or would that not be allowed?"
I'm not quite sure what you mean by this, but I will take it as men performing unnatural acts of wonder. There are also examples of men performing feats that are unexplained by science. What we admit though, is that all of these acts are only possible through God. Meaning, God grants us the power to do these things, and without Him, we could not. Again, avoiding the Biblical passages (like Moses parting the Red Sea) there are Saints that have done miraculous things (actually a criteria for Sainthood). Here is one example from the life of St. Simon the Tanner. The story says that there was a disagreement between a religious authority and the non-Christian Egyptian leader, who loved to debate Christians. He quoted a line from the Gospel of Matthew 17:20, "He [the Lord] replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” The Egyptian leader followed the quote with "If this is in your bible, then prove it is true." So (through a vision) the Christian authority brought St. Simon to the site, and after praying and doing the sign of the Cross, the mountain lifted, in front of all who were present. This is interesting, because we have to recognize through humility, that we all have very little faith. We do believe though, if we were as pious and believed as the Saint's did, that we could literally move mountains too. Similar, I'm sure, to the ability that Adam and Eve had while in the Garden.
There are many other examples similar too this one.
"3. What advantage does your god impart on his worshipers in this reality and time, that can only be experienced by worshiping
him/her it, and not by natural means?"
See number 2. Another example is through the life of Saint John of Kronstadt. While writing about his life he recalled once, it was evening, when everyone had already gone to bed. “I could not sleep; I still failed to understand anything I was taught. I still read poorly and could not remember anything of what I was told. I became so depressed I fell to my knees and prayed. I don’t know whether I had spent a long time in that position or not, but suddenly something shook my whole being. It was like a veil had fallen from my eyes, it was as if my mind had been opened up, and I remembered clearly my teacher of that day and the lesson he was teaching; I also recalled what he had talked about and understood what he meant. I felt so light and joyous inside.” After this experience he did so well he became one of the first in his class to be chosen to go to seminary and after seminary to the Theological Academy in St. Petersburg (a great honor at that time).
"4. Did you yourself consider such questions or criteria as mentioned here when deciding which god to worship, or did it just start
with belief?"
Honestly, not directly. I did have many conversations with my wife and her family and their priests about the subject. They were able to satisfy all of my questions. Now I hold belief and faith as placeholders for what I do not yet know.
"And Anthony recalls that immediately after the Lord spoke to Him, his wounds were healed and he was able to stand.".
I'm just glad Anthony didn't suffer any amputations. For some reason, the almighty consistently refuses to attach new limbs.
Hello,
Rather than directly respond to your points, might I suggest an analogy to demonstrate how I believe this line of inquiry comes from a wrong approach. Food for thought.
I'm Canadian, we're kind of big on hockey here. The NHL is the premium league for ice hockey, at least in America. They are the organization that knows and defines what professional ice hockey looks like and how it is to be played. They determine and set the rules, regulations, parameters, standards, etc.
Now imagine someone who knows nothing about hockey or the NHL. They decide that they want to be a professional hockey player but with no one to teach them and no reference point. The only reference point they have is their own mind and personal reasoning. And so they start out to build their their own sports "stage" and define their own rules while stamping the "NHL" brand across their efforts.
You can theorize all you want and attempt to build your own arena, but you'll never arrive. Or you can go to an actual NHL arena and see what real hockey looks like. If you are humble and open enough to be taught, you'll be able to learn how to play.
Which arena you go to is another point of discussion.
This is Rickdiculous.
"Now imagine someone who knows nothing about hockey or the NHL. They decide that they want to be a professional hockey player but with no one to teach them and no reference point."
If I know nothing about hockey or the NHL, how can I decide I want to be a professional hockey player? I don't even need to read the rest, your analogy fails here. But I like your next statement:
"The only reference point they have is their own mind and personal reasoning. And so they start out to build their their own sports..."
Absolutely agree. If all I have is my own mind and reasoning, I will create my own game. Of course I can't be playing alone, so I will make sure everyone starts playing it. I will also say that if you play this game, your children also have to play the same game, if not, then horrible things will happen to them. If there is another guy who created his own game, I will tell my game players to either bring in or eliminate the other game players so that my game survives. I won't be here forever, so to ensure my game continues, I will write a book about the game with all these rules in place and game players have to strictly obey to this, else again, horrible things will happen to them.
This game is starting to sound a lot like religion..
Hi Quantum,
I went to the arena for over 55 years. One day I started to look at its structure and I realized that it was a house of cards that quickly and completely collapsed.