One thing I am not is extremely arrogant; unfortunately, I am misled from time to time. Now, the vast majority of these threads are often nonbelievers speaking to believers. In some instances, you have a nonbeliever making bold assertions about how a believer (typically a Christian) truly "interacts" with their "flying spaghetti monster of choice". More generically, when speaking of emotional appeals by the believer, the nonbeliever will rationalize away and/or define what the experience was and wasn't while having no personal experience or perspective whatsoever with which to make such assertions. Typically it's a casual dismissal of the experience with nonchalant handwaving.
In this instance we have some form of believer (not necessarily an agnostic) that has opted for more of a "bait and switch" type approach (at least that's how it appears to me at first blush). Now admittedly, I do recall other instances outside of this board in which you have indicated some form of belief in a deity so I apologize that I have forgotten that. Still, based on this thread, you believe in some form of divine guidance in your life, but you're uncertain of what that is? You love the gospels and Christ's words, but I'm assuming then that you don't belief Christ is divine? Still, you acknowledge a believer's personal, tangible experiences with the divine as genuine, but you don't acknowledge the experience as validation for the divine nature of scripture. Simply put, I won't be able to convince you otherwise. My opinion, you need to reconcile who/what that divine being is first? Do you belief that Christ is divine...the Son of God? If you don't, we have a fundamental disconnect.
i hope you read this entire post
why are you connecting "personal, tangible experiences with the divine" with "validation for the divine nature of scripture" ??
thats the issue!!!!
do i "believe in god"?? depends on what you mean by "believe"!! because absolutely NO ONE knows if God exists or not. but i THINK god does exist.
do i love the gospels and the story of christ? no. i find the supposed teachings and life of christ to be extremely beautiful and certainly an image of God's will if there ever was one. however, the gospels are filled with horseshit (and a little wisdom here and there).
now, do i think christ is divine and the son of god? how can i even answer that when i have no idea if the man ever even actually existed!!! do you realize how dishonest it is for a person to claim such knowledge when they never even met the guy?!?!
now, when it comes to personal experiences that solidify a "belief" in God.. these are strong evidence.. BUT NOT "PROOF"! by the very nature of these experiences they are fleeting, leaving one uncertain of whether they were actually real or just imagined. you need to examine that fact and think about the nature of the god which would come to you in such a manner. would that god want you to know for certain of his existence, if when he comes to you in comes in such a form? think about it. !!!!!!
when it comes to reading the scriptures, and having personal experiences that relate to words in those books, and taking those experiences as proof of their divine nature... NO NO NO NO NO!!!.. you see.. if wisdom exists.. then when you hear it.. when you understand it.. you will recieve it as such. this is true whether it comes from the mouth of god or from the homeless guy down on the street corner. just because you read some wisdom in the scripture and then later have a divine experience which confirms the wisdom you found in the scripture, does not mean the scripture is divine but only that wisdom can be found in the scripture!!! do you see the difference!!??!!??!!??