The fact that we exist, and we are aware of our existence must lead to a deduction that there must be something which caused us to exist.
A qualified yes - there is a chain of causative events which led to humanity's emergence; me, personally, I hold to the possibility that this chain of prior events is infinite, but there is insufficient evidence to prove or disprove that. On the other hand, creationists (small 'c', not judging) would hold that there is a 'god' which is responsible for this creation; your own point ('the fact that we exist... must lead to the deduction that there must be something which caused us to exist') would suggest that this 'god' you'd consider our cause must have its own cause, which is not traditionally an accepted understanding of God.
The only alternative would be to presume that this universe somehow brought itself into existence from nothing.
Firstly, no, the universe could be the result of prior entirely undirected natural occurrences of which we have no or limited understanding at this time. Secondly, yes, it's possible that the entirety of our universe emerged unbidden from nothing... I'd still see that as a more likely explanation than some causeless superbeing willing us into existence.
Our ability to make such conscious deductions would appear to be unique among the living species on this earth.
Currently. In the future, who knows? And in the universe at large, with its billions upon billions of potential other homes for life?
You may try to convince yourself that this unique ability is just an unintended by-product of an evolutionary process, but I see it as God's intended gift to enable mankind to seek the truth about their existence.
You can see it thus; you have no basis for that, however. Evolution is a well-observed phenomenon, and we have an extremely well-supported explanation for it that provides an explanation for the emergence of rational intelligence that supernatural creation myths lack. There is no underlying apparent reason for reason; evolution does not require one, but an all-knowing creator does.
I am fully aware of the many varied human efforts to seek God producing many contradicting interpretations of God and His divine message.
Why? Why is an all-knowing, all-powerful creator with a specific mission for humanity so poor at communicating it? Even if you put the lack of understanding of, say, the Christian Gospel down to human arrogance or self-importance, that still fails to explain the millions upon millions of people who have died without ever having been exposed to it, either because they lived before Jesus times or outside of the influence of Christianity's expansion.
And that's without actually asking that question of how can an all-powerful, all-knowing creator convey such an allegedly important thread of information so poorly that it's so incomprehensible?
I rely on what I see to be God making Himself known to a race of people who were largely indifferent to His efforts through divine revelation to chosen individuals.
And I don't thank God for that, I thank you for that. That's you looking for the good in things, you looking for a better way to live and communicate and teach.
It is evident that human efforts alone are not capable of discovering God.
In which case, how can there be justification of punishment for those who do not as at least some Christian doctrines teach?
We need to allow God to make Himself known through divine revelations, which in essence is what the Christian bible is about.
And yet we have no control over them. Our salvation is either at the whim of an apparently capricious deity or a matter of random chance? What is the point of god creating that universe?
I know other religions claim similar divine revelations, but they are not corroborated in the same manner as the numerous witness stories quoted throughout the Christian bible.
They are pretty much exactly as corroborated; which is to say, if you already believe, you're happy to accept the claims of corroboration, and if you don't then you're as sceptical as I am about all of them.
I appreciate that this may be what it looks like from outside the Christian faith, but my own personal experiences of knowing God through prayer cannot be described in words - you would need to experience it yourself to fully understand why I and so many others are fully aware of God's presence in our lives.
There are any number of experiential circumstances that cannot be communicated. Those with synaesthesia cannot really explain how they can hear colour, or smell sounds. Schizophrenics can hear voices that they know aren't real but equally are convinced have influence
at the same time. That you may have sensory events that are beyond my comprehension or appreciation is not something I feel any need to dispute; that you determine yours are somehow different and indicative of an underlying metaphysical reality is not justified by the fact of your different sensory experience. I have dreamt of giant tomatoes trying to eat me, and the genuine terror and immediacy of that is not something that I can convey, but I don't presume that this altered state of consciousness has any underlying meaning, because I know that we fail to understand so much of how our brains work.
The Christian faith proclaims there to be three persons in one God - The Father (that which exists, and through whom all exists), The Son (God making Himself known by becoming one of us) and the Holy Spirit (God's spiritual presence on earth). There are no other divine beings but God. All else is brought into existence through God's will.
The twelve major gods of the Greek pantheon were the creations of Zeus, Zeus was the children of Titans... that god created these things doesn't preclude their being gods or demigods or otherwise supernatural. Christianity trying to imply some difference in nature between the three gods they do accept and the various other supernatural entities (the various ranks of angels, nephelim, giborim and the rest), from the outside, just doesn't hold up. You have a different ranking system of your divine entities, just as, say, the Japanese Shintoists have 'ranks', just like the Norse had the gods, and their children, and other spirits... the details change, but you have a pantheon of supernatural beings competing against each other, just as the Mesopotamians and Sumerians did before you.
I believe God has shared His creative power by bringing mankind into existence with their own gift of free will. We believe that God has also given the gift of free will to other beings beyond this universe - the angels.
That concept of free will, and the fact that it's fundamentally incompatible with the evidence of neurology and the apparent nature of time, fatally undermines at least that interpretation of Christian doctrine.
But in sharing this precious gift, God has allowed the existence of will which is not His own - hence the existence of evil. This is a very big subject which I can't elaborate on within the limitations of this forum, but there are a wealth of books written on the subject.
And yet what constitutes 'evil' is as poorly defined as any of the rest of it. Adam and Eve's consumption of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil is depicted as the first 'use' of free will, in some understandings - it was given to humanity, but as soon as it was exercised there was punishment. No matter how that story is read - and I appreciate that it's a figurative story, not history - the bad guy is God.
I am a great admirer of the works of Tolkien.
And for that reason, if nothing else, I can be confident that you aren't all bad
Bearing in mind, of course, that for all I admire Tolkien's work, he'd probably cleave closer to your arguments on here than he would mine!
O.
