What is Your Personal Experience of Your God?

[Jack Knave]

Obviously, this thread is aimed at people who have a faith and a belief.

Usually it is asked why do you believe in your God/gods, which then elicits chapter and verse of some kind or some academic verbiage, but I think the more appropriate question should be what is your personal and direct experience of your God/gods which would then substantiate your beliefs for yourself in some kind of 'solid' manner.

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

[Outrider]

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Why not? For some people - particularly, I'm thinking, those of the animist persuasion, or pantheists - God is not a distinct entity, it's an embodiment of life and living: love from the community is God's love.

Don't get me wrong, that's not my belief, but I think you're dismissing some people's 'experience' because it doesn't fit a preconception you already have.

O.

[Nearly Sane]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

[Gonnagle]

Dear Jack Knave,

Where to start.

1. In a prayer answered ( but Gonnagle God does not answer prayers ).

2. In a meeting of two souls ( but Gonnagle we don't have souls ).

3. In a quiet moment.

4. Those times when you awake, smile and say, ha no work today and fall back into the land of nod.

5. In a pub where the atmosphere is just perfect.

6. When my brothers are laughing at me for something daft I have said or done ( which is often ).

7. The time just before sleep overtakes you and you are thinking weird but happy thoughts.

9. In a eureka moment, when the penny finally drops.

10. In a Vlad versus Shaker thread, or a Shaker versus Bashers thread, or a Wigginhall joke which you finally get and laugh because the joke is on you, or a Nearlysane post when you say, bugger I never thought of that.


Gonnagle.

[Dicky Underpants]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

I think it might prove even more interesting. Certainly people like Richard Holloway and Bart D Ehrman, who both ,at one point in their lives, received the whole evangelical God-wallop, make fascinating reading.

[OH MY WORLD!]

Pity you set rules on what's allowed here. There have been many times I would get to church, the parson starts preaching and the message seems directed right at me. Sometimes for humbling, sometimes for building up and encouraging. And there have been times that the message was so direct, one would think the Parson had prior knowledge of what I dealt with that week, but he didn't. God uses people that way all the time. Even though you don't want it allowed, I opt to only share the one you won't allow. Why? Because it is very much a personal experience of God and saying it isn't or it can't be used here, rubs me the wrong way. And so that's all I'm going to argue for here on your, can't use this as a personal experience of your God, thread.

[BeRational]

Pity you set rules on what's allowed here. There have been many times I would get to church, the parson starts preaching and the message seems directed right at me. Sometimes for humbling, sometimes for building up and encouraging. And there have been times that the message was so direct, one would think the Parson had prior knowledge of what I dealt with that week, but he didn't. God uses people that way all the time. Even though you don't want it allowed, I opt to only share the one you won't allow. Why? Because it is very much a personal experience of God and saying it isn't or it can't be used here, rubs me the wrong way. And so that's all I'm going to argue for here on your, can't use this as a personal experience of your God, thread.

You need to see a Derren Brown program, where he gave some very personal information to several people. Each one thought he had understood them perfectly, and they could not believe he knew so much about them.

It turned out that he had given the same information to every person, and they all interpreted it as being very personal.

We share many things in common, and if thee language used is generic, we simply make it fit.

I expect many people in your church thought the same thing.

[Shaker]

You need to see a Derren Brown program, where he gave some very personal information to several people. Each one thought he had understood them perfectly, and they could not believe he knew so much about them.

It turned out that he had given the same information to every person, and they all interpreted it as being very personal.

We share many things in common, and if thee language used is generic, we simply make it fit.

I expect many people in your church thought the same thing.

I was going to use the example of astrology, but yeah, same thing 

[Nearly Sane]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertram_Forer

[Outrider]

Pity you set rules on what's allowed here. There have been many times I would get to church, the parson starts preaching and the message seems directed right at me. Sometimes for humbling, sometimes for building up and encouraging. And there have been times that the message was so direct, one would think the Parson had prior knowledge of what I dealt with that week, but he didn't. God uses people that way all the time. Even though you don't want it allowed, I opt to only share the one you won't allow. Why? Because it is very much a personal experience of God and saying it isn't or it can't be used here, rubs me the wrong way. And so that's all I'm going to argue for here on your, can't use this as a personal experience of your God, thread.

You need to see a Derren Brown program, where he gave some very personal information to several people. Each one thought he had understood them perfectly, and they could not believe he knew so much about them.

It turned out that he had given the same information to every person, and they all interpreted it as being very personal.

We share many things in common, and if thee language used is generic, we simply make it fit.

I expect many people in your church thought the same thing.

I believe it's called the Forer Effect, the tendency for people to interpret generic information as meaningful.

O.

[2Corrie]

Obviously, this thread is aimed at people who have a faith and a belief.

Usually it is asked why do you believe in your God/gods, which then elicits chapter and verse of some kind or some academic verbiage, but I think the more appropriate question should be what is your personal and direct experience of your God/gods which would then substantiate your beliefs for yourself in some kind of 'solid' manner.

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Are you a Charismatic then?

[Owlswing]

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Why not? For some people - particularly, I'm thinking, those of the animist persuasion, or pantheists - God is not a distinct entity, it's an embodiment of life and living: love from the community is God's love.

Don't get me wrong, that's not my belief, but I think you're dismissing some people's 'experience' because it doesn't fit a preconception you already have.

O.

As I am a Pagan, I feel that you have put my point of view on the subject rather well

[Jack Knave]

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Why not? For some people - particularly, I'm thinking, those of the animist persuasion, or pantheists - God is not a distinct entity, it's an embodiment of life and living: love from the community is God's love.

Don't get me wrong, that's not my belief, but I think you're dismissing some people's 'experience' because it doesn't fit a preconception you already have.

O.

That just shows how easy it is to make the term God mean anything. But I take your point.

[Jack Knave]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

As you say they felt something. I would never deny them that. But if God has been excluded as a cause then it is now a psychological issue, is it not?

[Jack Knave]

Dear Jack Knave,

Where to start.

1. In a prayer answered ( but Gonnagle God does not answer prayers ).

2. In a meeting of two souls ( but Gonnagle we don't have souls ).

3. In a quiet moment.

4. Those times when you awake, smile and say, ha no work today and fall back into the land of nod.

5. In a pub where the atmosphere is just perfect.

6. When my brothers are laughing at me for something daft I have said or done ( which is often ).

7. The time just before sleep overtakes you and you are thinking weird but happy thoughts.

9. In a eureka moment, when the penny finally drops.

10. In a Vlad versus Shaker thread, or a Shaker versus Bashers thread, or a Wigginhall joke which you finally get and laugh because the joke is on you, or a Nearlysane post when you say, bugger I never thought of that.


Gonnagle.

I was looking for personal testimonies.

[Nearly Sane]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

As you say they felt something. I would never deny them that. But if God has been excluded as a cause then it is now a psychological issue, is it not?

Quite possibly but surely their experience of that would be informative

[Jack Knave]

Pity you set rules on what's allowed here. There have been many times I would get to church, the parson starts preaching and the message seems directed right at me. Sometimes for humbling, sometimes for building up and encouraging. And there have been times that the message was so direct, one would think the Parson had prior knowledge of what I dealt with that week, but he didn't. God uses people that way all the time. Even though you don't want it allowed, I opt to only share the one you won't allow. Why? Because it is very much a personal experience of God and saying it isn't or it can't be used here, rubs me the wrong way. And so that's all I'm going to argue for here on your, can't use this as a personal experience of your God, thread.

But what you describe happens to many people in different situations - even to me many times on earthly matters.

I have this magic with books. I'm pondering on something I can't figure out, I go into a library etc and get directly guided to a shelf, then a book and the first page I open at has what I'm looking for, all within a handful of seconds. This has happened to me on numerous occasions. This is not God because the issue is an earthly one and has nothing to do with religion either.

So do you have a direct experience of your God?

[Jack Knave]

Obviously, this thread is aimed at people who have a faith and a belief.

Usually it is asked why do you believe in your God/gods, which then elicits chapter and verse of some kind or some academic verbiage, but I think the more appropriate question should be what is your personal and direct experience of your God/gods which would then substantiate your beliefs for yourself in some kind of 'solid' manner.

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Are you a Charismatic then?

What do you mean? I don't understand the context here.

-------------

Oh I see. Not really. I just find it strange that people believe in God, and their particular faith, without having a direct personal experience of their God, but instead give the examples that JC has aired of basically communal acceptance and love, and getting the right pet talk when needed.

[Jack Knave]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

As you say they felt something. I would never deny them that. But if God has been excluded as a cause then it is now a psychological issue, is it not?

Quite possibly but surely their experience of that would be informative

Informative of what?

Isn't that the purpose of some fields of psychology to find some reason or framework for such experiences?

[Rhiannon]

You need to see a Derren Brown program, where he gave some very personal information to several people. Each one thought he had understood them perfectly, and they could not believe he knew so much about them.

It turned out that he had given the same information to every person, and they all interpreted it as being very personal.

We share many things in common, and if thee language used is generic, we simply make it fit.

I expect many people in your church thought the same thing.

I was going to use the example of astrology, but yeah, same thing 

Jane Goldman did a very interesting piece on this in regards to psychic mediumship. A woman gave a reading - even saying that the subject had a friend called Sue that she was worried about - and got a hit rate of about 83%. But when she showed the reading to other friends who weren't the subject of the reading their hit rate was about the same - and many of them had a friend called Sue that they were worried about.

[Rhiannon]

I'm a sort of pantheist animist I guess - I can't pigeon-hole it easily - and my experiences go back to childhood when I would experience everything from grass to the moon to snow as having some kind of 'spark' to it.

I come from a Christian family and was brought up as a non churchgoer but nevertheless with a quite strict moral Christian code, very Catholic-flavoured. During my late teens through my twenties I began to have a sense of what I thought was God's presence in my life. Most of the time it felt like a sweetness, like knowing you are loved. Sometimes the presence faded but I knew it was still there. When I lost my faith that sense of presence went. It was as though a light bulb had been switched off, it was that sudden.

Although it was traumatic and un-sought-for it allowed me to reconnect with the pantheist/animist/pagan side of me that I'd felt compelled to squash down when I'd started to go to church and learned that believing God is in a sunset was 'pagan' and therefore unacceptable. I'm much happier as a result.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

One question JK, which is there may be those who are no longer theists who might feel they 'experienced' God(s) previously but then decided, for whatever reason, that was incorrect, surely their 'testimony' might also be interesting?

I think it might prove even more interesting. Certainly people like Richard Holloway and Bart D Ehrman, who both ,at one point in their lives, received the whole evangelical God-wallop, make fascinating reading.

Apparently according to an article he contributed to the Scotsman. He became an agnostic very soon after his ordination but continued to rise up the ranks to become a Bishop. He was therefore the Anthony Blunt of the Episcopalian church.....and yes Dicky, Anthony Blunt is cockney rhyming slang.

[Walt Zingmatilder]

Dear Jack Knave,

Where to start.

1. In a prayer answered ( but Gonnagle God does not answer prayers ).

2. In a meeting of two souls ( but Gonnagle we don't have souls ).

3. In a quiet moment.

4. Those times when you awake, smile and say, ha no work today and fall back into the land of nod.

5. In a pub where the atmosphere is just perfect.

6. When my brothers are laughing at me for something daft I have said or done ( which is often ).

7. The time just before sleep overtakes you and you are thinking weird but happy thoughts.

9. In a eureka moment, when the penny finally drops.

10. In a Vlad versus Shaker thread, or a Shaker versus Bashers thread, or a Wigginhall joke which you finally get and laugh because the joke is on you, or a Nearlysane post when you say, bugger I never thought of that.


Gonnagle.

I was looking for personal testimonies.

I have given mine about three times on this board. I found there was something greater than us through the cosmic wonder of Carl Sagan and God and Christ in Christians and the works of CS Lewis and revelations 3:20.

[Shaker]

I have given mine about three times on this board. I found there was something greater than us through the cosmic wonder of Carl Sagan and God and Christ in Christians and the works of CS Lewis and revelations 3:20.

Bloody hell

[2Corrie]

Obviously, this thread is aimed at people who have a faith and a belief.

Usually it is asked why do you believe in your God/gods, which then elicits chapter and verse of some kind or some academic verbiage, but I think the more appropriate question should be what is your personal and direct experience of your God/gods which would then substantiate your beliefs for yourself in some kind of 'solid' manner.

I say direct because you can't include the social acceptance and 'love' of what eventually became your brethren and fellow believers. It has to be a one to one personal experience with your God/gods, not some communal, day-to-day social activity.

Are you a Charismatic then?

What do you mean? I don't understand the context here.

-------------

Oh I see. Not really. I just find it strange that people believe in God, and their particular faith, without having a direct personal experience of their God, but instead give the examples that JC has aired of basically communal acceptance and love, and getting the right pet talk when needed.

The problem with experiences is that they are subjective; how does a person judge the source of those experiences for instance. Experience has to be evaluated. An evangelical would use the Bible as the yardstick for any experience. I have had experiences which I might ascribe to God but my faith is not founded upon them. I mentioned Charismatics as there is a tendency for those at the extreme to exalt experience over the word of God; not a good idea imho.