Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 exptools 1/6/84; site ihuxi.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!ihnp4!ihuxi!cher From: cher@ihuxi.UUCP (Mike Musing) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Punishing Non-belief (long article) Message-ID: <1016@ihuxi.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Aug-84 11:55:55 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxi.1016 Posted: Fri Aug 10 11:55:55 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Aug-84 00:37:43 EDT References: <3326@cbscc.UUCP>, <429@charm.UUCP> Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL Lines: 32 > For some of us, belief in anything is a feeling, a sense, > a conviction and an emotion. We do not choose to believe, we > merely believe. That is why we can not consciously look > at the evidence of christianities truth around us and > choose to believe it. This sounds like a sample of mystical con artistry. For every emotion, conviction, feeling, etc. there is a reason. It is clearly within the domain of psychology. The above is equivalent to saying "you feel this way because you feel this". > We believe what we believe just > because that is what we are. You can say that you chose > to believe, but you didn't. You are what you are because that's what you were brought up as, not "because that's what you are". > You either believe because > thats how you feel, or you are lying to yourself about > how you really feel. "because thats how you feel"? Why do you feel this way? The above implies that no further self-analysis is possible. To summarize: you believe because you feel, and you feel because you believe, and you believe because of what you are, and you are this because you believe what you feel, and that all is pure truth and God's word. Ufff, I think I got carried away.