How did God tell you "Yes"? and what does the Holy Ghost feel like?
The experience was the culmination of a long attempt to establish contact with God. Finally, in 1976, in complete desperation I threw myself at God, asking God, "Is it?" By it I meant the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and what I meant was, "Is it true?" Almost in the same moment I asked the question I felt a rushing, tingling sensation course through my whole body, very much affirmative. I felt like I had no choice but to conclude that that feeling was God telling me yes. Later some doubt crept in, and I wondered if there might be some other explanation for the rushing sensation, so I told God I was going to live my life as if that sensation was His answer to my question, but I was going to stay open to anything else He had to say about the matter. I kept that promise, and so far He hasn't corrected my assumption that that sensation was His answer.
Was what I experienced the Holy Spirit? I have guessed it was, but I don't know if the Holy Spirit is limited to giving people sensations like that in answers to questions they ask.
Let us know when you get your stories straight and want to actually engage in good faith discussion about Mormonism.
KevinSim wrote:Doc, the two stories are not mutually exclusive. In 1976 I asked God a question and got a clear answer that I was sure came from God if there is a God. Later I developed doubts that there is a God. But I said "flirting" because I never came out and decided there was no God.
I would suggest that the simplest explanation is that there is no God, and that your "rushing, tingling sensation" was produced by your body, with no supernatural agent required. When you told god how you were going to live your life, you were only talking to yourself. When you guessed that what you experienced was the Holy Spirit, that was also just you talking yourself into an idea.
But somehow you decided that there is a god, and that this was his answer to your desperate question.
The reason he hasn't corrected your assumption is that he doesn't exist. If you had made the opposite assumption I'm pretty sure he would not have corrected that one either - same reason.
Edit: changed "there is a God" to "there is no God" - oops!
Last edited by malkie on Fri Jul 08, 2022 2:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Let us know when you get your stories straight and want to actually engage in good faith discussion about Mormonism.
Doc, the two stories are not mutually exclusive. In 1976 I asked God a question and got a clear answer that I was sure came from God if there is a God. Later I developed doubts that there is a God. But I said "flirting" because I never came out and decided there was no God.
That’s literally not what you said. I see we’re not quite to the point where you’re keeping your story straight. If we’re going to have a good faith discussion ref LDS truth claims, we’re going to have to have consistent statements with agreed upon terminology. Let us know when you’re ready to start a new thread to examine and deconstruct LDS truth claims.
- Doc
Hugh Nibley claimed he bumped into Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Gertrude Stein, and the Grand Duke Vladimir Romanoff. Dishonesty is baked into Mormonism.
Doc, the two stories are not mutually exclusive. In 1976 I asked God a question and got a clear answer that I was sure came from God if there is a God. Later I developed doubts that there is a God. But I said "flirting" because I never came out and decided there was no God.
That’s literally not what you said. I see we’re not quite to the point where you’re keeping your story straight. If we’re going to have a good faith discussion ref LDS truth claims, we’re going to have to have consistent statements with agreed upon terminology. Let us know when you’re ready to start a new thread to examine and deconstruct LDS truth claims.
- Doc
Good faith discussions are difficult. People sometimes enter these forums and think what they type is immediately recognized. Kevin might think that anecdotal evidence is earth shattering. For some people some of these posts are actually hurtful. I wonder if Kevin realizes this ? When entering a forum and claiming God talked to you and not us it creates a little separation and essential creates favorites. On the flip side, kudos for you entering and explaining your experiences without being disrespectful.
Yes, I've flirted with atheism since early in my mission in 1979, but I'm simply not the kind of person that would seriously consider a universe without God in charge of it.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing. I am not sure what being in charge means for a Supreme Deity.
Maybe "being in control" would be a better phrase. I'd say "making sure some good things are being preserved forever," but last time I said something like that long time posters brought up unpleasant comments about things I've posted in the distant past!
KevinSim, what happened on your mission to make you consider there wasn’t a God?
We're talking 43 years ago, and my memory's not perfectly clear on the whys behind it, but if I had to guess it was probably just being out of my stable reassuring Latter-day Saint home and in the real world with only one companion for support. I began to wonder, what if all the things I had been taught were wrong?
Doc, why do you think I didn't reason myself into my current position?
Yes, I would want to know. What exactly is "the work to study it out in good faith"? I'd like to know what I'm committing myself to before I commit to it.
Great. Would you be interested in participating on a new thread that will examine and deconstruct LDS truth claims?
Doc, is that an attempt to answer my second question? I asked two questions, and I'd kind of like them answered before I move on to your question.
I would suggest that the simplest explanation is that there is no God, and that your "rushing, tingling sensation" was produced by your body, with no supernatural agent required.
Now see, it was because I started thinking things like this that I started thinking atheistic thoughts back on my mission in 1979. But is that really the simplest explanation? If there is no God, then how did we get our free will, our non-determinism? Non-determinism cannot come out of a completely deterministic universe. Somebody with free will has to have existed in this universe from the moment of the Big Bang. If it wasn't God, then who was it?
I would suggest that the simplest explanation is that there is no God, and that your "rushing, tingling sensation" was produced by your body, with no supernatural agent required.
Kevin has the right to decide the meaning of his own tingling sensation.
