Themis wrote:mentalgymnast wrote:I do feel at a disadvantage trying to describe my faith and why I have faith. It's not easily done. It's sort of a personal thing. And when people of faith do try and describe their experience, it sometimes gets a bit muddled in the telling because we're trying to describe something that is not readily discerned/understood by those that don't have faith.
Problem is the church has many articles and talks doing just that. You also seem to forget you are talking to some people who had plenty of faith for many years. ya it's super muddy, and DRw's OP gives an explanation that accounts for these experiences. You say these experiences from God come through these explanations of mind and body, but you avoid telling how you can tell the difference. You asserted you could to some degree, and you suggested you could explain it but ran away saying we needed to experience it ourselves. Most of us know enough about both sides to know you avoid talking about it because your explanations cannot differentiate between what the body is capable of, and what comes supposedly from God. It doesn't prove it is all from the mind, but we also don't have good evidence it is not. This is why much better evidence should not be ignored.
The closest I can come to describing some of the experiences I'm referring to is a 'burning in the bosom'. Other times have been thoughts streaming...complete sentences and coherent thought... without preexisting encouragement or causal factors. And they've been directly applicable to a situation in which I later could see I was in need of that inspiration.
Beyond that, I will not go.
I realize others may also describe the experiences they've had with similar language and with different results that might conflict with my personal experience. I've stated elsewhere as to why I think that this might be so, at least in many cases. I don't think I'll go that direction here and now.
Regards,
MG
