Stem, why do you think God doesn't know?
I read a post by someone a long time ago that referred to a study that involved asking a large sample of people from many different religious persuasions to ask God if their particular church was true. Each person said the answer s/he got from God was that her/his church was true. The person making the post guessed this was happening because of confirmation bias. When I first asked God if the Book of Mormon was true and got what I thought was a yes answer, I realized that I had wanted a yes answer, and I knew in my heart that I couldn't count on God answering my question until I was as prepared for a no answer as I was for a yes answer. I didn't call my problem confirmation bias at the time, but that was what it was. So it doesn't bug me that different people get different answers allegedly from God than I get. The only person that knows whether s/he has jumped over all the hurdles s/he needs to to guarantee that God will respond to her/his question is that person herself/himself. All I can know is whether or not I have overcome my own personal confirmation bias.dastardly stem wrote:And he can't get us messages we can rely on anyway. He tells one person one thing like this one religion is right and tells another person another thing.
I think people who are put off by supposed contradictions are kind of naïve. What even is a contradiction in a natural language anyway? Can you apply formal logical laws to English? I saw a pair of signs together on a highway two or three years ago, the first of which said, "Keep right except to pass," and the second of which said, "Do not pass." Applying logic to that, one gets, "Keep right period," but that's not what the pair of signs really meant. So when I hear people complaining about a contradiction, I wonder if maybe they just don't understand what the other person means by the terms s/he is using.dastardly stem wrote:Also in the passage of time, he says one thing, and some time later he contradicts himself.
Perhaps this is the real issue. I personally don't see much point in doubting the existence of God.dastardly stem wrote:Or maybe there's no God at all.