You're welcome. I am sorry that your other debate is over, and more so that my response to your post is now belated. I may at least post it here, though. If you do not consider this response in your thesis that is fine; so long as I simply had the chance to reply:

But that is just you and how you personally would look at the world, and look at life itself, if you thought there was no god.

Yes. Is that not the information you were primarily after?

It does not tell us how you "feel" or "experience" god. How you KNOW he is at work in your life and he loves you. Or even knows you exist.

Well this would be expanding upon what I have already outlined in my previous post. One could not really feel or experience God without first having faith in Him, and to have faith, you must believe in His presence. So you would need to make those decisions first. However a person may appear externally, God examines the heart and spirit within, and if you are really interested in knowing who He is, even as an atheist, then He will answer you, specifically in a language you understand. Sometimes you may read His Word and find certain verses resonating with you. Sometimes it may be through a miraculous experience. Sometimes it may be in a dream. It can even be in the physical sense, as though He is there beside you. Whatever the circumstance, He has a vested interest in connecting with every human being on this Earth, but the willingness of the individual is the central component – draw near to Him and He will draw near to you, as James 4 says.

Quite honestly, the relationships we have with each other encompass all of the qualities (be it love, honesty, understanding etc.) that a relationship with God consists of, because He is those qualities. Many Christians fall short of this. For them, the Christian faith is purely structural, and it largely is, but this attitude neglects the spiritual dimension that underpins the very Biblical structure their lives are predicated on. So the understanding is not comprehensive.

And I do NOT think life is meaningless. I too experience joy and love and wonder and child-like awe and reverence for Nature and life, and am grateful for our short time here. These experiences are also felt by many if not most atheists. We simply find we do not need a belief in an absentee god to experience love and joy and empathy for our fellows.

Of course you experience those things; I was not meaning to insinuate otherwise. Those traits are programmed in the human blueprint and intrinsic to who we are so we could not help but succumb to those impulses, irrespective of our beliefs. However, with the ostensible “absence” of God, the meaning of all of these is wanting, and that is what many are searching for. If you attribute neither the meaning of life, nor the meaning of the emotions and reverence you feel to a greater being, then it begs the question of where you do obtain it from, because to simply say ‘the Self’ would be insufficient.

We can shed tears too. We don't need a god for this. So I was just wondering why you guys do? And how you can tell that he is working in your life. Thus far I have not received any answers to this question from Christians.

Because He and His principles exceed all of my fundamental human needs, and when I observe the dysfunction in much of modern society, it merely buttresses this confidence. This is also compounded by the experiences I and other family members have had that can bear no other ascription other than to the miraculous. It stirred a desire within me to want to discover more for myself, and get to know Him as more than a distant figure in the sky. My relationship with Him influences everything: from my interactions with others down to the music I compose. I hear when He speaks to me and when He advises me on certain action I see how the acuteness of His judgement manifests in the consequences. I enjoy our frequent conversations. It is an enlightening relationship that I would not exchange for the uncertainty that accompanies non-belief. I strongly opine that, even if you endure a Christian upbringing (as I was incidentally) it is insufficient to instilling a solid faith within you if you do not first dissect it; a rule that applies to any belief.

That's unfortunate that you didn't find anything that pointed you or at least encouraged you to pursue the possibility of God and a relationship with God.

I hope Saintnow wasn't accurate when he said you wanted to exploit the experience of God. God can use anything anywhere so I actually don't care about that, I care that if it didnt say more to you. I actually don't care if it's shared. Shared is an opportunity for God to give something to another!

I really had higher hopes for you, that you would be intrigued

at the experiences, especially since they line up with the experience Jesus said would occur in the person who is Born

of the Spirit.

.

What is it about God that if He existed you wouldn't want to know?

You seemed closed to the challenge of proof.

Does that mean you wouldn't want to know if He does exist?

I for one have experienced God. I'm a pretty normal person.

I'm not at all on the metaphysical space train. I'm actually pretty down to earth. I'm not overly optimistic or pessimistic.

So the experienced I have with the Word and God are not typical of my personality. Like I said before I'm not one to attribute every crazy thing that's a coincidence to an act of God.

I'm not one to be overly Praise the Lord or expressive in some gooey way. I'm not actually gooey. As a matter of fact I rarely connect God as a " moving force" in my daily life.

So when I say my experiences they are specific movements of God, that really doesn't come from a Spiritually inventive personality.

I'm a hot headed Italian with a I/D personality, a negotiator and analytical in my field in residential home sales.

And when God did such a dramatic intrusion, it was in Nov 2014, I wasn't looking to head back to God. My interest was taking me further away, and that wasn't something I really wanted to have questioned by my faith.

If anything I avoided any thoughts that challenged my interest. So when I say it was an intrusion, I'm very aware that it was an intervention by God. There is no other explanation than an intrusion. He again was acting on His Word and there are several scriptures that define this, from discipline to prodigal son to sheep in hand. But I want to focus on this one, because of the quick action of God in 2014 and the speed of Him revealing things that have been hidden in His Word.

Revelation 7

After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, so that no wind would blow on the earth or on the sea or on any tree. 2 And I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea, 3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads.”

I have had God show me revelation in His Word before, but He has never showed so much so quickly, and I feel there is an urgency.

You know Jonah and the big fish, when the storm got so bad, the people on the ship needed to find the one that brought on the storm. I experienced that. It was me, and God moving me to a place I could eventually turn back.

I never had such an experience of direct shaking, I know God did it, and He basically did it all in a day. There is no coincidence that could have been so targeted and methodical.

There is an urgency, God's intrusion was a timing issue.

And the things He is showing me now are timing issues.

You have a short time to find Him. Otherwise you won't be able to. It's not going to happen by way of us needing to store supplies, and much of the end times hype. It's going to happen where people are filled with whatever is taking them, all of it.

It's going to be a famine of truth. As the flood of deceptions is let out everyone who wasn't wise in building their house is going to get swept away. Then the door is going to be shut.

A bag of gold won't buy a piece of bread!

Markings seal of God and the image and mark of the beast.

Markings - sealed with Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ is the forehead. Markings of the Beast the mind of the creature not the Creator. Scripture says He gives them over, look at Nebachenezer I'm his dream. We are becoming less than human, people are being filled as their swept away by every lie they accept. The mark on their hand it's their deeds or the works of their hands, the mark on their foreheads the mind of a beast or a Creature, there is nothing more than their instincts to obey.

It's going to be less dramatic in its appearance at first, but as it grows it will get even darker.

I just ask you to turn your eyes for a few moments and see things as they are, and maybe you'll see some hint of what is happening in these end times.

I never studied end times, I didn't consider them an urgency. I didn't have an interest in the hype of 2000, I did nothing to prepare, not even one thought of concern.

The TV evangelists always bothered me, and the end time fanatics always bothered me. So I'm not one to listen to either

of those sources. I'm very selective of truth and you can say I'm pretty skeptical of most Christian leaders. And I'm very particular about truth and its sources.

The end times is a pouring out of darkness and deceptions like never before. And sin will be on Parade like never before.

This has already been poured out, and the flood of deceptions is sweeping people away, it's so strong that even the elect need to be rescued from it.

The Bible, the truth is so skewed and accepted, even educated fields of study will isolate findings that are factual truths confirming truths, yet findings are ignored. Rather choose a lie over truth. What is truth? Whatever you want truth to be!

And it's not just in religion. It's in everything. Open your eyes if you can, God is giving you a short window to investigate truth. Soon truth will be closed to you. And a bag of gold won't be able to buy it.

If you look around truth is so hard to find, it's not in the churches, it's not in education, it's not in media, or in politics, it's not in people anywhere. It used to be the norm and lies were shocking, now lies are the norm and truth is hated, truth interrupts others "truths" If you are perceptive at all you may see it.

There has been this growth of truth by individual prespective.

But its even in standard facts. Everything and anything has become a personal view of truth. Remove morals and standards, raise depravity and give tolerance to anything and everything except that 1 Book that is truth.

There are plenty of spiritual concepts of philosophy and even that can lend to metaphysical experiences, yet it's a Book that is shut even to abusers. Like someone doesn't want it read even to pervert it. Why do you think that is?

Christians have long given into communities, so why would communities hate Christians who have eased their pains and have given support in every area of crisis? Don't you think there just might be something more going on?

Open your eyes to deceptions.

Start there, and see if it doesn't look like a flood to you, you cant even make the crap up that people think and do! Like never before.

Now I'm not overly sensitive to darkness, I wasn't brought up in a bubble, actually the opposite, if anything I would be desensitized, so I'm not overly sensitive. But I do have discernment.

Look at politics, look at Hillary, the media is now gone so far into lieing, they are staging news. Lies aren't shocking, it's not even shocking. They apologize and its business as usual.

No biggie. The level of acceptance of lies is off the chart insanity! Yet it's fine and normal. Say what? They are all in the flood, so none of them can see anything.

Since when does truth matter so little? And since when do lies matter so little?

You can't see that darkness is reigning everywhere, even in big denominations, don't you see how the compromise is filling them, and its on display?

Note how many lies you hear a day.

And then notice the attitude about them.

Over the last few years particularly, it's more than a conspiracy here and there. It's Gross Lieing. Gross Hatred. Gross Darkness.

It's going to be pitch black soon, and the door to find truth will be closed. Then the end of all will come.

But first He is Separating sheep from goats, wheat from tares, sealing His, I'm calling for people to answer if truth is found anywhere in you, if you can hear His voice, He is sealing His now. While everyone else is being sealed also.

Which mark will you take?

Sealed with the Spirit of God, and marked on your forehead with the mind of Christ?

Or sealed with the spirit of the age, and marked with the beast who will darken your mind in the image of the beast on your forehead. 666 - the number of a man. 6th generation from Cain

Lamech - Double the murder 10 times the Vengeance boasting his murders not even bothering to lie displaying it as the acceptable norm. LGBT - they use a rainbow - originally 8 colors, reduced to 6 colors for greater visibility. (Sodom and Gomorrah)

Both Isaac and Ishmael were 12 from Noah

This is the time of marking! In whose image will you be marked?

In the image of God through the work of Jesus and sealed with the Holy Spirit

Or in the image of the beast sealed with the spirit of the age, a mind like that of beadts, with the number of man to depravity of the beast. - it's no surprise that your favourite education is evolution, and it's no surprise that it is fought in defense we are beasts, animals - not in the image of a Creator, just in the image of a creature. But we were told of this, your blinded if you can't see it, and your not really shocked or surprised if you can see it, after all, we were told ahead of time!

.