Everything is based on faith

[spartanII]

For some people being told that is just as simple as anything. I guess some people just believe it, but for me it took me 21 years to actually believe that (I'm 21 right now). A great friend of mine became an atheist about 8 months ago. He was struggling with it for a long time and finally just admitted it. He said that he doesn't believe wisdom comes from the Lord and that other people like Hitchens/Dawkins are brilliant men. I actually like Hitchens somewhat but I think Dawkins is a sickening man. On one end of the stick he's like "yeah, we atheist have no basis for morals," on the other end he's like "yeah that Christian God is so immoral." While at the same time (I swear he said this) that we need to end religion... it's a sickness, yet once confronted with the dilemma of free will he responded "well I guess it's an illusion we just have to live with." I know Hitchens is inconsistent too but even Hitchens said that if he could end religion, he wouldn't, he said he doesn't know why, it's more than just somebody to debate, but I think he knows that some good comes from religion. I have more respect for Hitchens. I'm not sure why, he is blasphemous. But anyways, my other friend who is a presup Calvinist told me that "everything comes from faith," faith starts first, rather than what the atheist thinks (faith fills in the gaps). He explained to me how the categories like "duckness," or "squareness," are non-existent in their universe. How they proclaim to want the empirical method on how something works and although the empirical method is awesome, it's a death-trap if you think everything is just "matter" I started watching a lot of Bahnsen and joined this forum to ask questions. Thanks to you guys I've learned a lot. I don't fully get TAG but it makes a lot of sense and am trying to learn a lot more about it. Once he broke down free will vs determinism to me, the problem with everything just being matter in motion, and how everything comes from faith I was so shocked. It makes me wake up each morning VERY grateful for my life and very grateful for everything. It's made me go from realizing Jesus as my personal savior to magnifying that knowledge somehow, beyond words... I can honestly remember sitting in the car that day, speechless... I thought I knew God before but now it seemed like the entire universe was screaming at me with how magnificent His grace is. It's the most beautiful message, ever. Just wanted to share that with you guys.

[Silvertusk]

Thank you for sharing that with us Spartan. It is so wonderful when you get revelations like that - I pray that we all continue to be awed by new knowledge of God all the time.

God Bless

Silvertusk.

[Reactionary]

Thanks for sharing, Spartan. I'm a year younger than you, so I guess while people of our age usually worry about more earthly things, we get to search the answers to big questions this early. I've been a nominal Christian my entire life, only recently (last 6-7 months) I've started my quest for truth, and all I can say is that the quality of my life has increased considerably, everything starts to make sense, trivial stuff no longer concerns me as I've found my meaning. My search is still far from the finish line, but the improvement I've been through has been fantastic. This forum has played an important part in it, so I'd like to thank everyone too.

[narnia4]

Nice post. This really has been a nice forum to be involved with. Too bad to hear about your friend, its an all too common these days and for such ridiculously flimsy reasons too (not like there are any great reasons, but it doesn't sound well thought out). I think that does go to show that many faiths out there are shallow and for many being Christian is more cultural than anything, even if some truly identify as Christians they may not have a real relationship with Christ. Its something to think about. As is your point that everything is based on faith, it seems so obvious and yet so few realize it. I know that when I realized that skeptics weren't as "superior" as they claimed, it certainly made a difference in how I viewed apologetics. Once you can see through the smoke and mirrors and break down their actual arguments... there's such an emptiness there.

I still struggle sometimes with having mercy on the lost rather than disdain and hatred for a guy like Dawkins that is so easy to hate. I know what you mean about Hitchens though. There's something affable and almost friendly about him and his writing and speaking is easy to follow. I try to remind myself that he, Dawkins, non-Christian theists, people who call themselves Christians but really aren't, all these people are equally lost... some of them may be further away from a decision for Christ and some may be more arrogant and "on the attack", but none of them are in the right place.

[domokunrox]

While I am glad to hear testimony, and it sounds great.

I actually just started a thread where I basically said faith alone has no defense for a belief in the intellectual war field of the world today. You will get absolutely steamrolled out there by someone, or you'll start to believe in a false teaching.

I disagree about Hitchens. He isn't philosophically bankrupt like Dawkins, but if you were to look at his philosophical bank statement you'd see that he can't even afford anything on the McPhilosophy dollar menu.

[La Volpe]

A great testimony =) I also suggest you reccomend our site to your friend I hope he finds God again