Author Archives: denisvernon24

We need to address 2 obstacles. Part 3: What do I expect God to do for me in the material world? I do pray to God to keep my family safe; that Putin’s regime might come crumbling down; that humanity will find the unity, wisdom and strength to overcome climate change; that my ill relativeContinue reading “The foundations of faith (14)”

We need to address 2 obstacles. Part 2: What can I expect God to do for me? I think it’s helpful to remember there are not “special” religious emotions: “religious love”, “religious joy”; there are “ordinary” emotions – love, joy, peace etc that are prompted by God’s presence rather than the secular world. So, don’tContinue reading “The foundations of faith (13)”

We need to address 2 obstacles. Part 1: What if I just don’t feel God? 2. What do we expect God to do for us in the material world? How might we begin to respond? To the person who just doesn’t feel God’s presence, I don’t really know what to say! Wait – but thatContinue reading “The foundations of faith (12)”

Love is personal. Part 2: Love is received from God and passed on; it is not generated by me When we encounter God, it is not enough to say we encounter the value or principle of love. What we encounter is a person who is loving us. This is totally different to simply believing inContinue reading “The foundations of faith (11)”

Love is personal. Part 1: Love is more than a value; it’s a personal relationship One objection an atheist might make to me is: “We can see that your faith in God gives you wonderful values. Because you believe in God, you believe in the supreme importance of love, compassion, forgiveness, gentleness, peace etc. WhyContinue reading “The foundations of faith (10)”

Religious experiences are real and certain, even if God isn’t. Part 4: Judging from our end of the relationship with God restores the concept of knowledge because we do know what we are experiencing inside ourselves My hope is that for both believers and atheists they will be able to abandon the idea that theContinue reading “The foundations of faith (9)”

Religious experiences are real and certain, even if God isn’t. Part 3: We accept that we’ve lost our former foundation stone but also accept that we have sufficient grounds to justify our leap up to reach God See how we have by-passed the moment of conflict, doubt and possible rejection of faith – by bothContinue reading “The foundations of faith (8)”

Religious experiences are real and certain, even if God isn’t. Part 2: We do know what is happening inside us So, let’s stick with what we do know. The religious experience definitely exists. Whether God is the cause of the experience is not certain – and never can be. Perhaps before your doubts you feltContinue reading “The foundations of faith (7)”