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Post by Agent Syrup on Oct 28, 2012 13:16:23 GMT -8
So I heard a number of times from pastors and Christian philosphers that all people have a basic desire for God in their hearts. And that weather or not they are aware of this "God shaped hole in their heart" they try to have it filled (via God, or the pleasures of the world, or other things that they find meaningful). Because I believed in the Gospel since I was a child, I don't personally have much of an understanding what it is like to be without God or Faith (not that I never had challenges to my faith before, but I never choose to give up on the hope of the Gospel). So my question to you guys is what do you think of this. Do you feel there is a hole in your heart that has been or needs to be filled? And if so do you think this is a yearning for God or something else entirely? Conversion or deconversion stories (for any belief) would also be appresiated.
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Isa
Member
FOREVER SECOND
Posts: 1,479
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Post by Isa on Oct 28, 2012 15:10:48 GMT -8
Put simply - no, I do not feel like I have a hole in my heart.
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Post by Agent Syrup on Oct 28, 2012 15:41:47 GMT -8
Okay, that's fine.
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Post by longfellow on Oct 31, 2012 14:44:06 GMT -8
I can be passionate and can long for things but in no different way from any of my religious friends. So I don't feel a God-shaped hole.
I was not raised religiously. Any Christianity that seeped in was stuff like Easter with the bunny and Christmas with Santa Claus, and it all got mixed in with the Jewish traditions of my schoolmates anyways (my town is majority Jewish). I may have been told that fluffy cloud heaven exists at some point, but for as long as I remember I have believed that your consciousness is annihilated when you die.
This kept me up at nights when I was little. I remember, at five years old, wishing for a time machine for Christmas so I could go back and visit my dead grandmother, half knowing it wasn't gonna happen. I sometimes wished I were religious so I wouldn't be wracked with the fear of death.
I came to terms with my mortality around nine or ten. It wasn't so much confronting the problem philosophically as just not getting anxious about it, not letting it keep me from sleeping. Since then, I can't say I have ever wanted to be religious, or felt any need that religion would fill.
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Post by WaterWizard on Nov 1, 2012 20:02:25 GMT -8
Good question, AgentSyrup!
I think that there is a hole void in man's heart, so to speak.
God created man to dwell with him for eternity. When we sinned, we died spiritually, and we became disconnected from God. Now we have people who were made for eternity, made for communion with God, who are in a fallen state. It's dysfunctional. It's empty. Purposeless.
I believe that God restores life to his children, through faith, which he implants into us at the time of our regeneration. That has happened to me. I have talked with lost friends and we have a difference in our lives. I have joy and hope and they do not.
Another thing I'd mention here is that the LAW is written on everyone's heart. Man knows that there is right and wrong; he has an understanding of justice, of good and evil. That is because God has created us in his image, and his image is goodness.
Can say more later. Thanks for posing the question.
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