D.Castles <> wrote in message .

Rowland Croucher wrote:

D.Castles <> wrote in message . Rowland Croucher wrote: When you open your life to God, God is able to inhabit the whole of your being. Maybe so, but terms like "open your life" etc. leave me perplexed. Is this the same as blind faith? Nope: God gives us enough evidences to help us _begin_ to exercise a reasonable faith (ask me what they are, eh?)

What are they Rowland? (OK I'll bite)

Varies for person to person. See the articles on Why Leading Philosophers Believe in God on our website.

Includes - God in one's experience (for most people), history, conscience, nature, the Jews etc. etc.

I must confess that for me it boils down to one evidence alone: the life of Jesus. I can't get over him. I find it much harder to believe that he was a fruitcake than that he was what he claimed to be - the Son of God.

For me experience is a bit tricky: a particular phenomenon can be explained psychologically in several ways. Nature is also problematical - red in tooth and claw etc. And history? Goodness, I can't name a group or historical time which has not been subject to bloodshed and horror. And the Jews - frankly I'm amazed at the way they've survived, but their God didn't do a brilliant job of helping them, eh :-)? <> (The Jesus type god may have been but even this begs for a debate, ask a money changer at the temple) And you know why he got mad there? For the same reason I hope you would: the household of Annas/Caiaphas was ripping off the poor...

Justify this with some evidence. (Gospel evidence will do, I don't think you have anything else )

It's universally agreed by historians and commentators that this was a key reason for Jesus' anger - together with the defiling of a sacred place etc.

When did Jesus ever care about economics and the monetary exchange rates?.

It wasn't exchange rates as siuch that was the problem in the temple, but, for example, asking a Jewish family to surrender their lamb brought for sacrifice and buy one of theirs.

Economics? Jesus talked more about wealth and poverty and the right use of and attitude to money than anything else...

That'll do for now...

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Rowland Croucher

August 2001.