Before I say anything, somebody much more learned on this subject has already told me that I am probably wrong about this. Still, I felt like sharing anyway.
Most days I see this Bible quote up on a sign near an abandoned church: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” – Psalm 118:8 and while I do think there is an awful lot of violent nonsense in the Bible, I feel this is one of those true nuggets of wisdom you can find in it. Here’s my interpretation: you shouldn’t believe in something because people tell you to, but if you have full reason to believe in God, then go ahead, and I think that’s pretty darn agreeable. I think it’s wrong to ever tell anybody what to believe, and that everybody should come to their own conclusion. So, if somebody has had an experience and the only explanation they can think of is “it was God”, or looks at all the evidence and decides that there probably is a devine creator, then that’s a perfectly good reason to believe in the existence of God, but they have to accept that not everybody is going to believe them about this and shouldn’t try and force people too. Indeed, on the other hand, if somebody has no such ‘God experience’ and decides, from the evidence, that God probably doesn’t exist, they shouldn’t really try and change the beliefs of the religious. Lots of people have looked at the same evidence and come to different conclusions after all.
I think I probably strayed a bit from the main idea, but to me that Bible verse means: religion-wise, make your own decision it is yours to make and nobody else’s.
Most days I see this Bible quote up on a sign near an abandoned church: “It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man” – Psalm 118:8 and while I do think there is an awful lot of violent nonsense in the Bible, I feel this is one of those true nuggets of wisdom you can find in it. Here’s my interpretation: you shouldn’t believe in something because people tell you to, but if you have full reason to believe in God, then go ahead, and I think that’s pretty darn agreeable. I think it’s wrong to ever tell anybody what to believe, and that everybody should come to their own conclusion. So, if somebody has had an experience and the only explanation they can think of is “it was God”, or looks at all the evidence and decides that there probably is a devine creator, then that’s a perfectly good reason to believe in the existence of God, but they have to accept that not everybody is going to believe them about this and shouldn’t try and force people too. Indeed, on the other hand, if somebody has no such ‘God experience’ and decides, from the evidence, that God probably doesn’t exist, they shouldn’t really try and change the beliefs of the religious. Lots of people have looked at the same evidence and come to different conclusions after all.
I think I probably strayed a bit from the main idea, but to me that Bible verse means: religion-wise, make your own decision it is yours to make and nobody else’s.
