I’d like to start with a rhetorical question:
If someone has a felt sense that there is a God in the universe who loves them, is there any reason why that person would not believe in that God?
Of course not. If you feel, deep in your bones, that the Big Kahuna of all Big Kahunas is out there and has your back–of course you are going to believe in that. Psychologically it would make absolutely no sense to say, “Well, I can tell just God is out there and loves me, but I read a Richard Dawkins book and it was persuasive, so I guess there is no God after all.” Maybe you read up and decide this or that idea about God doesn’t make sense, but that doesn’t mean you give up on God altogether; you just adapt your understanding.
I’d like to proceed to what I consider a pretty obvious observation, though a few might disagree with it: Some people have a felt sense that there is a God in the universe who loves them; some people do not.
So now we have two related propositions:
- Some people have a felt sense of a loving God; some do not.
- Those who do, will believe.
Questions:
- Do you buy these two propositions?
- If so, what kinds of implications can we spin out from them?
- Do you have a felt sense of a God who loves you? Was it ever different? If so, what changed?