Would you mind extrapolating on those first three, commonsense, logic, and evidence? Do you mean that these are requirements and the basis of your faith or more that they act as supporting pillars?
They act as supporting pillars. I've adjusted my beliefs through the years where appropriate. Somethings we are led to believe and other things we follow reality to believe. I've always tried to make sense of my beliefs though as far back as I could remember, to me it's just my love for logic/truth coupled with my passion for spirituality. They blend ever so lovely together.
And just out of curiosity, if you find yourself missing one of those does it make a difference?
It's hard to say I'd have to really think about which aspect of my beliefs are missing one of those three. You have to remember though, I'm obsessed with theorizing, considering all angles of each scenario and connecting theory to reality whether that be from observation, experience, commonsense, corresponding sources, cross referencing or philosophical propositions.
With spirituality and religion we don't always have immediate access to hard evidence even though they are built upon observation. So sometimes it's simply best to go with commonsense or logic to determine if something is stupid to accept or has good reason to consider it. If you already know or are 99.9 % sure God exists you can be very open-minded about many aspects of information and Theistic knowledge....once wrestling with whether or not God exists is no longer an obstacle things change dramatically if you're an obsessed thinker. For one, if God exists it changes the dynamics of reality so while things can get very strange everything must harmonize with logic.
There's no reason to ever abandon any one of those three or even all three when evaluating beliefs like for example, would God do this if I wouldn't? or could this have happened if we never see it take place in reality? or why would I need to accept anything that seems absurd just because someone claimed it at some point? there's clear logical guidelines to follow in a sea of information.
When you question things to have deeper understanding answers pop up, you will be presented with alternative solutions.
So, if I'm making a philosophical decision it might not matter if hard evidence is there to support the theory because I already know God exists, it's just a matter of what makes sense and what follows through with reality but again, some people might be surprised at how dynamic spirituality can get yet at the same time there's never any reason to steer away from logic, reason or commonsense.
On my religious mission, this was likely the greatest realization I came to. I so often wish I could just dump the understanding of this concept into another's brain.
Lol I feel you on that one. That's our curse as God lovers, we want everyone to experience what life has to offer on a spiritual level. Just keep yourself open to information and don't limit your beliefs to doctrine or dogma unless they are appropriate for application. And then you will always experience something you haven't before, don't hold anything back from God and God won't hold anything back from you. One thing people tend to trap themselves into, is lack of freedom. Religion (not referring to any particular) seems to have a knack for locking up a souls freedom in God, it's funny...they cleared the intellectual hurdle of whether or not God exists and now they have set themselves up behind barriers that limit their understanding of the Creator.
Far too frequently people aspire to perfection and think they see it among others so they only become increasingly discouraged. Making peace with one's imperfection and choosing to improve slowly, recognizing failures and seeing them as opportunities to grow for the future, is just incredible. Cultivation is a great description, very fitting. A slow, rewarding, painful, and gratifying process.
You come across as a down to earth, realistic and logical guy. Hopefully you contribute more to this section of the forum.
