Originally Posted by
arcura
NeedKarma,
I believe in a God I should worship and THAT gives me great joy and happiness that you cannot experience.
There is nothing. NOTHING, that compares with the awesomeness of God.
Only a person who believes in God can know that.
Peace and kindness,
Fred
I do not think Arcura is disputing your happiness or what others may experience. But it is true that HIS JOY AND HAPPINESS IS OF A TYPE AND HAS CERTAIN CHARACTERISTICS ONLY UNDERSTANDABLE BY THOSE WHO SHARE HIS BELIEF, as I do.
This only means that his happiness and joy ARE DIFFERENT to the happines and joy experience by someone who does not believe as he does. He is not saying that his happiness is better than yours. But his assert is that his happiness has one component that you -because of your atheism- cannot imagine. Because believing in GOD as we do
Gives us a kind of peace of mind very difficult to attain without any beliefs.
At the beginning of our Spanish Civil War (1936/1939) I was 11 years old. The 19th of July (when the war started in Barcelona) was a Sunday and I was attending Mass at our parish with my grandmother.
Suddenly, a group of 6 or 7 anarchists stormed into the church with their guns and pistols and went straight to the altar to get hold of the 3 priests that were currently celebrating the Mass.
They took them out into the square by the church and, while all the people remained inside the church not daring to do anything, a few boys like me went out into the street to see what was going to happen.
The priests were standing against the wall of the church with the assassins pointing their guns to them.
The one who commanded the group shouted that if they wanted to save their lives ALL they had to do was to renege of their God and claim aloud it was an invention of the church (which is what some people still say right now).
The 2 younger priests fell down on their knees crying and saying that God was a lie and didn't exist at all.
But the vicar, who was around 40, stretched out his arms as in a cross, smiled at the gunmen, and while saying he forgave them he begged them to shoot him...
Which they did, right away in front of a few horrified persons and us. I never forgot that terrible moment.
Now, the 2 young priests started to run yelling and we never saw them again. Their faith was weak and they were probably thinking of the kind of earthy happiness you are referring to, which is perfectly legitimate, but not good enough to enjoy the other one.
The other one, to which Arcura is referring to, is of course what the Vicar was savouring an enjoying in sweet anticipation. And this is why he was smiling before dying and forgiving his executioners. His Faith was actually telling him that in a few more seconds he would be enjoying a PERFECT HAPPINESS that stands no comparison with anything down here.
The same happiness that made the primitive Christians sing when they were facing the lions at the Roman Circus...
It is not a matter of courage but of FAITH with capital letters.
Mark 11:22-24 22 says: Jesus said to them in reply, "Have faith in God.
Amen, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it shall be done for him. Therefore I tell you, all that you ask for in prayer, believe that you will receive it and it shall be yours.
This verse of the Bible is the origin of the adage "Faith move mountains" and it is true to explain what someone can do when he/she REALLY has faith.
And I'm not actually referring only to Christians but to whoever who has TRUE FAITH in something supernatural.
This is the difference between your kind of happiness (perfectly honest and suitable for you) and Arcura's (or mine) which is entirely different because
IS NOT BASED ON THE MATERIAL THINGS OF THIS WORLD.
You may, of course, claim that we are daydreamers. And I am even willing to accept that possibility... But boy! I can assure you it is SOME daydreaming..! :):):)