Posted by COMF [COMF] on October 24, 1999 at 13:55:12 {f8eW6hUOe28btmTRbiCQoRa3VCcycQ}:
In Reply to: Atheism posted by Taita on October 24, 1999 at 11:54:06:
Well said, Taita. Your defend your position without animosity or condemnation. By my estimation I am an agnostic, although I expect that the boundaries between that and atheism are blurred and different with each individual, and that you, or many believers, anyway, would likely categorize me with the atheists. I don't mind; it's a simple term that can become a container referring generically to those who don't believe as you do. I also use the term "apostate" in reference to myself and others who left the WBTS for simplicity of reference to a wide group.
I am willing to believe in God. At the age of 46, I have yet to ever experience the thrill of knowing for certain that he was answering my cries to him. I have prayed, earnestly and doggedly and with utmost sincerity, for the majority of those years, for him to come to me personally and give me the peace and comfort and assurance that the bible says I would have. And in all that time of hoping I have constantly been communicating one-way only. Still no word, no feeling, no response from my loving Heavenly Father.
I am willing to believe. But I've stopped begging and crying out to him. I've spent most of my life until now doing that. He knows, by now, what I need. It's up to him whether he will provide or not.
In the meantime, I deal with reality as I perceive it. Part of that reality is the dead silence from the other side, and the stomach-churning disarray his representatives in earth are in.
COMF