Quote from NeoRio1:
There is such a thing as a conservative who knows it is impossible to actually know there is a god or not.
Don't you know why believing in a god is called faith?
Here is why knowing GoD takes faith...for those swallowed up by faith-based phenomena. "The universe" is a faith-based phenomena...is maintained by faith...and is exited by faith. "The universe" is the proverbial "belly of the whale" of which Jesus spoke. Escape requires going back out the labyrinth the way one came into the labyrinth. What comes by faith goes by faith.
To understand faith, understand first that desire precedes the phenomenon of faith, which is unnatural to the One who knows. The universe is the evidence of a
desire to "know" more than knowledge itself. What is beyond knowledge cannot be "known", but only believed. Knowledge is an attribute of reality. When what is believed is made to seem "real", it is thought to be known or knowable. But anything "known" about "the universe" is ultimately uncertain...believed...percieved...based on probabilities, not certainties...based on appearances, not truth.
To "know thySelf" is to know thySelf as the totality of certain knowledge itself. This means that "the universe" is evidence of a desire to
know not thySelf. Knowing not, you "know not" what you do. In the realm of know not, you can not know anything until you desire to know everything.
Before the desire to know not...or, "know" beyond knowledge, there was no evidence of anything other than the totality of Self, which is everything, equal to GoD. That desire has virtually obliterated certain knowledge of Self, hence, of GoD. There is
no evidence of thy Self in "the universe" which is set up to deny thy Self. To that extent, the endeavor to deny thy Self has been successful. If you wait for evidence of Self to change your desire that there be no evidence of Self, then you will wait virtually forever. The way back to "know thy Self" must begin with desire, regardless the apparent lack of evidence.
Your desire for "the universe" will keep you in it, uncertain of anything at all...not knowing anything. In this way, desire is king, and you always get what you desire...what you "want". I repeat, "the universe" is the expression of a desire to not know anything, to be uncertain, to deny any evidence whatsoever that you are who you are: the totality of everything real. "The universe" is evidence of a desire to "know" what is impossible to know. So it is a desire to not know anything. Get it? What is called "knowledge" in such a world, is actually just an accumulation of
learning. It is not true knowledge.
Knowing is a pre-faith reality. A couple of its attributes are:
A. Total [complete, whole, unlearned]
B. Certain, without doubt
The world of intelligent design is what is beyond knowledge...therefore beyond "you". What is beyond knowledge is the unknown, the land of learning and adapting. Evolution is an expression of learning/adapting beyond knowledge. It is evidence of thought...thinking about what is beyond you...what is nOt you.
The world is a single self-concept expressed as many self-concepts. It is a concept of what you are not.
The question then will boil down to this:
What do you want?
You will be fooled by your desire, or released by your desire accordingly. Faith will follow your desire and cause the realms of the unknown to yeild evidence that you are on the true path back to "know thy Self".
Again, what do you want?
To be thy Self, or not to be? That is the question.
Christ!