He Walks With Me and He Talks With Me

[SallyF]

He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today!

He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.

He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart!

You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.

Given that hearts pump blood.

And given that images like the one above are produced through human imagination.

And given that a walking, talking Jesus is NEVER shown to exist anywhere OTHER than in human imaginations …

May we acknowledge that Jesus is just an imaginary friend …?

[bjs]

[Replying to SallyF]

Please provide evidence that a Christian’s experience of God is only in his or her imagination.

Without that, you are just preaching.

[Zzyzx]

.

Please provide evidence that a Christian’s experience of God is only in his or her imagination.

Reading carefully what SallyF said:

And given that images like the one above are produced through human imagination.

And given that a walking, talking Jesus is NEVER shown to exist anywhere OTHER than in human imaginations …

May we acknowledge that Jesus is just an imaginary friend …?

1) She correctly states that the image presented is the product of human imagination.

2) She correctly states that “a walking, talking Jesus is NEVER shown to exist anywhere OTHER than in human imaginations�

Care to dispute either of these? If so, state your case.

3) She asks if we can “acknowledge that Jesus is just an imaginary friend?� – which is a question – not a claim – and is decidedly NOT preaching.

4) She did NOT say “a Christian’s experience of God is only in his or her imagination�. That is your straw-man -- attempting to argue against what was NOT stated.

[myth-one.com]

May we acknowledge that Jesus is just an imaginary friend …?

Perhaps not.

Imagine holding a frail child in your arms. He may be sick, have skinny arms and legs, suffers from malnutrition, exhaustion, possibly separated from his or her family, as he stares pleadingly into your eyes.

At that moment he knows that someone cares for and loves him, and you sense that.

According to the scriptures, you are looking into the eyes of the Lord:

34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Wanna look into the eyes of the Lord Jesus?

Opportunities abound in the USA, starting at the US/Mexico border.

[brunumb]

[Replying to post 4 by myth-one.com]

Imagine holding a frail child in your arms. He may be sick, have skinny arms and legs, suffers from malnutrition, exhaustion, possibly separated from his or her family, as he stares pleadingly into your eyes.
At that moment he knows that someone cares for and loves him, and you sense that.

You can create all sorts of realities using the imagination. They may not necessarily conform to actual reality. Holding a real child that is looking into your eyes is a far cry from imagining an invisible Jesus exchanging loving gazes with you.

[Divine Insight]

Please provide evidence that a Christian’s experience of God is only in his or her imagination.

This is actually quite easy. Christians who make this claim do not agree with each other on what they believe Jesus supports or rejects in terms of morality and/or behavior. Therefore they cannot be talking with a single coherent and consistent deity.

Maybe some of them are and some of them aren't, you may say?

How unimpressive! The problem is that Christians can't even get small groups of people together who agree on every moral issue. So that's the problem. They clearly cannot be walking and talking with the same entity if they can't even agree on what that entity has to say or which moral concepts he would agree with or disagree with.

So the proof that none of them are actually in contact with any supernatural deity is pretty obvious.

They simply can't even agree with each other on what they would like Jesus to support or condemn.

So trying to keep this fantasy alive truly isn't even an option.

[Willum]

[Replying to SallyF]

Please provide evidence that a Christian’s experience of God is only in his or her imagination.

Without that, you are just preaching.

What could be easier?
There are many nontheists who hear nothing.
There are many Judaists who don’t hear Christ.
There are many other theists who don’t hear God’.

There are many Christians who don’t hear God.
There are many Christians who hear God say different things.

With these perspectives, a reasonable person concludes it is all in the imagination.
QED.

[Menotu]

[Replying to post 1 by SallyF]

Sure
And it that fits someone's chosen lifestyle, great!
If not, that's (or rather, should be) great also.
Sadly, not everyone can be content with themselves enough to allow others their own belief system. I suppose they lack the faith the pontificate about so often.

[SallyF]

[Replying to post 1 by SallyF]

Sure
And it that fits someone's chosen lifestyle, great!
If not, that's (or rather, should be) great also.
Sadly, not everyone can be content with themselves enough to allow others their own belief system. I suppose they lack the faith the pontificate about so often.

If we acknowledge that the Jesus of today can never be demonstrated as anything more than an imaginary friend …

Then we need to distinguish very clearly between delusion and downright deception …

And whether we have self-delusion and self-deception …

Or mass delusion …

And the deliberate deception of others.

Especially if we are peddling the Jesus propaganda as the "Word of God" …

And not admitting to the faith community that we cannot demonstrate that the possibly fictional Jesus character is anything more than an imaginary friend …

Or that we cannot demonstrate that so much as a word of the "Word of God" emanated form anyone's version of "God".

For me …

Unwitting delusion is one thing.

Deliberate deception is quite another.

[marco]

May we acknowledge that Jesus is just an imaginary friend …?

A little more, maybe. He's the incarnation of unfulfilled promise. With him, if you close your eyes when passing a graveyard, there is no death. He has redeemed the man up the road who killed his wife. He is even as I write busy rearranging heaven's furniture in preparation for the arrival of his long dead friends. What a guy!


If we don't want to credit Jesus with the many gifts we have, we could turn to Rudyard Kipling for a more sensible view:


"I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who."