Share your most life changing faith moment

[Mole]

Gabrielle Roth makes sense.

Massage will teach you the meaning of touch. Why not enrol in a massage course, and learn how to touch others without arguing and without laughing aloud. It may change your life. You could learn baby massage. You could learn how to touch your friends. And you could even learn how to massage your pets.

But touch is only one of the five neglected senses. For instance, you could learn the meaning of the proprioceptive sense by enrolling in a dance class. I wouldn't suggest a conventional dance teacher, but someone like Gabrielle Roth.

And there are three more senses for you to explore.

If you want to make sense of life, the first thing to do is to come to your senses.

 

[Coriolis]

I've had several life-changing faith moments. The first was when I realized I had abandoned completely the faith of my childhood. Little by little over a period of several years I had discarded it, layer by layer, until nothing was left. I was in Vienna on my way back from a summer study program, sitting in a cathedral in the city, just enjoying the peace and coolness and the images in the stained glass windows. I considered the faith that had inspired the construction of this grand edifice, and for the first time, felt it as something entirely foreign to me. I asked myself then: just what did I believe, anyway? The answer was that I believed in God, no more, no less. It was inspired less by any internal sense and more by the writings of great scientists of old -- Newton, Galileo, Copernicus -- in which study of the natural world came across as learning about God by studying his creation.

Just what this God was like, and what it meant for my life remained unknown. This simple belief, though, both sustained and tantalized me for a period of several years, a very dry spell for me spiritually. Eventually I stumbled across a series of books that were almost like the clues of a scavenger hunt, each leading me to the next, and ultimately to the faith I hold now. The reading and reflection on these were also faith-changing moments.

 

[Fluffywolf]

"Oh sweety, santa clause isn't real..." (Well, technically it was Sinterklaas, but the concept is the same.)

 

[Zarathustra]

OK, I'm gunna break one of my cardinal rules, and actually try to engage you in rational discourse... please don't make me regret this...

May I be brutally frank with you?

I don't believe you wish to engage me in rational discourse. I believe you wish to engage me in an argument.

Actually, Victor, while I can (somewhat) understand where you're coming from in believing that I simply want to argue, as the majority of my posts to you have been pointing out blatant inconsistencies between what you say and what you do, the truth is: I really did (and do still) want to engage you in rational discourse here.

Unfortunately, you didn't reciprocate.

I, frankly, don't know what a double-blind experiment to test for the soundness of MBTI would look like.

When I hear about double-blind testing, it's usually in reference to a placebo treatment and a real treatment being given to some group of individuals.

As such, as I said, considering I've heard you use this double-blind testing line about MBTI on many occasions, I was hoping you could share some knowledge with me.

That was my genuine desire. Not to argue.

And I'd say that it falls well within the bounds of being called rational discourse.

What does not, unfortunately, fall well within the bounds of rational discourse was your response.

So I've seen you use this line like ten times before: but what kind of double blind experiment would you recommend?

It seems to me there's no definitive way to prove type, so how would you set it up?

As I understand it, there is only one kind of random double blind experiment that would meet scientific criteria.

And these criteria are clearly set out in any book on Psychometrics.

So, as you seem to imply here that you have the knowledge of how this double-blind experiment would be set up: could you please explain how it would work?

That would actually be engaging in rational discourse.

Thanks,
Z

 

[gromit]

What do rep comments have to do with it?

 

[Vie]

It seems a bit silly now that I look back on it, but it was when I was eleven years old. I had been forced up until that point to go to church every Sunday and attend Parish School of Religion once a week instead of going to catholic school. My grandpa was extremely ill and I remember praying every night, wishing on every star, bridge, eyelash, praying some more, begging God and whatever powers that be there were to make him better. The church was being redone and I remember it was just me and my dad who went to church that Sunday, it being in the gymnasium instead. I don't think I've ever prayed so hard in my life -- I remember coming back, being elated knowing that God would help my grandpa. I had just sat down on the couch when the phone rang - my grandpa had died while we were in church.

From that moment on, my faith has not been the same -- if I even have any. I tend not to dwell on it for very long.

 

[Nicodemus]

God obviously got it wrong.

 

[Coriolis]

I don't think I've ever prayed so hard in my life -- I remember coming back, being elated knowing that God would help my grandpa. I had just sat down on the couch when the phone rang - my grandpa had died while we were in church.

I don't know the specifics of the situation, so discard my comment if it does not apply, but perhaps God did help your Grandpa, just not in the way you envisioned. I no longer pray for specific outcomes for others in trying times, because I'm not sure I always know what the best outcome is for them. Even in situations that seem obvious: someone gravely ill should recover; someone who lost a job should find another; someone in a bad relationship should leave it (or is part of the fault theirs, and they should work on it). Are these, indeed, the best outcomes for the affected people, or does God/the Universe/Life/whatever have something else in store? I usually just pray for "God" to give the person what they need to deal with their present difficulty.