Comments on: Learning to Discern http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/2008/12/learning-to-discern/ Two guys thinking out loud about life beyond the box of institutional religion Tue, 29 Jun 2010 21:43:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: William Tyndale http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/2008/12/learning-to-discern/comment-page-1/#comment-2646 William Tyndale Thu, 29 Jan 2009 22:40:21 +0000 http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/?p=29#comment-2646 This is quite a loaded podcast. I'm not going to say much (and since you have the standard "thinking out loud" disclaimer, you're probably already safe) but I will say this is something I've struggled over for a long time. It touches SO many different subjects that this is really something that needs to be dealt with in more detail. I think one of the concerns around today is that there are so many different people hearing so many different things out there that any sort of acquiescing to anything that is delivered under a banner other than Christian is always wrong. So when someone hears "Ghandi", the automatic reaction is to turn the other way. But I think it more accurately addresses the question "Why look to such sources for truth in the first place?". But then I guess the rejoinder is that one need not look in such places, but simply hear the Holy Spirit at all times in all situations... Did you ever answer the question in more detail than that? This is quite a loaded podcast. I’m not going to say much (and since you have the standard “thinking out loud” disclaimer, you’re probably already safe) but I will say this is something I’ve struggled over for a long time. It touches SO many different subjects that this is really something that needs to be dealt with in more detail.

I think one of the concerns around today is that there are so many different people hearing so many different things out there that any sort of acquiescing to anything that is delivered under a banner other than Christian is always wrong. So when someone hears “Ghandi”, the automatic reaction is to turn the other way. But I think it more accurately addresses the question “Why look to such sources for truth in the first place?”.

But then I guess the rejoinder is that one need not look in such places, but simply hear the Holy Spirit at all times in all situations…

Did you ever answer the question in more detail than that?

]]> By: sidfaiwu http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/2008/12/learning-to-discern/comment-page-1/#comment-407 sidfaiwu Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:37:04 +0000 http://www.beyondtheboxpodcast.com/?p=29#comment-407 Hello Steve and Raborn, So the answer to "how can believers be sure that what they are hearing/seeing is truth?" is the Holy Spirit? Now I've heard that before, but have received disparate and sometimes conflicting descriptions of what, exactly, it is. How is the Holy Spirit distinguishable from a regular human conscience that almost every human has, regardless of religious belief? How can it be distinguished from any other subconscious process such as intuition, feelings, imagination, etc.? "This idea of what is true just popped in my head. Is it my own subconscious, with all of it's confirmation bias, or is it the Holy Spirit?" Do Christians even ask that question? By the way, even as a non-believer, I enjoy C.S. Lewis's apologetic (though I don't care for his fiction - his metaphors are too transparent): http://www.sidfaiwu.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/mere-morality-true-insights/. Now I can't wait for next weeks ;) Hello Steve and Raborn,

So the answer to “how can believers be sure that what they are hearing/seeing is truth?” is the Holy Spirit? Now I’ve heard that before, but have received disparate and sometimes conflicting descriptions of what, exactly, it is. How is the Holy Spirit distinguishable from a regular human conscience that almost every human has, regardless of religious belief? How can it be distinguished from any other subconscious process such as intuition, feelings, imagination, etc.? “This idea of what is true just popped in my head. Is it my own subconscious, with all of it’s confirmation bias, or is it the Holy Spirit?” Do Christians even ask that question?

By the way, even as a non-believer, I enjoy C.S. Lewis’s apologetic (though I don’t care for his fiction – his metaphors are too transparent): http://www.sidfaiwu.com/blog/index.php/2008/01/mere-morality-true-insights/.

Now I can’t wait for next weeks ;)

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