Christians say that God is experienced in the heart so why then?

Question

had so many people never heard of God until Imperialism brought the word of God to their countries?

I mean seriously, if God is everywhere Africa would already have known about him before Christian countries went there, as would the South American and North American Indians, the Maouris, Aborigines etc. Is it not a case that religion is learned and not innately known from brith?

For those arguing that they knew of God in one form or other then it shows that I am correct in saying religion is a learned behaviour. They learned to know the Christian God. If the Muslims had colonised Africa they would have learned to know Allah.

The point is that maybe people worship something to help them understand the world but it doesn't necessarily make it right.

Worshipping something like the moon or the sun is not due to a desire to worship something superior, it is to help them try to explain the world.

A drought happens so they worship the sun and pray to the rain god not to make it happen again. These people thought there was a connection to between events and things they couldn't explain so they tried to please these things (Sun, Moon, stars etc) in the same way you worship a king. Give the king a worthy gift and you won't be beheaded.

dewcoons, why did God spend 1500 years explaining everything to the Jews and then sent his Son who managed to explain everything in a few speeches and sermons, and over a few dinners with this apostles? Jesus also turned the OT on its head. Why would God waste 1500 years explaining something that he was going to turn on its head anyway?

Answer 1

Excellent question!!!

Yet another clear and simple, yet unanswerable question that will no doubt prompt lots of bible quotations and similar BS responses from the loony fringe!!

Anyone with any ability for logical thought will see the sense in what you say....and all believers will continue to ignore the truth.

Dewcoons..just read your "answer".....you are an imbecile!!!

Answer 2

All of these countries may not have heard of Yahweh, but they certainly have had their own gods. It is nothing new in this world to believe that there is a higher power that created and controls everything. If you think about it, atheism is a fairly new concept, if you are looking at civilization as a whole, because since the beginning of time, people have always wanted to have things to believe in. And that thing has always been a higher power. In the bible it tells us that EVERYONE will know about Jesus eventually. Isn't that happening now with missionaries and t.v. and internet and money spent on bibles to ship to other countries and so on and so forth?

Answer 3

I believe that God is a learned concept. Imagining Him will affect our horemonal levels, just like imagining anything big, personal and powerful. Or even small, inanimate and inconsequential.

That results apparently in "knowing God in the heart".

I think the theologians call it the "proof by potency", I call it the fallacy of the impotent and ignorant.

I can concieve of megatron, and experience a related emotional state. Likewise I can switch from god to god, here Odin, there Zeus, and they all affect my feelings. If I accepted the basic argument (that feelings provide valid evidence)I would still not know which one, which god (or faerie or unicorn) to pick.


Also one seems to have to learn of God through education, and then summon up His concept by an act of will, rather than He be ever presently there in our hearts.

I agree that it is therefore right to highlight the inconsistency of Christianity's spreading across he globe by means of conquest or preaching, rather than by universal intuition. The fact that the same can be hilighted for the spread of all other religions complements this reasoning where in our scepticism may lie.


To those who argue that knowledge of God is either innate or Universal:

I have no memory of being a theist as a child, and my first impression was as an athist or agnostic.

Nor do I know God now as an adult.

If we define knowledge as true justified belief, it would seem to me that all infants are incapable of theological "knowledge" as their minds are not yet properly adept at reasoning; and in the case of adults if one is a naturalist as I am there is no real justification for belief in God whether that belief be true or not.

One might justify one's belief using fables and myths, and perhaps get lucky at the end of the day, but asserting 'truth'in the context of belief in God - without playing the conventional game of offering independent and indubitable evidence or sound, valid, cogent and strong logical argument - is, in the sense of philosophically correct grammar (or using the word in the right place at the right time) a MISUSE of the word "truth".

Therefore neither children nor adults really know god to exist, unless they as I have said borrow the words (thuth or knowkledge) and use it or them out of place, like criminally using a trademark to give an impression that one's goods are of a certain superior quality.

When they are NOT.

And all the holy quotes in the world are quite unlikely to change these facts in the slightest.

And thefact that many people believe in something does not make it true. To argue that is called "argumentum ad populum".

Answer 4

You seem to be making that assumption that the Africans, South Americans, Indians, etc. did not have a religion. The artifacts recovered from those areas show that they did. It is not the same religion as found in other parts of the world, but it is a belief in "god(s)". To date, no society has been found that does NOT appear to have a belief in "god".

God has always been revelaing himself to every group of people. Some have understood him better then others, and have developed a more formal religion then others. But they have all known about him.

It was the Jewish people out of all the races which (finally) got it all right. So it is to them God was able to reveal more about himself then to the other groups. And because of that it was through them that he was able to come in human form as Jesus.

Romans chapter 1 covers all of that, explaining that the existence of God is known to every man. Those who ever have the chance to hear the whole revelation are judged by their obedience and committment to the parts they do know. That is because so much about God is innately known from birth - that includes (as Paul puts it) his divine power and righteous nature. Paul also says (see Romans 10) that they will not know all the details unless someone goes and preaches Christ to them.

Knowledge of God is universal, knowledge of religion and doctrine (the formal details of how it all works) is not. It took God 1500+ years to get it all explained to the Jews and written into the scriptures.

Answer 5

I like your point, it is very good.
God is present everywhere and inside of anything and everybody, that is why any person, of any country, any tradition, any culture can feel the Lord in they heart, because God , as Paramatmam, is located inside the heart of all living being.
The point that you said and it is very interesting, is that most people , really, don't actually realised God, don't have the experience of Him in they heart... they just believe on what others say, whatever be they ancestors , others cultures, etc.
So, to follow a religion, whatever it may be, on the basis of just believing, it is just ignorance. Religion is to realised we are spiritual soul, not the gross and subtle bodies and realised God - feel Him, see Him, touch him, etc by ourselves.

Answer 6

All those groups you spoke of have heard about God. They all had a Supreme God that they knew created everything. For some groups it was the sun. For others it was the earth. In Greece there was a monument in the Pantheon to the Unknown God. They did not know His name, but they knew that He existed. Now, not everyone knew this God because some people worshipped false gods as the supreme god.

Answer 7

I don't know about imperialism, but I do know that God was only revealed to a few before Jesus came, and those few were set apart to be Holy, unlike the evil nations around them, and so to draw others to God.
Isaiah 42:6 I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness: I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.....

When the Israelites failed to be a light to the Gentiles, Jesus came to make God available to all of us.
Those who never heard of Jesus were saved by the grace of God.

Answer 8

Religion is blatantly socialized from birth. That is why it's impossible to say which is correct, if any. Because they all have people who have had religious experiences (all of which are equally (in)valid to the unbiased observer), and they all have people who were raised in the religion and cannot concieve of anything but their own veracity.

"My god is better than your god!" :-P

Answer 9

Christians don't believe we are born knowing Christianity. Jesus sent the disciples into the world to preach the gospel to every peoples, nation and tongues. It is a matter of the heart because it is by an open heart that you hear the message of salvation through Christ, it is by your heart that you invite Him to be your Lord and Savior, it is through your heart that He dwells in you and it is by our hearts that we love Him and others.

Answer 10

They all worshiped something that was a higher being....some worshiped the sun, the Earth, so on...it is a inborn desire to look for something more superior to us