What reason is there to think a God exists outside our minds? It is a matter of faith — which means there really is no proof, and if you lack faith there is a God, or have faith there is none, there is no convincing way to persuade otherwise. I once told a member of the praise team at my home church that I could see it reflected on her face when singing, as the sun is reflected off the moon — in other words, sometimes I can see in another that they see something I don't experience directly. Could it be delusion? Sure, but I've seen it in disparate times and places, and sensed that it was real. Personally, I have a distinct sense that in a modest way someone is looking out for me, because by cold indifferent statistical chances, with the oddball resume I've lived through, I should be homeless on the street, but what I needed always came along. But perhaps the closest thing to empirical evidence is the Big Bang Theory. The fact that after centuries of increasingly acute observation, astronomy came up with evidence that our universe came into existence at a single moment in time, in a tremendous burst of electro-magnetic energy, after which the light separated from the darkness (it's called the surface of last scattering in cosmology) leads to an obvious question: How did Moses find out about that, over 3000 years before the Hubble telescope and the COBE satellite?

This is encouraging, though. I look forward to our dialog. At the very least, I hope we can come to a better understanding of one another's position. I hope to reply to your above comments soon.

From your statement "…most of us, AS PROFESSING CHRISTIANS (or anyone else for that mater), do not really know how to love God", I conclude you or the people being addressed don't know what God is. There may be other reasons to believe people aren't loving God correctly. While I know what I believe, I admit I do not know what you believe and certainly don't know why. Which is why I am posting here.

My point is that as professing Christians or not, "loving God" or contemplating God's will or speaking for God is demonstrably similar to loving one's self or contemplating one's own will or speaking for one's self and that as an individual's beliefs change their perseption of God also changes. The link bears directly to that point. As the Psalmist said "where can I go that you are not there?" this is a well known Biblical example of the phenomena explained in the link above. There is a scientific, rational explanation for humanity's differing and ever changing perception of God.

My assertion is that people don't really know how to love God because their perception of God is always changing and is changing to reflect their own personal beliefs. While this bears on the issue of God's existence, it also explains why God is so unfathomable and yet so approachable and in the end approves our preconceived notions. It explains why there are so many religions on Earth and why there are so many Christian denominations and sects and cults. It explains why no two people believe in God the same way and why they may love God or exhibit that love diferently.

On what basis do you assert that there is a "correct" or "better" way to love God? If "most… do not really know…", than SOME MUST know. My money is on the author knowing, or at least asserting to know, and that he is part of the SOME who do.

Let me apologize again for being blunt and offensive. I will endeavor to be more platonic in the future and unfortunately more verbose.

Further, you have misunderstood if you thought yourself to be the intended audience of this post. The quote above clearly states, "…most of us, AS PROFESSING CHRISTIANS, do not really know how to love God" (emphasis addded).

That said, you obviously think that I love God because I am ignorant. Point taken.

http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/11/...

Your perception of God mirrors your own world view, and as it changes so does your perception of God. It has been called self projection as God, the ultimate sock puppet, your best friend inside your head. What evidence is there for a God to love, but ignorance?