On Jul 9, 11:15 am, EskWI...@spamblock.panix.com wrote:

If by objective, you mean to say empirical, then the answer is
fairly straight forward when by empirical we strictly hold to
observation. I don't know anyone since Christ's day who claimed
to personally witness a theophany. Yet there again, "observation"
is closely related to "experience" wherein there is evidence for
"unnatural" occurrences to defy scientific and logical inquiry
let alone answer. I've personally known a man who was given
4 weeks to live because of wide spread cancer. No treatment
was even offered because of the extent and severity of the
case. But it became widespread knowledge among the churches
of the community with even a couple of all night prayer vigils
being held. He was later declared by several doctors to be
completely cleared of all cancer. That was maybe 15 yrs ago
and I don't recall any further details. But such a story is not
unheard of. It is "un-natural." The question remains as to
whether or not it was "Super-natural." Occam's razor is
often reduced to the common "All other things being equal,
the simplest solution is the best." Because the concept of
a Supreme Being is universal down through history, the
most often conclusion would be that such things are a
demonstration of Divine intervention.

But experience gets rather subjective, does it not? Yet
that being said, how else would explain my own experience
back in 1977 during spring break, driving from Chicago to
Dallas. I and a colleague were in my little Fiat 124 Spyder
traveling south of Little Rock on a two lane highway that
was suppose to lead us back to the major highway we had
been traveling on. It was deserted. Suddenly my car
just stopped running. The radio didn't work. Nothing
electrically worked. Something of a car buff, it completely
baffled me because even a way ward battery connection
would not have sufficient cause. We slowly came to
a stop on the side of the road, each looking at one another
thinking, "Now what?" Our thoughts were soon answered
as all kinds of debris came flying at my beautiful little
Italian stallion. We prayed and it all stopped and the car
started back up without even a twist of the key. My
friend and I were attending Moody Bible Institute at the
time and were both interested in canvassing Dallas
Theo Sem. His background was European where he
and his family had a history of being active in the
occult. He had some amazing stories and after leaving
MBI, became involved in helping others who were
coming out of similar circumstances.

So how does one explain such occurrences?

There IS something inside each one of us that has relation to
true moral guilt. I didn't mean to imply that everyone has a
definitive understanding of what they "know." But if history is
of any witness, man has been "religious" from the beginning
of recorded time. In my studies of the ancient mystery
religions from Rome, back to Greece, back to the many
Egyptian dynasties, back to Assyrian beliefs, finally to
Babylonian origins, even in my studies of occult activities
in old Europe and in SEA as well as in Indonesia and
So. America, every culture had a system that honored
or feared some deity. That is far and away the "norm."
Atheism, defined in modern terms, is truly a very
minute system.

Obviously. First off, no man can know "everything about
everything." There's that incomprehensibility factor again. And
as scripture itself states, only the spirit of a man knows the
innermost thoughts of a man. However, the reality is, "As
a man thinketh, so he is." i.e. Actions speak louder than
words. And as I have just noted, the historical evidence
bears the fact that men have always held to some view of
God. It is part of our make-up.

All I have time for tonight -I teach on Wed nights....