XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: fwbrown@bellsouth.net   
      
   In alt.fan.tolkien Bill O'Meally  wrote:   
   > On 2014-06-04 16:19:11 +0000, Wayne Brown said:   
   >   
   >> Yet it still comes down to belief.  As far as I'm concerned the existence   
   >> of God (specifically, the Christian God) is a fact.   
   >   
   > The only fact is that Christians believe in the existence of God. The   
   > existence of God is a belief.   
      
   The existence of God is not itself a belief, but there are varying beliefs   
   about the existence of God.  If God exists then that is a fact, whether   
   anyone believes it or not.  If God does not exist then THAT is a fact,   
   whether anyone believes it or not.  Belief helps determine what facts   
   we accept; it does nothing to establish the existence (or nonexistence)   
   of those facts.   
      
   My belief in God is based on three things: partly on evidence, partly on   
   logical argument (I consider the arguments of C.S. Lewis in books like   
   "Mere Christianity," "The Abolition of Man" and "The Problem of Pain"   
   to be irrefutable), but mostly on faith.  I also believe that faith has   
   a supernatural origin ("Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word   
   of God") and that it is by far the most important of the three factors   
   in my belief, so I don't claim to be able to "prove" the existence of   
   God apart from faith.   
      
   --   
   F. Wayne Brown    
      
   Þæs ofereode, ðisses swa mæg.  ("That passed away, this also can.")   
      from "Deor," in the Exeter Book (folios 100r-100v)   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)