When it comes to God, do you practice contempt prior to investigation?

Here is a small segment of Gravity True For You But Not For Me: Evidence for God Existence and Identity

The entire book can be downloaded and read for free at www.god-evidence-truth or on Amazon here

http://www.amazon.com/Gravity-True-You-But-ebook/dp/B006XG0ID4/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326574922&sr=1-1


Jury Box
Since we determined that truth is important to you, I believe you really want to know if the facts say God exists and the Bible is true, once and for all. To do so, you must be willing to consider the evidence in an honest and impartial manner. When it comes to God, many practice “contempt prior to investigation.” This has nothing to do with the evidence or the truth of the subject at hand. It’s about rejecting something based upon emotions or as an act of the will, prior to an honest and impartial examination of the facts."There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against
all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance-that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer a 19th century philosopher adapted from and earlier quote from William Paley an 18th century British theologian In A View of the Evidences of Christianity , 1794, popular phrase in AA.


To make an impartial decision, you need to set aside any thoughts of how God may have let you down, how a Christian may have hurt you or any negative feelings about church. If you were forced to go to church as a kid and are using this as an excuse to reject God, you are allowing
those who controlled you then, to control you now, by using their errors as an
excuse to ignore the facts. If your life is a disaster and every Christian you have
ever met failed in your eyes, it does not prove the Bible and Jesus are false. You
also need to understand that Christians do not claim to be Jesus and thus
perfect, we claim to need Jesus because we recognize our imperfections.

As you consider the evidence, your goal is to see if it’s convincing beyond a reasonable doubt. A reasonable doubt is based on reason and common sense after an impartial examination of all the evidence in the case. Very little in life is convincing beyond all possible doubt including
the evidence you are about to view. The truth is, if we lived our lives
requiring proof beyond all possible doubt before making decisions, we would
remain paralyzed in bed. There is no guarantee our car won’t crash, our food
isn’t contaminated or our neighbor isn’t going to shoot us. Even in the most
conclusive cases offering the best evidence, jurors often walk away with a
measure of doubt regarding their decision.

Contempt prior to investigation and wanting proof beyond all possible doubt are really about our will and desire to ignore the truth and do as we want, answering to no one. In interviewing a
young man named Sly who claimed to be an atheist, I found he had no evidence to
support his atheism. This is common for most atheists I’ve met, but since they
are claiming to know that God does not exist, they need to back it up. I like
to point out to atheists like Sly that our best minds admit mankind knows far
less than ten percent of all knowledge in the universe. So if a person is
reasonable, they must admit that God could exist in the 90 percent we know
nothing about. Three times in our conversation Sly got honest and said, “I just
don’t want there to be a God.” To which I replied, “So what, if it’s true, what
you want won’t matter.” With Sly’s attitude do you think he would look at the
evidence impartially or look for ways to continue to justify his choices? If you have thoughts like Sly you must understand, ignoring the truth won’t make it go away. The best thing we can do
is face the truth now so we won’t collide with its consequences in eternity.

“Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time,
but it ain't goin' away.” Elvis Presley. www.thinkexist.com