What would your doctor say?

Really? Than what was going on here? Demons?Acts 9:4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?Act 9:5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: [it is] hard for thee to kick against the pricks.Act 9:6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord [said] unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

I had a somewhat similar experience that was quite startling at the time. I was at college away from home and a steady girlfriend that I was convinced I would marry someday and was writing to religiously, a couple times a week. About a month into my sophomore year I was introduced to a woman at a function. As soon as I laid eyes on her the thought went through my mind, "This is the woman you are going to marry." Now I would not say it was a "voice" but it was very clear and it definitely came out of the blue because I immediately discounted it with the thought, "That is ridiculous, I am going to marry Linda" There was no strong physical attraction that I remember at the time, though she was attractive enough. Well guess what, Linda and I parted ways when I was home for Thanksgiving. About 6 months later the woman and I started dating and within 2 years we were married (still at it, coming up on our 34th anniversary). Just like that. I never said anything to her about it until after the wedding because frankly I was a little freaked out by the whole thing. I have never been of the mind that there is "one right person" for everyone but I have to say that this experience does give me pause. Do I think it was the voice of God? No I don't, but then I am not completely sure about that either.

How can you say that? Based on what? This is one of the things that I find baffling about many Christians on the more fundamentalist side of the spectrum. They will say they believe everything in the Bible and then turn around and say, "But god doesn't work that way anymore." I can see OT and NT differences, etc. And pre and post resurrection/Assencion. Maybe even pre and post Pentecost. But there is no basis in scripture for saying that the events similar to what happened in Acts do not occur today. It is just asserted and that is that. Frankly it seems to be a convenient way of making a literal reading of the Bible seem more rational in today's world.

Only if one equates religiocity and all of its trappings with "the Gospel".

It must be great to know what everyone else is thinking. Makes all of that conversation and debate completely unnecessary. Not to mention how much simpler the world is when everyone is in their neat little boxes - Christians/atheists, Creationists/Darwinists, Republicans/Democrats, Conservatives/Liberals. Good people/evil people, etc. Edited by deerbreh, : No reason given.

You really don't know what you are talking about. It is hard to know where to begin with someone who would lump all of these different religions and philosophies together as one and the same. And you really do not understand agnostism at all. It is not a religion and neither is atheism. You left out one distinct possibility, that you are an uneducated person in philosophy and religion who does not know what you don't know.

I don;t know what you are describing but it is not agnosticism. It is your cartoon version of agnosticism.

Both atheism and agnosticism are continuums so I don't think you can generalize in this way. Each person can only speak for their own beliefs. For example I am an atheist if we are talking about an omniscient, omnipotent God that intervenes as an OUTSIDE force in human history. I am a believer in a God who is present in humans and motivates humans to do good. I am an agnostic about the nature and extent of God'presence in animals and the rest of nature.