Dualism

What are you views on this topic?

I don't wish to denigrate anyone's closely held beliefs; either those of yourself or other folks of The Church, so I will make a cold and logical assessment of your four, and then try to recover things with my other thoughts.

"The created order around us -- this is the "Wow" effect when looking up at the stars

This created order, our Universe could be one in an infinite number of Universes, in which case we're a certainty to exist, not an unlikely happenstance.

The conviction in our hearts -- when we know we should not do something

Drummed into us as children - "behave, behave!" - guilt, etc.

The Bible -- as a written record of His work

Unfortunately contradictory and has the agenda of men all over it.

Jesus -- as a human reflection of God

A charismatic but ultimately mere mortal, used and abused by evil men for their own purposes."

I have two sides when it comes to faith, the logical side above (Spock) which is the side that does not truly believe, the side that does not truly trust, this is the side that buys financial insurance.

My other more emotional side (Bones) talks to God and Jesus on a daily basis, like a dialogue, borne out of living alone I bet. When something bad happens I ask for help, when something good happens I give thanks. This behaviour is so ingrained in me now that I don't think I'll ever be able to stop!

Where's Kirk in all this you may ask? I think he was the one kicked in the butt by the direct revelation as you put it.

+++

I read that and thought, "It can't be just by accident. It can't."

Funny to see you write that as that is exactly what I thought when the mother of my child, after giving birth, then gave birth to a life support system called a placenta. The complexity of this thing had me stunned, no one ever told me this was going to come out after the baby, or if they had, I had not appreciated that it would look so H R Giger-esque (of the movie "Alien" fame), I clearly remember thinking that this was designed and no-one was ever going to convince me otherwise.

But after reading how so much complexity can come from such simple rules (like "if you survive you get to breed"), I think that I had a failure of imagination. BUT that still doesn't answer "Why are we all here?" The answer to the "Why?" question in a LOGICAL Universe has to be God (or some intelligent creator), and that's why I choose to believe. If the Universe is not logical, which Quantum Mechanics is suggesting, then there doesn't have to be an answer to the "Why?" question and then no such God need exist in my opinion. Which is why Quantum Mechanics has to be wrong.