Happy Atheist Forum

how can i answer the question that was proposed to me "how come you can tell people who have the spark of god and people who don't?" the truth is i can tell. but i don't know what to say

What do you mean by the spark of god?  Do you mean people whom who can *know* are Christian without asking them?  If so, how can you possibly know without asking?  Lots of non-believers act in a way that believers would associate with the spark.

"Spark of god"?  Is this anything like the "spark" in transformers?  Cause if it is then my answer to the question is, "If they can transform into a truck, they have the spark of god."

Quote from: "laetusatheos"What do you mean by the spark of god?  Do you mean people whom who can *know* are Christian without asking them?  If so, how can you possibly know without asking?  Lots of non-believers act in a way that believers would associate with the spark.

i dunno man, you can just tell with some people.

"Spark of god..?"

If you are refering to telling a fundie on sight, that's not all that hard - just look for someone wearing a wannabe-serene mask while having a feverish quality to his eyes. Overly ornate crosses on overly simple chains around their necks tend to help too...  

I was fully under the assumtion that God was in everyone and everything, we all were created equal, that he love us equally wether we sin or not, and thus we all must contain "the spark of God." (15 he who forms the hearts of all,  who considers everything they do - psalm 33:15). However, I will admit that I too can tell the difference...in the very same way I can tell the difference from the schizophrenic and the used car salesman from most other people.

Answer: "Spark of God" is a meaningless phrase.

I've never been aware of such a spark...

Maybe God has oil in his spark plug.  

That's easy peasy :D

There's that idea that you gain a fair-to-decent impression of someone within the first 7 seconds of seeing them. I think it's true, in many ways.

Having spent a lot of time around Christians, I know this "spark" or which you speak.  It's nothing supernatural, but for awhile it was.  One of the gifts of God, the ability to divine spirits, much like the ability to speak in tongues, to interpret tongues, etc.  Boy, did I feel special while I was doing my evangelist stint.  My gift was divination of spirits, sure enough.  Taken to the extreme, the ability to see if people were of the faith and to see demons.  Fortunately in my particular variety, demons weren't at all common, so I didn't get committed.  I can't believe some of the stuff I, if not believed, indulged my mind on.  Anyway, to the heart of the matter.  People with particular world views tend to wear facial expressions a bit differently.  This is me talking out my rear, here, but I'd wager that depending on what muscle groups your face utilizes more often, your face shapes differently in a more static sense.   Many people can identify a pedophile by the way they smile (the FBI tried to lay out a set of criteria for this, but couldn't find one.  Still, when people are shown a series of pictures where half the people are pedophiles and half are different kinds of criminals, a statistically significant majority will correctly sort the two).   If someone says, "They had a light in their eyes," they tend to perceive it that way because the person keeps their eyes open wider.  If someone says, "They have a sharp gaze," they tend to be seeing either highly contrasted eyes, or the muscles around the eyes tensed, but not squinting.   Look at yourself in a mirror sometime and try keeping different muscle groups active while alternating expressions.   It's a bit difficult to make it look genuine, but when you can make yourself and other people see that "fundie spark" in your eyes, or that "you're looking straight through them," it's a bit amusing.  Much like I don't attribute a 1000-yard gaze to being an expression, I can easily tell a person has one.  We don't realize in our day-to-day lives just how much our faces say about us, our body language in general.  And all else aside, who's to call this the spark of god?  It could be a god painting targets for a long talk about false religions after they die and isn't any kind of evidence or proof of their beliefs, and this is even giving it the credit of being supernatural!!  But in short, not being aware of all your subconscious information processing doesn't mean it isn't there.  These folks just have different body language much like people who move confidently.

Hope this helped.