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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Well I'm glad I was able to at least give you something to chew on. Please, do yourself a favor and at least visit professor Craig's website if you have a chance or read some of his papers online. He presents the argument far better than I could ever possibly hope to.
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Ok, we'll leave this one alone for now... Let me ask you this, do you believe that the universe is a closed or open system? Nothing in the Kalam argument directly counters the work of those individuals. This is how William Lane Craig lays it out on his website Reasonable Faith: "As a...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    The kalam argument does work under a closed system by assuming that the universe was creatio ex nihilo. Created from nothing. There was nothing. No transfer of energy or mass. Then there was a something. The universe... which is tending towards a state of equilibrium (that will happen in a...
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    What is known about the Gnostic Christians

    Almost all of the gnostic texts date centuries later than the New Testament, with most scholars dating them to the late 2nd, 3rd, and 4th century. The only text that may have existed earlier is the Gospel of Thomas which may have dated to the late 1st to mid 2nd century. Outside of a very small...
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    Blood transfusion from gay's

    Though the question asked is fairly clumsy, the thinking behind this is one that certain religious groups like Jehovah Witnesses struggle with. They take Paul's words to the Greeks in Acts to abstain from eating blood in the company of Jews (who were forbidden eating blood and strangled things)...
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    {Thread Moved} Bible translation: The Message

    Very interesting. Thanks for that tidbit of knowledge BereanTodd. :thumbsup:
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    "Once Upon a Time" and the Constraints on Belief

    First off, the punishment is self-imposed. We all sin, we all miss the mark. There are consequences for everything in life, because the universe and everything in it is governed by laws (material and spiritual). In God's greatness and mercy he's provided a way to escape the consequence of sin...
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    {Thread Moved} Bible translation: The Message

    The Message is more accurately described as a paraphrase than a translation. From that vantage point, I quite like it. In fact, it was The Message Bible that got my then girlfriend (now fiancee) to actually read the Bible as a new Christian who just made Jesus Lord. Bereantodd mentioned that the...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    No problem, take your time. In the meantime I'll take a shot at answering some of soul_biscuit's points. While this may be ultimately true, there aren't many options left on the table, and the Cosmological Argument leads naturally to the teleological argument (the argument from design). What we...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Ah, I see what you're trying to get at. Interesting way to begin your quest. I don't believe you've had the opportunity to explore all the available evidence yet though. You may want to check out J.P. Moreland's book "Scaling the Secular City" to begin with. It's a bit dated, but a good overall...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    No we can start here. I suppose what's confusing me about this line of thinking is that a "default position" is not necessarily a well reasoned position, it could simply be one based on one's own presuppositions and biases. What exactly does a default position prove about anything? Or was it...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Hope you haven't missed my last reply to you in this thread. For some reason it had to go through the moderator gauntlet before it got posted (must have something to do with post length considerations or something...?) Anyhow, I wanted to comment on a couple things you say in this post. First...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Sorry, double post.
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Hello again ragarth. I think I need to clarify something before we continue. I wasn't actually making an argument for God in those paragraphs you respond to here. What I was doing was simply trying to clarify that a default position for belief that a deity exists is not artificial, but...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    Thank you for the compliment. Ok. Well, I believe one needs to start someplace... You don't necessarily have to jump from acknowledging historical evidence in the Bible for people and places like Pilate and Asia Minor to believing that the Bible is the revealed word of God, but there comes a...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    The majority of these "contradictions" are absolutely silly issues dealing with a lack of understanding context and culture. A little time spent reading the Bible like the ancient collection of diverse pieces of literature that it is rather than reading it like it's something off of Oprah's book...
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    Establishing a default position on Deity

    The reason deism is the default position for most is that we come into this world acknowledging that everything seems to have a purpose and that every cause has an agent behind it. We have bagged lunches at school cause our moms prepared them that morning and packed them for us. We live in a...
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    What is the history of your Church?

    Very interesting thread topic. I'm not Catholic, but hope to eventually read all the early church fathers in the next couple years. So far only about half-way through 1st Clement. :)
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    The oldest Bible

    Oh wow, that early? Very interesting, thanks Radagast.
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    howdy folks

    Thank you for all the welcomes folks. Just one question, and I'm sure I missed it if it's posted someplace... Is there a way to easily see active threads I've recently posted in?