How has scientific knowledge affected your faith?

Are you no longer a Christian because of things you learned from science?


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Hoghead1

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It has somewhat changed the way I see the Bible, but then my (European) Christian school taught evolution anyway, so meeting for the first time the American/Christian rejection of evolution was very strange.
Yes, I can well appreciate that. The big flap over evolution and religion was resolved by the end of the nineteenth century, in England. Most Christians do in fact accept evolution. The only one exception is the American Bible Belt. That shows the sad fact of how behind the times America can be. The problem is that Europe, not America, use to be the leading intellectual and scientific world. While research and great debates went on in Europe over evolution and other major scientific matters, we, in America, were busy with other matters, conquering the frontier, etc. We really had some catching up to do. Not until the end of WW2 did we emerge as the major scientific Mecca of the free world. Some of us Americans still have some catching up to do.
 
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Simmo11

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When you are ready to provide us with an actual valid reason why claims about physical reality shouldn't be submitted to scientific scrutiny, I'm all ears.
He won't because he can't that's why he said "bye".
 
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DogmaHunter

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In philosophy, naturalism is the "idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world." - Wikki

I don't care. I just told you that I don't adhere to such an -ism, and I doubt anyone here does. I'm guessing most wouldn't.

What part of "For in six days the Lord created the heavens and the earth" requires interpretation? The interpretation is in using the theories of man to re-define the words of the Lord.

Well, there are thousands of denominations of christianity. Each with their own interpretation of their religion. You should perhaps ask them.



Demonstrated to whom?

Anyone interested.
You asserted that the supernatural exists and said that I deny it.
I then asked when and how the existence of that things has been demonstrated.
It seems you can't answer that.

That means your bare assertion is just that: a bare assertion. With no supportive evidence.

Many of the those in this forum have experienced the supernatural, and have written of their encounters. It is the height of ignorance to simply ignore all these stories, close your eyes and say "I haven't seen anything."

1. when I only have their "stories" to go on, then how is it "ignorant" for me to say that "i haven't seen anything"? I didn't see anything, now did i? Since the only information I have is what these people TELL me. Do you expect me to just believe them? Do you always believe whatever people tell you?

2. you ignore every such or similar "experience" testimony from followers of all other religions. You also probably ignore the "testimonies" of people who have seen Big Foot, Yeti's, the Loch Ness monster or of alien abductees etc. Right?

Clearly, you know how it is to not simply believe whatever people tell you. I'm sure you encounter situations quite regurarly where you hear someone make some claim and offer no evidence for it, after which you walk away not believing what the person told you. So don't act so surprised when people do exactly that, just because it happens to be about claim that YOU happen to be buying into.

Do you have any idea how many MILLIONS of people must be lying for you to be right??

I've already addressed this.
I think most people are honest about these testimonies.
I don't deny people's experiences. Some are surely lying, just for attention, but I think most aren't. But people are easily mistaken.
For example...

upload_2016-4-29_10-28-34.png


People might see this and absolutely believe that it is an animated GIF and testify in all honesty that image is moving. But it's not. It's a still image.

These people wouldn't be lying. They would absolutely believe that the image is a moving image. They'ld just be mistaken about it.

You have no clue what you're talking about.

lol, what?
So you're of the opinion that people aren't prone to make mistakes?
People are always correct when interpreting things they witnessed or think to have witnessed?

I could give you a LONG list of the testimony of atheists who actually encountered the supernatural, but you wouldn't believe them.

I could give you a LONG list of the testimony of people who were abducted by aliens and had weird sex experiments performed on them while on a space ship, and I wouldn't believe them either.

And I'ld guess that you wouldn't either.
 
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Ophiolite

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KWCrazy quoted wikipedia "In philosophy, naturalism is the "idea or belief that only natural (as opposed to supernatural or spiritual) laws and forces operate in the world."
DogmaHunter responded
I don't care. I just told you that I don't adhere to such an -ism, and I doubt anyone here does. I'm guessing most wouldn't.

To supplement that post, this observation: science currently follows a philosophy not of naturalism, but methodological naturalism. The importance of this distinction is that methodological naturalism does not rule out the possible role of the supernatural in the world, but declares science is not fitted to investigate the supernatural, but will carry out investigations of those phenomena that are seemingly natural. Thus far, the approach has worked rather well.
 
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AV1611VET

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The framers of the constitution were unbelievers then.
I don't care if they were Martians.

To kick the Bible out of school, then complain you don't know the difference between allegory, literal, or obsolete in the Bible is like banning vehicles, then complaining you can't get a driver's license.
 
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Hetta

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I don't care if they were Martians.

To kick the Bible out of school, then complain you don't know the difference between allegory, literal, or obsolete in the Bible is like banning vehicles, then complaining you can't get a driver's license.
You can whine about your right to openly carry guns and have free speech and then ignore the separation of church and state. Well you can, but you won't be taken seriously.
 
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AV1611VET

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You can whine about your right to openly carry guns ...
Sorry.

I believe in strict gun control.

Both hands on the handle, finger on the trigger.
Hetta said:
Well you can, but you won't be taken seriously.
I could say Jesus walked on water and not be taken seriously.
 
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Hetta

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Sorry.

I believe in strict gun control.

Both hands on the handle, finger on the trigger.
I could say Jesus walked on water and not be taken seriously.
Completely avoiding the point, but that's typical.
 
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lesliedellow

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View attachment 173539

People might see this and absolutely believe that it is an animated GIF and testify in all honesty that image is moving. But it's not. It's a still image.

To tell the truth, I have to stare at it pretty hard to persuade myself that it even might be moving.
 
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DogmaHunter

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To tell the truth, I have to stare at it pretty hard to persuade myself that it even might be moving.

To tell the truth, I think the point I was making was clear enough. There's no need to nitpick about an illustrative example.
 
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PsychoSarah

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To tell the truth, I have to stare at it pretty hard to persuade myself that it even might be moving.
cf9a5b922f5e4259debdb6fb4d8455f1.jpg
i can't get myself not to see this one as moving, not even when i see it out of the corner of my eye. jpg image.
 
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Simmo11

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cf9a5b922f5e4259debdb6fb4d8455f1.jpg
i can't get myself not to see this one as moving, not even when i see it out of the corner of my eye. jpg image.
I am not convinced that what I am seeing is not an animated gif, I should be able to stop it moving by covering up all but a small part but I can't which tells me it's an animated gif.
If it is however just an image file it perfectly demonstrates how easily we can be deceived and how easily we can deceive ourselves.
The image posted by Dogmahunter a posts back is definitely an image file.
 
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PsychoSarah

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I am not convinced that what I am seeing is not an animated gif, I should be able to stop it moving by covering up all but a small part but I can't which tells me it's an animated gif.
If it is however just an image file it perfectly demonstrates how easily we can be deceived and how easily we can deceive ourselves.
The image posted by Dogmahunter a posts back is definitely an image file.
another one for you then
16888567322736466_10WcLpNH_f.jpg
 
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AV1611VET

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If it is however just an image file it perfectly demonstrates how easily we can be deceived and how easily we can deceive ourselves.
You don't need an image file for that.

Science will do just fine.
 
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Loudmouth

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Because entropy didn't start working until after the Fall.

If that were true, then life couldn't have existed prior to the fall. You couldn't even warm yourself by a fire if there was no entropy since the heat would not disperse from the fire.
 
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