Doubting Believer

SteveB28 said:

One cannot make a choice to believe something for which one sees no evidence.

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People do it all of the time. We can even be convinced to go to war with no evidence for the need to do so.

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SteveB28 said:

I see that you and I are contemporaries. For all of our lives the "end is nigh" crowd have been endlessly droning on about the earth coming to its end. "One day soon" is beginning to lose its gloss, don't you think?

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God operates on timescales different from ours.

It could happen in 5 minutes or a billion years from now, for all we know.

dlamberth said:

People do it all of the time. We can even be convinced to go to war with no evidence for the need to do so.

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Operative word: Convinced. You see, no one can just decide to believe something. Belief requires being convinced. For rational people, the thing that convinces is usually evidence.

Strathos said:

God operates on timescales different from ours.

It could happen in 5 minutes or a billion years from now, for all we know.

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Right. So, that said, people need to stop threatening that "The end is near! Convert now or burnnnnsssseeessss!"

dlamberth said:

People do it all of the time. We can even be convinced to go to war with no evidence for the need to do so.

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Agree, with one caveat. People can convince themselves, they have proper evidence, to believe in something.

With the right personal psyche, the human mind can drive enough denial and confirmation bias, to believe just about anything.

SteveB28 said:

I see that you and I are contemporaries. For all of our lives the "end is nigh" crowd have been endlessly droning on about the earth coming to its end. "One day soon" is beginning to lose its gloss, don't you think?

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The end of this Earth is nothing to fear for the Believer. Perhaps some Believers get a little anxious to see it happen. Read Rev. 20 & 21 and you'll see what we are looking forward to.

Strathos said:

God operates on timescales different from ours.

It could happen in 5 minutes or a billion years from now, for all we know.

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How convenient for him. And how utterly irrelevant, if that is the case.

I understand that our sun will eventually exhaust its supplies of fuel and that our planetary system will collapse. The eventuality of that event, billions of years from now, has as much urgency as those vague pronouncements on behalf of your God.

revrobor said:

The end of this Earth is nothing to fear for the Believer. Perhaps some Believers get a little anxious to see it happen. Read Rev. 20 & 21 and you'll see what we are looking forward to.

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No, what I will read is an insane jumble of wild speculation.

SteveB28 said:

No, what I will read is an insane jumble of wild speculation.

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You are mistaken but the choice is yours.