• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
  • We hope the site problems here are now solved, however, if you still have any issues, please start a ticket in Contact Us

Fairytale?

Status
Not open for further replies.

thaumaturgy

Well-Known Member
Nov 17, 2006
7,541
882
✟12,333.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Married
Jesus appeared to His disciples when they were assembled and the doors were shut.

So we are told.

It's obvious that the spirit realm has been manifested in the natural even today by the witness of many people having actually "seen" angels, spirits, and other unexplained happenings.

Watch what you wish for. That only serves to prove just about every known religion on the planet.

Apparently there are very detailed ghost descriptions in the Garuda Purana, a hindu text.

If you're looking for miracles, look no further than the Ganesha statue that "Drank milk" (here). Of course scientists were able to, using science, explain that one.

Otherwise you'd have to convert to Hinduism, right? Thankfully science was able to find a hole in some other religions' miracle.

Imagine what it would do with Christian Miracles?

Oh wait, they may have. The Miracle of San Gennaro, turns out to be very similar to a shear-thinning fluid. I've made plenty of shear-thinning fluids in my day. When science is allowed to test this material in Naples then we'll have real info.


I don't know the scientific answer. I just know that it is too common to just deny because we don't understand it yet (in the natural, I mean).

I agree, we should keep our eyes open to the possibility that someday, someone might have a verifiable ghost, spirit, angel or miracle sighting. Just so far, when these are tested or examined closely enough they usually tend to fall.

Which is good for you as a Christian because they are just as prominent in other religions as in your own. So you better hope that 99% of all miracles are anything but miracles. Or, as stated earlier, you'll have to convert to another religion.
 
Upvote 0

FoeHammer

Veteran
Dec 13, 2006
916
15
Warwickshire
✟23,780.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
We both have a universe to explain.
I don’t, Goddidit!
Care to explain why you think it needs explaining?
Either it was created by *****, or there is a scientific explanation.
It was created by God, an omniscient being, therefore, it’s explanation, scientific or otherwise, may well be beyond the capabilities of man.
Simply ignoring everything known to man and assuming your own conclusions just cuz you wanna -ain't good enough.
What are you on about?
Yes, even if we ignore every other source as well as most of your own source, we still see that faith is confidence, trust, or belief - that is not based on proof.
Proof?
No I don't. Because, unlike you, I question authority.
There is only one authority; I used to question it, I don’t any more. You on the other hand simply deny it.

FoeHammer.
 
Upvote 0

Loudmouth

Contributor
Aug 26, 2003
51,417
6,143
Visit site
✟98,025.00
Faith
Agnostic
There is a knowing that is beyond man's intellect.


The only way we can know something is through our intellect.

It is in the spirit.

This is a belief, not knowledge.

Our spirit is where God communicates with and to us.

This is a belief. It is not knowledge.

That is why we must be born again in our spirits so that He can make known to us His thoughts and ways, the deep things of God and all that He has prepared for us. We are triune beings....spirit, soul and body. We are a spirit. We have a soul and we live in a body.

All beliefs. These are things we don't know, but some believe in them.

The fact that there are so many different faiths or religions is an indication that there is a higher power.

It is an indication that we can make stuff up.
Man needs and desires God.

Reality does not conform to our desires.

Contrary to your description above of believers, "you need to make yourself believe, to believe hard enough, and remove all doubt from your mind. For some it is an act of sheer will, of "mind over logic" , one actually has to do that to NOT believe in God.

If there were evidence for God you would be right. However, there is no evidence for God so there is no reason to believe other than faith.

When I step outside, I see God.

What color are his eyes.

I will admit I make a conscious act to "eat" God's word but not as a "chore". I love God's word and I marvel every time I read it. It never ceases to feed me. It fills me up. I am sorry that others have had difficulty with it.

There is no need to feel sorry. Atheists lead very fulfilling lives.
 
Upvote 0

Loudmouth

Contributor
Aug 26, 2003
51,417
6,143
Visit site
✟98,025.00
Faith
Agnostic
I don’t, Goddidit!
Care to explain why you think it needs explaining?

The "Goddidit" part.

It was created by God, an omniscient being, therefore, it’s explanation, scientific or otherwise, may well be beyond the capabilities of man.

Then "Goddidit" is not an explanation.

[/COLOR] What are you on about?Proof?There is only one authority; I used to question it, I don’t any more. You on the other hand simply deny it.

FoeHammer.

Even worse, "Goddidit" is nothing more than dogma.
 
Upvote 0

Riddick

Protestant
Feb 6, 2004
1,585
46
64
Lincoln.ne.us
Visit site
✟24,501.00
Faith
SDA
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Republican
There's no need to believe "in" evolution since it is a demonstrable fact which can be tested for so that our knowledge of it can be measured for accuracy objectively. And since there are no magic spells or talking animals in any aspect of evolution, as there are in most fairytales including Genesis, then exactly what do you think qualifies evolution as a fairytale? And do please be specific.

so it shall be written thusly famously serendipitously.
 
Upvote 0

Vene

In memory of ChordatesLegacy
Oct 20, 2007
4,155
319
Michigan
✟28,465.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Democrat
I don’t, Goddidit!
Care to explain why you think it needs explaining?

Maybe because if we understand it scientists can use that knowledge in some way to better our lives? Before the germ theory the only model that could be used was demonic possession to explain illness. Now we have antibiotics and vaccines. If people just said Goddidit whenever somebody got sick we wouldn't have the life expectancy we do today.
 
Upvote 0

Aron-Ra

Senior Veteran
Jul 3, 2004
4,571
393
63
Deep in the heart of the Bible belt
Visit site
✟29,521.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Aron-Ra said:
We both have a universe to explain.
I don’t, Goddidit! Care to explain why you think it needs explaining?
The universe is still here, and that still wouldn't explain anything even if God did do it.
Either it was created by magic, or there is a scientific explanation.
It was created by God, an omniscient being, therefore, it’s explanation, scientific or otherwise, may well be beyond the capabilities of man.
So a simple-mind can come up with the simplest of all excuses, "I dunno musta ben magic", and then you can pretend that the reason that doesn't make sense to people smarter than you is because its too complicated for the most brilliant mind. Why then is it so uncomplicated that every drunken redneck in a trailer park gits it?
Simply ignoring everything known to man and assuming your own conclusions just cuz you wanna -ain't good enough.
What are you on about?
You deliberately ignore everything you don't want to think about and assert your own nonsense as if "cuz I sed so" counted as evidence.
Yes, even if we ignore every other source as well as most of your own source, we still see that faith is confidence, trust, or belief - that is not based on proof.
OK,

Faith: (1) confidence or trust (2) belief not based on proof.
--Dictionary.com

"Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing, that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence."
--Bartleby.com

Faith is an unquestioned conviction without basis:

"complete trust or confidence. 2 strong belief in a religion. 3 a system of religious belief."
--AskOxford

"Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony."
--OneLook

"a firm belief in something for which there is no proof" --Merriam Webster Online Dictionary.

"Belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof,."
--Encarta

"For quite a lot of people, faith or the lack thereof, is an important part of their identities. E.g. a person will identify him or herself as a Muslim or a skeptic. Many religious rationalists, as well as non-religious people, criticise implicit faith as being irrational. In this view, belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or evidence."
--Wikipedia

"Faith must trample under foot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees it must put out of sight, and wish to know nothing but the word of god.
Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but – more frequently than not – struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God."
--Sermons of Rev. Martin Luther, founder of Protestant Christianity

"Faith is the acceptance of the truth of a statement in spite of insufficient or contradictory evidence. …Faith is a cop-out. If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can’t be taken on its own merits.”
--Dan Barker, "Losing Faith in Faith; From Preacher to Atheist", 1992

Then we have other Christian sources like:

“To hear with my heart, to see with my soul, to be guided by a hand I cannot see, that's what faith must be.”
“So we follow God's own Fool For only the foolish can tell. Believe the unbelievable, And come be a fool as well”
--hymns of Michael Card

According to all these sources and even the BIble itself, faith is not synonemous with trust. It is a stoic conviction but without evidence.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." [Hebrews 11:1] ”We look not at things seen, but at things not seen” [2 Corinthians 4:18] "for we walk by faith, not by sight." [2 Corinthians 5:7] "The faith which you have, have as your own conviction--"[Romans 14:22]”how blessed are they who have not seen but yet believe”
[John 27:29]
There is only one authority; I used to question it, I don’t any more. You on the other hand simply deny it.
Yes I deny it because it evidently isn't there, and is only ever promoted by highly questionable persons falsely claiming to be authorities; people who can never support their position and who will never concede their errors but keep on asserting their nonsense anyway.

stupidity.jpg
 
Upvote 0

FoeHammer

Veteran
Dec 13, 2006
916
15
Warwickshire
✟23,780.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Of course I would argue that you don't have common sense either. But technically, if it isn't shared, then by definition it can't be "common" either.
This is what I meant by common sense:
“Sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence”.
That's exactly why "common sense" doesn't work; it requires me to embrace the same fallacies you do. Instead, objectivity requires evidence. But you don't have any of that either.
What “fallacies”? And I have already told you that there is a universe full of evidence.
In your next sentence.
I told loudmouth that I don’t believe that God is nothing and that the use of the word magic is inappropriate in relation to an omnipotent, omniscient being. Your use of the word magic demonstrates yet another argument from personal incredulity.
And you've stated earlier that you believe he did exactly as the Bible says, and the Bible says he used golems and incantations; spell-casting.
I don’t recall the use of those words in Genesis, can you give me chapter and verse?
And how does that work?
What do you mean?
In your opening statement in post #675.
Common sense and personal experience is the criteria. It would be a pointless exercise for me to spend any amount of time in any effort to demonstrate that something can come from nothing via naturalistic means which I already believe is impossible and I have much more important things to be spending my time and energy on.
You’re wrong, as I have already said I do not believe that God is nothing.
I highlighted it for you in bold pink.
Again, I do not believe that God is nothing so you’re still wrong.
You don't pay attention, do you? You included the entire reference in post # 675. Look for the link to BBC news. You rambled on about natural selection instead, as if you never even read what you were replying to. Now I know that you didn't bother to read it after all. That's probably why you can't find it now.
You claimed to have successfully made the prediction before you posted the BBC link and now you seem to be suggesting that you made the prediction via the BBC link or am I mistaken?
Scientific principles and rational methodology.
Makes me wonder how the rest of the animal world manages to get by without them… Or are you suggesting that they don’t?
"Chance" implies randomness. Natural selection is deterministic.
So the chemical reaction that produced the first life form was not by chance? Please explain?
None of this denotes faith because my "belief" in them is tentative and structured to be queried and scrutinized however can be.
Why did you put belief in quotes?
Faith is an unquestioned assumption which is embraced without reservation.
Mine isn’t.
I make very few assumptions, all of them with reservations, and I continually question them all objectively.
How do you do that with the uniformitarian assumption?
Yes isn't it? That realization has certainly been remarked upon. In fact, Dr. Francis Crick, who won the Nobel prize for Physiology and Medicine with his discovery of DNA, wrote in his final book,
"You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cell and their associated molecules."
--The Astonishing Hypothesis; the Scientific Search for the Soul.
Well if Francis Crick says so it must be true :rolls eyes.
Yes definitely. Were it not so, then you would be able to provide for me at least one claim of posative evidence for creationism which was verifiably accurate and/or a single credible proponant of evangelical creationism who ever published anti-evolutionary rhetoric to any medium but who did not have a prior religious agenda, who didn't reveal inexcusable ignorance in the very fields where they claim expertise, and who's arguments didn't depend on erroneous assumptions, prejudicial bias, logical fallacies, ridiculous parody, misdefined terms, misquoted authorities, distorted data, fraudulent figures, or out-and-out lies. Otherwise, my initial estimate remains true; that there are only two types of arguments for creationism; those which can never be either vindicated or disproved, and those which have already been disproved many times over, both scientifically and in a court of law.
You never mentioned creation you said religion and that is the point I am calling you on.
Oh ye of little faith. How about when Lisa0315 said she would find some way to keep believing even if she had proof she was wrong? How about when the founder of Protestant Christianity wrote the following:
"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church... a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them."
--Reverend Martin Luther
So Lisa0315 and Martin Luther speak for the worlds religions do they? I don’t think so but even if they did they don’t speak for me.
Oh well that makes it easy then. The only choice I can make is "not".
Your choice and you are without excuse.
Just once should do -if you can back up your assertion somehow, and explain where you believe everything came from if not from "nothing".
But earlier in this very post, you said "God commanded it and it was so", remember?
I do remember. Do you remember that I also said that I do not believe that God is nothing?

FoeHammer.
 
Upvote 0

TheOutsider

Pope Iason Ouabache the Obscure
Dec 29, 2006
2,747
202
Indiana
✟26,428.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Married
What “fallacies”? And I have already told you that there is a universe full of evidence.
Too bad the only evidence anyways has presented so far is "Ooh, everything looks so complicated, therefore Goddidit!"
I do remember. Do you remember that I also said that I do not believe that God is nothing?
Are you saying that God created the universe out of himself? I didn't realize that you were a follower of Biblical Pantheism.
 
Upvote 0

Aron-Ra

Senior Veteran
Jul 3, 2004
4,571
393
63
Deep in the heart of the Bible belt
Visit site
✟29,521.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
This is what I meant by common sense:
“Sound practical judgment that is independent of specialized knowledge, training, or the like; normal native intelligence”.
And what I meant was sensibilities held in common. I'd go with your defintion -because you've provided a citation which disproves mine. That's what you're supposed to do, and that's what I did when I proved that faith doesn't simply equal "trust" but is either trust, confidence, or belief which is also held in the condition of complete and stoic conviction even without any supportive evidence. I provided every citation available for that term, yet you still refuse to concede any error no matter how soundly you're disproved. Just look at the topic of this thread for example. Again, I showed that Genesis meets all of the criteria of a fable, and evolution meets none. But you refuse to admit that, and reject my evidence without reason, and provide no counter evidence of your own. So if I go with your definition of 'common sense', then I have it and you don't.

Also simply saying "common sense" without providing any specific criteria [for determining whether something is impossible] is just another way of saying "cuz I said so" and allowing shirk accountability by moving the still-undefined goal posts whenever you deem necessary.
That's exactly why "common sense" doesn't work; it requires me to embrace the same fallacies you do. Instead, objectivity requires evidence. But you don't have any of that either.
What “fallacies”?
(1) that sacred scriptures were written by a god rather than the actual human authors,
(2) that any human's interpretation of their various and conflicting sacred scriptures should, or even could, be considered infallibly or inerrently accurate,
(3) that perspectives opposed to faith and religion somehow still require faith as religion,
(4) that accepting evolution requires the rejection of theism, if not all other religious or spiritual beliefs as well,
(5) that evolution explains the origin of life, the universe, and everything -rather than just how lineages diversify.
(6) that support for evolution is waning among scientists,
(7) that no evidence of evolution exists, or that it is invalid,
(8) that evidence for creationism actually does exist somewhere and is valid,
(9) that no transitional or intermediate species have ever been found,
(10) that macroevolution isn't what it is, and has never been observed
(11) That the Bible is the only supposedly "sacred" doctrine out there, as if there weren't any Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, or Zoroastrian scriptures making the same claims of divine inspiration and authority.
(12) That it is possible for humans to honestly claim to "know" anything which they believe on faith.
To name just a few out of many.
And I have already told you that there is a universe full of evidence.
You look at anything and everything and call it "creation". And because you assume it was created, you assume there was a creator, and of course you assume that creator was the only one you've ever been told about, the one from the dominant religion where you grew up.
I do not compile unwarranted assumptions atop unquestioned assumptions. I know that everything we believe logically has to be wrong about something somewhere. So it is best not to believe anything without reservation, and it is foolish to believe anything without good reason, reasons which can be tested and objectively verified in the absense of faith. Because faith is naught but a means autodeception which offers no way to discover the real truth about anything.
I told loudmouth that I don’t believe that God is nothing and that the use of the word magic is inappropriate in relation to an omnipotent, omniscient being. Your use of the word magic demonstrates yet another argument from personal incredulity.
Not to sound like Enigo Montoya, but you keep using that phrase, and I don't think you know what it means. Far from personal incredulity, it is an objectively determinable fact that the word, "magic" is appropriate when discussing superntural agencies exerting influence over the natural world by making things happen which are physically impossible.
And you've stated earlier that you believe he did exactly as the Bible says, and the Bible says he used golems and incantations; spell-casting.
I don’t recall the use of those words in Genesis, can you give me chapter and verse?
Have you ever heard of Ginkoba? You should try it, because we're having the same conversations again that we've already had repeatedly, including just a couple posts ago when you asked me that same question before. Deja vu. One of those is still being addressed in this reply. But the other one goes back a ways, so I'll remind you: In Genesis 2:7, the Hebrew god, YHWH performs a golem spell. Golems weren't only in Genesis but were part of traditional Hebrew mythos elsewhere too. The sacred Kaballah even details how to perform a golem spell.
I believe God commanded it and it was so.
And how does that work?
What do you mean?
The 'cuz I said so' thing; how does it work? Because Native American mythos in the Northwest holds that a divine trickster named Coyote "made" the Columbia river and "told" surrounding mountains and such to be what they were. They explain how he carved the river's course manually -with a single gesture. (Coyote must be very tall!) But they never explained how he "told" anything to "be" and it just was cuz he said so. So how does that work? Because the only parallel I have for that comes from aged Islamic stories which often involve djinni, and these stories hold that mere spoken words possess magic conjuring ability -like Coyote may have used, and YHWH supposedly used when he "spoke the universe into existence." That's what the Christians say he did; something not unlike Merlin's "charm of making".

excalibur3.jpg

Annal nathrak, uthvas bethud, do che-ol di-enve
You’re wrong, as I have already said I do not believe that God is nothing.
So you're either saying that God is physical nature, and physical nature is therefore God, or you're saying that everything which exists now already existed somewhence else before he relocated everything into this universe. Which is it?
 
Upvote 0

Aron-Ra

Senior Veteran
Jul 3, 2004
4,571
393
63
Deep in the heart of the Bible belt
Visit site
✟29,521.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Aron-Ra said:
You included the entire reference in post # 675. Look for the link to BBC news. You rambled on about natural selection instead, as if you never even read what you were replying to. Now I know that you didn't bother to read it after all. That's probably why you can't find it now.
You claimed to have successfully made the prediction before you posted the BBC link and now you seem to be suggesting that you made the prediction via the BBC link or am I mistaken?
Of course you're mistaken. I made the prediction in my post # 544, and included a link to the BBC in my explanation of how cosmologists do not believe in "something from nothing" the way creationists do. Then in post #675, immediately after that explanation, you proved that you hadn't even read what I wrote by saying that you thought I was talking about abiogenesis. Then when I corrected you, you said you couldn't find it. So I told you which post to look at and pointed out the BBC link to make it easier to find since the link was in a different color.

Scientific principles and rational methodology.
Makes me wonder how the rest of the animal world manages to get by without them… Or are you suggesting that they don’t?
Well, they don't make up things that aren't there and then worship them. But no, that's not quite what I mean. It is no longer possible for humans to live without science. It is what gave us our 3rd greatest advantage over all other animals, and we can't go back to living without it now.
"Chance" implies randomness. Natural selection is deterministic.
So the chemical reaction that produced the first life form was not by chance? Please explain?
Natural selection obviously can't relate to abiogenesis since it relies on successive generations of inherited traits from which it determines which random mutations will be selected and which ones won't be continued.
None of this denotes faith because my "belief" in them is tentative and structured to be queried and scrutinized however can be.
Why did you put belief in quotes?
Because you and I have very different definitions for that word. Mine is 'something which seems true, but you can't be certain about.' You're obviously using a dictionary who's definitions aren't available where I can find them.
Faith is an unquestioned assumption which is embraced without reservation.
Mine isn’t.
You've just proven my point. You don't realize it, but then, by definition, you couldn't realize it.
I make very few assumptions, all of them with reservations, and I continually question them all objectively.
How do you do that with the uniformitarian assumption?
Can you give me any reason to believe that physics or mathematics were any different at any point in the past than they are now? Because otherwise, uniformitarianism at least allows us to figure some things out, and I think that's the real reason you're opposed to it. You're not remotely interested in inquiry. You don't want to know whatever is really; you just wanna believe what you want whether you think its really true or not.
Dr. Francis Crick, who won the Nobel prize for Physiology and Medicine with his discovery of DNA, wrote in his final book,

"You, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, are in fact no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cell and their associated molecules."
--The Astonishing Hypothesis; the Scientific Search for the Soul.
Well if Francis Crick says so it must be true :rolls eyes.
I said that was his opinion. Arguments from authority are worthless, remember?
Were it not so, then you would be able to provide for me at least one claim of posative evidence for creationism which was verifiably accurate and/or a single credible proponant of evangelical creationism who ever published anti-evolutionary rhetoric to any medium but who did not have a prior religious agenda, who didn't reveal inexcusable ignorance in the very fields where they claim expertise, and who's arguments didn't depend on erroneous assumptions, prejudicial bias, logical fallacies, ridiculous parody, misdefined terms, misquoted authorities, distorted data, fraudulent figures, or out-and-out lies. Otherwise, my initial estimate remains true; that there are only two types of arguments for creationism; those which can never be either vindicated or disproved, and those which have already been disproved many times over, both scientifically and in a court of law.
You never mentioned creation you said religion and that is the point I am calling you on.
Well do it then. If you already know you can't defend creationism, then show me anything else any single religion believes that we can objectively verify to be true.
Oh ye of little faith. How about when Lisa0315 said she would find some way to keep believing even if she had proof she was wrong? How about when the founder of Protestant Christianity wrote the following:

"What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of the good and for the Christian church... a lie out of necessity, a useful lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept them."
--Reverend Martin Luther
So Lisa0315 and Martin Luther speak for the worlds religions do they? I don’t think so but even if they did they don’t speak for me.
Twisting my words again, are you? I said Christians have admitted they will lie to defend their belief. You asked for an example of that, and I gave it -proving my point. So now you're trying to distort it into an excuse to pretend that it doesn't count.
Your choice and you are without excuse.
I don't need one. But I do have one. If your god exists then it is entirely his fault that I cannot believe in him. Because not only has he concealed all evidence of himself in every capacity, but he has already shown me a lifetime of profound evidence against everything his supporters claim. That, and he has made sure that his most obvious proponants are all willfully ignorant and/or deliberately dishonest charlatans and confidence men basing all their claims upon falsehoods and perpetuating fraud in the name of your god and other gods just like him. I mean, c'mon even other Christians begin to question their faith when they listen to you! Your kind is doing a tremendous service to my cause. Is that "by design" too? Having myself been designed to think analytically, then your god stacked the deck such that I could not believe as you do without having to forfeit my reason and forget everything I know and can show to be true about science, politics, history, humanities, and sociology. Even then I might also need to suffer a severe stroke or blunt force trauma to the brain in order to believe as you do. If your god exists, then this is the only option he permits me to have.
-if you can back up your assertion somehow, and explain where you believe everything came from if not from "nothing".
...earlier in this very post, you said "God commanded it and it was so", remember?
I do remember. Do you remember that I also said that I do not believe that God is nothing?
Sure, but obviously, if something is conjured into existence, then it didn't exist before, right? It had to be conjured out of non-existence. I mean, it wasn't changed, existing in one form and then another. No, it went from not existing at all to (poof) there it is. That is, in every respect, something from nothing -even if your favorite magic imaginary friend really did it.
 
Upvote 0

FoeHammer

Veteran
Dec 13, 2006
916
15
Warwickshire
✟23,780.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Because you're making another strawman.
Not at all I was simply trying to cover every angle.
Well, I never eliminated God as a creator. I only eliminated the anti-science claims of creationism.
What “anti-science”(?) claims?
Blah, blah, blah, then I still have The fourth option I already explained in the closing comments of post # 678.
You mean Anotherdimensiondidit?
Another dimension, (according to string theory).
And I suppose that dimension popped into existence from another dimension and so on and so on ad infinitum.
Imagine you're watching a movie. You can pause it wherever you like, or even rewind it. You reference of time doesn't even relate to that within the sequence of the film. That's sort of what we're talking about here.
I don’t think you know what you’re talking about here….. I certainly don’t.
String theorists say it was a rupture caused by the collision of two dimensions.
So now it’s was twodimentionsdidit?Sounds more like the collision of two dementia’s to me.
It was energy first. Energy can be converted into matter and vice versa.
What form did this “energy” take?
Yeah, LOL. Because if I had faith in them, I obviously wouldn't be asking someone to come up with a better explanation, would I?
Yeah, LOL. As long as you hold to it you have faith in it.
Yet I keep proving my point,
The only thing you have proved is that you have faith but can’t bring yourself to admit it… in these forums at least.
and you won't/can't.
I have time and again and you too have proved my point every time you refer to the opinion of this individual or those individuals as if that alone is sufficient to prove your point you have demonstrated faith and the longer this goes on the more you do so.
All your arguments can be reduced to you being right only cuz you say so -while I have to provide proof of my position, and you automatically reject that too, again, only because you say so.
You have provided no proof for your own arguments beyond the opinions of others which I do not accept as proof.
That's the only thing you've ever said to me that was correct. Now what's your excuse? Because in post # 675, you said you had more important things to do, and all this time, I've been wiping the floor with you.
I need no excuse since I am right which makes your last comment nothing more than wishful thinking.

FoeHammer.
 
Upvote 0

Split Rock

Conflation of Blathers
Nov 3, 2003
17,607
730
North Dakota
✟22,466.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Single
Aron-Ra said:
All your arguments can be reduced to you being right only cuz you say so -while I have to provide proof of my position, and you automatically reject that too, again, only because you say so.

I need no excuse since I am right which makes your last comment nothing more than wishful thinking.
Bingo! And FoeHammer's comment was in a response to Aron-Ra's comment above.
 
Upvote 0

Inan3

Veteran Saint
Jul 22, 2007
3,376
88
West of the Mississippi
✟27,875.00
Gender
Female
Faith
Word of Faith
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
Bingo! And FoeHammer's comment was in a response to Aron-Ra's comment above.

The two quotes you provided in your post do not go together as you suggest. So you did not get Bingo after all. Get it right or keep it straight. One could assume the wrong motives here. The following quotes are correct in the order they go.

.
That's the only thing you've ever said to me that was correct. Now what's your excuse? Because in post # 675, you said you had more important things to do, and all this time, I've been wiping the floor with you.

I need no excuse since I am right which makes your last comment nothing more than wishful thinking.

FoeHammer.
 
Upvote 0

Aron-Ra

Senior Veteran
Jul 3, 2004
4,571
393
63
Deep in the heart of the Bible belt
Visit site
✟29,521.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
Aron-Ra said:
you're making another strawman.
Not at all I was simply trying to cover every angle.
Ignoring every critical point is not covering any angle. Now get me the citation I asked for.
I never eliminated God as a creator. I only eliminated the anti-science claims of creationism.
What “anti-science”(?) claims?
Your rejection of scientific principles, processes, perspectives, and methodolgy, allowing unsubstantiated subjective emotonal assumptions of untestable magic to be used in place of science. That, followed by your other erroneous assumptions:

(1) that sacred scriptures were written by a god rather than the actual human authors,
(2) that any human's interpretation of their various and conflicting sacred scriptures should, or even could, be considered infallibly or inerrently accurate,
(3) that perspectives opposed to faith and religion somehow still require faith as religion,
(4) that accepting evolution requires the rejection of theism, if not all other religious or spiritual beliefs as well,
(5) that evolution explains the origin of life, the universe, and everything -rather than just how lineages diversify.
(6) that support for evolution is waning among scientists,
(7) that no evidence of evolution exists, or that it is invalid,
(8) that evidence for creationism actually does exist somewhere and is valid,
(9) that no transitional or intermediate species have ever been found,
(10) that macroevolution isn't what it is, and has never been observed
(11) that the Christian Bible is the only supposedly sacred doctrine out there, as if there weren't any Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, or Zoroastrian scriptures making the same claims of divine inspiration and authority.
(12) that evolution is "just" a theory and not a fact.
I still have The fourth option I already explained in the closing comments of post # 678.
You mean Anotherdimensiondidit?
No, the rift in space and time. All the evidence implies that the galaxies are flying apart now. So there had to be a single cosmic expansion at some point in the past; and quantum mechanics suggests that it was the sort of singularity which would exceed anything possible even of atoms deprived of all their internal 'space'.
Another dimension, (according to string theory).
And I suppose that dimension popped into existence from another dimension and so on and so on ad infinitum.
You mean like who created God? And who created the guy who created God? And what was God doing sitting alone in the dark for eternity before creating the universe? No, its nothing like that. Whether you're talking to string thoerists or Taoists, it was two different amorphous extracosmic entities in contact which prompted the rift. Myself, I think that if a rupture in the space-time continuum really is the answer, then it might be that our universe erupted from it like a bubble seems to appear in the bottom of a nearly boiling pot of water, along with myriad others just like it. That's another analogy, but at least its mine. It really doesn't matter to me what the orgin of the universe is. If we were 'destined' to know all things, then it wouldn't be this way. But we don't appear to have any 'destiny', and I think we'll all be extinct before anyone really knows the answer you're pleading for. That's why I prefer to concentrate on what I can know and can show to be true, like evolution, the topic you're trying to avoid.
Imagine you're watching a movie. You can pause it wherever you like, or even rewind it. You reference of time doesn't even relate to that within the sequence of the film. That's sort of what we're talking about here.
I don’t think you know what you’re talking about here….. I certainly don’t.
Obviously you don't understand the analogy. I do, but I won't pretend to understand quantum mechanics. I know a whole lot more than you. But quantum physicists know a whole lot more than I, and they've admitted to me that even they don't really know what they're talking about. No one does.
String theorists say it was a rupture caused by the collision of two dimensions.
So now it’s was twodimentionsdidit?Sounds more like the collision of two dementia’s to me.
Me too. I only even remember that much because it sounded so much like what I read in the TaoTe Ching of Lao Tsu.
It was energy first. Energy can be converted into matter and vice versa.
What form did this “energy” take?
Particulate.
if I had faith in them, I obviously wouldn't be asking someone to come up with a better explanation, would I?
Yeah, LOL. As long as you hold to it you have faith in it.
Even if I did "hold to" it, (which I don't) it still wouldn't be faith, because I'm forced to concede that big bang cosmology is the best-supported explanation available at this time. But because I still hold significant doubt that it is adequately accurate as stated at present, then I cannot have be said to faith in it even if I did "hold to" it.
Yet I keep proving my point,
The only thing you have proved is that you have faith but can’t bring yourself to admit it… in these forums at least.
I cannot "admit' what is not true. Nor should you keep trying to project your own worst faults onto others who will not have them.
and you won't/can't.
I have time and again
I cited every definitive source for the word, "faith", and you cited only one, one of the same ones, and you had to ignore every other reference and edit that one out of context to do even that. So no, you haven't proven your point about that, or anything else, one time yet.
and you too have proved my point every time you refer to the opinion of this individual or those individuals as if that alone is sufficient to prove your point
That never happened. So I demand that you support your accusation or retract it.
you have demonstrated faith and the longer this goes on the more you do so.
All that will happen between us is; you will falsely accuse me of having faith. I will prove that I don't have faith, and I will present you with some critically relevent point which you will thoughtlessly ridicule without consideration. Then you will again falsely accuse me of having faith, and I will again prove that I don't have faith, and present some new critically relevant point which you will thoughtlessly ridicule and ignore. Then you will again falsely accuse me of having faith, and I will again prove that I don't have faith, and present some new critically relevant point which you will thoughtlessly ridicule and ignore. Then....
All your arguments can be reduced to you being right only cuz you say so -while I have to provide proof of my position, and you automatically reject that too, again, only because you say so.
You have provided no proof for your own arguments beyond the opinions of others which I do not accept as proof.
Unlike science, when we're arguing over the definition of a word, then we have no choice but to turn to authorative sources. If it is a common language term, we have to turn to dictionaries, and I have shown a concensus of them to support me -just to prove that it is not based on the 'opinion' of any individual, but that it really does mean what I say it does according to every difinitive source. If it is a specialized term, then common dictionaries alone may not suffice. If it is a scientific term, then we have to cite the original sources and compare them for consistency, which I had done before ever using such terms here. If that word has special religious meaning, then we have to turn to the source of it too, and again I have -with consistent references to "faith" as defined by adherents and theologians, past or present, in sermons or in hymnals or even in "sacred" scriptures, be it the Bible or any other "holy" boot you'd care to talk about. None of these count as "opinion".
Now what's your excuse? Because in post # 675, you said you had more important things to do, and all this time, I've been wiping the floor with you.
I need no excuse since I am right which makes your last comment nothing more than wishful thinking.
Well that's obviously not the view of the outside observer. ^_^
 
Upvote 0

Aron-Ra

Senior Veteran
Jul 3, 2004
4,571
393
63
Deep in the heart of the Bible belt
Visit site
✟29,521.00
Faith
Atheist
Marital Status
Single
The two quotes you provided in your post do not go together as you suggest. So you did not get Bingo after all. Get it right or keep it straight. One could assume the wrong motives here. The following quotes are correct in the order they go.
He didn't imply that they went together, and they didn't have to to make the point.
 
Upvote 0

Split Rock

Conflation of Blathers
Nov 3, 2003
17,607
730
North Dakota
✟22,466.00
Faith
Agnostic
Marital Status
Single
The two quotes you provided in your post do not go together as you suggest. So you did not get Bingo after all. Get it right or keep it straight. One could assume the wrong motives here. The following quotes are correct in the order they go.
I should have written that FoeHammer's quote was part of his response to Aron-Ra's post. My apologies if I implied differently; it was not my intention.

My point, in any case, was that he proved Aron's point ("All your arguments can be reduced to you being right only cuz you say") in the same post that he was attempting to refute Aron's point.
 
Upvote 0

FoeHammer

Veteran
Dec 13, 2006
916
15
Warwickshire
✟23,780.00
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
The universe is still here, and that still wouldn’t explain anything even if God did do it.
This is your explanation of why you think it needs explaining? It says little and tells me nothing (which is a novel variation of your normal practice of saying lots and telling me nothing).
So a simple-mind can come up with the simplest of all excuses, “I dunno musta ben magic”,
Obviously you did but I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you have a simple-mind.
Faith: (1) confidence or trust
Dictionary.com
“Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing,
--Bartleby.com
“complete trust or confidence.
“a firm belief in something
“Belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something,
belief should be restricted to what is directly supportable by logic or evidence
Wikipedia
There, that better describes my faith.
”Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1]
Read the whole chapter and tell me how many of the individuals mentioned therein had the kind of faith you define in your previous post?
In many cases they had direct contact with God. If you are going to attempt to use scripture to support your claims you have to take it as read and if God spoke directly to them then what better proof could they have had for His existence?
Yes I deny it because it evidently isn’t there, and is only ever promoted by highly questionable persons falsely claiming to be authorities; people who can never support their position and who will never concede their errors but keep on asserting their nonsense anyway.
I’ve warned you already that you are without excuse and here you go giving another one.

FoeHammer.
 
Upvote 0

Inan3

Veteran Saint
Jul 22, 2007
3,376
88
West of the Mississippi
✟27,875.00
Gender
Female
Faith
Word of Faith
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
Maybe because if we understand it scientists can use that knowledge in some way to better our lives? Before the germ theory the only model that could be used was demonic possession to explain illness. Now we have antibiotics and vaccines. If people just said Goddidit whenever somebody got sick we wouldn't have the life expectancy we do today.

Or if people trusted in God more we wouldn't have the casualties and maladies brought on by antibiotics and vaccines and other medications. Not trying to malign the help that some medications can do but on the other hand some have done alot of damage also. If doctors and scientists would stop thinking they were gods and find their place under God then there would be even more progress in the world against disease AND demon possession!
 
  • Like
Reactions: dukeofhazzard
Upvote 0

Inan3

Veteran Saint
Jul 22, 2007
3,376
88
West of the Mississippi
✟27,875.00
Gender
Female
Faith
Word of Faith
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Republican
I should have written that FoeHammer's quote was part of his response to Aron-Ra's post. My apologies if I implied differently; it was not my intention.

My point, in any case, was that he proved Aron's point ("All your arguments can be reduced to you being right only cuz you say") in the same post that he was attempting to refute Aron's point.

Point taken.:)
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.