• 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.

Questions about Christianity

PaladinValer

Traditional Orthodox Anglican
Apr 7, 2004
23,587
1,245
43
Myrtle Beach, SC
✟30,305.00
Faith
Anglican
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
The above debates I had with drich0150 and GrayAngel demonstrate exactly why I didn't want the Bible listed as a reference, simply because everyone has their own interpretation of it and it literally can mean anything to anyone. If the Bible is in fact the truth, then there would most definitely be hard evidence of god's intelligent design in the world around us.

This is why I personally reject "certain theologies" some Christians have about the Holy Bible because you are correct; according to many denominations' theologies, the Holy Scriptures become up to the interpretations of purely individuals and there are no "set rules."

However, Intelligent Design as a philosophy that certain Christians espouse is not a fundamental aspect of Christianity and is rejected by the vast majority of Christians and officially by many denominations and churches outright.

That is unless you meant "intelligent design" as something like "direct and incontrovertible evidence that God exists in the material world." If so, it is, forgive me, rather biased. As those who don't outright reject what the true nature of science is, the subject of God is beyond its scope: science can neither prove nor disprove God, faith, doctrine, salvation, etc. These are matters outside of it.

In Christian theology, God is evident because existence EXISTS. We believe that God has a continued hand in all things. Science cannot determine whether this is true or not. However, most Christians would say that God is involved through the fundamentals He established: the laws of the nature (gravity, evolution, etc) and guides them as scientists uncover their mysteries. In other words for example, God created the diversity of life through evolution. Furthermore, God's design is guided by Him through evolution.

As for the Holy Scripture bit, I agree with you. Thankfully, Christianity isn't as monolithic in the sense that all Christians agree with such theology. Most in fact reject it like you and I do.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

PaladinValer

Traditional Orthodox Anglican
Apr 7, 2004
23,587
1,245
43
Myrtle Beach, SC
✟30,305.00
Faith
Anglican
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
Actually, the multitude of different religions only proves how susceptible to superstition humans are. All religions originated in a time of little to no scientific advancement, the people of the time had no other means to explain natural phenomena and, as such, attributed these phenomena to a supreme creator or god-type figure.

This is absolutely not true. The idea of the "dark age" when all learning ceased and there was a reversion of humanity to an earlier state of civilization has long been discredited by historians.

If you were to look at a timeline when certain advances were discovered or invented, you'll find them peppered throughout history and throughout the world.

Sikhism wasn't around for example until after Islam and Sanatana Dharma "met". The Baha'i World Faith is very young, as is Mormonism and the religion of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Wicca is less than a century years' old. All of these are, compared to religions like Judaism and Jainism, young and even modern.
 
Upvote 0

LOCO

Church Militant
Jun 29, 2011
1,143
68
✟24,189.00
Faith
Catholic
Marital Status
In Relationship
postmortemjoe;5845780} Science had actually changed there view on the flat earth theory said:
the why is irrelevant. It is man injecting a purpose where, so far, there is none.[/b]

Also, the five "proofs" of Aquinas don't actually prove anything. They state that if x happens it must be due to god, no supporting evidence, just "faith". These proofs are in essence, today's Intelligent Design, which is a pseudo-science that doesn't teach us anything about the world we live in based on no hard evidence that hasn't been debunked (the breakdown of the bacterial flagellum, the eye, etc).



Faith and reason are mutually exclusive. With reason there is no faith, it is simply not needed because logic and reason have shown the truth, so there is no need to have faith. As Richard Dawkins said:

“Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence.”

quote]


Time restraints means I cannot answer all your questions right now. I'm not a fan of spoonfeeding, if you are genuinely interested, I would advise you do some research on your own outside of this Forum and actually speak face to face with a Theologian/Priest/Bishop/Pastor etc.

Time, language, timezones, work, miscommunication, lack of knowledge, all these factors affect the quality of information you are receiving here.

Would you agree that before Science proved the Earth is spherical in shape it was widely taught and accepted for hundreds of years that the Earth was flat. There was NO scientific evidence that the Earth could be anything other than flat. Yet, there were Scientists who doubted it, questioned it.

What I am saying is that essentially that is exactly what non-believers claim. There is NO evidence therefore it can be dismissed without consideration. That is an impoverished view of the world.

Would it not be wiser and intellectually honest to say CURRENTLY there is NO scientifically acceptable evidence of God or (that the Earth is spherical) but that may change in the future.

In the highlighted part above, Dawkins is not allowing for Science to evolve, to discover or create Theories in the FUTURE which may challenge his view. Basically, he is saying "this is it, Science has proven its point based on LACK of evidence". How can Science prove a negative? If he is claiming that there is NO evidence therefore it can be dismissed without consideration. That would be an impoverished view of the world.

I am interested to know the names of the people the Church executed for not believing the Earth was flat and your Source.

The majority of people think about the 'WHY' we are here, when they are in crisis or get that rare quiet moment to themselves.

If you don't think our lives don't serve a purpose than I don't know what to say to that. I have never met anyone religious or atheist who has not pondered the WHY of our existence, if only for a fleeting moment.

Most atheists I know are quite inquisitive about the WHY's although they would look to philosophers like Aristotle and Plato etc.

Blessings :crossrc:
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0

GrayAngel

Senior Member
Sep 11, 2006
5,372
114
USA
✟28,792.00
Faith
Deist
Marital Status
Single
Politics
US-Others
Evidence is not the antagonist of faith. We all have reasons to believe.

Paul's faith started when God physically appeared in front of Him, spoke to him, blinded him with light, and then healed him after a visit from a Christian.

Hebrews 11:1 - Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

You don't have to see something to know it exists. Just because God is invisible doesn't mean there's no evidence He's there.
 
Upvote 0

FreeinChrist

CF Advisory team
Christian Forums Staff
Site Advisor
Site Supporter
Jul 2, 2003
152,013
19,723
USA
✟2,041,777.00
Country
United States
Gender
Female
Faith
Baptist
Marital Status
Married
Politics
US-Democrat

MOD HAT

This thread has undergone a thread clean up. As a reminder, Christians should not be debating each other in thread in Exploring Christianity and responses must be in line with the Nicene Creed.


 
Upvote 0