If god exists I am sure he doesnt look like a Homo Sapien. God is probably a gas or wind or something. I dont for a moment think he is a muscular guy with a beard.
Don't debate me.
Quote: (05-16-2018 02:55 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:
Quote: (05-15-2018 06:18 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:
But there's no need to create supernatural fairy creation stories up
Textbook atheist argument.
"God" is no more fairy-tale than "atoms formed", a.k.a. the scientific equivalent of "shit happened."
Quote: (05-16-2018 04:22 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:
Quote: (05-16-2018 02:55 AM)Super_Fire Wrote:
Quote: (05-15-2018 06:18 PM)RatInTheWoods Wrote:
But there's no need to create supernatural fairy creation stories up
Textbook atheist argument.
"God" is no more fairy-tale than "atoms formed", a.k.a. the scientific equivalent of "shit happened."
You miss my point.
I'm ok with making shit up, that's fine. (well for religions anyway)
But when people try and say that shit they made up is a better, more rational and logical explanation as to where the universe comes from, that's where I need to remind everyone that a) we don't know, and b) making shit up is not better than a)
And don't misinterpret sciences position on creation. we 99% don't have a clue.
Of course we have a few wild theories, but almost no evidence or way of checking them. This doesn't mean "religion has the answers" at all.
Quote: (01-24-2016 07:57 PM)The Father Wrote:
Quote: (01-24-2016 07:56 PM)Anabasis to Desta Wrote:
100%.
the more you study, delve into and ACTUALLY understand sciences like Structural Biology, Combinatorics and Algebraic topology you can't help BUT believe in God.
Tell me more about this. I don't understand.
Quote:Anabasis to Desta Wrote:
The basis for the scientific origins of the earth is the Big Bang theory. Which essentially was a "random" event. But the more you study science, especially disciplines like Structural biology, Combinatorics and Algebraic Topology ... you realize the world and the universe is anything BUT random.
Because it's pure perfection.
Symmetry. From DNA molecules at the full cycle of the double helix, to tree branches, sea shells, the human body and even hurricanes all follow the Golden Ratio and the Fibonacci series.
Go spend 3 days out in the woods with nothing but a blanket, a knife and water purifier. Nature itself is a miracle that we fail to appreciate .The Human brain and digestive system is magic. I refuse to believe all this is random. There is "purpose and intent" written all over.
Quote: (01-24-2016 09:28 PM)Dr. Howard Wrote:
Yes.
Even if God isn't real, dedicating my life to an imaginary, invisible, infallible, benevolent master is more comforting than putting my trust in money, other people, cars or intoxicants.
To be shown proof that God doesn't exist would simply mean that I've done some charitable works for benevolence's sake, tried to live by a moral code and have the same bruised ego at being proven wrong as a few other million christians, then I die and turn to dust, who cares. Compare that to being shown proof that God DOES exist, I'd feel like quite the asshole having to get on the down escalator of eternity because I was too stubborn to accept a free gift from Jesus.
The opportunity cost to believe in God is pretty low. A lot less costly than say, believing that your wife is your soulmate and only reason for living and then being cucked.
If its not a woman we pedestalize, its something else. We all have our idols, be they immaterial or material.
Quote: (05-18-2018 12:00 AM)Pride male Wrote:
^Doesnt religion also rationalize some very evil acts? Religious persecution, child genital mutilation, human sacrifice, war, racism, slavery, torture, sexism etc. So with God, all is permitted.
Quote: (01-25-2016 02:02 PM)EDantes Wrote:
I won't get into the nitty gritty but I think you can prove God using logic and other areas of knowledge.
Basically I think the fundamentals of existence are symmetry (order, beauty, good) and asymmetry (disorder, ugliness, evil) - if order exists (and it does) and order is equal to God, this means god exists.
Quote: (01-27-2016 11:15 PM)The Father Wrote:
Quote: (01-27-2016 11:10 PM)hydrogonian Wrote:
Quote: (01-27-2016 11:48 AM)The Father Wrote:
Interesting comments, all. I think where I've ended up is that, while I see no evidence for a god, the possibility is so unknowable that I refuse to rule it out.
Agnosticism is a rational position, much more so than atheism in my opinion. I was an agnostic for a long time.
Quote:Quote:
And I've seen too many eerie things happen to not think there is some collective consciousness out there, some string we are pushing on. For example, did you ever suddenly wonder "Hey, I wonder whatever happened to my old friend Bob. Haven't thought of Bob in YEARS!" And then minutes later, Bob calls out of the blue :/ After years. There is some sort of super-consciousness we all occasionally tap into. Not sure what that means or implies about a deity or a higher collective consciousness beyond our mortal, individual consciousness. But it's just odd.
I've had at least two confirmed experiences, with the different individuals, along the lines of a shared psychic phenomenon. I had prior shared a traumatic experience with one of these individuals (we had a mutual deceased friend), and with the other we had had an intense personal connection (a girl - though not one that I had had sex with nor was going to). The former experience was intensely physical, shared, unmistakable, and confirmed in the moment as we were within ten feet of one another. Also, it involved the deceased friend, in a manner of speaking, and was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. The latter experience occurred across several states and was confirmed later.
Though, I can't hold these to be evidence of "God", the experiences were evidence enough for me toward a shared consciousness of sorts, or perhaps a communication channel that is accessible if enough love, emotion, trauma, etc. is shared between individuals. The one that involved the dead friend seemed to involve a third power, and that is how I always interpreted it. I've had other experiences, but these are the only ones that I am reasonably confident in terms of their nature; at least insofar as anyone can be. I'm not one to look for experiences like this, or to over-interpret them, but also I can't deny that these events occurred.
Those are exactly my experiences. I do not pretend they prove "God". They just prove that there are yet undiscovered realities. If you were born in the 3rd century, you'd look around at the moon and stars and tides and seasons and KNOW they were real....but you'd have no idea why. So you might make up a story to explain it. We see phenomena like what you and I have described above, we know it to be real, and we do not yet have the science to explain it. Well I won't make up a Church of a Flying Spaghetti Monster to explain it, but I do believe something exists, something meaningful and powerful, and I have no real idea about it's nature. That is simultaneously the most interesting, frustrating, and somewhat frightening thought of which I can conceive.
Quote:Quote:
I don't know if I mentioned how I lost my glasses a couple of weeks back.
It was weird: they just completely-vanished, and were nowhere to be found. My girlfriend and I knew I had them when I went to bed, so we pulled the room apart looking for them: moving cupboards, moving the bed, stripping the bed, looking in all the drawers. They were just gone.
I finally found them this morning. I was vacuuming, and I've vacuumed once a week since I lost them, so I don't know why I didn't find them before, but there they were, underneath the curtains that I'd been opening and closing every morning, which should have easily revealed them.
I phoned my girlfriend to tell her, and she gasped and started crying. Since it was such an overreaction, I could only say "It's just a pair of glasses".
She said "No, no. This is exactly what you said would happen!"
I didn't remember what she was talking about. Apparently, during one of our evening walks up the big hill near my house, I'd said that perhaps the glasses completely-vanishing meant something, and that maybe God was teaching me a lesson: that I didn't see as clearly as I thought I did. This would be back to the molehills thing. [A member saying people were making 'mountains out of molehills', not understanding that, spiritually, every molehill is a mountain].
My girlfriend said "You said He'd return your glasses to you" - meaning, metaphorically, my sight - "so you'd know when you deserved to see-clearly."
Then I did remember the conversation. It was just one of those off-handed statements, but...
... think about what happened yesterday [the meeting with my Father].
Quote: (07-28-2018 06:25 PM)Quizzical_2 Wrote:
I think Christianity is a very unique religion; it's based on an entirely historical, public event. As far as I'm aware, it's the first of its kind.
All though it's fun to listen to all the esoteric blabbering, it should come down to what the evidence points to as true.
I definitely think the historic case for Christianity is very strong, and worth anyone's time to look into. I highly suggest Craig Bloomberg's scholarly commentary on the Bible. Richard Bauckman's work on the New Testament is also quite good, and presents solid arguments and evidence for the historicity of the NT as a whole.