There is a perception out there today that it is atheists and skeptics who have the intellectual high ground when it comes to matters of faith, logic, reason and science. Christians are commonly portrayed in the media as basing their beliefs on "blind faith" without having any evidence to back them up.The reality, as many of you already know, is the complete opposite of that.
But still many skeptics and atheists run around as if they are the "enlightened ones" and all the Christians are a bunch of uneducated, illiterate idiots.
Well, the next time you run into such a skeptic, take a few questions from the following list and see how that person handles them.....
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How do you explain the high degree of design and order in the universe if there is no God?
How do you account for the vast archaeological documentation of Biblical stories, places, and people?
Since absolutely no Bible prophecy has ever failed (and there are hundreds), how can one realistically remain unconvinced that the Bible is of divine origin?
How do you explain David's graphic portrayal of Jesus' death by crucifixion (Psalm 22) 1000 years before Christ lived?
How do you explain that the prophet Daniel prophesied the exact YEAR when the Christ would be presented as Messiah and also prophesied that the temple would be destroyed afterwards over 500 years in advance (Daniel 9:24-27)?
How could any mere human pinpoint the birth town of the Messiah seven full centuries before the fact, as did the prophet Micah?
How do you account for the odds (1 in 10 to the 157th power) that even just 48 (of 300) Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ?
How was it possible for the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to have predicted the virgin birth of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14) 700 years before it occurred?
How can anyone doubt the reliability of Scripture considering the number and the proximity to the originals of its many copied manuscripts?
In what sense was Jesus a "good man" if He was lying in His claim to be God?
If the Bible is not true, why is it so universally regarded as "the Good Book"?
Did you know that the Bible has been the number one bestseller almost every single year since the 1436 invention of the Gutenberg printing press?
If God does not exist, then from where comes humanity's universal moral sense?
If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care and to live honorably in the world?
Can you explain how personality could have ever evolved from the impersonal, or how order could have ever resulted from chaos?
If Jesus' resurrection was faked, why would twelve intelligent men (Jesus' disciples) have died for what they knew to be a lie?
How do you explain the fact that a single, relatively uneducated and virtually untraveled man, dead at age 33, radically changed lives and society to this day?
Why have so many of history's greatest thinkers been believers?
Have you ever wondered why thousands of intelligent scientists, living and dead, have been men and women of great faith?
If time never had a beginning, but rather goes backwards infinitely or has gone through an infinite number of cycles, then how is it possible that we are here today?
How can something as small as a brain understand extremely complicated aspects of the universe, even though it is (supposedly) just a bunch of chemical reactions and electrical signals? But at the same time, this brain can’t create another brain like itself, so how can nature, that has no brain, create a brain?
Everyone knows Mount Rushmore was the result of intelligent design. Do you think the human body is the result of intelligent design?
When you look at a lot of creatures such as zebras, turtles, butterflies, bees, lady bugs, leopards, etc., you will notice amazing color patterns designed into them. Who came up with those? Does nature have a “taste” in colors , and does it know which colors go together nicely?
How do you account for the origin of life considering the irreducible complexity of its essential components?
How can the Second Law of Thermodynamics be reconciled with progressive, naturalistic evolutionary theory?
How do you reconcile the existence of human intelligence with naturalism and the Law of Entropy?
How come there are some things on our planet seem that they are especially designed for us? For example, the 2 most comfortable colors are blue and green , which happen to be the color of the sky and most of the nature around us. Who chose those colors to be there , before earth even existed?
Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's holy books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events?
Is it absolutely true that "truth is not absolute" or only relatively true that "all things are relative?"
Is it possible that your unbelief in God is actually an unwillingness to submit to Him?
Does your present worldview provide you with an adequate sense of meaning and purpose?
How do you explain the radically changed lives of so many Christian believers down through history?
Are you aware that every alleged Bible contradiction has been answered in an intelligible and credible manner?
What do you say about the hundreds of scholarly books that carefully document the veracity and reliability of the Bible?
Why and how has the Bible survived and even flourished in spite of centuries of worldwide attempts to destroy and ban its message?
Have you ever considered the fact that Christianity is the only religion whose leader is said to have risen from the dead?
How do you explain the empty tomb of Jesus in light of all the evidence that has now proven essentially irrefutable for twenty centuries?
If Jesus did not actually die and rise from the dead, how could He (in His condition) have circumvented all of the security measures in place at His tomb?
If the authorities stole Jesus' body, why?
Why would they have perpetrated the very scenario that they most wanted to prevent?
If Jesus merely resuscitated in the tomb, how did He deal with the Roman guard posted just outside its entrance?
How can one realistically discount the testimony of over 500 witnesses to a living Jesus following His crucifixion (see 1 Corinthians 15:6)?
If all of Jesus' claims to be God were the result of His own self-delusion, why didn't He show evidence of lunacy in any other areas of His life?
Is your unbelief in a perfect God possibly the result of a bad experience with an imperfect church or a misunderstanding of the facts, and therefore an unfair rejection of God Himself?
How did 35-40 men, spanning 1500 years and living on three separate continents, ever manage to author one unified message, i.e. the Bible?
Because life origins are not observable, verifiable, or falsifiable, how does the theory of "evolution" amount to anything more than just another faith system?
What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?
If every effect has a cause, then what or who caused the universe?
How do you explain the thousands of people who have experienced heaven or hell and have come back to tell us about it?
How do you explain the countless people who have received miracles from God?
Is there any evidence that would satisfy you and persuade you to become a believer, or are you just going to believe what you WANT to believe?
Very good material, hard to say wich one is the best
ReplyDeleteHow do you explain the high degree of design and order in the universe if there is no God?
ReplyDeleteIf the universe were not of such high degree of "design and order", we would not be here to question whether or not that it is of such a high degree of "design and order" is indicative of a God. It's a moot point and circular logic.
How do you account for the vast archaeological documentation of Biblical stories, places, and people?
There isn't much. Source, please?
Since absolutely no Bible prophecy has ever failed (and there are hundreds), how can one realistically remain unconvinced that the Bible is of divine origin?
For the same reason that I could say that absolutely no prophecy Nostradamus has given has ever failed. They're so cryptic, you can acribe a lot of different meanings to them.
How do you explain David's graphic portrayal of Jesus' death by crucifixion (Psalm 22) 1000 years before Christ lived?
A better question is: how do you know that the portrayal of Jesus' death in the Gospels wasn't smeared and smudged to make it seem like David's portrayal was prophetic? How do you explain that no one can even agree on what Jesus' last words were? ("Father, why have you forsaken me?" "It is done." "Father, into your hands I commit my spirt.") It's very clear that certain parts of the Bible (such as the story of Jesus' death) are suspect. The story can't be trusted.
How do you explain that the prophet Daniel prophesied the exact YEAR when the Christ would be presented as Messiah and also prophesied that the temple would be destroyed afterwards over 500 years in advance (Daniel 9:24-27)?
It doesn't seem like he did. And many people ascribe these verses to a description of the Antichrist, anyway.
How could any mere human pinpoint the birth town of the Messiah seven full centuries before the fact, as did the prophet Micah?
As before.
How do you account for the odds (1 in 10 to the 157th power) that even just 48 (of 300) Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled in Jesus Christ?
He could have lied, or deceived, or just let people believe what they want, or any number of other things. His apostles could have fudged things. It was over two-thousand years ago, and the agenda is obviously (as is with any religion) to push that religion and make it seem as reliable as possible. You cannot take things like this so lightly as to think that just because he appears to have fufilled these prophecies means that he definitely, undoubtedly did, and that there's no chance there's any error, especially considering how vague the prophecies were, and that anyone who is claiming to be the son of God is not going to have any qualms with lying about his place of birth, etc.,
By the way, there were other people who fulfilled a lot of those prophecies, too.
Around the time that Jesus was walking around, the Jews were looking for a messiah to deliver them from Roman rule.
How was it possible for the Old Testament prophet Isaiah to have predicted the virgin birth of Jesus (Isaiah 7:14) 700 years before it occurred?
"There's going to be a virgin birth in 700 years!"
*700 years pass*
"Holy cow! A virgin birth! Even though there's no evidence for that I'm actually a virgin, and virgin birth has been used in other mythologies to symbolize the delivery of a dogmatically significant figure, everyone must simply believe me because it's been 700 years, and I say I'm a virgin, but I'm pregnant."
In those times, if you were pregnant before you were married (as was Mary; she wasn't married to Joseph when the "Angel came to her"), you were going to be in some trouble.
How can anyone doubt the reliability of Scripture considering the number and the proximity to the originals of its many copied manuscripts?
Easily. "Copied manuscripts"--right there. When they were putting together the Bible, it's not like they didn't have thousands of prophecies and pieces that they could have included. Some of them were slightly different from the original; things get mixed around. If something gets copied over and over again, it is going to have some errors.
In what sense was Jesus a "good man" if He was lying in His claim to be God?
That's an opinion, and the question doesn't even make any sense.
If the Bible is not true, why is it so universally regarded as "the Good Book"?
It's not.
Did you know that the Bible has been the number one bestseller almost every single year since the 1436 invention of the Gutenberg printing press?
Yes. Have you ever heard the quote: "What is right is not always popular; what is popular is not always right"?
If God does not exist, then from where comes humanity's universal moral sense?
Morality is a complicated thing, but it arises from the need for everyone to survive, and for there to be a prevention of turmoil. There's the principle of non-aggression: typically, if something is leaving you alone, you leave it alone, because if you are aggressive towards it for no reason, it's going to defend itself. "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you"; sound familiar? It's a basic behavioral principle found in pretty much all animals. It's a very important adaptation for the survival of a species. Live by the sword, die by the sword. Similarly, you are supposed to tell the truth because if lying was considered alright, then you would never be able to really believe a word anybody said--and if the truth has no integrity, civilization cannot function. Look up Kant's categorical imperative and think about how it relates to morality.
If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care and to live honorably in the world?
It's not "random" in the way you mean it, and that's a horribly oversimplistic view of life.
Can you explain how personality could have ever evolved from the impersonal, or how order could have ever resulted from chaos?
If order can't result from chaos, then we must not exist.
Personality is a combination of a lot of different aspects, including sex, instinct, reflex, intelligence, and many other things, all of which arise on their own in lesser orders of animals. What we know as the personality is the interactions thereof. Just because the mind is an amazing and beautiful thing does not mean that there had to be a God to create it.
If Jesus' resurrection was faked, why would twelve intelligent men (Jesus' disciples) have died for what they knew to be a lie?
Maybe they didn't. And maybe that's the wrong question. Suppose it wasn't "faked", per se, but after everyone had died, those who wanted to seize some power started changing bits and pieces of the story. Who would correct them? It's not like they had news and television and the internet so that people could tell people far away, "No, hey, that didn't happen like that!"
There's a lot of room for smear.
How do you explain the fact that a single, relatively uneducated and virtually untraveled man, dead at age 33, radically changed lives and society to this day?
Virtually untraveled? I wouldn't say so. And if being a "single, relatively uneducated, and virtually untraveled man" who died young is criteria for there being a God and for their being Christ, I guess that means that a very large number of philosophers that have lived throughout the ages (particularly Epictetus, who was born a slave) must have been evidence of Christianity's righteousness, too, despite the fact that Epictetus was not Christian. Well, that doesn't make much sense.
Why have so many of history's greatest thinkers been believers?
Like who? Einstein wasn't, the founding fathers of America weren't, the Greek philosophers weren't, a fair number of famous military officers weren't, most scientists aren't, or, at least, aren't "believers" in a dogmatic sense, but, rather, only observe the possibility or like to think that there is a "god"--and many of them admit that they believe in God like Einstein believed in God: that "God" is the mechanisms of the universe, and not actually a sentient, knowing, judging, feeling being.
Define "believer", and then provide sources.
Have you ever wondered why thousands of intelligent scientists, living and dead, have been men and women of great faith?
Same as above.
If time never had a beginning, but rather goes backwards infinitely or has gone through an infinite number of cycles, then how is it possible that we are here today?
That doesn't make any sense. Your question does not follow your premises.
How can something as small as a brain understand extremely complicated aspects of the universe, even though it is (supposedly) just a bunch of chemical reactions and electrical signals? But at the same time, this brain can’t create another brain like itself, so how can nature, that has no brain, create a brain?
To say that the brain is "just a bunch of chemical reactions and electrical signals" makes it sound like you think the brain is a toy train or something.
Everyone knows Mount Rushmore was the result of intelligent design. Do you think the human body is the result of intelligent design?
No.
When you look at a lot of creatures such as zebras, turtles, butterflies, bees, lady bugs, leopards, etc., you will notice amazing color patterns designed into them. Who came up with those? Does nature have a “taste” in colors , and does it know which colors go together nicely?
Nobody "came up with" them. They're adaptations. You're approaching it the wrong way; nature doesn't have a taste in colors that comes from a creator, -we- have a taste in colors because nature put them there and we have an appreciation for nature.
How do you account for the origin of life considering the irreducible complexity of its essential components?
Irreducible complexity is a moot point and can be considered discounted and invalidated.
How can the Second Law of Thermodynamics be reconciled with progressive, naturalistic evolutionary theory?
The Second Law provides that there is no energy going into the system. There is a -lot- of energy going into the system of the Earth--that is, the processes of evolution.
How do you reconcile the existence of human intelligence with naturalism and the Law of Entropy?
See the above.
How come there are some things on our planet seem that they are especially designed for us? For example, the 2 most comfortable colors are blue and green , which happen to be the color of the sky and most of the nature around us. Who chose those colors to be there , before earth even existed?
No one chose those colors. We find them comfortable -because- they are the most common and they're all around us. They are the colors of two great expanses of emptiness that remind us of the unknown and of nature. We take comfort in nature. They do not provide any evidence of a creator.
Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's holy books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events?
Have they happened yet?
No.
Don't hold your breath.
Is it absolutely true that "truth is not absolute" or only relatively true that "all things are relative?"
Truth is absolute.
Nothing can be "relatively" true.
Is it possible that your unbelief in God is actually an unwillingness to submit to Him?
No.
Does your present worldview provide you with an adequate sense of meaning and purpose?
Yes.
How do you explain the radically changed lives of so many Christian believers down through history?
The same way I explain the radically changed lives of anyone who finds a sense of peace. Pill-poppers have radically changed lives and sense of peace, too. That doesn't mean there's a God.
Are you aware that every alleged Bible contradiction has been answered in an intelligible and credible manner?
According to whom?
What do you say about the hundreds of scholarly books that carefully document the veracity and reliability of the Bible?
Show me.
Also: They're Biblical scholars... so whose side do you think they're going to be on? A lot of them are probably with the Vatican.
Why and how has the Bible survived and even flourished in spite of centuries of worldwide attempts to destroy and ban its message?
People can keep information alive if they want to.
Have you ever considered the fact that Christianity is the only religion whose leader is said to have risen from the dead?
That is untrue.
How do you explain the empty tomb of Jesus in light of all the evidence that has now proven essentially irrefutable for twenty centuries?
"Evidence"?
Such as what?
If Jesus did not actually die and rise from the dead, how could He (in His condition) have circumvented all of the security measures in place at His tomb?
Moot point.
If the authorities stole Jesus' body, why?
Inpertinent.
Why would they have perpetrated the very scenario that they most wanted to prevent?
As above.
If Jesus merely resuscitated in the tomb, how did He deal with the Roman guard posted just outside its entrance?
Relies on false premises.
How can one realistically discount the testimony of over 500 witnesses to a living Jesus following His crucifixion (see 1 Corinthians 15:6)?
If all of Jesus' claims to be God were the result of His own self-delusion, why didn't He show evidence of lunacy in any other areas of His life?
He had a freak-out in the temple once, that was maybe a little lunatic of him.
But besides that: how do you know he didn't show lunacy? If you were writing about your messiah and he had a few quirks, would you really write about them? Really? Besides that, lots of people who have severe mental problems don't show signs of symptoms in other parts of their life. The Bible doesn't really even cover much of Jesus' life where he's not being messianic and doing such things as messiahs do.
Is your unbelief in a perfect God possibly the result of a bad experience with an imperfect church or a misunderstanding of the facts, and therefore an unfair rejection of God Himself?
No.
How did 35-40 men, spanning 1500 years and living on three separate continents, ever manage to author one unified message, i.e. the Bible?
They got together and planned it out.
And the message isn't "unified" as much as most Christians would like to think.
Because life origins are not observable, verifiable, or falsifiable, how does the theory of "evolution" amount to anything more than just another faith system?
There is actual evidence and the processes that created life are not unobservable. They are verifiable, and they have been verified. They could have been falsified, but they haven't been, because they're accurate.
What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?
I don't find it a problem at all. Human psychology, the instinctual need to have a parental figure, Man's realization of his insigifnicance upon finding that he could observe himself and the universe around him, plus anthropomorphism and superstition (which are all inherent human qualities) have all resulted in the tendency for people to believe in the spiritual. It's well-known that
If every effect has a cause, then what or who caused the universe?
Learn about quantum physics. Particularly Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, energy-time uncertainty principle, Casimir Effect, etc., Also, consider Avicenna's Argument from Possibility.
How do you explain the thousands of people who have experienced heaven or hell and have come back to tell us about it? When you die, lots of strange things happen to you. Your brain floods with a chemical that is a strong hallucinogen similar to LSD. People take this chemical like a drug sometimes to experience something like dying.
How do you explain the countless people who have received miracles from God?
Self-delusion, wishful thinking, psychosomaticism, placebo effect, mind-over-body...
Is there any evidence that would satisfy you and persuade you to become a believer, or are you just going to believe what you WANT to believe?
Yes, and any evidence would be a good start.
Wow ...the moron above who is so proud of itself proves that faith does not come from mere logic. Logic will fully support faith once it is born but it cannot come merely from man. Faith is a gift from God. Don't worry, for the dilligent faith will be fully supported by logic and truth once it is born.
ReplyDeleteEvidence? ...how about mere flower.
Can't see God in that ..you are simply blind.
What do you make of all the anthropological studies indicating that even the most remote tribes show some sort of theological awareness?
ReplyDeleteI don't find it a problem at all. Human psychology, the instinctual need to have a parental figure, Man's realization of his insigifnicance upon finding that he could observe himself and the universe around him, plus anthropomorphism and superstition (which are all inherent human qualities) have all resulted in the tendency for people to believe in the spiritual. <--- You already lost. You're buried.
See God in a flower? It's a flower. Is there someone in there flapping their arms demanding your unending faith and servitude? ...You are simply leotarded.
Ethanael, I love your response. I think I will favorite this page just so I can reread your logical answers against their dogma.
ReplyDelete"Marc Said,
ReplyDeleteWow ...the moron above who is so proud of itself proves that faith does not come from mere logic. Logic will fully support faith once it is born but it cannot come merely from man. Faith is a gift from God. Don't worry, for the dilligent faith will be fully supported by logic and truth once it is born.
Evidence? ...how about mere flower.
Can't see God in that ..you are simply blind."
Just as long as you're freely admitting to believing in something that doesn't make any damn sense.
By the way, flowers are evidence of science, not faith. Science deals in things that are, and faith deals in things that might be, but probably aren't.
Well done Ethanael. Good work on answering.
ReplyDeleteThe distinctions between faith and science are many, but an important one is how they respond to the following question:
Is there ANY empirical fact that could change your mind about whether or not God exists?
Science will answer that any solid demonstration of a (relevant) supernatural phenomena would warrant a reexamination of the issue.
Faith will answer than no matter what anyone demonstrates, or fails to demonstrate, it will be of no consequence because faith does not rest on empirical evidence.
At mark: It's quite interesting, you say that if you can't see the "god" in a flower then your blind. I find it hypocritical that you would say that. It's really a question of whom is the real blind one: the one who can see past "god" or the one stuck looking into a flower.
ReplyDelete@ Donald D: Well maybe it's the other way round... :)
ReplyDeleteAll you can see is a flower, but what we see is something different...
In the beginning there was nothing; so, where did we come from?
ReplyDeleteMatthew Maury, a US Navy officer, after reading Psalm 8:8, set off to find these curious "paths of the seas". He eventually discovered these oceanic currents and came to be known as the "pathfinder of the seas".
ReplyDeleteit's ok if you don't believe in God, the Most High, the Creator. We are not coercing you to believe in what we believe in, for we were saved by Grace and our willingness to take His path, we are merely here to share our faith so perhaps you may find your salvation. You will never see what we see and understand what we understand unless you, yourself are willing to do so and open up to repentance, after all "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Ephesians 6:12). God will never coerce you to believe in Him. But remember this on judgement day...you were warned but you chose your own path not of God's...
Hell is the truth seen too late.
God bless I hope you find repentance as the way.
Is it true that god is the most powerful being in the universe, and not nothing ever goes against his will? So he is in fact more powerful than 'the devil'? Then why hast the devil 'thwarted' god's plans if god is all-powerful?
ReplyDeleteNone of us are saved by what we have seen or perceive, instead we are saved by faith in Christ Jesus through God’s grace which is made available to us in abundance.
ReplyDeleteI was once a hard to impress logician and a man of all things science, I still am, but I am more convinced in God first and foremost.
You see John 3:16 says ,”For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so whosoever BELIEVES in Him, should not perish, but have eternal life.” In Godly things, seeing does not equal to believing, it is the affirmation or coming to pass of what we believe; what we believe we believe through faith.
Though we have not seen, nor touched, nor heard Him, we are convinced in Him. I always never understood being a man of science and logic. Why should I, a man of reason, subject myself to something I cannot prove through science?
But on the night I gave my life to Christ and this was [25 Feb 2011] I said, “God, I am a man of science and reason, and I find it hard to believe things I cannot see or touch, but if your ways are that much higher than mine, so that my mind can fathom, then reconcile me to this.
Looking back I realise I was saved by faith through grace. I was not saved because I saw, or knew but I leapt before I knew, I had hope that He would hold me still. I had to forgo all scientific knowledge, all metaphysical and logical reasoning, I had to forgo.
You see, the things of God are not subject to the finite mind of men. Who is man that God should be subject to him? Having sent His Son to die in our place should He then also respond to our clamouring for signs and wonders?
He shall not because even if we saw signs and miracles, of which they occur everyday, we still would not believe. For belief is by faith, a gift afforded to all mankind through the grace of God.
You see, God so loved you, a mere human, He sent someone wonderful to die for you to be reconciled with Him. When I look at some of these blogs I am reminded of how I used to push the envelope myself, not out of rudeness, I believed I was asking for evidence.
I would have perished were it not for His gift of faith. Faith is available to all men who render themselves at the throne of God. It is not for the logical man, the scientific man, the theorist or metaphysicist. You see, even atheist logicians and scientists can be saved only if they give up their mantle of scientific reason which is a [light that gives out darkness] before the glory of God when it rejects Him.
If not now, soon enough, every knee shall bow and confess that He is Lord. You see, you have been born to an age of grace for you have been given a key to escape estrangement from the Father through faith.
No level of logic or reason shall save you, and I once thought I didn’t need saving myself. Now that I am alive, I can see that none come to the Father except by acceptance of His Son Jesus Christ.
I am not worried about His efficacy, for it shall prove itself in full view before all men in as much as for those who have faith it is in full view now. You see in as much as through faith we observe the coming as though it were, we are in awe of our Lord’s majesty as though it were already before the visibility of all men; but this is only because He is, since God who was, is and shall always be. I hope for your faith since it is the KEY to your salvation.
The mysteries of God are in full view, and yet we cannot see, such is the irony of Science and Logic without God at the start.
Milton M.
I love this! and Ethaneual-whatever-your-name-is...ive got something for you.
ReplyDelete"Why does the Bible alone, of all of the world's holy books, contain such detailed prophecies of future events?
Have they happened yet?
No.
Don't hold your breath." There have been over a hundred Bible prophecies fulfilled. Look it up. Read the Bible. LOOK AROUND! Don't hold YOUR breath.
@Milton - I find a line in your post most ironic:
ReplyDelete"I had to forgo all scientific knowledge, all metaphysical and logical reasoning, I had to forgo."
When did it EVER make sense to "forgo" logical reasoning and scientific knowledge? It is critical thinking that has struggled (because of religion) to get us this far as a civilisation. 99% of all dogmatic religions prefer their flock/followers/sub-servients to give up all knowledge and critical thinking. A prime example of this can be found in the destruction of the library of Alexandria which held millions of documents on astronomy and physics. It was destroyed by a dogmatic religious mob because they deemed such knowledge "heretical".
Blind faith is not good for the survival of human kind. As long as it exists, we will always run the risk of self annihilation because of the insistence on believing that something better lies beyond the veil. At the end of the day, you cannot, with any solid reason and knowledge say that something better lies waiting for you after you die. So why not make the best of what you have now, in this life, so that many others can enjoy this wonderful universe down the line.
I'll end off with a question for you theists:
Why would an all powerful, all knowing "creator" create a being it deems "special" on an unremarkable planet, in an unremarkable solar system, in an unremarkable corner of the Milky Way galaxy, in an unremarkable corner of our known universe? What a wasteful way to go about things. This video illustrates my point quite clearly: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p86BPM1GV8M&feature=share
I believe there are answers out there, but in order for us to find them, we need to keep an open mind, but also remain critical enough to determine the true nature of things in our universe.
Religions compel their members to think such things, because, like all other institutions created by men they want control. You do not need established religion to be a religious person. You can be a Christian without subscribing to any Church.
DeleteSorry I apologize on if i didn't read Some of it, I remember someone saying "Seeing God in a flower"
ReplyDeleteIf you had an open mind and you Understood, please note Faith is a God given GIFT! IF you do not have that FAITH that God gives you how can you you understand HOW BIG HE IS. GOD created the heavens and there earth if you were to go outside, imagine you see GLORY in HIS creation!
We are so Diverse, What IF, God Created EVERYTHING. Just what if, LOOK at the stars in the SKY, is God to big that you must resize him to YOUR way of thinking?? WHY can't God create everything? Our bodies are extremely complex God left his mark in us, GOOGLE Lamenant (i think that is correct) whoa, the image ummmm it sure looks like the CROSS to me.
EVEN THE FIRST VERSE IN THE BIBLE is extremely important, look it up How can the writer in Hebrew thousand of years ago, Talk about time, space, matter??
500 people saw the resurrected Jesus, 500 witnesses (look it up) if they were to write it down, they will make sure that the story was corrected, The Rabbi's need to learn the Torah Word for word verbatim, That was the needed requirements to become a Rabbi, if they missed a word it wont happen.
There is plenty of documentation in biblical history and finds and they will continue to find more more proving the truthness to the scriptures. (do some research)
God created EVERYTHING, How are we so relational?
Explain the wind, it's there right??? you can feel it? You can't see it, does still exist? You can see God, but you feel the warmth of the sun. How do you know from right or wrong? Yes we are given a MORAL LAW, if there are villagers that eat people for a living and foreigners see them eating people Would they say "oh that is good, if they are eating people i can to?
If we have a Moral Law, to know what is wrong or right, There MUST be a MORAL LAW GIVER....
Ummmm makes you want to think? Science and the bible go hand in hand especially ON Creation! Science has proven Creation true as the Nose on your face.
YOU way of think is to small comparing to how GRAND AND AMAZING GOD IS
Historian Gary Habermas: “Utilizing each of the historical facts conceded by virtually all contemporary scholars, please produce a comprehensive natural explanation of Jesus’ resurrection that makes better sense than the event itself.”
ReplyDeleteThese historical facts are: (1) Jesus was killed by crucifixion; (2) Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose and appeared to them; (3) The conversion of the church persecutor Saul, who became the Apostle Paul; (4) the conversion of the skeptic James, Jesus’ half-brother; (5) The empty tomb of Jesus. These “minimal facts” are strongly evidenced and are regarded as historical by the vast majority of scholars, including skeptics, who have written about the resurrection in French, German, and English since 1975. While the fifth fact doesn’t have quite the same virtual universal consensus, it nevertheless is conceded by 75 percent of the scholars and is well supported by the historical data if assessed without preconceptions.
Thanks I have been posting several of your remarks on face book to an agnostic..
ReplyDeleteHe and his wife seem to get very defensive and shut down the talk and want to go private all of a sudden.
Thanks I don't think they will posting their clap-trap on face book for awhile.
I only used a portion of what you posted so I am now ready for round two..
Thanks I do love these two people very much..
It is amazing to me that these people who don't have any belief or interest in honestly finding out about whether there is a God, come on here and waste their time trying to debunk what believers say. Why not just let us lunatics go about our business? Do we somehow get under your skin?
ReplyDeleteWhile some of these arguments have promise the majority of these are not really arguments, some of these aren't even questions. The first response by Ethanael tackles most of these arguments with simple responses. I find it interesting the questions that are simple to answer that aren't answered. for instance 'If Jesus did not actually die and rise from the dead, how could He (in His condition) have circumvented all of the security measures in place at His tomb?'
ReplyDeleteYou simply answered - Moot point. Yet you could have simply said that Jesus' friends/family stole out His body. Now I am a proud Catholic but I am just wondering why you got lazy and didn't answer some of the questions, it really lowered your platform for arguing against other questions. For Christians reading this before you go arguing your heads off with the points presented, I encourage you to read this article http://www.skepticalchristian.com/badarguments.htm , if you are going to argue at least use coherent and logical points instead of some of the things mentioned in this writeup, Don't argue like a Creationist, argue like a researched Christian. In response to Ethanael when he said in response to:
If every effect has a cause, then what or who caused the universe?
Learn about quantum physics. Particularly Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, energy-time uncertainty principle, Casimir Effect, etc., Also, consider Avicenna's Argument from Possibility.' You do understand what the uncertainty principle is right? I'm only asking because it isn't at all related to the question, and yes we all understand the premise of vacuum energy and the possibility of energy changing into matter but the actual evidence supporting it is inconclusive, and besides it still doesn't discount the argument of the state of the universe before the big bang as time must be considered as infinite (given a starting point, i.e. a singularity, the origin of the big bang, would require a vacuum to exist and without space even vacuums are impossible), even the relationship of space and time (essentially time can't exist without matter and vice-versa) doesn't give an answer to what existed before matter and time in the sense we understand it. Avicenna's thoughts on possibility and necessity (which I believe you are referring to, correct me if I am wrong) are being misconstrued by you as it is fundamentally incorrect to Christianity in the belief that God has no creator/producer and thus falls under the category of being 'necessary in Himself'.
ps. sorry for the length of my post.
all these "prophesies" come true in the bible. If the atheist is right then the bible is a fiction book and was written to make everything seem incredible and divine. The bible cannot be used to prove the bibles truth. Also there are tons of contradictions in the bible/ If it was divine there would not be so many. if any at all.
ReplyDeletetyler. So the Israelites deliberately had themselves enslaved to prove the Bible true?
ReplyDeletedawkins believes in intelligent design, but refuses to believe in GOD why is it easier to believe in ANYTHING outside od GOD than to believe in GOD or at least put him in there as one of the many THEORIESof unanswered questions, such as how earth came to be, universal design,ethical questions etc. i believe that GOD and SCIENCE should be hand and hand. if a scientist CANT DISPROVE THE DESIGNER it should be their JOB to at LEAST KEEP GOD IN THE EQUATION. GOD BLESS YOU ALL by the way I LOVE GOD and SCIENCE lol
ReplyDeleteYour arguments are farcical. You question an atheist on science. As if you even know atheism. We, simply put, do not believe what you or any theist is saying. We aren't suggesting we know everything, unlike you guys who swear you know the "truth", written by people you know nearly nothing about - yet trust because they mention the word God. We haven't resigned ourselves, and settled upon an answer that has been philosophized for longer than we've been recording our history. Within the last 3000 years some have had their guesses, and now, what they guessed is rock solid proof of a god. If 1% of the Bible is inaccurate, or wrong, how do we know what else is wrong, or how much is wrong? Which parts are wrong? If one claim, is denounced, shouldn't they all be put under the same scrutiny. The problem is, the truth you follow is categorically unverifiable, and so we can never know if the scribe was telling the truth, an exaggeration of it, or a misinterpretation of it. Considering Gods actions and speech is designed to fit the narrative formulas of the time, means the God did actually speak to himself in the form of a narrative, which is convenient. Or is it that we just assumed what he'd say, and put it into a narrative so that people would listen to the story? And if they were assuming what God said, how do we know that he actually said it? Did God actually say every word that he is claimed to have said, or did at any point, someone just guess? And why is God speaking to himself? Why must their be a monologue in a narrative to explain Genesis? Other than for the sake of communication purposes. The better the narrative, the more listeners you got. So was Genesis written as a narrative, or did God act within the constraints of Biblical narratives? Another thing. If God has a plan for everyone, our mere existence would suggest EVERYTHING has gone to plan. Every event, every life, from beginning to end (So, why do you pray?) followed God's plan (Or he has no plan and is winging it, meaning everything isn't finely tuned/designed.) EVERYTHING has gone to plan. From Adam and Eve's failures in the Garden of Eden - a story with characters set up to fail, so that there would be a lesson to tell. If God planned that beginning to end, why then are we "punished". If I am alive, because a plan has been followed, that means Noah and the flood are absolutely vital, and those involved had to go to plan. Which means, the flood was planned in advance, man's failure was planned in advance, and God's own disapproval was planned in advance. The plan was for Moses to bring down the 10 commandments, but it was also the plan of 3000 people to worship something they made with their own hands, and be killed for it, immediately before Moses read out, "thou shalt not kill." (Biblical logic.) And Jesus was sent down to die, so in order for the plan to go accordingly, he would have to be killed. Which means that out of 12 disciples, only one was entrusted enough to follow his plan, which would lead to the greater plan of Jesus' death. That person, Judas. Both God and Jesus planned for him to turn him in. Yet Judas is punished for turning Jesus in, as if he wasn't supposed to. You challenge the intellect of others, but do not challenge yourself. If you did, you'd notice the ridiculous moments of God, like wasting Bible space on how to handle MURDEROUS cows. (How important is that?) Which surprisingly, takes up the same amount of passage as it does to describe the creation of EVERYTHING. Your belief stems from superstition. It is unobservable, untestable, and illogical. Yet it is the truth. Poor effort, my friend.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is Christianity is the only system that can possibly end in a positive result. Let me explain.
ReplyDeleteCreativeist, atheists believe their is no god. If you believe in this or not & you die - No Consequence.
Christianity believe their is a god and if you die and you don't belive jesus died on the cross -Cosequence is hell for eternity.If you DO beleie jesus died on the cross and have relationship with him and you die - Reward is eternity in heaven.
Having relationship with Jesus is the only possibly outcome with a positive result after you die.
Godbless.