It's actually quite easy, I had faith my entire childhood. All you have to do is assume you have the answers. It's really quite simple. If I believe Jesus is talking to me, he is. If want to see a miracle, I will. 100 people die in a plane crash, 99 die, 1 survives. It's a miracle! I'm sure the other 99 dead people would disagree, but hey, God works in mysterious ways right?
That is not faith. You are relating faith to the naivety of a child. The faith we mean when we talk about it is one of research and based firmly in reality.
You are first invited to join us willingly. You will now be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
You do of course realize that Buddhist, Bah'ai's , Muslims, Taoists, Hindus, Jainists, Wiccans, Necromancers, Religious Satanists, Followers of Zeus, Followers of Poseidon, etc. etc. etc. all felt the spirit of their god because they had faith. Kinda odd don't ya think? Everyone has their own god, and they all claim to feel his presence. And he changed all their lives. It's amazing what disenfranchising yourself with true responsibility will do for your mindset. There's evil in this world, but that's ok, because I'm saved. Let's go through the list.
I do not doubt that there is something about the human mind that has the ability to believe in the absence of evidence. I also do not doubt that there is a certain longing to do so. Still, this speaks more for a creator than anything else, no?
Same with Taoism, Buddhism, Islam, Shinto. All changed lives on a massive scale. And not just the lives of the believers either. Those nearby also had their lives changed. So that proves that religion changes lives. Doesn't make it true, truly believing there is a voice in your head telling you to rape little children is life changing as well, doesn't mean there really is a disembodied voice telling you what to do.
Here you seem to be likening religion with psychological problems. The reverse of this has been proven scientifically. There is nothing wrong with these people other than your unfounded criticism of faith.
That's like saying a plastic pitcher of water has evidence that a gopher created the pitcher because the pitcher is there. The only evidence that the earth around us provides is that it exists.
No, it is common sense. You do not look at anything around you that has a function as if it just happened to appear. You naturally assume that it was created. It is plain common sense to assume the same is true for the world, but yet you didn't know this from an early age and you have, over the course of all those years, decided it was not the case. Still, it makes perfect sense.
“An intelligent being, is the active principle of all things. One must have renounced all common sense to doubt it, and it is a waste of time to try to prove such self evident truth.” - Jean Jacques Rousseau
Yeah, add that to the list of fulfilled prophecies of the ages, such as Nostradamus, Islam, Magic 8 ball, etc. Astrology makes accurate predictions about peoples lives as well. Funny how all you need to do is interpret it in a way that suits your desired outcome.
Lol, no one that actually has knowledge prophecy would compare Nostradamus to Biblical prophecy. Nostradamus was among the most successful secular "predictors" of all time and his "prophecy" pales in comparison with that of the Biblical prophets. You might have been told that Biblical prophecy is vague, and some of it is, but there are many, many prophecies that are very specific. Let's start with that Jesus Christ prophecy.
4 guys who give different stories and all believe it would happen claimed that a body was put in a cave with a big rock, then the body was gone.
This shows a lack of knowledge. These men did not believe that Christ would rise from the dead. They were utterly defeated in that three day period.
Dissapearance of a body in no ways entails the assumption it was ressurected. If we assumed every mysterious dissapearance of a body meant it had been resurrected, we would have a whole lot of people to account for. And it's not as if Jesus' ressurection story is unique. Apollonius of Tyana, Sabbatai Sevi, Rabbi Judah, Kabir to name a few.
Hmmm, who stole the body then? It is documented (pretty sure Josephus attested to this) that he was crucified and buried. There was no one denying that his body was missing during the time. Do you not think that the Jews and Romans would have said, "You fools, his body is right here" if it actually was? There wouldn't have been any Christians at all. So, let's look at the parties and what their motives and ability to steal Christ's body was. First, we have the Romans who knew that Christ had predicted his resurrection. Their motives were to quell the uprising so they had every incentive to protect the grave. If they had failed in their duty to guard the body, their penalty would be death so no chance of a bribe here. The disciples did not believe he was the Son of God until he rose and met them three days later. Still, even if this were not the case, there was still the matter of a huge rock and a rock in the path. Still, even if all of this was overcome, there is still the matter of them proclaiming what they would have known to be a lie while alienating their friends and family and going onto a horrible death. These were sane, upstanding men who had no incentive to do this other than the hope of Christ resurrected. Then, finally, we have the Jews. I don't think I need to tell you why the Jews wouldn't want to steal the body.
Does that mean that the simultaneous belief of all the members of the Haley's comet cult that claimed the telescope they used was faulty because it didn't detect the ship behind the comet they had claimed was coming is proof that the belief was legitimate? People who were told by Jesus he would be resurrected believed that he was, how is that shocking? And they all wrote about it decades later.
Again, psychological deficiencies shouldn't be linked to men that had no history of such things. As far as it being written decades later, the gospel accounts were a marvel for that time in history. Most accounts were written significantly longer after they happened with such a high emphasis on oral tradition. It is an amazing fact in and of itself that the gospel accounts were written so soon after Christ's death.
Though not technically a faith or belief, how about atheists? Hmm, people who don't believe in god were tortured and killed by Christians.
Atheists have always existed. They did not come into being in such an environment as Christianity did. Again, this is such a tired argument... Christians did not persecute anyone. Manipulating opportunists under the veil of Christianity killed people (I am not supposing that amongst them were no Christians, however).
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Source: http://www.inplainsite.org/html/scientific_facts_in_the_bible.html
Warning: some of these are vague (as you would expect), but others are pretty straightforward and speak to the possibility of divine origin that even the vaguer ones might have been as the author supposes.
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