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It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
All I am saying is that we dont have conclusive evidnece that organisms evolve by the so called Darwinian mechanisms (random variation + NS) …….. other alternatives are being discussed in the literature, and nobody claims to have an answer. I had the impression that you agreed with this claim………. If not feel free to correct me

I still don't know what we're discussing or why. I don't know what you consider conclusive evidence in this context, or how conclusive you think evidence can or need be. I've explained to you that as an agnostic atheist, I make no claims about non-earthborn intelligent designers existing or not, I consider the idea of the supernatural incoherent and expect anything that exists to be a part of nature, the theory of evolution does a great job and can be called correct or proved beyond a reasonable doubt (a deceptive intelligent designer is not an option worth thinking about except in discussions of falsification of the theory and what would by default replace it).

The theory of biological evolution unifies mountains of data from a multitude of sources, accurately makes predictions about what can and cannot be found in nature, provides a rational mechanism for evolution consistent with the known actions of nature, accounts for both the commonality of all life as well as biodiversity, and has had practical applications that have improved the human condition in areas like medicine and agriculture. If you think that you can make a valuable addition or correction to it, please do. The kinds of things you've been discussing add nothing of value that I can discern.

How about I just stipulate to everything you've said and we move on? Nothing is certain, all logical possibilities remain logical possibilities however unlikely until shown to be impossible or not actual, maybe there's more to evolution than genetic variation and natural selection, maybe the eye didn't evolve as a series of steps each conferring a competitive advantage, maybe there are alternatives I'm unaware of. Now we're done - unless you've been holding out on your purpose here and intend to go further, which I wouldn't be interested in at this point given our history and my repeated requests for what that might be. For you to spring something new here now puts you in the same category as an Amway salesperson who cons you to go out for a meal just to spring an unstated, stealth agenda on you - a poor strategy for promoting anything.

So done then, right?

the reason why we are in a mess, is due to "the west" turning away from God, and towards a materialistic philosophy.

Of course, what you see is a mess - consistent with Abrahamic nihilism. This is what keeps many clinging to their faith life it's a lifeboat.

Following biblical scripture gave man the Middle Ages, with its pseudosciences and authoritarian regimes allegedly sanctioned by a deity (divine right of kings). People were subjects living under the thumb of kings and dying left and right of infectious disease and food poisoning, many children not making it to two years, and many of their mothers dying in childbirth. Is that what you meant by the height of wisdom and understanding of the divine physician? He lost a lot of patients needlessly.

The Enlightenment saved man from the medieval world. Humanism and Enlightenment values replaced that with something much, much, much better. We received science, which has made life longer, more functional, more comfortable, easier, more safe, and more interesting, as with the Internet and RF. And it transformed subjects without rights into autonomous citizens. It's not hard to find examples of cultures minimally influenced by the Enlightenment, places where they still cut off hands, push people off of towers, or burn them alive in cages for impiety - things the West also did with its inquisitions and witch hangings until conditioned by humanist values.

Even today, whatever you call the alternative to what you call materialist philosophy, which I call faith-based thought, continues to damage the world. Because of it, America has Christian homophobia and is attempting to turn women into incubators for God. You've got people making decisions about vaccines by faith and dying and harming others around them. You've got election hoaxers willing to overturn democracy by faith. You've got climate denial based in faith. My tradition opposes all of that. Yours promotes that kind of thinking. Yet you want to blame humanist philosophy - a belief which you also hold by faith.
 

SkepticThinker

Veteran Member
It is merely your opinion..
The hospitals are full of Muslim Doctors here in the UK.
Many of them pray regularly in prayer rooms on a daily basis.

You may claim that they are rational when they are treating patients, but when they go to pray, they are then acting irrationally. :D

Total codswallop !
What is "codswallop" about that? People do that all the time - hold rational views on one subject while holding irrational ones on another subject. :shrug:
 
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Alien826

No religious beliefs
The Evidence covers this Quandary.

The evidence of the Person of the Messenger also covers this.

I will not give proofs from the evidence in this OP.

Regards Tony

I've been pondering why this thread has continued for so long, given that your original post didn't say much more than this. Indeed, the whole conversation could have been (roughly) ...

You: I submit (three things) as evidence for Baha'i beliefs. I don't want to discuss it further. Do you agree that they are evidence?

Respondent: I suppose they are evidence to you as you say so. They are not to me. Don't you want to discuss it further?

You: No.

Respondent: Well, alright then. I don't see the point of your post, but OK.


Why did it go on then? I think most people didn't believe that was all you intended. First, most people do want to actually have a discussion in a debate forum. Second, it read like a "teaser" for some kind of followup and people started to respond to what they thought you were about to say. Then of course it got out of hand as many threads do.

I still don't see why you posted it, if you didn't want to follow through.
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
So your "basic logic" is OK with a low standard for deciding a God exists, but high for legal matters? How does that make sense? Why is your personal belief so cheap, but science so exceptional? Shouldn't your personal beliefs be high as possible as a foundation os self-respect?
I did not say that the standards for deciding if God exists are lower than for science and law, they are just different standards.
My standards for deciding if God exists are very high, and I had the best evidence that is available to make that decision.
 

muhammad_isa

Veteran Member
The Enlightenment saved man from the medieval world. Humanism and Enlightenment values replaced that with something much, much, much better. We received science, which has made life longer, more functional, more comfortable, easier, more safe, and more interesting, as with the Internet and RF. And it transformed subjects without rights into autonomous citizens..

historians of science have long known that religious factors played a significantly positive role in the emergence and persistence of modern science in the West. Not only were many of the key figures in the rise of science individuals with sincere religious commitments, but the new approaches to nature that they pioneered were underpinned in various ways by religious assumptions. ... Yet, many of the leading figures in the scientific revolution imagined themselves to be champions of a science that was more compatible with Christianity than the medieval ideas about the natural world that they replaced.
Scientific Revolution - Wikipedia

Isaac Newton was a part of that scientific revolution.
Knowledge and education are good things.
It is not science and technology that is the cause of our problems .. it is the decrease of moral values that resulted from the Reformation.

You've got election hoaxers willing to overturn democracy by faith. You've got climate denial based in faith. My tradition opposes all of that. Yours promotes that kind of thinking. Yet you want to blame humanist philosophy - a belief which you also hold by faith.
No .. it's lack of knowledge and education that causes people to have "that kind of thinking".
Faith, in itself is NOT responsible.

I do not blame "humanist philosophy" .. I blame the decline of moral values.
 

Alien826

No religious beliefs
..but do they though?
If somebody can show that by following a certain way of life, you will be blessed, then why ignore that, and just say that "God cannot be proved to exist"?

I don't ignore that. There are ways to live that tend to bring happiness (or success or whatever) and ways that tend to the opposite. For example, petty crime is unlikely to improve my life (quite the opposite) so I don't engage in it. I don't see why I have to relate that to the supernatural, the cause and effect are quite plain.

..but I can understand why people argue along those lines.
Mankind often do not like change. It is easier to accept when we are younger, but it gets harder and harder .. as we get older.

..and in the end, we'll fly down south, and hide our heads in the sand,
just another sad old man, all alone..

Whoops, got sidetracked. ;)

That's right, all unbelievers end up as sad old men. How can we be so stupid? :eek:
 

muhammad_isa

Veteran Member
What is "codswallop" about that? People do that all the time - hold rational views on what subject while holding irrational ones on another subject. :shrug:
No .. that is your assumption.
You see religious belief as "irrational", so you make the assumption that people do not have rational reasons for their belief.

I cannot believe that a well-educated person who is a Doctor, with a very good understanding of Biology, worships God on a daily basis for irrational reasons. That is very far-fetched. :D
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
You: I submit (three things) as evidence for Baha'i beliefs. I don't want to discuss it further. Do you agree that they are evidence?

That is incorrect. The evidence sources are inclusive of all Claims of Divinity.

No one has seen God, the only way we know of God is via another human passing on the stories (There are cultures that see God reflected in Creation)

There are Bible passages supporting this OP that tells us how to determine a True Prophet of God, all that advice comes back to the evidence God provides us.

The Person
The Revelation
The resulting Word.

If that person is given of God, then God emanates from them, we are essentially looking at a mirror and seeing the attributes of God.

All other men do not have this station. Thus the person is the first line of evidence, were they different than other men?

A person who makes a claim saying they are from God, when they are not, will not be able toI reflect God, they can borrow aspects and use them, but there will be no reflection of all the attributes.

The Baha'i Faith is used in this regard, only because the records are recent, are mostly first hand accounts and if not, are only 2nd hand of the Bab and Baha'u'llah.

We do not have a lot of records of the lives of past Messengers, yet what has survived indicates they were not like other men.

Regards Tony
 

Subduction Zone

Veteran Member
@Polymath257 What if the Indus Valley Exodus took place when the Yadavas-Hebrews fled for Canaan, Yisrael? View attachment 70381
Such a claim could possibly be tested by genetics. All that you would need to do is to tell the world what you expect to see if your claim was true, and even more important what you would to see if your claims are false. Publishing these criteria before you did the tests would lend your test more credibility and also allow others to offer corrections and tweaks ahead of time. Then once it has been discussed among the appropriate experts in the fields you could go ahead and run your study.
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
I long for the next world more than you do, since my late husband and all my other loved ones are now there.
All I have left to live for in this world are my cats and my work for the Cause of God, thus I will stick around for those reasons.

While we are alive in this world, we can still be happy and serve humanity, however possible, and our obligations to our animal friends.

I start work at 6am, an hour away, basically I have about half an hour in the morning to look at the forum. When my afternoon comes, all the wonderful RF souls are in bed. :)

Stay well, stay happy, you have our Love.

Regards Tony
 

leroy

Well-Known Member
I still don't know what we're discussing or why. I don't know what you consider conclusive evidence in this context, or how conclusive you think evidence can or need be. I've explained to you that as an agnostic atheist, I make no claims about non-earthborn intelligent designers existing or not, I consider the idea of the supernatural incoherent and expect anything that exists to be a part of nature, the theory of evolution does a great job and can be called correct or proved beyond a reasonable doubt (a deceptive intelligent designer is not an option worth thinking about except in discussions of falsification of the theory and what would by default replace it).

The theory of biological evolution unifies mountains of data from a multitude of sources, accurately makes predictions about what can and cannot be found in nature, provides a rational mechanism for evolution consistent with the known actions of nature, accounts for both the commonality of all life as well as biodiversity, and has had practical applications that have improved the human condition in areas like medicine and agriculture. If you think that you can make a valuable addition or correction to it, please do. The kinds of things you've been discussing add nothing of value that I can discern.

How about I just stipulate to everything you've said and we move on? Nothing is certain, all logical possibilities remain logical possibilities however unlikely until shown to be impossible or not actual, maybe there's more to evolution than genetic variation and natural selection, maybe the eye didn't evolve as a series of steps each conferring a competitive advantage, maybe there are alternatives I'm unaware of. Now we're done - unless you've been holding out on your purpose here and intend to go further, which I wouldn't be interested in at this point given our history and my repeated requests for what that might be. For you to spring something new here now puts you in the same category as an Amway salesperson who cons you to go out for a meal just to spring an unstated, stealth agenda on you - a poor strategy for promoting anything.

So done then, right?



Of course, what you see is a mess - consistent with Abrahamic nihilism. This is what keeps many clinging to their faith life it's a lifeboat.

h.
With lack of conclusive evidence I simply mean that there is “reasonable doubt”…… I am not trying to use creative semantics………………all I am saying is that

1 there is a consensus among scholars that organisms evolve (we share a common ancestor with chimps and bannanas, the human eye evolved from a simpler organ etc.)

2 there is no consensus on HOW organisms evolve nor what is the main mechanism, perhaps mainly through the Darwinian mechanism , (random mutation + NS) perhaps some other mechanism (many have been mentioned before)

This is not supposed to be controversial; I even remember seeing an interview with Eugene Scot, (super anti creationists activist) agreeing with this very point.
 

F1fan

Veteran Member
I am just as rational as anybody else.
I know that mankind is responsible for climate-change.
You can deny it as much as you like.

Some people believe that it is caused by mankind .. they quote scientific evidence.
I have similar evidence, as to the root cause behind it all.
USURY
Almighty God has forbidden usury, and encourages almsgiving.

It is no coincidence .. it is truth.
What a pity your religious “truth” is limited to only those who make the same assumption as you do regarding your version of God. Your God has no more authority than your beliefs. So if you don’t want to use a credit card then that’s your preference. Rational minds don’t fear your implied threats. Do you really think your religious beliefs extend beyond the individual believer? It’s a little pathetic to be honest. And bolding the text doesn’t make it truer.
 

It Aint Necessarily So

Veteran Member
Premium Member
I've been pondering why this thread has continued for so long, given that your original post didn't say much more than this. Indeed, the whole conversation could have been (roughly) ...
You: I submit (three things) as evidence for Baha'i beliefs. I don't want to discuss it further. Do you agree that they are evidence?
Respondent: I suppose they are evidence to you as you say so. They are not to me. Don't you want to discuss it further?
You: No.
Respondent: Well, alright then. I don't see the point of your post, but OK.

Why did it go on then?

The thread goes on because of the humanist input. You can see that the Baha'i are only expressing their faith-based beliefs, calling it evidenced, and then moaning about debate, practically pleading for it to end. Without the humanist input, there is no substance to the discussion.

I still don't see why you posted it, if you didn't want to follow through.

I'll bet that you have a good guess. It can't be the stated purpose, because he has not been interested in discussing what he calls his evidence for a deity or why he thinks it signifies what he claims it does. None of the Baha'i will. It's just "his words" and "his life."

So what can the OP's purpose be for starting such a thread, and what can the purpose of the other Baha'i who seem to be looking for a way out of this thread but feel compelled to remain? I have no answer for the latter unless it's a show of solidarity to the OP.

But for the former, there can be only one purpose for this thread if there is any at all - one I don't mind, but which the RF terms of service prohibit - proselytizing in a way that hopes to preserve plausible deniability. He wants you to look at his evidence in the hope that it will sway you.

What else could it be? He's not interested in criticism of his evidence, nor why any given skeptic rejects it. He hopes somebody might look at it just one more time and see the wisdom he sees there, forever cut off from the knowledge that that cannot happen with an experienced critical thinker. He is unaware of what it takes to change such a mind however many times he's been told. That's how faith affects thought when it supplants skill in evaluating evidence.

Feel free to chime in here if you have anything to add to that, Transmutingsoul. Do you disagree with any of that? If so, what makes it wrong to you? Your input is welcome, but it's always been insubstantial fluff that adds nothing but more unsubstantiated opinions so far.

It is not science and technology that is the cause of our problems .. it is the decrease of moral values that resulted from the Reformation.

You didn't include an argument.

No .. it's lack of knowledge and education that causes people to have "that kind of thinking".
Faith, in itself is NOT responsible.

Same answer. You unevidenced, unargued claims have no persuasive power. They just let me know your opinions, but not why you hold them, so there is nothing to say.

With lack of conclusive evidence I simply mean that there is “reasonable doubt”…… I am not trying to use creative semantics………………all I am saying is that

1 there is a consensus among scholars that organisms evolve (we share a common ancestor with chimps and bannanas, the human eye evolved from a simpler organ etc.)

2 there is no consensus on HOW organisms evolve nor what is the main mechanism, perhaps mainly through the Darwinian mechanism , (random mutation + NS) perhaps some other mechanism (many have been mentioned before)

This is not supposed to be controversial; I even remember seeing an interview with Eugene Scot, (super anti creationists activist) agreeing with this very point.

OK.

God is not physical so God is not and never will be evident to the senses.

Yes, I know. Neither will Superman. He's also not physical and thus not evident to senses.

I did not say that the standards for deciding if God exists are lower than for science and law, they are just different standards.

He said they're lower. So have I. You have different standards for belief for gods because they can't meet the standards for things we know are real. By your standards, anything at all can be believed. Your argument is exactly as strong as arguing that the words of Bram Stoker are evidence for vampires. Look at his life. You've never seen a more exemplary life. Look at his words. "I have only Count Dracula to speak with, and he – I fear I am myself the only living soul within the place. Let me be plain so far as facts can be. It will help me to cope, and imagination must not run riot with me. If it does, I am lost." They're not proof of vampires, but evidence, and good enough, surely from a high pen, wisdom to live by. Disagree? That's just your opinion.

This is your position in essence, but for a different figment.

I long for reality, this world of dust has nothing to offer anymore.

This is what I was referring to when I spoke of these Abrahamic religions sucking the pleasure out of life and making people nihilistic, imitating people waiting at a cosmic bus stop for something better. Theists are unhappy people - at least on this thread. I wish I could help you, but I know I can't.

I long for reality as well - as much as I can experience - and this world is filled with beauty and wonder even if the faithful have been convinced otherwise. The humanists are enjoying this thread as the faithful express how much they dislike it. If your mind is forever closed to considering such ideas, then you have condemned yourself to life in a virtual prison of your own making. You talk about wisdom a lot, but as I've explained, for me, wisdom is knowing how to approach life successfully - knowing what to want that will bring contentment. Look at your comment again, and tell me how wise the path you have chosen was?

And now, if you'll excuse me, my materialist, hedonist philosophy beckons me to walk with my wife down to the shore to enjoy a couple of margaritas as the sun goes down over the lake after my nap, followed by some teppan yaki and then dancing to live music. Is there really nothing in your world but dust?
 
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muhammad_isa

Veteran Member
What a pity your religious “truth” is limited to only those who make the same assumption as you do regarding your version of God..
Why is it a pity?
Usury is denounced in the OT.

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn.

— Babylonian Talmud

It is more emphatically denounced in the Qur'an.

So if you don’t want to use a credit card then that’s your preference. Rational minds don’t fear your implied threats..

What you mean is, that you do not take heed of such warnings.
..just like the climate-change deniers .. they know that there is scientific evidence that proves it, but it doesn't suit them.
 

TransmutingSoul

One Planet, One People, Please!
Premium Member
Theists are unhappy people - at least on this thread. I wish I could help you, but I know I can't.

Ha ha, you will not find more happy and optimistic people, with the good of all humanity in mind, not just the few wealthy nations lost to materialism.

That one does not want much to do with the materialism, that is the cancer of humanity, does not mean we are not loyal, loving and happy citizens promoting the good of all humanity.

Lone voices in a very materialistic world. Luckily, the number is growing of people that are putting the materialistic lifestyle further behind them.

Regards Tony
 

Trailblazer

Veteran Member
Yes, I know. Neither will Superman. He's also not physical and thus not evident to senses.
God does not exist because God does not act like Superman...
God does not exist because God is not physical.....
God does not exist because God is not evident to the senses.....
You call that logical?

If you knew what God is you would know that is not logical, but since you have no idea what God is you cannot know what would be evidence for God. You only imagine what kind of evidence we should/would have if God existed.
He said they're lower. So have I.
Ask me if I care.
You have different standards for belief for gods because they can't meet the standards for things we know are real.
Things that are real in the material world require different standards of evidence than things that do not exist in the material world.
God doesn't exist in the material world so the same standards of evidence cannot be applied to God s are applied to material things. Logic 101.
 
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