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How could a sensible person believe in the bible?

Ringer

Jar of Clay
Is that so suprising though when you consider how ambiguous and contradictory it is? It defies all logic and common sense and I think that many Bible readers struggle with that conflict.

Only to those who read the bible going in with that mindset. I have yet to see a valid argument in which someone shows me how the bible explicitly contradicts itself. I usually hear the usual, "Well in the OT the bible says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but the NT says that we should turn the other cheek. You see, it contradicts itself." I usually find people giving me those lines have no interest in actually understanding the principles the bible presents. They would rather do anything they can to convince themselves or others that the bible has no truthfulness to it. I'm convinced that the more you study and attempt to understand the bible the less you'll think that it is illogical, ambiguous, and contradictory.
 

Ringer

Jar of Clay
I'm re-reading the Bible @ the moment. I am a sensible person (usually), so I'm told. So there! :p

I'm in a bible study and we usually deal with sensative topics but on the side I'm trying to read the NT from beginning to end. Good luck with your journey ;) .
 
booko

I would be interested in seeing you back it up with some actual evidence showing how other religions have no logic to them. But that would probably be a different thread, should you choose to take me up on my inquiry.

sorry, to clarify, i meant christian religions.
and i think that would be pointless with you, no offense, but why would you listen to what i said about the illogical bible anymore than what the next guy said about it?
(truly mean no offense by comment, correct me if im wrong)


There is nothing logical about miracle stories, though they may be instructive in other ways.

neither is the big bang theory/miracle....different word for something just as impossible and miraclulous. or at least that you can prove, just like me and the bible.

Science rests on axioms, that is true. But its conclusions are falsifiable in the strictest sense, which presents quite a chasm between science and metaphysics.

And no, clearly people do not have to believe a higher being started everything about you. There are a number of atheists who function rather well without such an assumption.

any athiest who doesnt believe in some kind of beginning is in denial. not unless you believe that the blackness of the universe came from nowhere, and before that whatever existed came from nowhere also. It takes faith to believe in the kinds of theories of science that exist today, Faith in the men who are doing the experiments, unless you yourself have extensively researched and done your own studies.


a. Which creation story? There are 2 different ones in the Bible alone.

b. Scientific theories are based on interpretations of observable evidence. Biblical stories of creation are not.

c. Scientific theoies can be (and are) overturned when new evidence is brought to light. The same cannot be said of Biblical stories, at least not until someone invents time travel.

youll have to enlighten me on #a.

#b.observing one thing does not necesarily proof anything else. watching the apple fall to the earth only proves that things fall. all else is a theory/guess, it may be educated but it still holds not absolute truth i.e. it requires faith to believe in the scientists(men) who do the observing.

#c.true, i have faith in the bible, something that has stood the time of many generations.(i know that one is going to cause some remarks :) )
but you put your faith in other men, with other books, who tell you something that you know could very likely, yes likely to be wrong.....dating of the earth uses methods that can so easily be altered by the earth and the men doing the testing very easily. argon dating is one of the more common and easily altered testing methods out there.

Science is interested in "how" not "why."

umm?? why did the apple fall from the tree? im sorry the scientists that ive talked to only seem to use how instead of why because they dont want to admit that they too are searching for answers of why everything.


That you have confused the purpose of science ("how") with the purpose of religion ("why") is, very sorry, your problem for you to tackle.

Not if you believe in the bible, then it is the why and the how.

In the end i can believe in a God, you can believe in other mens theories(unless you do your own testing).
but if im right then good for me if God looks down on me with gladness,
if your right then all i did was be a good person to my fellow man all my life, and i was crazy but nothing bad happens to me when i die.
on the alternative if you spend your whole life shunning God(idea that he exists) then that can actually go against you when you die.
Im not guaranteed a reward after i die, but at least im not taking the chance of being punished either.

oh hey, a little thought for you. In the bible God created, beast and man, and the plants of the earth with an age. meaning nothing was created in its 'baby'/'seedling' form. so if that is true then how old were the rocks that God put on the earth?

one more question, how do you explain the rock granite on the earth?

foa
 

Overwrite

Member
#b.observing one thing does not necesarily proof anything else. watching the apple fall to the earth only proves that things fall. all else is a theory/guess, it may be educated but it still holds not absolute truth i.e. it requires faith to believe in the scientists(men) who do the observing......

umm?? why did the apple fall from the tree? im sorry the scientists that ive talked to only seem to use how instead of why because they dont want to admit that they too are searching for answers of why everything.

Are you suggesting that scientists rely on faith to explain gravity????

any athiest who doesnt believe in some kind of beginning is in denial.........

When did God begin? Who created the creator?
 

Ringer

Jar of Clay
oh hey, a little thought for you. In the bible God created, beast and man, and the plants of the earth with an age. meaning nothing was created in its 'baby'/'seedling' form. so if that is true then how old were the rocks that God put on the earth?

one more question, how do you explain the rock granite on the earth?

foa

Uh oh! :eek:
 

Overwrite

Member
If you are going to debunk gravity, there's little point discussing anything!!!

I wasn't suggesting that I thought "God has to be limited to the contraints of time". In was in response to foa suggestion that atheists who don't believe in some kind of beginning are in denial meaning there was a beginning.

My question still stands.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
Why do you think that God has to be limited to the constraints of time?
If "being limited to the constraints of time" is a characteristic only of things that are fully within the universe, then the universe itself is not subject to it either.
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
But the universe couldn't be the universe in the absense of time......right?
What do you mean?

If time, along with the spatial dimensions, are attributes that are contained within the universe, then the universe as a whole does not require causality.

Basically, whatever special attributes you can slap on God to call him the "uncaused cause", there's no reason to not give them to the universe itself as well... which negates the idea that God must exist as that first cause.

This doesn't necessarily mean that God doesn't exist, just that the First Cause argument isn't a good argument.
 

Ringer

Jar of Clay
What do you mean?

If time, along with the spatial dimensions, are attributes that are contained within the universe, then the universe as a whole does not require causality.

Basically, whatever special attributes you can slap on God to call him the "uncaused cause", there's no reason to not give them to the universe itself as well... which negates the idea that God must exist as that first cause.

This doesn't necessarily mean that God doesn't exist, just that the First Cause argument isn't a good argument.

So then the universe doesn't need to have a cause? Something can be created out of nothing?
 

9-10ths_Penguin

1/10 Subway Stalinist
Premium Member
So then the universe doesn't need to have a cause? Something can be created out of nothing?
If you agree with the First Cause argument. Personally, I think that it isn't a good argument, as I mentioned before.

Basically, the first cause argument gives just as strong a justification for taking the universe as the first cause as it does God. Even if you take the First Cause argument as true (which I don't), you still have the problem that there is no attribute of God that would make make Him "uncaused" that isn't shared with the universe as a whole.
 

Smoke

Done here.
So then the universe doesn't need to have a cause? Something can be created out of nothing?
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif]"If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God." (Bertrand Russell)[/FONT]
 

Ringer

Jar of Clay
[FONT=arial, helvetica, sans serif]"If everything must have a cause, then God must have a cause. If there can be anything without a cause, it may just as well be the world as God." (Bertrand Russell)[/FONT]
Well I obviously wouldn't agree with that. To say that God has a cause would have to imply that there is one greater than God, wouldn't it? If God by definition is a supreme being, than whoever created him or how you came into existence would have to be greater than him. I don't really think about these certain subjects too often so maybe others would be able to pose a more convincing argument.
 

Smoke

Done here.
Well I obviously wouldn't agree with that. To say that God has a cause would have to imply that there is one greater than God, wouldn't it? If God by definition is a supreme being, than whoever created him or how you came into existence would have to be greater than him. I don't really think about these certain subjects too often so maybe others would be able to pose a more convincing argument.
But you think that ultimately there must be someone or something without a cause, right?
 

Ringer

Jar of Clay
Okay. If God doesn't have to have a cause, why does the universe have to have a cause?

I guess because the universe is filled with matter, gases, and if you believe in the Big Bang, ultimately leads to stars, planets, solar systems, etc...

How could these things come out of nothing? It's hard for me to fathom all of these things in the universe coming out of nothing. The idea that there is a God that created these things is a little easier for me to grasp than the idea that the universe just came about.
 
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