God could give wisdom to humans and usually does through the teaching they get as they are growing up, but not everyone chooses the best path.
And it is a matter of choice, or we become less than human.
Religions have a horrible track record for teaching humans. Even when it came to the post-Enlightenment era governments realized that religious governments were not workable, so secular governments were develped. So God (assuming any exist) could give humans wisdom, but doesn't. And as I noted, God could create humans more naturally mature and without mental illness, but doesn't. God could have created humans with more skepticism and less impulse to believe, but didn't. It's either an incompetent God, or it doesn't exist.
Yet you can't explain how it IS true. This is why rational minds reject religious claims.
Yes and no. Atheists aren't the only ones suffering. Wasn't it Buddha who made a whole religion around suffering and why we suffer and how to not suffer, free ourselves from the wheel of birth, suffering, death. (Birth, sh*t lives, die)
There is more than that however and it is not a matter of struggling to free ourselves.
Buddha observed suffering, and realized Hinduism did not explain this, so did introspective practices to understand what is going on with the human condition. He did quite well. He developed methods for the mind to manage itself. I suggest you read up on what he realized about facing fear rather than allowing fear to motivate people to seek belief.
I meant that when there is something that seems to contradict the Bible but I see it as fact, I also still want my faith to be true.
Why? Why need faith at all? Who told you you needed faith, and why did you believe them?
But yes I know your faith is in your critical thinking and you will follow that the conclusions that critical thinkers end up at.
No faith needed for critical thinking, the results are demonstrable and true. You only need faith when you want unreliable and non-rational beliefs. If you don't seek truth, use faith.
It's not hard to be a critical thinker and to even end up in the same place without having thought about it at all.
It's not hard once you learn the skill. And you need to be committed to seeking truth, not belief. I don't see you using critical thinking, and don't see you having the skill. You admit to using faith and believing in ideas that are not demonstrable true or plausible.
It's easy to decide to believe only those things that science says are probably true. There is nothing special about it.
Look at your prejudicial attitude towards science. That "science says are probably true"? That's what religions do. Science follows facts and uses an objective method that offers results that are at or over 99.95% accurate. When believers have this degree of dismissal of science they do so because they fear science threatens their relgious belief. So your mind is aware that your religious beliefs are dubious, and that science threatens them, but instead of adjusting your religious belief you have disdain for science.
So much for critical thinking. You don't know that religion is non factual.
Yes we do, and so do you believers. We critical thinkers give you believers plent of opportunity to show us facts and coherent expanations, and you don't. Look at how you retreat into faith when you have no facts, and no reasoning. You know religions aren't factual. Do you think all the Hindu gods exist as a fact?
You also don't seem to realise that religious people use reason to make conclusions and as part of coming to belief.
Then they keep it a secret, as you do. If you are telling the truth here, show us. If you can't, then it is yet another false claim that illustrates you don't use reasoning.
But we don't start off denying the supernatural and God because science has not discovered either and tested them.
What is there to deny? Where is this suvernatural reality that is denied? No, we deny the claims that a superntural exists. Why? No evidence. What does science have to do with believers using sloppy thinking? Let's note this is why religious indoctrination is acceptable, because if you wait to introduce irrational ideas to 18 year olds they are likely to have developed some reasoning skill and know enough to be skeptical. But adults indoctrinate children to get their religious ideas (not the ideas of other religions) integrated into their minds so they are less likely to think through what they are being told.
Critical thinking seems to be a path of safety to a predictable end and it is wide and anyone who is not looking for a God finds it without effort.
False yet again. Reasoning skill allows a person to understand what is true about how things are. You are trying to frame it as a bad thing, which again shows your fear of what our minds can determine what is real and true versus belief.
This illustrates the trap that belief creates in unskilled minds. You are committed to your religious dogma, are afraid of what you might be without it, so have to denigrate science and reasoning to justify your prejudice.
Yes and God allows children to die of cancer and allows children to be raped repeatedly by their loving parents.
I have dealt with it and still trust God for the long term good in what He is doing.
The Manson Family members trusted Charlie. I suspect your religious indoctrination is so deep that you can't see the problem it causes you. Why can't you think for yourself, and reject religion? Do you think you are incapable of living without a religious framework? Is that fearful?
Believers have the option to not abondon their beliefs.
But what is the purpose and utility of such belief when it creates conflist with reasoning, science, and what can be understood about reality?
You also have options that do not entail the dogmas of critical thinking and it's inevitable end point.
See how you are admitting what religion is and how bad it is? You are projecting the dogma of religion onto critical thinking because you know dogma is not truth. Surely you are feeling the cognitive dissonance of the reliability of critical thinking to religious faith, and all you can do its try to denigrate reasoning. Notice you can't argue for why religious faith is superior, or even valid and true. You understand at some level that you have backed yourself into a corner. Can you accept it consciously?
It can be confusing but it also can lead to a deeper understanding of God.
This is a claim, explain how this is true. And be sure to demonstrate that a God exists in reality, and not just your imagination.
Of course you either suggest self reliance or reliance on friends or professional help etc. We are all human and we all need to rely on a variety of things, and I rely on God and His Son Jesus also, and you give that a miss.
Why believe in a myth? Are christians so deep in their distress and misery that they need to live every day lost in this illusion?
So you want me to point out errors but do not see criticism as doing that.
My criticism reveals your errors of thinking, but do you acknoweldge the errors?
Wanting science to lead you to the truth about spirits, which science cannot find or test, it not rational imo.
Then how do you know they exist? Guesswork? Faith? Self-deception? Being duped by others? Some other unreliable method?
Wanting to ignore the many witnesses to the supernatural is not rational imo.
Why assume they are witnesses? If they are being truthful why can't you witness the supernatual? Is it possible you are buying into false claims by ignorant people from the primitive past?
Basically you have all the information you need and don't need any more from me, so you can tell me how ridiculous it is and that Occam and his razor would have something to say about those things. But really it is just you and your razor.
You seem frustrated that you lack facts and evidence for your beliefs and can't offer any arguments for what you believe. Not my problem, it's your belief. If you can't explain how your beleifs are true to others how did you end up with them at all?
I'm not interested in making up a God because of my insecurities about the real God.
Can you prove it is real outside of your imagination? Real means you can do this. If you can't, then you made a false claim, and you should ask yourself why you are being deceptive. It isn't fooling me, so who is it trying to fool?
Reality needs faith to see and comprehend it imo.
Bad opinion since faith is unreliable, and we use our senses and instruments to acknowldge what is true. I suspect you are telling yourself you need faith because there is no way for you to determine if a God exists, so have to rely on an unreliable and self-deceptive method: faith. That is why reasoning rejects faith, it is not accurate or reliable, yet that is all you have. Quite a tightrope you walk.
