What "if" you are wrong

[Valjean]

How are you going to find out you are wrong? When will you know?
If you wait till you die to find out it might be too late to correct your views.
That might be annoying, but it will be even more annoying if you cannot do anything about what you did not know and can't correct.

I'd probably go with the best evidenced option -- assuming there is one.

 

[Valjean]

I do not seek to be right at all, but I seek to know what is the truth.

And the difference is?

 

[Spice]

...the big G God and many of the other claimed gods are depicted as genocidal maniacs. Just not the sort or thing i like to worship

But to glean from those tales the clues and hints of a loving, creator God, you must put them in the times these stories were told traditionally. They were buffed, polished, pumped up, and added to in order to capture the attention and memories of the hearers. They are allegories. The story of Little Red Ridinghood has important lessons for the intended audience, but that doesn't mean a big ole wolf dressed up in grandmother's clothes! Match up recent archeological discoveries and assessments with the stories of Moses. It's fascinating and uncanny, not to mention educational and fun.

 

[Trailblazer]

Wow. Seriously? This whole site is full of the many varied speculation on gods, deities, and other assorted entities, along with other more abstract notions of ultimate Oneness and Nirvana, etc.

So what? Do you think that God wants you to base YOUR beliefs upon what OTHER people believe?

If your chosen entity can't be plain enough to end all this speculation, it is absolutely unjust if there were to be actual dire consequences for not adhering to the tenets of the supposedly correct entity out of all those that have been claimed.

Who said anything about DIRE consequences?

Why should God end this speculation? God gave everyone a brain and a will to end it for themselves.

The fact that such claimed entities are not more plain in making their existence known is more than sufficient reason to reject such claims as mere human invention, in my view (along with any claimed consequences for failing to believe).

The Messengers of God have made themselves known, plainly.

 

[Trailblazer]

How is that known?

It is not known, it is only believed.

 

[Trailblazer]

Typically

but not usually.

 

[Trailblazer]

Thank god for that; I can mix with George Best, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Jerry Garcia, Mark E Smith, etc.

in your air conditioned apartment.

 

[ChristineM]

But to glean from those tales the clues and hints of a loving, creator God, you must put them in the times these stories were told traditionally. They were buffed, polished, pumped up, and added to in order to capture the attention and memories of the hearers. They are allegories. The story of Little Red Ridinghood has important lessons for the intended audience, but that doesn't mean a big ole wolf dressed up in grandmother's clothes! Match up recent archeological discoveries and assessments with the stories of Moses. It's fascinating and uncanny, not to mention educational and fun.

The big bad wolf didn't kill every living thing on earth except a good friend and the friends family just because said big bad wolf made a mistake. The big bad wolf doesn't condone murder, theft, rape, slavery (including sex slavery) just to spur his followers on.

Im not sure comparing the OT with a wolf is really the best way to apologise for the horrors of the bible.

 

[Trailblazer]

I'd probably go with the best evidenced option -- assuming there is one.

But how would you know which option that one was?
Wouldn't that only be a matter of opinion based upon what YOU see as evidence?

 

[Trailblazer]

And the difference is?

"I do not seek to be right at all, but I seek to know what is the truth."

Being right is all about ego, seeking to know the truth is about a genuine desire to know the truth.
The two are worlds apart.

 

[Trailblazer]

Im not sure comparing the OT with a wolf is really the best way to apologise for the horrors of the bible.

It's not YOU who needs to apologize, but whoever wrote those stories should.
Either that or they should have put an expiration date right below the verse.

 

[The Hammer]

"I do not seek to be right at all, but I seek to know what is the truth."

Being right is all about ego, seeking to know the truth is about a genuine desire to know the truth.
The two are worlds apart.

You appear to do neither. Because you seem so hamstrung on bahai.

To know truth one needs to renounce faith. For truth comes from nothingness.

 

[ChristineM]

It's not YOU who needs to apologize, but whoever wrote those stories should.
Either that or they should have put an expiration date right below the verse.

You won't find me apologising for the bible.

 

[Trailblazer]

You appear to do neither. Because you seem so hamstrung on bahai.

Why would that mean that I don't have a genuine desire to know the truth?

To know truth one needs to renounce faith. For truth comes from nothingness.

That is your personal opinion, an opinion I don't hold.

 

[Valjean]

But what if your critical analysis and reason led you in the wrong direction?
What if there is evidence and you failed to recognize it as evidence? How would that make God unjust?

By making the problem impossible to resolve.

 

[The Hammer]

That is your personal opinion, an opinion I don't hold.

It's not opinion.

But you will only ever see it as such.

And I have no desire to help anyone else walk the path of Truth.

 

[Spice]

The big bad wolf didn't kill every living thing on earth except a good friend and the friends family just because said big bad wolf made a mistake. The big bad wolf doesn't condone murder, theft, rape, slavery (including sex slavery) just to spur his followers on.

Im not sure comparing the OT with a wolf is really the best way to apologise for the horrors of the bible.

I didn't make any such comparison.

The moral of the story of Little Red Ridinghood was not literally that a child would be eaten by a wolf if they talked to strangers, but that strangers can't necessarily be trusted, so be careful and don't give too much information to those you don't know.

I gave you an example of an allegory that was made frightening in order to be taken seriously and remembered. That's the gist of those OT stories. Remember - and BEWARE.

 

[Trailblazer]

By making the problem impossible to resolve.

It is not impossible for everyone to resolve, just for some people.

 

[The Hammer]

Why would that mean that I don't have a genuine desire to know the truth?

Because it doesn't come from religion. Which, as I stated, you're hung up on.

To learn the truth, you have to let go of All that is. Including that which we have faith is True.

 

[Valjean]

I take no issue with that... If you don't know, you don't know.
It would be dishonest to say you know if you don't know. That is why agnosticism is a respectable position.

"I don't know" is atheism. Agnosticism is "we can't know."