I got it before.
What, with your imprecision?
These are just assertions. What reasoning, understanding, or logic led you to the conclusion that human beings can’t exist without some god?
They are my truths that can only be verified by my word of mouth, but are as true to me as any truth can be. You ask me what reasoning, understanding, or logic led you to the conclusion that human beings can’t exist without some god? The answer is another truth that I feel to be right. The Big Bang. Many physicists now believe that the universe arose out of nothingness during the Big Bang which means that nothing must have somehow turned into something, ex nihilo. How could that be possible? Things which dont exist can't be caused to do anything, since they arent *there* to be influenced by a cause. Transcending the entire universe there exists a cause which brought the universe into being
ex nihilo, our whole universe was caused to exist by something beyond it and greater than it. For it is no secret that one of the most important conceptions of what theists mean by 'God' is Creator of heaven and earth. Every being which begins has a cause for its beginning; now the world is a being which begins; therefore, it possesses a cause for its beginning. It is my belief that God caused the universe to exist. This knowledge is assumed as a critically important first principle of science, and that it is affirmed by interaction with the physical world; for if it were false, it would be impossible to explain why objects do not randomly appear into existence without a cause
“The holy ghost confirming it to you” is not evidence to anyone else.
That is true, which is why I have never made that claim.
How do you know it was the “holy ghost?” How do you know you weren’t hallucinating or conversing with Thor or Satan?
How do you know that it wasn't God. What makes you question it? One would almost certainly know the difference between righteousness and evil.
Science knows a whole lot more about the earth, the universe, and the diversity of life on earth than the writers of the Bible certainly did.
Then your knowledge of the contents of the Bible has been tainted by your disbelief. The Bible is the creation of God. He is omniscient. Science cannot top that. Your faith in science obscures reality.
And we’re continually learning more and more every day. Science does have an explanation for how life began and for the diversity of species on this planet. Science is man’s attempt to understand the universe and the planet we inhabit. The scientific method has a very good track record at filling in “god of the gaps” type of arguments.
No, science does not have a shred of evidence to prove it's theory of evolution. There is no evidence that species transform into other species. There is evidence for adaption within species but nothing that shows a change in kind. Unless you have evidence that says differently, which I am confident that you do not.
But you would say that for the same reasons as I say that God exists. You wear the uniform of the atheist as i do the uniform of the theist. Science has, at best, a very flimsy explanation for how it thinks that life began. It is as unlikely as you accepting that God exists. Science has spent over 50 years trying to produce evidence for it's postulation, and billions of tax payers money, only to be no closer to an answer as they were when they began. The phrase "God of the gaps" was coined by a atheist scientist and perpetuated by the unbeliever. It is better to call them unexplained events that only an omniscient being could know.
Where is the evidence that humans were created by the specific god you believe in?
Where is your evidence that He didn't?
Where is the evidence for that god? What mechanisms did that god use? How can we measure and demonstrate them?
Evidence is not necessary for that which is self explanatory. You do not question the existence of trees because your eyes testify that they are there, likewise, I do not question the existence of God as my minds eye testifies that he does. There is no need for me to know the mechanism that God used because I can see the results of His works everywhere I look.
What’s rubbish is to say that a bunch of people believe something, so it must be true.
What is clever is a bunch of people, comparing experiences, in order to evaluate what they have all witnessed. If 2.2 billion people say that they have all witnessed the same events then it is very probable that they have.
It maybe rubbish to you, however, to Christians it is sacred.
If that’s the case, then Odin is the one creating lightning bolts, and Apollo is responsible for making the sun rise every morning. Santa Claus must be real too then, given that millions of children believe he brings them gifts every Christmas. Surely you don't believe the world is flat because a bunch of people used to think it was
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Children believe that Santa exists because adults lie to them. They naturally believe what mummy and daddy tells them.
I can physically see that the world is not flat so that is a preposterous analogy to make.
I do not believe in God because a bunch of people said that He does exist either. That is just evidence that something has motavated the masses. I am not a member of any flock. I believe in God because the Holy Ghost has confirmed it to my soul in such a way that I cannot deny it..
Thankfully, we don’t determine the truth of things by the number of people who believe them
Then why do we take the word of 12 fallible and impressionable jury members, who can sentenced someone to death. Why have 12 and not just 2. Perhaps if we did listen more we would progress faster. Nobody wants to get rid of one and keep the other. It is science that is determined to do that. Both should coexist and work together for the greater good. It is very telling that it is the institutions of man who are hell bent on ridding the world of religion. Now who is it that wants to do that. Satan?
Is that what you think that I believe?
So we have to just believe all claims anybody makes until somebody can prove them wrong? We’re already been over this. We’d have to believe in all kinds of things that most likely do not exist, if that’s the line of logic we choose to use. Like I said, I’m interested in believing things that are true and how can go about determining the truth of the claims being made. Maybe you’re not, I don’t know.
We have to use the good sense that God gave us and evaluate, contemplate, consider, employ the scientific method and then ask God if these thing are true.
You’ve got some nerve claiming that I’m calling people liars when I specifically went out of my way (more than once) to point out that I don’t think they’re lying, rather I think people can be (and are) often mistaken and misled about many things they believe.
As you too may be wrong in what you believe in
There are so many psychological and physiological factors at play in our brains at any given moment that we are completely unaware of, then there’s the fact that we are wired to see patterns even when they don’t actually exist. I’ll give an example to illustrate my point.
Back when I was working two jobs, I used to take small little cat naps between shifts to help me stay alert. Often during these naps I would awaken to bright flashing and swirling lights, accompanied by a very loud whirring sound and I would find that I could not move my body at all, even though I felt fully awake and aware of my surroundings. Oftentimes, after the lights and noises subsided, I would stare into the darkness feeling something of a sinister presence in the room with me. One time, I even felt like somebody (or something) was trying to hold me down. It was very unsettling and I couldn’t explain it. I’d try to scream, but I couldn’t. Then I decided to do some reading and try to find an explanation. Initially, I came across all kinds of blogs where people were discussing similar experiences and attributing them to everything from alien abductions to ghosts and demons and I could very well understand how people could jump to such conclusions. If I were to be abducted by aliens and taken aboard a space craft, that is exactly what I imagine it would be like. What was that scary presence in the room with me? Then, finally I discovered that what I was experiencing was actually a phenomenon called “sleep paralysis” and that there was a rather mundane explanation for the things I was experiencing. Turns out, it’s just a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep when the REM cycle is interrupted, where my brain was awake, but my body hadn’t caught up yet which leads to hypnopompic hallucinations and causes my sympathetic nervous system to initiate the “fight of flight” response so I begin to panic and imagine that there are all kinds of dangers around me.
So if I had told someone I thought I had been abducted by aliens, or that I felt a demonic presence, I wouldn’t be lying. But I would certainly be mistaken or misled. And that’s exactly what I’m talking about here.
Why would you share your experience with a stranger, anyone close to you would understand and not judge you. What jumps out of my screen at me is that your method of resolve was to seek advice from man when your answer could have been given to you much quicker if you asked God rather then fallible men, who all to often give bad advice.
To communicate with the Holy Ghost, spirit to spirit, is unique in every way, and very much unmistakable. Unless you have experienced it you would not understand that your experience, as traumatic as it was, is nothing like it. There is no negativity about it. I once read that we are at our most vulnerable to the enticing of Satan during the period between sleep and waking.
Your description of your experience is also something that I can relate to.
The probability that a thing exists differs considerably from the probability that the specific god you believe in exists? How do you figure?
We all drink from the same cup.
What evidence exists that points to a “superior entity” that was involved in the creation of the universe? And if that “superior entity” exists at all, what evidence exists to point to the existence of the very specific god you believe in?
Rapid expansion, which is still in progress today.
What seems apparent to me is that you do not understand why we exist and what we are doing here. None of this is directly about God, or who we perceive Him to be. This is about the individual. In order to gain entry into the Kingdom of God we must prove ourselves by striving to live a Christ centred lifestyle and exercise faith in Christ and God. Nobody can convert anybody else, this is all about individual conversation. It is about personal commitment to follow the teachings of the Saviour. So, it is not necessarily my concern whether you believe me or not as you will play no part on my judgement. I must stand accountable for my choices. Our life on earth is a individual trail and a test to ascertain whether we can be counted as one of the Lords elect.
