Warning! I've saved up my mana points to cast this Wall of Text spell. Only fliers, drunks and blue creatures can bypass it.
Soyeong: One of the necessary attributes of God is that He is not contingent on anything,
I often hear xians say that their god exists outside this universe. The fact is, we know absolutely nothing about anything outside our universe, in this "over-verse". It may be that, in the over-verse, sprinkling cheese doodles over a nice slab of tiramisu causes a universe to spontaneously appear, just like striking a match here causes a flame to erupt. In knowing nothing about the over-verse, we have no grounds to make any claims about any denizens there.
Therein lies the problem, as gods have continually existed in the darkness beyond our knowledge. When our knowledge only extended a few feet outside our village, we thought gods existed in the forests, rivers, and mountains. When we spread across the land, gods existed in the clouds and below the ground. Now that we're exploring the boundaries of the universe, gods exist beyond the universe. Doesn't that suggest anything to you?
Soyeong: There are a few interpretations on what it means to be made in His image. I think it refers to the immaterial part of man that sets us apart from the animal world, gives us dominion of the Earth, and allows us to commune with Him. So we are in His likeness mentally, morally, and socially.
Image doesn't mean that. Image refers to appearance. To say that we share intangible attributes is to say that we share his character, or persona, or nature, or some other word. It sounds like you are trying to redefine image to mean what you want.
There was another post (I think it was Flash's), that said that the world created in six days actually meant thousands of years, since they were god-days and not human-days. It sounds to me like redefining words to make them work.
Soyeong: I think our rationality and morality sets us above other animals, with the possible exception of people owned by cats.
I think humans are supremely arrogant, and I think that religion helps to justify and validate arrogant views. This is not just xianity. Religions with reincarnation for example never say people advance TO animals, but always FROM them. Animals are placed lower on the scale.
We say that we are justified in hunting, butchering, force-feeding and experimenting on animals because they are "lesser", yet if we were conquered by aliens who did those things to us, there's not a single person who would accept it because they were "superior". Humans are certainly more intelligent than other animals, and it is that intelligence that has allowed us to become dominant, but I wouldn't say it necessarily sets us above animals. Animals possess many traits such as speed and strength that are superior to our own.
Soyeong: All you need to do to show that I'm wrong is to provide an example of someone forming a belief without anything indicating to them that it is true.
"Wishful thinking". People believe lots of things without evidence because they want them to be true.
Conrad57: Now, for anything to be truly Christian, it must match the Bible (handled in CONTEXT, of course). If you examine the Crusades, which were horrible, you'll see that there is nothing Biblical behind them. (...)
If you look at the numbers of dead from atheism alone, all the Communist dictators, nevermind New Age (Nazism, Theosophy), the deaths cause by people who claimed to Christian (Crusades, inquisition) are a tiny fraction of the number of people killed by the results of atheism.
Putting aside the allegations that the Crusades weren't xian and that Naziism was atheistic, I'm unclear why you would spend time arguing that the Crusades weren't done by TRUE xians, and then claim that atheism is responsible for countless deaths. Deaths from atheism = 0.
nadenitza: I don't claim there is a god, yet i don't claim there isn't one either... what am i?
Atheist.
I disagree with the responses calling you agnostic. There are only two possible positions people can have when it comes to beliefs: either you have the belief, or you don't. If you believe in gods, you are theist. ANYTHING else, you are atheist. This is not an attempt to add members... I do not respect
argumentum ad numerum. It is about using terms correctly. People continually use agnostic to mean some neutral middle ground, but that is
NOT what it means, and it only confuses the issue.
Everyone in the world that has ever lived is either theist or atheist, no exceptions.
monkeydelarge: But the French King underestimated Jacques de Molay.
De Monay, <i>De Monay</i>!! pimpmonkey2382: I hang out at hobbit brothels all the time.
Shame on you Pimp, you're bigger than that. I mean really, hobbit brothels? Isn't that a little beneath you?
Soyeong: If there were no heaven or hell, there would still be good reason to be a Christian and obedient to God.
Why?
CarrionCrow: SUPER DUPER HOLY RAPTURE GRAND PRIZE!
Sky cake? Soyeong: the size of the universe is evidence for the existence of aliens regardless of whether or not it is objectively true that they exist.
In many of your posts, you use the words "evidence", "proof" and the like in ways I'm not familiar with. You seem to have different meanings with these words.
Shaolin_sKunk: You hear something from your parents. You accept it. You hear something from your friend. You accept it. Then you repeat it to someone who trusts your credibility and then passes it on. No one does their homework because they assume someone else already did it.
QFT
Soyeong: I don't think it is possible to form a belief in a total vacuum, but that is precisely the claim that people are making when they say a belief doesn't have any evidence.
I've seen the numerous posts of yours asking Pimp to clarify his view, and I think the error lies in what you think he said. You seem to think he said views form without anything behind them at all, which is not what he said.
