RE: If you believe in the God of the Bible, why try to prove it logically?
June 15, 2013 at 11:18 am
(This post was last modified: June 15, 2013 at 11:19 am by orogenicman.)
(June 15, 2013 at 3:57 am)Zarith Wrote:(June 15, 2013 at 1:51 am)ReasonableRuben Wrote: I can think of at least one reason: a certain person might reject revelation on the basis that the God of said revelation is purported to be omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent. "But," claims the person, "you have not presented any arguments for the claim that such a being exists." So you employ rational argumentation.But revelation says he does exist. So if a person requires a logical proof of his existence, then they do not accept revelation. Because logical arguments for the existence of God-in-the-abstract are not arguments for the veracity of revelation, why should their beliefs as to revelation change after hearing such an argument?
If they do not accept revelation, then what basis can they have for believing in one particular being with the 3 omni- attributes versus any other?
Why use logic to answer the question "Does God exist?" and then go on to use revelation to answer "What is God like?"
But as Thomas Paine pointed out, revelation is, by definition, first person in nature. As such, no one is obligated to believe one person's revelation other that of another. Farmer Bob may be the most honest, god-fearing man anyone has ever known, but we still need evidence that a UFO landed in his corn field.
'The difference between a Miracle and a Fact is exactly the difference between a mermaid and seal. It could not be expressed better.'
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
-- Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens
"I think that in the discussion of natural problems we ought to begin not with the scriptures, but with experiments, demonstrations, and observations".
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
"In short, Meyer has shown that his first disastrous book was not a fluke: he is capable of going into any field in which he has no training or research experience and botching it just as badly as he did molecular biology. As I've written before, if you are a complete amateur and don't understand a subject, don't demonstrate the Dunning-Kruger effect by writing a book about it and proving your ignorance to everyone else! "
- Dr. Donald Prothero
