(August 26, 2013 at 7:24 am)discipulus Wrote: Are you convinced that your views about reality are true?

Absolutely.

(August 26, 2013 at 7:25 am)Maelstrom Wrote: Absolutely.

How is this different from a fundamentalist religious faith?

The difference is the vast amount of evidence that fundamentalist religions do not have.

(August 26, 2013 at 8:01 am)BadWriterSparty Wrote: The difference is the vast amount of evidence that fundamentalist religions do not have.

Evidence for what? We all have access to the same evidence if you're talking about science. Though science does not conflict with God.

(August 26, 2013 at 8:03 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: Evidence for what? We all have access to the same evidence if you're talking about science. Though science does not conflict with God.

Science also doesn't confirm god: science does the same thing it does with everything else it has no evidence for. It ignores it until such evidence arises.

(August 26, 2013 at 8:03 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: Evidence for what? We all have access to the same evidence if you're talking about science. Though science does not conflict with God.

Tell that to all the earth centric xtians of the past, you know, the ones that persecuted Gallileo?

(August 25, 2013 at 8:31 pm)discipulus Wrote:

(August 25, 2013 at 7:59 pm)Texas Sailor Wrote: Hmm...I don't know for sure. But I don't remember what happened before I was born and that doesn't seem bad, so I guess I must assume that it will be similar to that, if not the same. I have a subjective sense of a state in which I am not alive, I will assume without penalty that the latter state will be the same. Next question!

Hmm...ok....

Will I suffer the same fate?

(August 26, 2013 at 6:11 am)discipulus Wrote: Texas Sailor,

I am still waiting for your reply.

Sorry. I went to bed.

Will you suffer the same fate? That's kind of a loaded question. Will you suffer? I have no evidence to make a claim either way about you. I can't say anything about anyone's "fate" either because I'm not a fatalist. However, I do have good reason to think that eventually, I will die. I described my opinion of what I believed death to be like, and why I thought that. As for you, another person? I don't know how you view things. My entire description of death was based on my own subjective experience. If what I said made sense to you, and my reasons were good enough, and you were able to relate to them, then perhaps you adopted my view. If you did that, it's very likely that you would be expecting the same outcome. But, I can no more predict your future with any degree of certainty than I can my own. So, to ask me to predict your fate is really quite beyond my ability. Fair enough?

(August 26, 2013 at 8:03 am)Sword of Christ Wrote:

(August 26, 2013 at 8:01 am)BadWriterSparty Wrote: The difference is the vast amount of evidence that fundamentalist religions do not have.

Evidence for what? We all have access to the same evidence if you're talking about science. Though science does not conflict with God.

Although science is certainly not trying to disprove the supernatural, all the evidence it has gathered thus far certainly suggests to me that the universe would look and behave in exactly the way it does today without the need for divine intervention.

(August 26, 2013 at 8:10 am)Esquilax Wrote: Science also doesn't confirm god:

I didn't say it did, by itself it is neutral and has nothing to do with God or theology. If you believe in God then science deals with the physical/detectable portion of Gods creation. If you're an atheist it's the study of...stuff which happens to exist for no reason. Either way it works, it's equally fine.

Quote:science does the same thing it does with everything else it has no evidence for. It ignores it until such evidence arises.

No science doesn't do this, science is about making a falsifiable hypothesis and then putting the hypothesis to the test using physically observable data. And that's it, it has no bearing on God at all as no-one is presenting God as a scientific hypothesis.

Yes. Christians get quite confused. They think of Science as an organization out to destroy God. The fact is, if evidence supported one, they'd follow it for as long as they could.

Christians posit an absurd description of an entity that is so outlandish and loosely defined. Science couldn't help you prove your God if it wanted to! There is no way to find anything to support the kind of things you guys are propagating. They are pure unfalsifiable claims of nonsense.

No matter how many times we try to draw comparisons to other ridiculous things that are indistinguishable from fiction such as Neptune, Unicorns, Santa, Celestial Teapots, and so on...You insist that your God is some how immune to what makes those things false, but don't give any reason to believe you. Faith is not a reason! It's bordering on mental illness.