(January 1, 2015 at 1:07 pm)Nope Wrote:

(January 1, 2015 at 12:34 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: As silly as it may sound it is only through the heart that it is possible to find God. A great atheist CS Lewis, looked into his heart, and saw something that he could not deny. He became one of the greatest christian authors, and everyone knows him from the books about Narnia

Your heart is a synonym for your emotions. I point that obvious fact out because sometimes Christians make it sound like their reaction to Jesus occurred somewhere other then their minds.

I have a theory as to why people are religious. Our minds are programmed to seek out patterns and that is why we sometimes see faces or animals in clouds. Maybe it is an instinct in some people to look for patterns in the random events of life and try to see the picture or reason behind everything.

Also, if someone is clinging to religion there is probably an emotional need or vulnerability that religion eases for that person. For example, someone from an abusive home might become an functioning, intelligent, nonabusive adult but still have a need to believe that some parent figure loves them. It doesn't matter how intelligent the person, we are all vulnerable and weak at some point in our lives. Some of people deal with those low points in their lives by seeking out religion.

I think that

I appreciate your thoughts. Religion can be exactly as you say, and i am sure that it is to a lot of people. If it was not because of personal experiences that I have had, I would be prone to agree with you. To be honest when I began to seek God, I was like a child, meaning I decided to believe in what I could not see. This led me deeper into what has become a personal relationship with Jesus. There are things that has happened to me that I cannot explain. I am not desperate, but I am in love with the the one who created me.

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(January 1, 2015 at 1:14 pm)dyresand Wrote: Christianity it doesn't make logical sense and the stories and anything and anyone who puts it out there is going to get logical criticism.
First off history proves that jesus never existed the places and such in the bible most were made up. Jesus being born on December 25
wrong pagan holiday. Virgin birth no wrong you need to have sex to have a child. God who is god how does he exist if he himself is a complex
being so god cannot create himself so he is not alpha and omega. If god did exist without being created what is stopping him from leaving us and creating
a whole new universe to pretty much torment.

I don't know either on what date Jesus was born, so I agree with you on that one. Now virgin birth. How do you explain the birth of the universe? I find it fascinating to read about the big bang. It all started from an entity so small that it was invisible. Suddenly it explodes in much less than a second the universe was born. We do have two, sorry three choices here. Was it an accident? Was there a creator, or I don't know and therefore believe that it was a cosmic accident.
So if God created the universe, how could He not create life inside of Mary?

(January 1, 2015 at 1:16 pm)Sillysheep Wrote:

(January 1, 2015 at 1:07 pm)Nope Wrote: Your heart is a synonym for your emotions. I point that obvious fact out because sometimes Christians make it sound like their reaction to Jesus occurred somewhere other then their minds.

I have a theory as to why people are religious. Our minds are programmed to seek out patterns and that is why we sometimes see faces or animals in clouds. Maybe it is an instinct in some people to look for patterns in the random events of life and try to see the picture or reason behind everything.

Also, if someone is clinging to religion there is probably an emotional need or vulnerability that religion eases for that person. For example, someone from an abusive home might become an functioning, intelligent, nonabusive adult but still have a need to believe that some parent figure loves them. It doesn't matter how intelligent the person, we are all vulnerable and weak at some point in our lives. Some of people deal with those low points in their lives by seeking out religion.

I think that

I appreciate your thoughts. Religion can be exactly as you say, and i am sure that it is to a lot of people. If it was not because of personal experiences that I have had, I would be prone to agree with you. To be honest when I began to seek God, I was like a child, meaning I decided to believe in what I could not see. This led me deeper into what has become a personal relationship with Jesus. There are things that has happened to me that I cannot explain. I am not desperate, but I am in love with the the one who created me.

What was the thought process causing you to "believe in what you could not see"? That's a really shaky starting point.

(January 1, 2015 at 1:16 pm)Sillysheep Wrote:

(January 1, 2015 at 1:07 pm)Nope Wrote: Your heart is a synonym for your emotions. I point that obvious fact out because sometimes Christians make it sound like their reaction to Jesus occurred somewhere other then their minds.

I have a theory as to why people are religious. Our minds are programmed to seek out patterns and that is why we sometimes see faces or animals in clouds. Maybe it is an instinct in some people to look for patterns in the random events of life and try to see the picture or reason behind everything.

Also, if someone is clinging to religion there is probably an emotional need or vulnerability that religion eases for that person. For example, someone from an abusive home might become an functioning, intelligent, nonabusive adult but still have a need to believe that some parent figure loves them. It doesn't matter how intelligent the person, we are all vulnerable and weak at some point in our lives. Some of people deal with those low points in their lives by seeking out religion.

I think that

I appreciate your thoughts. Religion can be exactly as you say, and i am sure that it is to a lot of people. If it was not because of personal experiences that I have had, I would be prone to agree with you. To be honest when I began to seek God, I was like a child, meaning I decided to believe in what I could not see. This led me deeper into what has become a personal relationship with Jesus. There are things that has happened to me that I cannot explain. I am not desperate, but I am in love with the the one who created me.

---

(January 1, 2015 at 1:14 pm)dyresand Wrote: Christianity it doesn't make logical sense and the stories and anything and anyone who puts it out there is going to get logical criticism.
First off history proves that jesus never existed the places and such in the bible most were made up. Jesus being born on December 25
wrong pagan holiday. Virgin birth no wrong you need to have sex to have a child. God who is god how does he exist if he himself is a complex
being so god cannot create himself so he is not alpha and omega. If god did exist without being created what is stopping him from leaving us and creating
a whole new universe to pretty much torment.

I don't know either on what date Jesus was born, so I agree with you on that one. Now virgin birth. How do you explain the birth of the universe? I find it fascinating to read about the big bang. It all started from an entity so small that it was invisible. Suddenly it explodes in much less than a second the universe was born. We do have two, sorry three choices here. Was it an accident? Was there a creator, or I don't know and therefore believe that it was a cosmic accident.
So if God created the universe, how could He not create life inside of Mary?

Have you even taken a look at the big bang theory yet it explains the birth of the universe pretty well...

[

What was the thought process causing you to "believe in what you could not see"? That's a really shaky starting point.
[/quote]


I think that we can agree on one thing and that is that life is a mystery. Who can really explain the process involved in how a child is born, and come up with an answer. I am not talking about the scientific explanation, we all know about conception, nine months. This is a mystery to me, that in a world filled with so much evil, such love can exist that it creates life. Passion and love are gifts from God. It was a brilliant idea that no man or woman could have possibly conceived such an idea. It was born out of God's loving heart. How is life at all possible? That is my starting point. But it would end there unless this same God whispered in my heart, and made it personal

(January 1, 2015 at 1:37 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: I think that we can agree on one thing and that is that life is a mystery. Who can really explain the process involved in how a child is born, and come up with an answer. I am not talking about the scientific explanation, we all know about conception, nine months. This is a mystery to me, that in a world filled with so much evil, such love can exist that it creates life. Passion and love are gifts from God. It was a brilliant idea that no man or woman could have possibly conceived such an idea.

Yeah, love is entirely human.





And I guess, compassion is also entirely human.

(January 1, 2015 at 1:37 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: This is a mystery to me, that in a world filled with so much evil, such love can exist that it creates life.

You're not confused because procreation is such a magical thing, you're confused because your concept of good and evil is flawed to begin with. Read a good book on evolution.

(January 1, 2015 at 1:16 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: I appreciate your thoughts. Religion can be exactly as you say, and i am sure that it is to a lot of people. If it was not because of personal experiences that I have had, I would be prone to agree with you. To be honest when I began to seek God, I was like a child, meaning I decided to believe in what I could not see. This led me deeper into what has become a personal relationship with Jesus.

So... you decided to believe in god, and lo and behold, miracle of miracles, you found that you believed in god?

Quote: There are things that has happened to me that I cannot explain. I am not desperate, but I am in love with the the one who created me.

And then we cap it with an argument from ignorance: you can't explain it, therefore the only possible explanation is god?

Quote: Now virgin birth. How do you explain the birth of the universe? I find it fascinating to read about the big bang. It all started from an entity so small that it was invisible. Suddenly it explodes in much less than a second the universe was born. We do have two, sorry three choices here. Was it an accident? Was there a creator, or I don't know and therefore believe that it was a cosmic accident.

Hold it: you don't get to tell us what we believe. Never mind the fact that you were asked about a virgin birth and instead of answering you decided to dodge and change the subject to the big bang, never mind that "accident" is a misrepresentation of a designerless big bang model, and that there are more than the two choices: you do not get to decide that the "I don't know," answer entails an additional belief. The people who actually accept that they don't know get to decide whatever else we believe on that subject, and generally speaking the "I don't know" carries an implicit corollary that we are waiting for knowledge to arise before we'll believe anything about it.

Quote:So if God created the universe, how could He not create life inside of Mary?

It doesn't necessarily follow that a god capable of doing the former would be capable of doing the latter; maybe god's abilities are limited to universe creation, but he's unable to interfere with biological systems. Maybe he's allergic to evolution, and so can't touch evolved creatures like humans. You guys seem to use free will as an excuse a lot, when explaining why god doesn't act, so maybe he couldn't make a virgin birth happen because of that.

My advice to you is to stop assuming that the claims you want to be true are, and start demonstrating them. Before you get to the "if god created the universe, could he arrange a virgin birth?" demonstration, how about demonstrating that your god exists at all? Why should we start with an assumption that large, just to allow you to get to other, larger assumptions?

Yeah, love is entirely human.

God's hand can be found in what is too great to understand, and in what is too small to see. I appreciate your viewpoint, and there is nothing I can do to prove that I am right and you are wrong, neither am I interested in proving anyone wrong. I hate to tell people they are wrong, and I won't. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me this first day of the new year. I wish you all a great year, but I have food to cook so I gotta go, bye for now.

(January 1, 2015 at 1:58 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: Yeah, love is entirely human.

It takes some breathtaking lack of awareness and honesty to say that, echoing a sentence that was literally inches away from the proof that love is not entirely human.

(January 1, 2015 at 2:01 pm)Esquilax Wrote:

(January 1, 2015 at 1:58 pm)Sillysheep Wrote: Yeah, love is entirely human.

It takes some breathtaking lack of awareness and honesty to say that, echoing a sentence that was literally inches away from the proof that love is not entirely human.

I did not say love is entirely human, that remained from someone's post.