(March 29, 2016 at 7:58 pm)1994Californication Wrote:(March 29, 2016 at 7:10 pm)Godschild Wrote:
Your position is ... one where there is a god who has an important message for mankind, and somehow he only reveals it to certain individuals who then write this down and thousands of years after this initial revelation, we have to rely on copies of copies of translations of copies by anonymous authors with no originals,
All of history is copies of copies, except for those that were carved into stone. All of the works of Shakespeare are copies, even the man himself is a mystery, and we know this yet most accept it all as fact, actually we have no idea how much of the originals could have been changed. The writing of Herodotus on the Persian empire are taken as fact by most and yet there are some very ridiculous things he reported.
1994C Wrote:and the textual testimony to a miracle, for example the loaves and fishes; there’s no amount of reports - anecdotal testimonial reports - that could be sufficient to justify that this event actually happened as reported. No amount. And anything that would qualify as a god would clearly understand this, and if it wanted to convey this information to people in a way that was believable, would not be relying on text to do so, and this for me is the nail in the coffin for Christianity.
Herodotus wrote that Darius became the ruler of Persian empire because his horse neighed first out of five horses, no amount of testimonial reports that this event actually happened. No amount. See I can play the same game with written history you might actually believe. Historians rely on text for the past, so why can't Christianity, eliminate one then the other must be also. This coin you're flipping around applies to everything or nothing. Christianity has been growing for 2000 years and still growing, that nail you spoke of doesn't exist and neither does the coffin.
1994C Wrote:The god that Christians believe in is amazingly stupid if it wants to actually achieve its goal of spreading this information to humanity by relying on text; by relying on languages that die out; by relying on anecdotal testimony. That's not a pathway to truth! And anything that would qualify for a god should know this, which means either that God doesn’t exist or it doesn't care enough about those people who understand the nature of evidence to actually present it.
Those who wrote to convey history must have been amazingly stupid to inform humanity of what was going on in their time, why, by your own idea it's stupid to rely on text, especially text in dead languages. Either you're correct and everyone from the past was stupid or your logic is seriously flawed. I personally believe do not think you know what evidence is, using a double standard shows your lack of concern for evidence. Don't apply your logic to Christianity and then another logic to everything else. God planed for Christianity to be about faith and personal proof and if you knew anything about the Bible you would understand this, your lack of Biblical understanding leads me to believe you care only to demean Christianity at all cost, you've actually put a price on your soul. See if you can find out in the scriptures what that actually means.
1994C Wrote: Now which of those possibilities do you think is accurate?" ... "Why would you believe anything on faith? Faith isn't a pathway to truth.
When you set in a chair you apply faith that the chair was constructed to hold you up, if it does your faith has be proven, it it doesn't your faith has failed. Same with Christianity, when I apply it to my life and my life works as the scriptures say, then what am I to believe, if it doesn't then I would investigate why things went wrong, just as you might do if the chair failed. Faith has and will always be a pathway to truth, people have faith in their ideas long before they discover the truth.
1994C Wrote:Every religion has some sort of faith, people take things on, you know, - if faith is your pathway, you can't distinguish between Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, any of these others.
Oh, what an error you've made, my faith in the God of Christianity and Judaism ( I include both because it seems you don't know we have the same God) has revealed to me the truth by having a personal relationship with God. Just because you deny God doesn't in the slightest mean He's not real, the only meaning to your denial is you don't believe. I know for a fact that God is real, we are taught that this is not only possible but is essential to the Christian life. The gods of all the other worlds religions has never come to me in any way, never, the God of creation first sought me out so that I could find out who he is and that process begins with faith and eventually becomes reality as I grew in my faith and belief.
1994C Wrote: How is it that you use reason as a path to truth in every endeavor of your life, and then when it comes to the ‘ultimate truth’ - the most important truth - you're saying that faith is required. And how does that reflect on a god (who supposedly exists and wants you to have this information); what kind of god requires faith instead of evidence? ... I have reasonable expectations based on evidence. I have trust that has been earned. I will grant trust tentatively. I don't have faith. Faith is the excuse people give for believing something when they don't have evidence.[/quote]
Like I said with the chair, you live on faith in your life all the time, you have faith your car will start every day, that you will awake every morning, which by the way is a false hope because even your mornings will end some day.
Now to answer the question you've been asking without coming out an actually asking. God gave use free will and faith to show our love for Him, even in by absolute knowledge I need faith to have a good relationship in love with God. Faith is not an excuse in any part of our lives it's essential to our daily living, yes you live with faith daily whether you admit it or not.
GC
God loves those who believe and those who do not and the same goes for me, you have no choice in this matter. That puts the matter of total free will to rest.