(April 14, 2017 at 12:10 pm)SteveII Wrote:(April 14, 2017 at 9:01 am)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote: Thank you for your response, SteveII. If you're interested, I'm still unsure about how one can prove the truth of your religion via a purely rational approach. Can the truth of your religion be proven outside of the NT? For example, when proving a math theorem, it would be incorrect to prove its truth via the claim/conclusion of the theorem itself: in order to prove it, outside definitions (exact and precise) and the results of other theorems, lemmas, corollaries, etc., must be logically connected in order to clearly establish the truth of each premise , so that the conclusion is reached via a logical flow of evidence and facts. Hence, like a math proof, could the truth of your religion be proven in a similar fashion?
People come to the place where they are willing to believe in God/supernatural for all kinds of reasons. Most are wired with something. Some are raised that way, some have events happen in their life (bad and good things), some encounter people who's testimony is compelling, and some read and find the person/message of Christ compelling (or a combination of any of these or something else I haven't thought of).
Why is it not pure faith? Well there are good rational reasons to believe. As we have been discussing, the NT events certainly compelled the witnesses of those events to believe (miracles and such) and continue to be compelling to those that accept the evidence for them as true. Another category of rational reasons are the Natural Theology Arguments.
a. God is the best explanation why anything at all exists.
b. God is the best explanation of the origin of the universe.
c. God is the best explanation of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life.
d. God is the best explanation of intentional states of consciousness.
e. God is the best explanation of objective moral values and duties.
These are NOT the arguments, they are the conclusions of a series of arguments.
IMPORTANT: it is the cumulative case for Christianity that is rational. Atheists like to pick a component and claim--that's not convincing enough...so therefore your belief is irrational. That is simplistic and disingenuous.
(April 14, 2017 at 11:41 am)Harry Nevis Wrote: Confirmation bias. Nothing else can be feasible once you made up your mind.
You're wrong. The answer was in response to why I thought my religion was true. I could have arrived at any number of religions. So, no confirmation bias.
HOLY GIBBERISH MENTAL ACROBATICS BATMAN!
Musim=I am not bias.
Jew=I am not bias.
Hindu= I am not bias.
Budhist= I am not bias.
Christian=I am not bias.
Funny how everyone claims that and points to everyone else and calls them bias.
YES IT IS CONFIRMATION BIAS!
I know you really truly want to believe you are not being bias, but you are unwilling to take the puppet master fictional hand out of your back and you want to pretend being a ventriloquist doll is neutral. Nope sorry, you are as bias as anyone with any other favorite club.
You like the story you fell for and you are bias. Not our baggage you fell for it.
