Ask the Christian

[Zen Badger]

Okay, do you have any evidence to prove your claim that it isn't rational to believe something without sufficient evidence?

So you receive an email from a nigerian doctor (whom you've never heard of)claiming that he has access to 25 million dollars but he wants your bank account details so he can deposit the money in your account and then you can go halves.

Would you accept that or ask for more evidence?

That is one example of a circumstance where belief without sufficient evidence would be irrational. It doesn't, however, prove the universal claim that all belief without evidence is irrational.

For instance, I believe that there is an external world beyond what I experience in my mind. There is no way to prove this, however, I choose to believe it anyway. Am I irrational to believe this? According to your proposition, I am.

This alone proves that the claim is logically self-refuting, because there isn't any evidence which could prove it is universally true. Therefore, it in itself is an irrational belief.

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But you have a sufficency of evidence from your senses informing you of the state of the world. The fact that you are still alive strongly suggests that that information is indeed reliable.

So in fact it is a belief based on strong multiple sources of evidence.

But you are asking us to believe in something for which there is no evidence.Therefore, not rational.

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To the verse which was mentioned about God's judgment on the youths who mocked the prophet of God. That is God performing a judgment, not man offering a sacrifice.

I don't care whether it was a sacrifice or a judgement, your arsehole God sending two bears to savagely tear apart children for merely teasing some bald git for being bald is sick, twisted and abominable.

Were it you FutureAndAHope, were you god, wouldn't you suffer little children? Wouldn't you love them regardless of what they do? Wouldn't a remotely sane mind chasten them instead to show them the error of their ways?

If you say "no" then I want nothing more to do with you, or your corrupt god concept.

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I'll just repeat this post I made about this earlier..ie, they weren't children:

And as you were discussing earlier, in regards to the bears, those weren't "little children", they were young men. The words used to refer to the so-called children are ascribed to adults as old as 39.

Would a bunch of small children be allowed to roam around outisde the city by themselves without any supervision? Not only that but they were specifically mocking Elisha because he was a prophet..which shows they knew good from evil. The insult "go up, go up" is a mocking reference to his mentor Elijah, who was assumed into Heaven. So it was deliberate blasphemy against a prophet..that isn't going to come out of the mouth of babes.

So which translation are you using? http://bible.cc/2_kings/2-24.htm

Thre are several, the KJV specifically mentions "children" while the
NIV( presumably to make the passage more palatable)
describes them as "youths"

Either way, it is a distinctly odd way for a loving, compassionate god to behave.