RE: An encounter with an angel... Or not.
July 2, 2012 at 12:16 am
(This post was last modified: July 2, 2012 at 12:24 am by Tempus.)
(July 1, 2012 at 1:33 pm)FallentoReason Wrote: Maybe I should have spent more time describing him and why my two friends thought what they thought.
>This guy looked humble and had a very humble car.
>He seemed to hone in on my questions only (I was pushing for arguments that were the least favoured).
>He sat talking to us for half an hour before he got up to see why his food hadn't arrived. When he sat down a waitress brought his change that he forgot. This implies he never ordered in the first place but was merely there to talk to me.
Angels buy cars now? Given their abilities what possible use would they have for a car? My main objection to believing this guy is an angel (besides the whole religion it's based on being very unlikely to be true to begin with) is that there's no reason to believe it.
Facts being consistent with a hypothesis is not the same as facts indicating a particular hypothesis is true. A simplified example might be the disappearance of my shoes when I'm getting ready one morning. Maybe an elf hid them. While the facts are consistent with this hypothesis (i.e., nothing contradicts it), there's nothing about the mere disappearance of shoes that indicates it to be true. Millions of people who own shitty cars go to restaurants everyday. There's nothing particularly remarkable about that unless you're looking for it. Now, I'm not saying that this guy was definitely not an angel -- hell, maybe he was. What I find curious is that angel's identities and miracles in general have become increasingly ambiguous since the Iron Age (you know, back when people's free will was apparently not violated by apparitions of God or angels explicitly identifying themselves as such). Instead, it's become a guessing game which, of course, is itself a testament to God's creativity because he's testing us.
My personal tip would be get the suspected angel's name next time. Or their license plate number. Then you'll be able to test whether they're angels or not. Presumably angels cannot be begotten by humans, although I'm sure a caveat can be added if it suits someone's belief system.