Hare Krishna

[Angrboda]

So while I might want to consult your knowledge if I have a medical problem, why should I consult you on issues about the basis of existence? Have you done any lab experiments to test something about that?

Maybe not, but I often wonder why theists suspend disbelief for their own god, but don't do it for other things. Has you pastor done any tests about how the world started? How about the pope? Who wants to bet that anything your pastor tells you is either:
A. quoted from the bible
B. his own interpretation of a passage (varies between pastors)
C. an anecdote that in no way suggests god, but he thinks it does

Your pastor would simply be taking the word of a 2000+ year old book that contains many scientific errors, and nothing to suggest it couldn't have easily been written by people of the time.
(Note: When I say your pastor, I am simply referring to a generic nameless 'authority' on religion)

Religious 'authorities' study the texts, and are thus knowledgeable on them. They do not study whether the text is even valid in the first place. They, like many theists, first assume god and then bend the evidence to support their particular interpretation of him (which still fails to convince the truly incredulous).

Darkstar, dear, you "appear" to have made a fundamental mistake here. Akincana is not a member of the Abrahamanic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). (Were you operating on that assumption? He/she appears to come from a branch of Hinduism. The manyfold traditions that make up so-called "Hinduism" have a completely different take on the value of texts and religious authority; you might want to familiarize yourself with that world, so you can better "speak the language" as it were.) She (he? I would appreciate you declaring a gender; it's just personal, but I find it helpful for me to know, even if only for picking pronouns) likely does not put any stock in pastors or bible (though she appears to value the Baghavad Gita, which tells an important story about Krishna, most highly). (For what it's worth, I would say the Baghavad is worth reading, for the human, if not religious aspects in it; I found it rather talky and have never gotten more than a hundred pages or so in it; all the same, it is one of the world's "good books.") She or he has, it appears, been studiously avoiding sharing themselves with me, so it's not clear even what kind of Krishna she or he is. There have been references here and there of the type about Hare Krishnas who accost people in airports, and my knowledge of the devotion of Krishna is limited, but it would appear that that kind of Krishna, or an ISKON Krishna, are not the only flavors of Krishna there are. This is one reason I have been trying to encourage him or her to declare themselves and share. I am simply ignorant of these peoples and their world. I won't pretend my curiosity extends simply beyond wanting to know, as a function of the life long hunger inside me, and the human desire to want to reach out and touch your face, to know you intimately, but so far she has chosen to hide. Perhaps she is scared or perhaps I have been overly aggressive. I do that; not just sometimes, but a lot. If my ways are what are keeping you hidden Krishna, demand that I amend my ways. I simply want to know you. That is all.

Anyway. WALL O' TEXT off!