(January 17, 2014 at 5:24 am)Sword of Christ Wrote: Can we at least agree that we have evidence of something and there are various ways of interpreting the evidence?
Produce some evidence and we'll talk about how to interpret it. You've had two thousand years...
Quote:We have evidence that the universe, life and humanity exists for a start
Okay...
Quote: and there is a good reason for all that.
WOAH there. What do you mean by reason? Do you mean that the existence of the universe is potentially explicable? I'll grant you that... If you are declaring that "Everything is here for a reason", that the mere fact of existence demonstrates a PURPOSE to existence then nope, sorry. Unsupported assertion.
Quote: Yes there is evolution and all that business but these are interesting details not proof or disproof of anything.
We-ell, evolution and "all that business" may not disprove the existence of A God (or gods) but they do rather disprove the accuracy of the Bible, which is kind of a big deal as it's your sole source of "information" regarding YOUR god.
Quote: We have various other kinds of evidences as well
Okay...
Quote: just from what we can observe of the world,
Such as?
Quote: of history
I'll grant you that we live in a world where religion has dominated for centuries, and that a study of people's evolving beliefs is a worthwhile enterprise. However, how many people have believed or still believe in what gods, or how strong that belief was or is, or what they have done or continue to do as a result of those beliefs, has absolutely no bearing WHATSOEVER on the truth of those beliefs. Reality is not a democracy; something doesn't get more or less true dependent on how many people believe it. It's either true or it isn't.
Quote: and from what people subjectively experience.
NOT evidence. Or we'd have to believe everyone who thinks they've experienced anything, whether it's alien abduction, ghosts, visions of previous lives...
Besides, people all over the world throughout history have had subjective experiences "confirming" all KINDS of beliefs and faiths, some directly and irreconcilably contradicting yours. Since not all such experiences can possibly be authentic, can you honestly claim that only such experiences as confirm YOUR beliefs were genuine and all the others were delusions? What are the odds?