RE: What would it take for you to believe in God?
April 29, 2014 at 11:19 pm
(This post was last modified: April 29, 2014 at 11:25 pm by Cyberman.)
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my questions. Consideration such as this is a rare commodity indeed from your brethren around here!
I would ask, however, that you read this short post on quote formatting before responding to my latest, just as a courtesy to the poor, hardworking, underloved and oversexed staff.
Now:
How? In what way superior? Superior in every situation, or just concerning matters of god claims?
No, reason is the process (actually the set of processes) by which we discern reality from dreams and fiction. Regardless, if you're installing your god in the realm of being beyond what your mental faculties comprehend, what makes you even suspect it's even there? On what are you basing all these claims about this god? For example, why do you keep referring to it by the capitalised masculine pronoun?
If a fact is subject to interpretation, it's not a fact. Facts have to be true for everyone and in all situations, by definition.
What you think to be true is nowhere near as important or compelling as what you can show to be true.
In what way can you possibly show this to be true? I take it you're not dead at the moment.
Nobody is asking for 100% proof in what you claim. Just a drop of evidence, something we can examine, anything, will be a good start. Statements such as "He just exists" are not evidence, merely more claims piled on top of the claims you've already overdrawn on.
What else are you proposing that can possibly have any value as a means of discerning reality? Remember, faith is not a method of analysis.
I would ask, however, that you read this short post on quote formatting before responding to my latest, just as a courtesy to the poor, hardworking, underloved and oversexed staff.
Now:
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: I depend on faith, because I think faith is superior to reason.
How? In what way superior? Superior in every situation, or just concerning matters of god claims?
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: Reason rests in what my own mental faculties can comprehend.
No, reason is the process (actually the set of processes) by which we discern reality from dreams and fiction. Regardless, if you're installing your god in the realm of being beyond what your mental faculties comprehend, what makes you even suspect it's even there? On what are you basing all these claims about this god? For example, why do you keep referring to it by the capitalised masculine pronoun?
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: Also, I see a huge problem with what "facts". Facts are always interpreted and therefore subject to error.
If a fact is subject to interpretation, it's not a fact. Facts have to be true for everyone and in all situations, by definition.
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: Also, I think my presuppositions are tested and proven true nearly every day.
What you think to be true is nowhere near as important or compelling as what you can show to be true.
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: One of my presuppositions is that I am really sinful and don't deserve any good whatsoever. I believe that my sin has earned me eternal punishment in Hell, but by faith in Jesus, God gives me grace and shows me favor, instead of the punishment I deserve. I see that presupposition proven true every day.
In what way can you possibly show this to be true? I take it you're not dead at the moment.
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: I don't think there are any ways to prove 100% that God exists. God never seeks to prove that He exists. He just exists.
Nobody is asking for 100% proof in what you claim. Just a drop of evidence, something we can examine, anything, will be a good start. Statements such as "He just exists" are not evidence, merely more claims piled on top of the claims you've already overdrawn on.
(April 29, 2014 at 10:56 pm)te1148 Wrote: Reason, intellect, and evidences are not enough.
What else are you proposing that can possibly have any value as a means of discerning reality? Remember, faith is not a method of analysis.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'