(May 23, 2015 at 10:10 pm)Jenny A Wrote: Willingness to die for a belief is proof the belief is strongly felt, but not that it is accurate.
The apostles did not accept death rather than deny a belief. People do that every day...just watch the news.
The apostles died rather than deny something they knew to be true. IOW, if the gospel is a lie, then why lose your life over something that started off as a fraternity prank?
If captured by ISIS, do you think Bobby Henderson would be willing to die for his beliefs concerning the Flying Spaghetti Monster which he created in 2005? Or is it more likely that knowing the FSM to be fictitious, he would admit the charade to save his skin?
Quote:(May 23, 2015 at 11:32 am)Randy Carson Wrote: Sufficient for what? To be coercive?
Sufficient to be remotely persuasive. Are you sure you meant "coercive." I have this silly picture running through my mind of a stack of Bibles holding someone hostage at gun point.
Once again, rational people don't believe UFO abduction reports based on eyewitness testimony for precisely the same reasons. Other religions allege other miracles based on eyewitness testimony. You believe in the Golden Tablets of Joseph Smith, the accuracy of the Prophet at Dephi, that Hindu priests can turn water into wine? The evidence for those is the same as for the resurrection. Claiming more for the Bible is just special pleading.
Have faith in it if you like, but it isn't proof.
Do aliens exist? I have no idea. I'm agnostic when it comes to aliens.
I have not nor can I investigate every claim of UFO sightings and alien abductions, but even if I could, would the lack of evidence be sufficient for me to conclude that aliens do not exist anywhere in the universe? Nope. Therefore, I must be agnostic about alien life.
I can evaluate the claims of Joseph Smith (and Mormonism is in trouble because, thanks to the Interweb, more people are doing just that) and the other phenomenon you list to make reasonable determinations about them.
But how will you determine that no god exists? There is no science whose methods, when used properly, show God does not exist. Therefore, an atheist must use principles in philosophy in order not only to refute theism but to prove atheism as well.
