(November 19, 2014 at 4:43 pm)Asmodee Wrote: I'll bite.
The only reason TO believe in a supernatural creator is "because someone says so". Think about that. How did you come to believe. Because your parents told you it was true? Your pastor? The Bible? I can tell you how you DIDN'T come to believe. You DIDN'T come to believe by contemplating observations from the world around you, figuring out that a god does exist and what his properties are and coming to the independent realization that this god exists, only to find out later that there was a religion which held those exact same beliefs.
If you take away the Bible (or whatever your holy book of preference) and all personal references to religion, would you believe? Would you be able to come to the exact same conclusions you now hold if someone didn't first tell you what you needed to believe? Or do you have to first know the answer, and only THEN can you find the evidence to support it? Because in all of recorded history the approach of learning the answer first and looking for data to support that answer later has NEVER worked. When you're looking for "truth" you can't start with an answer. If you do then you're not looking for truth at all, you're looking for validation. So, if the world were exactly as it is today with the one exception that nobody had ever had a concept of a god of any sort, there were not god beliefs, no holy books, no religions, would you be able to look around you and come to the conclusion that your god, specifically, exists? The answer, of course, is no.
Wanted to join this thread. Read a bit. Its very long. Too long so ill just reply to this post and see where it goes.
You appear to be using your reactions to the questions of gods existence. To justify a consensus that everyone would reaction the same way.
I believe in god not because I was told to but because I believe that I can feel the presence of god. God himself says that his attributes are invisible, he will only reveal himself if he chooses. 1+1, hence why faith is a huge concept within Christianity. The outside world and all its marvel compel me to reason further, the creator and creation.
So my experience differs from yours respectfully.
The bible is the word of god (obviously written by many authors, similar to a ghost writer (s), do you think frank zappa actually wrote his autobiography? )
Now your next question is about authority and being taught. One could reason, without being taught, how would one know anything (think mother and baby).
Being told what to look for, then looking for it and then finding it sounds very familiar.
Without a standard to measure against. How would you know ugly from beauty? Bad from right? Left from right???
Are you comparing knowing the answer, god, from knowing like the answer to pi?
I think we should discuss your answer no and exactly what that relates to.
