Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

[Rusty Tyler]

Reality says.

From my POV you have no realty in reality. - LOL

And your avatar looks like a Nazi flag. How come?

 

[arthwollipot]

From my POV you have no realty in reality. - LOL

How can you tell?

 

[welshdean]

FFS
List the four accounts of the first to see the opened tomb.

@Rusty Tyler, you appear to have missed this.

 

[Norman Alexander]

From my POV you have no realty in reality. - LOL

Then you can try hitting you thumb with a hammer and pretend it doesn't hurt.

And your avatar looks like a Nazi flag. How come?

Do some actual research. See my sig.

 

[Darat]

How can I do His work if He doesn't exist?

Actually, the best bet is to do His work in case you are wrong. - LOL

Otherwise you're toast. ???

Are you doing Vishnu's work? If not why not, after all the best bet is to do his work in case you are wrong...

 

[Olmstead]

Actually, the best bet is to do His work in case you are wrong. - LOL

Otherwise you're toast. ???

Statistically you're likely doing the work of the wrong god (i.e. a non-existant god), and the jealous true god will punish you for that.

 

[Thermal]

How can I do His work if He doesn't exist?

You can do what is good and right and loving and compassionate and altruistic without any divine instruction at all.

Actually, the best bet is to do His work in case you are wrong. - LOL

No Pascal for me, baby.

Otherwise you're toast. ???

Meh. All my friends will be there too.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

Are you doing Vishnu's work?

What would qualify?

 

[Rusty Tyler]

You can do what is good and right and loving and compassionate and altruistic without any divine instruction at all.

Now you can, but where did it originate?

 

[JayUtah]

Actually, the best bet is to do His work in case you are wrong. - LOL

I'll add my voice to those of others: which god? There are so many, and they don't get along...

Just because I'm not familiar doesn't mean there is something wrong.

If you're not familiar with your sources then there is no reason for us to trust that they say what you think they do.

It seems to me that you aren't really familiar with these testimonies at all.

According to whom? NDEs are a perennial topic at this forum, involving most of the people you're talking with now. In the older threads we discuss the commonly-cited individual examples in substantial depth.

Do you agree with this statement?
"Consciousness survives death and souls experience an awesome sense of love, connectedness and peace."

The statement contains three unproven propositions. Therefore rationally I cannot agree with it.

So why are you asking for concrete evidence?

Because that's what skeptics do. If you're presenting your claims to skeptics, you should be prepared to offer objective, testable evidence of the claims.

Those with faith are satisfied with THEIR evidence.

Those with faith ipso facto have no evidence. Not everyone agrees that blind faith is a good idea. Begging them to agree that blind faith is rationally equivalent in evidentiary value to objective testable facts and sound reason is disingenuous.

You have to go find your own.

No. If you propose something to skeptical audience then you are responsible for providing the evidence that would convince a skeptical audience that the proposition is true. That's what evidence means.

Your thread title here and your initial posts in another thread indicate that you want to know why the evidence you think you have is not sufficient to persuade. It's not just a matter of saying, "You believe what you want and I'll believe what I want." You're wondering why we don't accept your argument. You've been told why. Continued lamentation is not useful.

 

[JayUtah]

[dupe from forum glitch]

 

[JayUtah]

[dupe from forum glitch]

 

[JayUtah]

[dupe from forum glitch]

 

[JayUtah]

Now you can, but where did it originate?

Secular ethics (i.e., moral philosophy) provides a number of frameworks for determining right conduct. You don't need gods or bibles, just a brain. Why are there different frameworks? Because if someone else comes up with a better idea for reckoning right conduct, it should be debated and tested and compared with existing practice. I'm not scared of the debate. What scares me more is someone who thinks he has one single idea of right conduct that he believes was dispensed from on high and therefore may not be questioned even if it seems stupid.

 

[arthwollipot]

What would qualify?

Why don't you find out?

 

[Helen]

But we can know that some gods as their believers define them are not real. For instance Zeus and the thropple. We know they do not exist.

 Now you tell me...

 

[Jack by the hedge]

Now you can, but where did it originate?

Evolution.

We are social animals. We evolved a guiding sense of which behaviours are "good" because they help the group or "bad" because they're damaging, but we also evolved a sense of actions which are "selfish" because they help us at a cost to the group, so we feel the temptation to do them but instinctively know to conceal them if we do.

We can try to rationalise and systematise these instincts through ethics, or reinforce them with simpler just-so stories about parent-like Gods who want us to behave in particular ways. We fool ourselves into thinking the Gods taught our ancestors what was good and bad, but it's the other way around. Our ancestors created the Gods to reinforce their societies' sense of good and bad which evolution had already furnished.

 

[catsmate]

Just because you REFUSE to believe it doesn't mean it can't happen.

And yet there is no evidence. Believer's have to twist things to suit themselves.
Starting with the lack of extra-biblical evidence that jeebus existed.....

The miracles of Jesus and the Apostles are an historic fact.

Utter rubbish. Let's have your sources stating that your godling even existed. And don't trot out the Testimonium Flavianum.

The miracles of Jesus and the Apostles are widely regarded as historical events,
supported by the unanimous testimony of the four Gospels and other ancient writings.
Many scholars assert that these accounts are reliable historical documents
that describe miraculous acts beyond human capability.
fatima.org
dialoguejournal.com

Oh good grief, this is simply pathetic.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

Agh... sounds like a wasted life to me. - LOL

Heathen!

It is an incontestable FACT that a life without listening to JS Bach is a wasted life.

Now, go away and have a good listen to the solo cello suites, the sonatas and partitas for solo violin, the Goldberg Variations and Well-Tempered Clavier and feel your life improving. Then move on to the Brandenburgs and the four orchestral suites. And, given you are of a christian persuasion, any and all of the masses should be right up your street.

 

[Helen]

The Goldberg variations alone could imbue any life with meaning, add the rest of Bach, mix in som Beethoven, and Mozart, since I am a frivolous woman, and then there are all the other wonderful composers, musicians, authors, painters, architects, throw some nature on the heap - bird cherries, lilacs - add birds (my bird app identified over 40 early this morning - and the sea! The sea! and you have filled your life so full, that you will want to write your own ode to joy. You will have enough to share with all those around you as well.

Gods are superfluous, and good for entertainment purposes only.