Merged (edited) General thoughts about Christianity and the bible

[Steve]

Well, I do believe we already established that our interlocutor has bugger all knowledge of any of the sciences which lie behind evolution and the evidence for it and natural selection.

I dread to think how our interlocutor thinks the computer/phone/magic talking box they use manages to communicate their, errrr, thoughts out to the rest of us...

More importantly, does he have any understanding of how our ideas are conveyed to him? Perhaps he thinks we are all gods and he is receiving our messages entirely due to his faith that we exist.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Wait...
Do those other gods require faith?

All gods require faith, the only evidence for any of them is interpretation of mythology.

 

[Andy_Ross]

What actually is the purpose of faith?

It's to cover for there not being any evidence of a god of any kind.

 

[Carrot Flower King]

More importantly, does he have any understanding of how our ideas are conveyed to him? Perhaps he thinks we are all gods and he is receiving our messages entirely due to his faith that we exist.

I'm doing it all by telepathy: what folk perceive as my posts here, and elsewhere, are merely fakery, designed to obscure the true nature of my powers and abilities.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Requiring evidence defeats faith.

Yes, that's the usual excuse for a lack of evidence

 

[Joe Random]

Evolution is a fact. There is a very robust scientific theory that explains exactly how it occurs. All science, including the science that provides you with so many things you use on a daily basis, is based on well supported theories that explain how things actually work. You plainly have no understanding of what a theory actually is. Hint: it is not a guess.

At the risk of being overly trite :

 

[Andy_Ross]

To be fair, most old gods were not omniscient and omnipotent, nor have a perfect plan for the next billion years. They were just very powerful. I mean, even the OT God repents his previous decisions and gives the flood as a server reset. Among other things. It doesn't sound to me like someone who planned it all from the start and knew exactly how it would go ever after.

My favourite old god is Coventina, a Romano-British water goddess, She has one shrine, a well in a marsh next to one of the forts on Hadrian's Wall.

 

[Andy_Ross]

Yes, signs were given. But in general...
"Blessed are those who believe without seeing."

Because you can sell them anything.

 

[Andy_Ross]

People saying faith does things for them is not evidence that I need faith to have the same or similar things.

So, Mr. Reynholm, how did the
cosmos grant you a helicopter?

Well, I visualised the thing I wanted.
In my case, it was a helicopter. I drew a picture of the helicopter on a piece of paper, then I
stood with my back to space, threw the paper over my shoulder and wished really hard.
Couple of days later, bought myself a helicopter.
Explain that if you can!

 

[Andy_Ross]

Rusty must have been a very bad boy/girl/small furry creature from Alpha Centauri to be sent to argue with all us ungodly atheisticimal, scepticeral types repeatedly with so little actual preparatory work.

I'd love to know what exactly it was that he/she/they/it did, with whom and how many times...

It counts as missionary work.

 

[Steve]

I'm doing it all by telepathy: what folk perceive as my posts here, and elsewhere, are merely fakery, designed to obscure the true nature of my powers and abilities.

As I suspected.

 

[P.J. Denyer]

It counts as missionary work.

Here it's complete miss-ionary work.

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

Old Zeus certainly wanted some, errrrrr, very personal relationships with folk, didn't he?

Is this what we are talking about?

If you think that's kinky, yeah, sons and daughters of gods used to be a dime a dozen. Even Alexander The Great was one. BUT... BUTT... Apollonius of Tyana one-upped that by claiming that his mom made him with TWO gods. So, you know, he wasn't just half god, he was two thirds god.

Holy gangbang, Batman!

 

[Mojo]

My favourite old god is Coventina, a Romano-British water goddess, She has one shrine, a well in a marsh next to one of the forts on Hadrian's Wall.

What about Ninkasi?

 

[SpuriusMaximus]

My favourite old god is Coventina, a Romano-British water goddess, She has one shrine, a well in a marsh next to one of the forts on Hadrian's Wall.

I see your goddess in the swamp and raise you an ancient Roman goddess called Cloacina, a literal goddess of the sewers. Later morphed into Venus Cloacina, an aspect of Venus, after the Romans mugged the Greeks and stole their gods. How they made the connection between Venus/Aphrodite and the sewers is beyond me, but they managed to

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Why? How? I have a lot of personal relationships and none of them require my faith.


Yeah, this. So far we've got the assertion 'it enables a personal relationship with God' and 'it feels good/fulfilling/comforting etc' which is not unique.

Oh, and 'it enables faith healing' which is only a good point if you are convinced by faith healing, which I am not, for reasons we all elaborated on a lot in one of the other Rusty threads.

I'm sure the fabled mad man who believes he's Napoleon gets great happiness and satisfaction from being Emperor of France and all her Dominions.

 

[alfaniner]

It counts as missionary work.

Which is certainly a fine position to be in.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

Have you seen this one?

What Was Found in Noah’s Ark site Changes Everything​

What researchers just pulled out of the ground at the Noah's Ark site in eastern Turkey is forcing scientists to rewrite what they thought they knew. Beneath the Durupinar formation, eight feet down, the scans are revealing something no one was prepared to see. Not stone. Not erosion. Not the natural accident every textbook has called it for sixty years. The shapes appearing on the radar match the dimensions of an ancient text written thousands of years before the technology to find them existed. And what came up next from inside the formation is the part that changes everything.

 

[Rusty Tyler]

Requiring faith to accept the truth of something defeats the purpose of reason.

No risk, no reward?

 

[sinnikal]

Oh, FFS.