When one’s position…which has been presented right here on this forum…is that they still would deny Christianity even if they knew for a fact that it was true, then their claimed “scrutiny” of a subject to “sort fact from fiction” and determine what is true falls flat. That person clearly has a bias. That’s their choice.
Again, faith simply means trusting in what you have good evidence to believe is true. Faith and reason work together. Reason simply gets you to a point where you can exercise trust. Reason simply helps you with belief ‘that’. Then it’s your own decision as to whether or not you’re gonna go from belief ‘that’ to belief ‘in’ or trust ‘in’. Reason deals with belief ‘that’ and trust deals with belief ‘in’.
The opposite of faith is not reason, the opposite of faith is a ‘lack’ of trust. And so the opposite of reason is not faith, but the opposite of reason is irrationality ~ like the above instance where one clearly chooses to deny the truth of a matter even when they know for a fact that the said matter is true.
Jesus and His apostle’s talk about getting evidence for your faith.
No, you misconstrue the meaning of Hebrews 11:1.
Given the nature of evidence, if you have evidence anyone can access and examine that evidence and draw much the same conclusion.
If the existence of a God had the same evidence as the existence of the things of the world, sun, moon, stars, rivers, plants, animals, people, etc, we would equally accept the existence of God as we do the things of the world.
As it happens that we have plenty of evidence for the existence of the world, the universe, but nothing for the existence of a God/creator, it takes faith to believe that a God exists.
Which is why faith in religion is defined as a belief held without the support of evidence.
Faith; b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof 3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>- Merriam Webster
"Faith is like a piece of blank paper whereon you may write as well one miracle as another." ~ Charles Blount (1654-1693)
The New Testament writers had nothing to gain by making up a resurrected Jesus. They were Jews. They had everything to lose by saying that Jesus had risen from the dead. They got excommunicated from the synagogue. And then they got beaten, tortured, and killed. That’s not a list of perks. They had everything to lose by saying Jesus rose from the dead. But they said Jesus rose from the dead anyway.
And then many of em’ went and died for that. They coulda said, “Hey man, don’t kill me, we’re just makin’ this stuff up.” But they didn’t. The most persuasive people were these Jews who clearly had never seen anything like this before, who before thought it was blasphemous for a man to claim to be God, and who clearly before didn’t think somebody could rise from the dead…and now they do…and they were willing to die for it.
They had everything to lose. And they’re still saying it’s true. I’m puttin’ some stock in what they’re sayin’.
A good principle to guide me through life: “This is all I have come to expect, standard lackluster performance. Trust nothing, believe no one and realize it will only get worse…”
The New Testament writers had nothing to gain by making up a resurrected Jesus. They were Jews. They had everything to lose by saying that Jesus had risen from the dead. They got excommunicated from the synagogue. And then they got beaten, tortured, and killed. That’s not a list of perks. They had everything to lose by saying Jesus rose from the dead. But they said Jesus rose from the dead anyway.
And then many of em’ went and died for that. They coulda said, “Hey man, don’t kill me, we’re just makin’ this stuff up.” But they didn’t. The most persuasive people were these Jews who clearly had never seen anything like this before, who before thought it was blasphemous for a man to claim to be God, and who clearly before didn’t think somebody could rise from the dead…and now they do…and they were willing to die for it.
They had everything to lose. And they’re still saying it’s true. I’m puttin’ some stock in what they’re sayin’.
The writer of Matthew was probably Jewish. The writer of Luke was probably a gentile.
Once again, you demonstrate how little you know about the scriptures.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
I’m 63; so I’m absolutely sure that the universe is at least 63 years old. Scientifically, the universe appears to be 13.8 billion years old. In order for the universe to be younger or older than that, then the laws of physics would have to have been different in the past than they are now.
Is that possible…? Maybe so. But we have no way of knowing if the laws of physics have changed. There’s a principle in science known as the principle of uniformity and it says that things happened in the past just like things happen now ~ that the laws of physics haven’t changed. But we can’t prove it 100%.
But again, if the laws of physics haven’t changed, then the universe appears to be 13.8 billion years old. I don’t see that the Bible teaches that the universe is 6000 years old. The first verse of the Bible says, “In the beginning, God created”…. That’s what I come away with. How He did it, or how long He took to do it…while interesting…is irrelevant. The fact the He did it is what really matters.
The very first words of the Bible are often incorrectly translated as "In THE beginning," where the correct translation is "In A beginning."
Once that dawns on you, you realize you have no way of knowing how many beginnings there were before humans recorded the history that we bring to these discussions, or how old the earth actually is, or anything else that exists anywhere. It's not hard to meld science and religion with this. The planet could infact be as old as scientists estimate, but the beginning we know from our narrow (minded) persective could only be generally what we are taught in the Bible.
I prefer peace. But if trouble must come, let it come in my time, so that my children may live in peace. ~~ Thomas Paine
Do you believe the story the earth is only 6000 years old?
No. Biblical scripture is not literal, it is metaphorical. Excellent messages, words to live by, not to be interpreted literally. Those that do so, imo, are misguided, but its no skin off my back. Most of my family do so.
6000? No. Its far older.
Originally Posted by Archerhunter
Quit giving in inch by inch then looking back to lament the mile behind ya and wonder how to preserve those few feet left in front of ya. They'll never stop until they're stopped. That's a fact.
Not this, again. Almost as frequent as chainsaw threads.
Chainsaw threads are a hell of a lot more fun.
Originally Posted by Archerhunter
Quit giving in inch by inch then looking back to lament the mile behind ya and wonder how to preserve those few feet left in front of ya. They'll never stop until they're stopped. That's a fact.
You can disagree and have a differing viewpoint and not be an asshat about it. Just something to consider.
Originally Posted by Archerhunter
Quit giving in inch by inch then looking back to lament the mile behind ya and wonder how to preserve those few feet left in front of ya. They'll never stop until they're stopped. That's a fact.
Given the nature of evidence, if you have evidence anyone can access and examine that evidence and draw much the same conclusion.
If the existence of a God had the same evidence as the existence of the things of the world, sun, moon, stars, rivers, plants, animals, people, etc, we would equally accept the existence of God as we do the things of the world.
As it happens that we have plenty of evidence for the existence of the world, the universe, but nothing for the existence of a God/creator, it takes faith to believe that a God exists.
Which is why faith in religion is defined as a belief held without the support of evidence.
Faith; b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof 3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs <the Protestant faith>- Merriam Webster
"Faith is like a piece of blank paper whereon you may write as well one miracle as another." ~ Charles Blount (1654-1693)
^
Originally Posted by Archerhunter
Quit giving in inch by inch then looking back to lament the mile behind ya and wonder how to preserve those few feet left in front of ya. They'll never stop until they're stopped. That's a fact.
Let's see, 6000 years, about 300 generations is a generous estimate. From two original parents in less than 300 generations we ended up with Negroes, Aleuts, Australian Aborigines, Japanese, white Europeans, East Indians, Arabs, Chinese, and Mongols. If true, evolution was busy.
Personally I think humans have been around a while. Maybe they all started in Africa and as they escaped they bred into other human subspecies such as Neanderthal and Denisovan. Not sure how the Australian breed came about as he is fairly primitive but can breed with other humans.
6000 years doesn't quite mesh with what we now know.
Patriotism (and religion) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
Let's see, 6000 years, about 300 generations is a generous estimate. From two original parents in less than 300 generations we ended up with Negroes, Aleuts, Australian Aborigines, Japanese, white Europeans, East Indians, Arabs, Chinese, and Mongols. If true, evolution was busy.
Personally I think humans have been around a while. Maybe they all started in Africa and as they escaped they bred into other human subspecies such as Neanderthal and Denisovan. Not sure how the Australian breed came about as he is fairly primitive but can breed with other humans.
6000 years doesn't quite mesh with what we now know.
The aborigines' have around 5% Denisovan DNA.
You didn't use logic or reason to get into this opinion, I cannot use logic or reason to get you out of it.
You cannot over estimate the unimportance of nearly everything. John Maxwell
Creation itself is evidence of a Creator. And creation is right there, in front of us and all round us. And everyone can see it. Some simply choose to deny the evidence.
