No, I don’t disagree. Miracles are irrational and scientifically can’t be accepted, UNLESS IT HAPPENS TO YOU.
It’s a little more widespread than you think(or hope).
You started your research with one religion that was local to you…and stopped there.
Well, when I started I didn’t have knowledge of all those systems. If presented with the fact that God exists, and you’re in Midwestern America, why wouldn’t you go to the prevailing religion? And I repeat, I have considered the idea that it was a hallucination, but there is nothing hereditarily, biologically or experientially to confirm that, and the sense of immanence is not something that can be ignored.
Again, I’m not trying to get you to accept it. The song was merely the medium for the message.
This question has no answer. And interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve number in the thousands, because there’s be about three millenia or more to think about it.
People inside time’s free will is only an illusion if they are unable to change the part that was played out in advance for them by your god. A puppet that can’t see his strings is not free.
I remember reading that from Lewis? He copied from those other guys? I’m aware of the greeks. Hector talked about his fate in the Iliad.
I think Hector knew his will wasn’t free. Apparently among Christians Calvin was the first one smart enough to put 2 and 2 together.
Yeah, I find Calvin is out of favor these days. If your god predestines people to hell, he’s a monster. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much what the Bible says in some parts, and what logically follows if you believe that everything happens in accordance with God’s will.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Predestined according to His will it says. I imagine that means the one’s He didn’t harden the hearts of, as you mentioned above.
That is true.
“The Gospel According to Mark does not name its author.[2] A tradition evident in the 2nd century ascribes it to Mark the Evangelist (also known as John Mark), the companion of Peter,[10] on whose memories it is supposedly based.[1][11][12][13] However, according to the majority view, the author is unknown, the author’s use of varied sources telling against the traditional account.[14][15] The gospel was written in Greek, probably around AD 60-70, possibly in Syria.[7][16]”
I wouldn’t either if I were you.
No, I’d get to a doctor straightaway. Even if my apparent epiphany had a mystical flavor, I’d never be so egocentric as to entertain the idea that my unique existence warrants a tailored message from a god. At least no moreso than an epiphany experienced by a shaman in the Amazon, a North Korean peasant, or an aboriginal medicine woman in Australia.
Having said that, also want to say thanks, Prof. Pepperwinkle, for sticking this out and answering these questions. Even though it baffles me, it’s nice to have your perspective and candor and I’m glad you joined the board.
The Fox and the Grapes is a moral fable, not an allegory, by the way. The fox and the grapes aren’t symbolic of other ideas. Disparaging sneers aside, Genesis may not be orderly, but it is a masterpiece.
OK I get it. You like the pretty churches, you like thinking you will go to heaven, but you pretty much make up your religion as you go along, picking and choosing passages at will. You and the professor must be shopping at the same market.
No, I’ve worked at determining how to properly interpret the scriptures. I’ve read the histories and related texts. Did you come by your opinions through study and analysis, or did you just hear something you agreed with?
No, I started with that, then studied Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, comparative religion, Church history, hermeneutics, etc., etc. Because I’m using Presbyterianism as a base doesn’t mean I’m complacent.
That’s my point. When contradictions occur or the facts claimed are just too preposterous to be believed, apologists claim “allegory”. The burning bush which spoke is allegorical, but a talking fox is a mere fable, right? Though I have a feeling that if a bumbling monk had erroneously included the Fox and the Grapes during transcription, said story would be promoted to allegory even in your eyes.
Your revelation isn’t nearly as surprising as is your apparent Bibliolatry.
That information, however, is the consensus of modern scholarship, and so was unavailable to Luke, who, seeing a composition ascribed to Peter’s companion, would have been remiss if he didn’t use it.
Which is why I’m telling you that your mystical experience had no connection with the Bible. You said so yourself. Yet you are irrationally linking the two. Your mystical experience does not support the religion you post-hoc connected it too. Get it?
Thank you for your remarks, and, as it happens, I went to the doctor shortly afterwards, as my job required me to get a complete physical. For whatever reason (it’s been 25 years, I forget), that included a brain scan. Nothing abnormal.
I don’t recall any mention of Adam’s free will in Genesis. Wasn’t Adam/Eve just acting as God had foreseen when He knowingly inserted the serpent in the Garden of Eden?
Study and analysis of facts and evidence. Though I do enjoy mythology as entertainment. I don’t discount the Bible as a primitive attempt at recording history and writing laws. And some of the stories are painterly even if plagarized. But I regard it wholey as any other agenda: the bias of the authors and translators removes the credibility.