Yawn…
More of the same nonsense. What about those of us who at one time did seek out the "truth’? What about those of us who were extremely sincere and who ached because god didn’t feel like revealing itself? Did god harden all our hearts? Or maybe it’s because we grew up and realized it is highly unlikely that there exists and any kind of diety, especially the vile creature described in the Bible and Koran.
I’m not trying to wade into this other discussion, but I’m curious: Why can God not provide me with a similar line of evidence that he’s provided you that has convinced you that he exists?
What I’m suggesting is that God has, on some level, provided you with exactly what you need to believe (or to have faith). Can’t he peer into my ‘soul’ and determine what I would need for a similar level of faith?
If not, why not?
In case it got missed among the more in-depth posts, I’ll ask again, did god not love Neanderthals? How have religions incorporated the existence of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon man into their belief systems? Do they even address the issue?
Blaster Master - I’m not sure if you know who Alvin Plantinga is, but I think that you might find some of his work interesting. Particularly his free will defense. I think that it has problems, but is very interesting to consider. This is against the logical problem of evil, btw - something we’ve touched on.
Seeking the truth is a 24/7 lifetime pursuit. It is not something you dabble in, become bored (yawn) with, and ditch for more fun things. It is discovery as well as practice. Classical pianists practice a minimum of 5 hours a day, everyday. So do ice skakers in the Olympics. No one said it would be easy or simple. Anything worth having takes a lot of work and practice to accomplish.
I think from what you say in your post, you have already discovered some truth. You now realize you can’t read God out of a book, that is a big step in learning about the Creator. So you must look elsewhere now, but never stop seeking truth. If you do you are wasting your life.
True, one should never stop searching for the truth. However, at some point you have to focus on what is real and do away with what is obviously not.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 1 Corinthians 13:11
I find this quote to be very appropriate. It’s time to put God, Santa, Bigfoot to rest and focus on the wonderful and interesting things that are actually around us.
Truth is real, truth is what is, truth can never be anything else but truth. You can not focus on any of the wonderful and interesting things surrounding you without seeing truth.
I don’t disagree with that. And the best way we have come up with to discover and see the truth is through the scientific method, not primitive superstitions of an ancient desert dwelling people.
Isn’t it odd that those who have been most successful in pursuing scientific truth also disbelieve in god at a higher rate than the public as a whole? You seem to imply that not finding God means you haven’t been searching for the truth; actually most atheist I know have been searching with eyes and minds open far more than your average theist. Are you open to the possibility that the admittedly important search for the truth leads to no god, or is your mind made up in advance?
What you say is not true. The really great scientists, the ones who contributed the most did believe in God.
There is more ways to search than the scientific method. It is not the only way to truth.
The scientific method is only one way to discern truth, and it is limited to materialist truth. Your opinion of ancient desert people is only that, just an opinion.
As is yours.
But you came to your opinion through book learnin’, while he came to his through dreams riddled with divine revelation, so there.
Back to your old insults, and personal attacks again?
My source is your blog. If you have other means of discerning the truth, please enlighten me.
That they put Einstein at the top of their believers list leaves their accuracy a bit open to question. C’mon, did you even look at your link? You are aware that Einstein did not believe in God in any meaningful sense of the word, and he was almost precisely as Jewish as I am.
Do you consider psychology to be the study of materialist truths?
Voyager beat me to the punch: I too couldn’t get past the first entry in that list
Late to the party, but whether or not I have free will is irrelevent, as is what activities I might or might not be doing to try to elicit divine intervention. I was speaking about what a god could do to convince me, if he wanted to. The fact that (if he exists) you think he’s a lazy ass who won’t lift a finger unless I shove myself under it and push doesn’t change the fact that if he actually (existed and) wanted me to know he was real, I’d know - or at least believe I did with extreme confidence, which is the same thing.
New York is located in my left kidney, to cite one specific example.
To be entirely precise, he also cites what many of us would call daydreams or waking hallucinations. It is certainly not the case that he has restricted his…novel…experiences to the times when he has been sleeping.
May I steal this, please? I’m thinking of enrolling my daughter in an embroidery class over the summer break, and this’ll make the perfect sampler.