It is my opinion that the two statements are not compatible. I agree that there is a fine shade of meaning between “know” and “believe,” but, at the same time, I don’t think that very many theists allow themselves to depend upon that extremely fine shade of meaning.
In ordinary language, “know” and “believe” are pretty much (yeah, I’ll use the word “functionally”) the same. Once the theist starts down the road to specificity – God’s name is Carlos, etc. – he has proceeded to unite “knowledge” and “belief.”
cosmosdan, I’m going to go easy on you here and just mod note you. Stop with even looking like your pretending to insult other posters in this - or any other - thread. It has no place in great debates and further incidents will go poorly for you.
I guess people who call themselves Christian could be considered Christian, just they don’t follow all of Jesus teachings. Too many pick and choose what they want to follow. The first Christians were known for their love. Today’s Christians make it hard to believe they are Christian, when one looks at what the gospel writers say a Christian should do. Too many are more like the Pharisees that Jesus seemed to despise. They make a big deal of what they call their Christianity like the Pharisees did, but don’t follow the spirit of Jesus teachings that the Gospels seem to expect a Christian to do!
There are scientific facts to back up what I’m saying though. Just to name 2:
1. Energy (which is what your body is) cannot be destroyed. Even Einstein said so.
2. Matter cannot be created nor destroyed. It can only change forms. When you die, thats exactly what happens, you change form to whats called an “astral body”.
I know it all sounds totally ridiculous, and if it hadnt happened to me I’d probably laugh my head off if anyone suggested life after death
That goes for both sides, you know. As long as you are open to evidence and the scientific process used to examine such evidence, such a thread could be very informative…to both sides.
:dubious: To the extent it was ever “alive”, it does. It just dissipates away like light from a light bulb or heat from a fire. Unlike fantasy stories, there’s no such thing as “life force” or “life energy”, if that’s what you at getting at.
