Expressions of faith

Originally posted by caissad4
Ignorant of the obvious fact of a god who takes no part in day to day activities of his "chosen" believers.
Where was your god when Hitler murdered 11 million people ??
Where was your god when Stalin murdered 20 million people ???
And the list goes on and on.
Maybe he was busy watching pretty balloons or healing someone's sore back at that time. Strange priorities, don't you think ?
🙄

At the risk of sounding redundantReveal Hidden Content the Christian has a mechanism for explaining evil.

Those who declare God doesn't exist?
They got nothing.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Perhaps the sentence structure or words
were, respectively, too complex or complicated.
My apology, if so.

IF
So, Wolf, why post. = I defend your right to post

then the sentence structure was too complex and your apology is accepted

IF NOT
then you are a pathetic liar

Originally posted by wolfgang59
IF
So, Wolf, why post. = I defend your right to post

then the sentence structure was too complex and your apology is accepted

IF NOT
then you are a pathetic liar

Please feel free to elaborate.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Please feel free to elaborate.

No neede. I have been concise and clear.
I have not danced around the discussion as you do.
Nor delved into my fortune cookie collection,
or words of wisdom from last year's christmas crackers.
Look at the posts, try and follow them, then decide how deceitful you have been.

Originally posted by LemonJello
I'm afraid I don't see any lesson in there for all of us. What you talk about is merely consistent with your projecting articles of faith onto little ones. At any rate, I certainly hope your granddaughter grows into a proper and healthy questioning attitude of her faith (supposing she actually has any). What will you tell her down the road if she happe ...[text shortened]... e for a better lesson than this story about environmental pollution offered up to a sky fairy.

Rationalism has never and will never understand or find God. Since God is not visible to us empiricism is out. The only other system of perception is faith.

Have you ever believed in anything you have not seen?

That system of faith is all that is required for salvation.

John 3:16, John 3:36, Acts 16:31.

Just consider the option.

Originally posted by kiki46
Rationalism has never and will never understand or find God. Since God is not visible to us empiricism is out. The only other system of perception is faith.

Have you ever believed in anything you have not seen?

That system of faith is all that is required for salvation.

John 3:16, John 3:36, Acts 16:31.

Just consider the option.

So, to be clear, you're saying that your faith has no rational justification? Sounds about right to me. If that is what you tell your granddaughter at that particular juncture, then I have no problem with that at all.

Rationalism has never and will never understand or find God. Since God is not visible to us empiricism is out.

Well, you may certainly be right about that as well. After all, if (as I think) God has no referent to begin with, then this all follows naturally.

The only other system of perception is faith.

This is where I think you're wrong. Faith is not a "system of perception". Perception is factive, like knowledge. That is, if S perceives P, then it is the case that P; just like if S knows P, then it is the case that P. Faith is altogether different, since there's no reason at all to think that if S has faith that P it follows that it is the case that P. In fact, since (as you've already pointed out) your faith has no rational warrant or justification, there's very little or no reason to think your faith picks out the facts, don't you think? This is one reason why I think your faith in all likelihood fails to be epistemologically responsible. My hope is that your granddaughter will come to understand this so that she can mature out of and slough off the faith that you claim belongs to her (if you're not just projecting such a thing).

Have you ever believed in anything you have not seen?

This is not a relevant question. My claim is not that your faith in God is noetically irresponsible because you have never seen God; my claim is that your faith is noetically irresponsible because, to first order, you have no good evidential reasons for it.

Originally posted by wolfgang59
No neede. I have been concise and clear.
I have not danced around the discussion as you do.
Nor delved into my fortune cookie collection,
or words of wisdom from last year's christmas crackers.
Look at the posts, try and follow them, then decide how deceitful you have been.

A Servile Subject of The Reigning One in An Eternal Lake of Fire
(in which you'll be desperately alone, except for the Worm of Memory
which never expires, continually reminding you of opportunities
[such as our conversation these days] to consider the sole alternative:
Sonship with Almighty God the Father in Paradise for Eternity.
Your call.
.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
A Servile Subject of The Reigning One in An Eternal Lake of Fire
(in which you'll be desperately alone, except for the Worm of Memory
which never expires, continually reminding you of opportunities
[such as our conversation these days] to consider the sole alternative:
Sonship with Almighty God the Father in Paradise for Eternity.
Your call.
.

The OP poster has stated that the "lesson for all of us" from the balloon story is that all that God requires is the simple act of faith - like that of a 6 year old child - in Christ as our substitute to grant us "eternal salvation".

I don't think it's a "lesson for all of us" at all, at least not in the way the OP intended. Indeed I find it so trite and credulous that the "lesson for all of us" might well be a cautionary one about the hazards of thinking like a 6 year old child and hanging one's spiritual map upon super simplistic, essentially vacuous, religionist, greetings-card-like regurgitations.

No offence intended, although you'll no doubt be aware that you're probably seen by some as the worst offender in this regard, with your empty "Your Call" quips and incessant fridge magnet/ bumper-sticker 'persona' on this forum. 😀

Sadly, minds in the dark dig deep holes and keep digging them deeper as they
sense the need to disengage. Once you see a pattern, you can't unsee it.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Sadly, minds in the dark dig deep holes and keep digging them deeper as they
sense the need to disengage. Once you see a pattern, you can't unsee it.

Greetings-card-like. Murky, self-righteous, sterile. But greetings-card-like nevertheless. 😀

I think the salient point here is that while there might be "lessons for us all" in something like parables or allegorical stories - from whatever religion - there are no "lessons for us all" from partisan religionist sloganeering, or dissecting obtuse doctrines rooted in superstition, or celebrating the naive mentality of a 6 year old when discussing spirituality with adults.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
A Servile Subject of The Reigning One in An Eternal Lake of Fire
(in which you'll be desperately alone, except for the Worm of Memory
which never expires, continually reminding you of opportunities
[such as our conversation these days] to consider the sole alternative:
Sonship with Almighty God the Father in Paradise for Eternity.
Your call.
.

The ramblings of a lonely old man ...



funny but a little sad. :'(

Originally posted by wolfgang59
The ramblings of a lonely old man ...



funny but a little sad. :'(

Even lonely, grumpy old men need love from the likes/unlikes of you. Ha,

Originally posted by FreakyKBH
At the risk of sounding redundant[hidden]as I will be expounding on this point on another thread shortly[/hidden] the Christian has a mechanism for explaining evil.

Those who declare God doesn't exist?
They got nothing.

Nothing?

What about psychology?

Buddhism is often described as a psychological system rather than a religion. Amongst other things it explains the nature of evil as coming from ignorance.

Originally posted by kiki46
Rationalism has never and will never understand or find God. Since God is not visible to us empiricism is out. The only other system of perception is faith.

Have you ever believed in anything you have not seen?

That system of faith is all that is required for salvation.

John 3:16, John 3:36, Acts 16:31.

Just consider the option.

I read this as : left brain functions will never understand god, so we have nothing else than to go with a completely right brain response (faith) to our ontological dilemma.

Ever think to use your whole brain and intergrate left and right brain responses to get a better sense of what this whole god thing means rather than just concluding that our left brain rationalism will never understand god and hence is of no use.

Originally posted by Grampy Bobby
Sadly, minds in the dark dig deep holes and keep digging them deeper as they
sense the need to disengage. Once you see a pattern, you can't unsee it.

Like the pattern of the headless chook, who thrashes about, running this way and that and acting as if the head were still attached?