Groundhog Day.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Eh, truth is truth.

If what I believe is the truth, then what in the world would motivate me to change my belief? This is the strength of faith.

If what I believe is the truth, then what in the world would motivate me to change my belief? This is the weakness of faith.

fixd

Originally posted by OdBod
Just a quick thought. When god has done it's thing, end of days , good souls up there baddies down below etc, will the whole process be repeated again? After all, you've got to ask the question , why start the whole thing in the first place, maybe god was bored just" being", perhaps all we are is a distraction?

You're just projecting your own confusion on something you know nothing about.

Originally posted by josephw
You're just projecting your own confusion on something you know nothing about.

Actually I am not in the least bit confused, I do not believe in a god. I am trying to understand the religious perspective, and the questions I have posed must surely have been considered by people of faith.

Originally posted by googlefudge
I note however that you have not substantively answered my questions in
my thread about how memory is fragile and how that among other things
must make us question eyewitness "personal experiences" of the supernatural.
Even when those experiences are our own.


Here is a link to the post and thread in question.

http://www.redhotpawn.com/board/showthread.php?threadid=162877&page=10#post_3365798

Because I do not buy into your hypothesis and decided I'm just not going to argue with someone who is that wrong, and unable to wrap his head around the concept. You're just making excuses. What you describe in that thread are things that rarely happen to people, not some common event that everyone needs to be on guard for. Just because you say "something" can happen doesn't mean that thing happens every time, or even 1 time out of 100. You cite the probability of my God existing to be barely above nil, and yet you hypothesize these things happening that are so rare, they're barely worth talking about. You wanted to make a point, great, you made it. Pardon me if I'm not on board with it.

Originally posted by JS357
I think of God's love of the world, His desire to share His glory, and John 3:16 as indicative of God's motivation, at least the God of the NT. Of course I don't know what the Quran says. Probably similar, except for the part about God's Son.

I agree with what you say about God's motivation in the NT. The OT God seems like a younger, more rash version of His NT version. The NT version almost seems like He's mellowed and wants to have a more mature relationship with His creation.

As for Islam, yeah, I see how one could see it that way. The way I see Islam is that it was invented by Mohammed as a rebuttal to Abraham's religion. Maybe Mohammed thought Abraham made his religion up too, I don't know.

Originally posted by Suzianne
Because I do not buy into your hypothesis and decided I'm just not going to argue with someone who is that wrong, and unable to wrap his head around the concept. You're just making excuses. What you describe in that thread are things that rarely happen to people, not some common event that everyone needs to be on guard for. Just because you say "somethin ...[text shortened]... about. You wanted to make a point, great, you made it. Pardon me if I'm not on board with it.

These are not rare things.

Did you not look at any of the links to scientists talking about this???

EVERY SINGLE TIME you access a memory you change it.

EVERY SINGLE MEMORY is [at best] part fact and part fiction because even in the
very best of circumstances memories we record only fragments of what we
experience and the rest is filled in by the brain.


This isn't me talking, this is the strong consensus view of the relevant sciences.

So, to answer my question...

Do you value your self and external image as someone who accepts and values science [enough] to
put your religious beliefs to one side for a moment and evaluate the science here?

Are you like RJHinds, or are you prepared to update and correct your beliefs when you encounter
new evidence?

... You evidently ARE like RJHinds.

You accept science only when it doesn't contradict your own pet beliefs.

The only difference being what your pet beliefs actually are.