@pianoman1 said"When will you all understand that Jesus was NOT a Christian."
@josephwUnlike all religions Christianity's central "figure" is a resurrected savior.
Says who? He is nothing of the sort to me. A wandering Jew of admittedly enlightened opinions who has been made to fulfil a prophecy in the Old Testament written by another wandering Jew in Babylonian captivity four or five thousand years ago.
When will you all understa ...[text shortened]... as NOT a Christian? He would be appalled by Christianity today - and we have Paul to thank for that.
When will you understand that the Christians posting in this forum are not idiots?
In 40 years of being a Christian I never heard anyone say that until now.
You're obviously too full of convoluted misinformation to have a normal discussion with.
And your reference to a "wandering Jew" is antisemitic.
You have issues.
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@pianoman1 saidI'm saying that science does quite well at answering general HOW and WHAT questions -- what is matter made of, how do species separate off from other species and produce the great variety of life we see today, how old is the Earth, how old is the universe, that sort of question science answers quite well. Science explains generalities, such as how homo sapiens evolved, but does not explain particulars. Science does not explain Bobby Fischer or Goethe and why exactly they and not their neighbors or siblings were geniuses.
I’m not sure I entirely follow your thesis, and forgive me if I have misunderstood, but you seem to be saying that some things are beyond Mankind’s ability to answer and so they resort to a God. I disagree. Just because they are beyond our current level of scientific understanding does not mean that in fifty, a hundred, two hundred years time science will not have evolved to answer even the most fundamentally challenging problems.
Science never answers WHY questions, that's just not part of its remit. Why do people suffer? Why do people keep on going on the face of unremitting suffering? That is the sort of question science cannot answer. It's beyond psychology and certainly not within the realm of physics or chemistry or astronomy. God is not necessarily part of the answer, though for many people the answer must contain some reference to transcendence, whether it is personified as a god or depersonalized as karma. Very few people are able to ask the perennial questions (about mankind's destiny, about the meaning of life, and so on) and leave them unanswered. As the philosopher C. S. Peirce said, uncertainty is an itch that cannot not be scratched; man seeks certainty, and for some people even an incomprehensible answer (God did it) is preferable to no answer at all. And that is the point of God, now as always: it gives some people the certainty they crave that someone, if only a transcendent Being, knows all the answers and scratches the itch.
@moonbus saidYou express a lot of personal opinions that don't hold water here or in the real world.
God is the hypostatization of eschatological concerns. Gods persist because humans have perennially recurring eschatological concerns. It's nothing to do with evolution or the big bang theory -- God explains nothing, God has become completely superfluous as an explanatory principle. Mankind has transferred the questions of HOW and WHAT to science, but there remains the WHEREF ...[text shortened]... d to answer this question for themselves -- hence, belief in God(s) persists. And that is the point.
"God is the hypostatization of eschatological concerns."
Rubbish. You live in a world of fantasy if you think your opinions about the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus are anything but an act of denialism.
As FMF would say, yours and pianoman1's exchange can be classified as confirmation bias with regards to your opinions of anthropogeny concerns.
@moonbus saidScience isn't equipped to answer the question why. You'll have to go to God for the answer to that question.
I'm saying that science does quite well at answering general HOW and WHAT questions -- what is matter made of, how do species separate off from other species and produce the great variety of life we see today, how old is the Earth, how old is the universe, that sort of question science answers quite well. Science explains generalities, such as how homo sapiens evolved, but do ...[text shortened]... they crave that someone, if only a transcendent Being, knows all the answers and scratches the itch.
You must be itchy all the time. 😂
@josephw saidmoonbus is too well-read and intellectually curious ~ and incisive in his deployment of information, ideas and arguments ~ to be 'accused' of confirmation bias.
As FMF would say, yours and pianoman1's exchange can be classified as confirmation bias with regards to your opinions of anthropogeny concerns.
Atheists (at least atheists on the Internet) always seem to think people believe in God because they can’t stand having the big questions unanswered. I have yet to come across a single believer who says that’s why he or she believes in God.
Atheism, as Carl Sagan once said, is “very stupid.”
“An atheist has to know a lot more than I know. An atheist is someone who knows there is no god. By some definitions atheism is very stupid.”
Carl Sagan
And most atheists believe extraterrestrials exist - despite no evidence existing for that.
I believe atheists aren’t people who deny God exists as much as they’re people who hate God.
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In 40 years of being a Christian I never heard anyone say that until now.
The truth can be disarming!
And your reference to a "wandering Jew" is antisemitic.
Calling someone a Jew is anti Semitic? Interesting logic…
You have issues.
Yes, with ill-thought-out logic and people who resort to ad hominem barbs.