@kevin-eleven saidThat gives me an idea. I'll change tact and start mocking Christianity. Maybe that'll work. 😏
It's Ash Wednesday, @josephw. If your intent is to mock Christianity, this is the wrong day to do it.
@fmf saidIt must be just agonizing for you trying to post a substantive reply to what is actually said to you.
You are mistaken. Your side of this "argument" - that Christianity is not a religion because religions are different from Christianity - is a rhetorical gimmick, and a pretty unsophisticated one to boot. I have no difficulty seeing it for what it is.
@kevin-eleven saidI keep coming back to read that last line. I guess I should ask pb, but he referring to me?
Seems overly personal, but I'd rather let your post ride so people can see what you wrote.
Or am I missing the joke again? 😬
@josephw saidHow about not posting until after Easter?
That gives me an idea. I'll change tact and start mocking Christianity. Maybe that'll work. 😏
@kevin-eleven saidAre you talking about you? I could do that, but I'd miss out on the same stuff and lose track of what's new.
How about not posting until after Easter?
@divegeester
I answered ‘no’ to your question “Are you asking why some people enjoy having hope for and faith in there being life after death?”
I am very happy for anyone to have their beliefs and faith in the afterlife. My point is that you don’t need God for that. It has nothing to do with religion.
@josephw saidQuite extraordinary to hold such an ignorant opinion in the 21st century!
@Pianoman1
"Today we are armed with the science to explain everything."
A bold but false statement. Science hasn't scratched the surface. In fact it seems science raises more questions than it can answer. What's worse is that probably not 1% of the world can even begin to understand it.
But scientists keep cramming a bogus theory down our throats. Evolution i ...[text shortened]... st line of propaganda ever invented, next to the denial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that is.
Science explains everything. If we don’t understand something we don’t immediately say oh it must be god made; we roll up our sleeves and continue with rigorous scientific investigation until we get the answer. There is nothing in the cosmos that points to the existence of God. Nothing. Everything can be, or will be, explained by scientific investigation. And that includes the mystery why some brains appear to be so closed and riddled with dogma.
@pianoman1 saidScience explains everything?
Quite extraordinary to hold such an ignorant opinion in the 21st century!
Science explains everything. If we don’t understand something we don’t immediately say oh it must be god made; we roll up our sleeves and continue with rigorous scientific investigation until we get the answer. There is nothing in the cosmos that points to the existence of God. Nothing. Everything c ...[text shortened]... gation. And that includes the mystery why some brains appear to be so closed and riddled with dogma.
😂
Unlike 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 understand that Jesus was NOT a Christian? He would be appalled by Christianity today - and we have Paul to thank for that.
@pianoman1 saidScience does not explain everything that has been shown to you already elsewhere.
Quite extraordinary to hold such an ignorant opinion in the 21st century!
Science explains everything. If we don’t understand something we don’t immediately say oh it must be god made; we roll up our sleeves and continue with rigorous scientific investigation until we get the answer. There is nothing in the cosmos that points to the existence of God. Nothing. Everything c ...[text shortened]... gation. And that includes the mystery why some brains appear to be so closed and riddled with dogma.
@pianoman1 saidBeing explained doesn't mean it's proven; a child can explain why the lamp was broken, leaving out critical pieces of information in their part of it. Just because someone can explain doesn't mean that they know.
Quite extraordinary to hold such an ignorant opinion in the 21st century!
Science explains everything. If we don’t understand something we don’t immediately say oh it must be god made; we roll up our sleeves and continue with rigorous scientific investigation until we get the answer. There is nothing in the cosmos that points to the existence of God. Nothing. Everything c ...[text shortened]... gation. And that includes the mystery why some brains appear to be so closed and riddled with dogma.
@Pianoman1
"Quite extraordinary to hold such an ignorant opinion in the 21st century!"
I disagree. I'm not a physicist or an astronomer or whatever, but I'm not ignorant about science, and I'm not so ignorant as to believe science has arrived at proving the theory of evolution. There may appear to be some evidence indicative of some aspects of evolution, but in the main it's conjectural and theoretical.
"Science explains everything.
An over exaggeration.
If that were true it seems we might already be colonizing Mars, cured all diseases and perhaps even prevented death.
"If we don’t understand something we don’t immediately say oh it must be god made; we roll up our sleeves and continue with rigorous scientific investigation until we get the answer."
To believe God created all that exists doesn't mean we abandon science. Not by a long shot. You've expressed an unfounded bias against Christians based on a misconception.
"There is nothing in the cosmos that points to the existence of God. Nothing."
That idea is an example of a very unscientific approach to the investigation of the origin of life. Seems to me, if science wasn't bigoted, it would enjoin the question of the possibility that what exists is the evidence for a creator.
But perhaps science hasn't evolved to the point yet.
"Everything can be, or will be, explained by scientific investigation."
But you just stated that "science explains everything". Perhaps the comment above seeks to qualify what you meant. I think science may very well be able to "explain" everything, someday, but science also may just discover that all that exists came into existence by the act of creation.
"And that includes the mystery why some brains appear to be so closed and riddled with dogma."
Seems to me that a truly closed and dogmatic "mind" would preclude the scientific investigation of the very real possibility that the universe and all that is contained in it, including science, was created.
@pianoman1 saidGod 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 WHEREFORE -- that is the realm of philosophy and religion. Some people need a transcendent answer, because they don't trust mankind to answer this question for themselves -- hence, belief in God(s) persists. And that is the point.
I don’t want to get into a discussion of the existence of God because positions are so entrenched by both sides that it would be pointless.
No, my question is: What is the point of God now?
Thousands of years ago early man quite reasonably assumed that gods must have made the world. They had to be appeased. Today with our knowledge of evolution, Big Bang theory etc a cre ...[text shortened]... n gods. Today we are armed with the science to explain everything.
So what is the point of God now?
@moonbus saidI’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.
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.
@pianoman1 saidGlad to see you’re not still holding to your ridiculous position that the Holy Bible was written by one person 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
@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.
Looks like you’ve now revised your position so it refers only to “a prophecy” about Jesus Christ. Unfortunately for you, the Old Testament is filled with Messianic prophecies written by many people over many centuries - not one “wandering Jew” 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
I suggest you further revise your position until it aligns with the truth.