No not necessarily, and you make some good points, but I don’t think it would be good to take any static moment and leave things arbitrarily fixed at that point.
Perhaps, but I don’t see any reason to assume they would only worsen.
It’s been an interesting discussion for me; thanks for sharing your viewpoints! I’ll be thinking about all that for sure. Have a good one.
Sorry about that.I should have said the Westboro Baptist church as opposed to quoting the language they use. But my point remains that they use small single verses of scripture, and completely ignore the rest of scripture to fit their own ends controlling narrative. God is in control of the ends, you can behave in a moral manner with a loving heart towards your neighbor.
It’s not arbitrarily fixed, but being fixed is what makes it an absolute. Anything not absolute can/will change. But it is fixed by the God who created us and has stood the entire time of the world. You can’t find anyone, past or present, that things the teachings in the Bible are immoral.
Not examples of what God did, or rules exclusive to a tribe of that time, within the confined of that tribe (Israelite’s) but examples of how humans are instructed to act. Not just by outward law, but by the intent of their heart. Which can and is helped by our Creator.
It has been, thanks for your input as well.
We can use instruments and independent tests to detect the moon which is what defines empiricism. It isn’t reliant on experiences that only exist in our head but on physical tests that anyone can verify for themselves.[quote=“Relates, post:180, topic:36642”]
Most people know that the moon exists because they can see it, that is because of their own experience. For the Pacific Ocean and the Empire State Building, many have seen them for themselves and the rest have seen pictures in various forms. Again these are experience also. If you say that these experiences have been verified by others so they are beyond our personal experiences, that is what I have been saying also is the basis of my understanding of Reality.
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Can people experience the spiritual realm in the same sense, or rather using the same senses? Can we take pictures of the spiritual realm with cameras, or detect the spectrum of light coming from the spiritual realm? If not, it is not the same.
My experiences do not exist only in my head. The experiences of love and hate, joy and anger, fear and peace are shared experiences that unite and divide humanity.
No one is saying that the spiritual is the same as the physical, but that they are both based on experience, and they are both real.
If they don’t exist only in our heads, then you should be able to provide empirical evidence for their existence.[quote=“Relates, post:184, topic:36642”]
No one is saying that the spiritual is the same as the physical, but that they are both based on experience, and they are both real.
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You have yet to provide evidence that the spiritual is real.
In the current issue of Scientific American, Oct., 2017, p. 88 Michael Shermer wrote a column entitled Sky Gods for Skeptics. Shermer of course is one of the panelists for this discussion of the existence of God. in theIcolumn he discusses research that indicates that while theists believe in the existence of God, many non-believers believe in the existence of ETI (extraterrestrial intelligence).
“If you don’t believe in God but seek deeper meaning outside our world, the thought that we are not alone in the universe ‘could make humans feel like they are part of a larger and more meaningful cosmic drama,’ they observe” (Quote from “We Are Not Alone” in the journal Motivation and Emotion, 2017)
“Given that there is no more evidence for aliens than there is for God (Emphasis added) believers in either one must take a leap of faith or else suspend judgement until; evidence emerges to the contrary.” Shermer ends by approvingly quoting Captain Kirk at the end of Star Trek V: “Maybe He 's not out there, Bones. Maybe He’s right here [in the] human heart.”
What I take from this statement is that there is evidence that the spiritual is real and necessary for human existence. By denying the existence of God as the result of a false cosmology non-believers create a void that is filled by the invention of ETI, which humanizes the universe made meaningless by making it purely physical.
The strange thing about this false equivalence of ETI and God when he writes, “there is no more evidence for aliens than there is for God.” There is much evidence for God, even though he might not accept it. There is absolutely no evidence for aliens or ETI and even if we received a signal from aliens and could understand it, they would be light years away from earth, so real communication is impossible. Thus a meaningful relationship is impossible.
We know that God is real and in our hearts. We do not believe that something can be real and not exist. God other than through Jesus Christ has not revealed Godself as a localized being. If people cannot accept the reality of this revelation, then why should we think that they would accept any other revelation?
How is that evidence? All it says is that a certain believe makes people feel better. I don’t see how that makes the belief true.[quote=“Relates, post:186, topic:36642”]
The strange thing about this false equivalence of ETI and God when he writes, “there is no more evidence for aliens than there is for God.” There is much evidence for God, even though he might not accept it. There is absolutely no evidence for aliens or ETI and even if we received a signal from aliens and could understand it, they would be light years away from earth, so real communication is impossible. Thus a meaningful relationship is impossible.
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If believing in aliens makes me feel better, would you accept that as evidence for the existence of aliens?
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What do I have wrong?
“What I take from this statement is that there is evidence that the spiritual is real and necessary for human existence. By denying the existence of God as the result of a false cosmology non-believers create a void that is filled by the invention of ETI, which humanizes the universe made meaningless by making it purely physical.”–Relates
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
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