I know what you asked and what you didn’t ask and I answered your question. If God asked ME to kill my son, I wouldn’t do it because I couldnt. Nasty question that one.
Seraphim23
JoinedPosts by Seraphim23
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
I believe in God paranoia agent, but I don’t think God would need a dead boy, and if he did, God could kill my son himself. He wouldn’t need me to do it for him. If I was asked by God to kill my son as a test of faith, I would offer myself instead. However, the fact I know that God could do it himself if he wanted to would answer the faith question anyway and if that wasn’t sufficient my own sacrifice would be, as there is no greater love than if a man die on behalf of another. So you are wrong about me not being a theist.
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Miracles do happen! We agree on something Cofty.
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
You never know but perhaps there is room for both perspectives. Many JWs who leave may be losing their faith but would still think that evolution and atheism is silly, despite the fact they are not silly. Remember I’m a believer in God who does believe in evolution and doesn’t think atheism is silly, although I’m not one. A good thread would be about which perspective is better for supporting someone who is having a hard time coming out of the JWs?
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Indeed, and what frequencies does the human eye respond to? Does this question make sense? Also are there any direct images of the higgs boson?
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Cofty, does visible light focus to the level of atoms then? Also, did they have this method of seeing atoms when the atomic theory became accepted by science?
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Xchange I agree that we don’t take anecdotal evidence when it comes to atoms and to fair I wasn’t saying we should. However, anecdotal evidence is a form of indirect evidence, as is the evidence for atoms. Surly you can acknowledge the wisdom of an open mind at least when it comes to anecdotal evidence, particularly when it has contributed to science moving forward. Perhaps a deeper discussion needs to be had between the difference between anecdotal evidence and indirect evidence!
Cofty, woo is what I like. I’m glad you used the word `modicum`, there’s hope for you yet.
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Well this is certainly about different types of atheist adamah! I think one can be a sceptic, or appropriately sceptical, which might be a better term, and a theist or atheist and still believe in spirits, regardless of not necessarily knowing what they are exactly. Spirits being but one paranormal category of many of course! Being a sceptic doesn’t mean disbelief in everything regardless of evidence. It means having a high regard for evidence in guiding what is believed. at least in a provisional way. Of course faith often gets defined as belief regardless of, or even despite evidence. Of course in reality even the most sceptical person doesn’t demand evidence for every specific thing. A general pattern of things may be enough to keep them going, providing what I would call faith, in the more specific things.
Of course faith in my definition doesn’t mean believing things regardless of evidence, or without evidence, or despite evidence. To me faith means the opposite. It many ways it is like scepticism but with patterns observed in different ways that give logical credence to things not directly observed. I believe in the methodology of science and its key development of that methodology, which was accepting the existence of things like atoms, despite not being able to directly observe them. Other evidence that was more directly observable made more sense and was more intelligible with the addition of atoms. So faith in atoms, again at least in a provisional sense was good science.
Spirits and other supernatural phenomena may well not be of the nature that many get from reading the bible, or Koran and so on, but they may be well be something, and anecdotal evidence does count. Its second hand evidence for others who hear the story of course, but then again so are many things in life that sceptical people accept every day. If an atheist or theist sees a spirit, or experiences some other paranormal phenomena, it may not be clever or intellectually good to reject it on the ground that such things don’t have a so called explanation. The word yet comes to mind.
If we accept atoms due to indirect evidence, why doesn’t good quality anecdotal evidence at least count toward keeping the mind open on such matters? Science has often been delayed in its understanding of things due to rejecting anecdotal evidence that was later seen to be true. Also this tendency was sometimes made worse because a theory of how something worked most of the time was already in place, making the new evidence even more prone to being dismissed. This was a failing, not of science, but of people who suffer from intellectual arrogance.
If such people who believed in things that were not thought to be possible, according to current scientific understanding, were asked why they believed in them, the answer certainly wasn’t an explanation of the phenomena, unless they had some ideas of their own, but normally it was the simple fact that they said they saw the phenomena in question. It would not be hard to imagine that some would mock such claims, exclaiming that `such people can’t even explain why they believe in the woowoo they saw!`. Of course that was arrogance speaking because in the past, it turned out that the simple souls who saw what they saw, turned out to be right.
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304
Musings about different types of atheist!
by Seraphim23 ina thought that occurs to me is that if one has the belief that all that is real is only explicable in terms of particles and forces, and that nothing exists that is not one of these, then good and bad doesnt exist either, the same would be true for any concept for that matter.
or perhaps it is only true when reduced to the level of matter and forces, but without the moral force, meaning and purpose that such a materialist only description would entail.
after all, if death is forever, which is materialist view, then what does it matter if a seventy or seven year old enters the grave?
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Seraphim23
Snare, what makes you think that I approve of religious people who support the idea that faith in God or anything spiritual means one should reject a doctor as the only port of call for treatment using science? You are talking about the issue of religious teachers who tell their flocks to reject or postpone conventional treatment in the name of faith, or religious books. I don’t approve of that. Yet spirituality will never be gone from human kind, and there are reasons for this other than the idea that it was the primitive’s explanation for why the sun came up. There are atheists even, on this board, which have experienced spiritual experiences, but won’t admit to it because of the reception they would get. Surly that tells you something, but perhaps not!
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Any experiences with the presence of christ
by DS211 inweird question.
have any of you had any personal experiences with the presence (not watchtower parousia presence) of christ within yoursef i.e the holy spirit, speaking in tongues, etc.
or just experiences when you first came into a true relationship with christ?
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Seraphim23
Yea very similar, it must be a sign. lol