I am still awaiting your explanation of evolution from your point of view.
He's an old-earth creationist. His view is that evolution happened, but the theory has problems, and God still created all of us. It's really nothing more than an attempt to reconcile these stone-age myths with modern science in an attempt to save face. It requires cherrypicking one part of the bible to be figurative, and everything else to be literal.
The challenge faced by theists who believe the radiometric dating & archaeology that shows humanity to be tens of thousands of years old is summed up best by Hitchens:
My issue with this reasoning is that there is a blatant logical gap.
Premise 1: This thread is popular.
Conclusion 1: The human soul exists.
^ Something is clearly missing.
If you are prepared to claim that your belief is not rational, then that would be fine. I'll never try to stop someone from believing in something without reason(as long as it didn't result in anyone being harmed), but if you would claim that your beliefs are rational, you'll have to do better than that.
Faith is the most irrational form of thought man has, and has also been the most influential throughout human history, be it faith in God, or faith in yourself. Humans live and die by faith in something; that's what makes it so beautiful.
I don't need faith in myself to believe in myself. The only faith I require is the aforementioned set, the existence of nature and the occasional reliability of my senses.
Premise 1: Nature exists. (assume true)
Premise 2: My senses occasionally give me correct information about nature. (assume true)
Premise 3: My senses constantly indicate the existence of my being. (confirmed by first-hand evidence)
Conclusion: I most likely exist.
Note, I do not need proof or certainty to believe.
Honestly, there's nothing to say to "Humans live and die by faith in something." I don't even know what you mean by that. It's awfully vague. By my understanding, humans live by childbirth an die by...well, death.
I ultimately find beauty in everything, but especially in orderly things. The few things that the universe has struggled to churn out that didn't just get laid to waste by the powerful entropic pull of time. The patterns in sunflower seeds, the internal combustion engine, recorded information in physical media like books and tapes, things like that. I find faith to be fairly haphazard because of its rejection of reason. There are simply too many ways to question faith. The only sane response to one's faith being questioned is "There is no reason for me to believe what I believe." There's still beauty in it, like with all human constructs and constructs of life in general, but it doesn't impress me.
faith/fāTH/
Noun: 1. Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
2. Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
Normally I'd reiterate my point, but your response to me was insultingly lazy. I think you should re-read my post and actually respond to it instead of conjuring a fallacious false workaround after looking at the first sentence.
Do you think that is what I've been doing to you?
And who's to say I have complete confidence in myself anyway? I don't! Certainty is beyond me.
Jesus is as real to me, as your rational interpretations are to you. Like you say 'Certainty is beyond you'. Certainty is beyond us all, which is why no one can ever, or will ever win this debate.... until we die.
I'm glad you all have faith in what you believe. ;)
He's an old-earth creationist. His view is that evolution happened, but the theory has problems, and God still created all of us. It's really nothing more than an attempt to reconcile these stone-age myths with modern science in an attempt to save face. It requires cherrypicking one part of the bible to be figurative, and everything else to be literal.
The challenge faced by theists who believe the radiometric dating & archaeology that shows humanity to be tens of thousands of years old is summed up best by Hitchens:
@Gradius12: Go
I totally agree with you.
The popularity of this thread is evidence enough to me that there is in fact a human soul, and from that, there is a God. I am a Christian.
I had to:
@Hookah604: Go
Heh, The funny thing is, that the joke is on you and the rest of the atheists;-).
Threatening an atheist with hell is like a hippy threatening to punch you in your aura.
- Josh Thomas//
@EternalWraith: Go
Said the jester. :)
@Creation25: Go
My issue with this reasoning is that there is a blatant logical gap.
Premise 1: This thread is popular.
Conclusion 1: The human soul exists.
^ Something is clearly missing.
If you are prepared to claim that your belief is not rational, then that would be fine. I'll never try to stop someone from believing in something without reason(as long as it didn't result in anyone being harmed), but if you would claim that your beliefs are rational, you'll have to do better than that.
Faith is the most irrational form of thought man has, and has also been the most influential throughout human history, be it faith in God, or faith in yourself. Humans live and die by faith in something; that's what makes it so beautiful.
.....
@Creation25: Go
I don't need faith in myself to believe in myself. The only faith I require is the aforementioned set, the existence of nature and the occasional reliability of my senses.
Premise 1: Nature exists. (assume true)
Premise 2: My senses occasionally give me correct information about nature. (assume true)
Premise 3: My senses constantly indicate the existence of my being. (confirmed by first-hand evidence)
Conclusion: I most likely exist.
Note, I do not need proof or certainty to believe.
Honestly, there's nothing to say to "Humans live and die by faith in something." I don't even know what you mean by that. It's awfully vague. By my understanding, humans live by childbirth an die by...well, death.
I ultimately find beauty in everything, but especially in orderly things. The few things that the universe has struggled to churn out that didn't just get laid to waste by the powerful entropic pull of time. The patterns in sunflower seeds, the internal combustion engine, recorded information in physical media like books and tapes, things like that. I find faith to be fairly haphazard because of its rejection of reason. There are simply too many ways to question faith. The only sane response to one's faith being questioned is "There is no reason for me to believe what I believe." There's still beauty in it, like with all human constructs and constructs of life in general, but it doesn't impress me.
faith/fāTH/
Noun:
1. Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
2. Strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than proof.
Yes you do. You have faith in yourself. Faith = belief = Atheism/Humanism is faith.
@Creation25: Go
You opened with the transitive verb form of faith, then tried to sneak in the noun definition at the end.
"I have faith in Tony Blair" does not mean "Tony Blair is faith".
I can see how this argument would work if you're comically bad at English, or 8 years old, but not much else.
Nice try though.
Thats why I am an agnostic atheist.
The only faith I have: "I think, therefore I am"
And plz dont destroy English: Faith =! belief
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/belief
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faith
Quote from Hookah604:
Quote from Creation25: Go
Yes you do. You have faith in yourself. Faith = belief = Atheism/Humanism is faith.
Thats why I am an agnostic atheist.
The only faith I have: "I think, therefore I am"
And plz dont destroy English: Faith =! belief
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/belief
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/faith
----
and who says you 'think' :P BAHAHAHA
@Creation25: Go
Normally I'd reiterate my point, but your response to me was insultingly lazy. I think you should re-read my post and actually respond to it instead of conjuring a fallacious false workaround after looking at the first sentence.
Do you think that is what I've been doing to you?
And who's to say I have complete confidence in myself anyway? I don't! Certainty is beyond me.
Jesus is as real to me, as your rational interpretations are to you. Like you say 'Certainty is beyond you'. Certainty is beyond us all, which is why no one can ever, or will ever win this debate.... until we die.
I'm glad you all have faith in what you believe. ;)
You're going to look pretty stupid when it turns out that Hindus picked the right one.
Maybe the Atheists are right? Believe what you want, for the reasons you want to.
Yep, which is exactly why I'm an atheist. No point wasting time praying to one god when there's a fair chance you'll be wrong.