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October 9th, 2013
02:27 PM ET
Creationists taunt atheists in latest billboard warBy Eric Marrapodi, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN)– A new video billboard in New York's Times Square has a message from creationists, "To all of our atheist friends: Thank God you're wrong." The video advertisement at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan is one of several billboards going up this week in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles, paid for by Answers in Genesis. Answers in Genesis is best known as the multimillion-dollar Christian ministry behind the Creation Museum outside Cincinnati. The museum presents the case for Young Earth creationism, following what it says is a literal interpretation of the book of Genesis, which says the Earth was created by God in six days less than 10,000 years ago. Ken Ham, president of Answers in Genesis, said the idea for the advertisements came from an atheist billboard in Times Square at Christmas. During the holidays, the American Atheists put up a billboard with images of Santa Claus and Jesus that read: "Keep the Merry, dump the myth." “The Bible says to contend for the faith,” Ham said. “We thought we should come up with something that would make a statement in the culture, a bold statement, and direct them to our website. "We're not against them personally. We're not trying to attack them personally, but we do believe they're wrong," he said. "From an atheist's perspective, they believe when they die, they cease to exist. And we say 'no, you're not going to cease to exist; you're going to spend eternity with God or without God. And if you're an atheist, you're going to be spending it without God.' " Dave Silverman, president of the American Atheists, said he felt sad for creationists when he saw the billboards. "They refuse to look at the real world. They refuse to look at the evidence we have, and they offer none," Silverman said. "They might as well be saying, 'Thank Zeus you're wrong' or 'Thank Thor you're wrong.' " Silverman said he welcomed another competitor to marketplace, noting that after atheists bought a billboard two years ago in Times Square that read "You KNOW it's a myth," the Catholic League purchased competing space at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel for a sign that read "You KNOW it's true." "I would suggest, if they're actually trying to attract atheists, they should talk about proof and reason to believe in their god, not just some pithy play on words," Silverman said. Ham says part of the goal of the campaign is to draw people to the website for Answers in Genesis, where he offers a lengthy post on his beliefs for the proof of God. Ham insists that this campaign is in keeping with their overall mission. "We're a biblical authority ministry. We're really on about the Bible and the Gospel. Now, we do have a specialty in the area of the creation account and Genesis because that's where we say God's word has come under attack." Ham said Answers in Genesis made the decision to split its marketing budget for the ministry between a regional campaign for the museum and this billboard campaign, rather than a national campaign. IRS filings for the ministry in recent years have shown a yearly operating budget of more than $25 million. Ham said the marketing budget is about 2% of that, about $500,000 a year. Though they are waiting for all the bills to come due for this campaign, he said he expected it to cost between $150,000 and $200,000. Silverman noted that his billboards were not video and cost approximately $25,000 last year. He said another campaign was in the works for this year. "They're throwing down the gauntlet, and we're picking it up," Silverman said, adding that his group would "slap them in the face" with it. Ham said that despite criticism from other Christians for being negative and the usual criticisms from secularists he received on his social media accounts, the advertisements have been a success. "We wanted people talking about them, and we wanted discussion about this. We wanted people thinking about God," Ham said. The Creation Museum and the theory of Young Earth creationism are widely reviled by the broader science community. In a YouTube video posted last year titled "Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children," Bill Nye the Science Guy slammed creationism, imploring parents not to teach it to their children. "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future," he said. "We need engineers that can build stuff and solve problems." The museum responded with its own video. For the past 30 years, Gallup Inc. has been tracking American opinions about creationism. In June 2012, Gallup's latest findings showed that 46% of Americans believed in creationism, 32% believed in evolution guided by God, and 15% believed in atheistic evolution. For as long as Gallup has conducted the survey, creationism has remained far and away the most popular answer, with 40% to 47% of Americans surveyed saying they believed that God created humans in their present form at one point within the past 10,000 years. The Creation Museum said it recently welcomed its 2 millionth visitor since its opening in 2007. soundoff (8,748 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I once believed in Ken Ham's teachings- watched his entire lecture series in my Christian high school. Biology 1 in college pretty much proved it all wrong...
Good for you. It was all over for me when I read the bible.
Atheism = Absence of intelligence
Atheism = not believing in man made silly little fairy deities that grant wishes and aren't possible, let alone probable or even likely 🙂
Both of you. STOP. People like you give religion AND aethiesm a bad name.
This is were I like my gods http://www.hirezstudios.com/smitegame/home . Were they belong in video games and mythology.
Agreed!!! 3243 gods of Man, all one and the same, tripe!!
Two words for the Christians and other assorted and deluded followers of fantasy.
PROVE IT!
I can't prove I am right and you can't prove your theory is either.
OK – Here is the PROOF that God is not a theory but indeed an Undeniable REALITY. I put you into a very large space ship with lots of room to live and move around in and with all the food you'll need to sustain your entire existence. The ship has enough nuclear fuel on board to last for 100 Million Earth Years. You and the many others in this massive craft are launched into space on a straight-line path that takes you heading directly away from our solar system and out into the boundless vast open and endless space ahead of your space ship. Your ship can travel at nearly the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Your entire life goes by as you travel billions of light years away from our solar system but you've not come to the "end" of space and as your life draws to an end – the "end" of space is nowhere in sight as you ship continues on its path. As you gasp your very last breath you've come to the realization of the Infinity of space – and finally at long last – you come to understand how the universe around us is massive and endless – with no floor, ceiling or walls – it is Infinite – as infinite as God – Who created it. You ultimately experience the same fate that every atheist is destined to experience – as your life comes to an end – you've finally at long last come to understand and to know God!
Can you hear crickets in space?
Seems about right, the only poof you have for god is a story that you just made up.
I just want religion kept out of our government, completely, we cannot have religion telling our friends and neighbors who they can marry, I don't want laws made from religion, I don't want religion in science, I don't want religion making decisions for women, I don't want religion telling me I am immoral because I don't believe in their god. Not asking much, just some simple things.
A guy on the Catholic radio channel today asked the "call-in priest" if using contraception and murder were the same thing, since both are considered mortal sins, meaning that they both go to hell. The priest ultimately told him that, yes – they both go to hell... "but I'm sure the punishment in hell will be worse for the murderor".... he added that in to try to make the caller feel a little better.
How much of his life did he spend reconciling this in his mind. 🙁
Someone peeing on a bible is not really blasphemy is it? The stories were plagiarized, weren't they? Horus?
I love god, I just can't figure out which one to pick as my FINAL final choice (Loki is awesome!!)
Loki (lokiusa.com) makes very nice clothing!
This was a post by a lad named Topher earlier that bears repeating...it is in objection to a Mono-theist claiming to know certain metaphysical suppositions about the nature of the Universe and Existence without any facts, only something he would refer to has "faith", apparently a word used to believe in sh*% that don't really make sense but works for you anyhow?
Those were not opinions in the strict sense of the word, they were facts.
Your "faith" is belief in metaphysical conjecture that is not known, not proven, not logical, not grounded in any sense of reality or reason. You believe in;
1. Humans have a soul.
2. Humans have a soul that will live after they die for "eternity" (??)
3. Humans were "created" by a deity.
whoa. hold it right there Pal. Three serious claims about the nature of reality and existence. Now if you could provide one shred of evidence, you hear me screaming this right, one tiny little incalculably small piece of evidence that our scientific community could look at, bear witness to, evaluate, over and over from varying angles, and then report back the findings to the community at large. But that is the problem isn't it? No religion in the history of Mankind has ever been able to give even one piece of evidence as proof of their deity. And there have been over 23,000 gods, goddesses, and belief systems and counting. You are atheist to all 22,999 of those but the last one sounds good to you (ego feeding on eternal life and love??). RIGHT.
Get over yourself religion and god.
Dark energy didn't even "exist" until the 1990's. Humans are a YOUNG, arrogant, brash, infantile, immature species......BUT THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT AHEAD 🙂
Faith is by definition something that can't be proven. You spent a lot of time creating a post that addressed an issue that could have been solved by going to dictionary.com.
cut 'n' paste deist, cut 'n' paste ...
drop the bad book and learn something new 🙂
no soul, no god(s), no after lives... hee hee, silly rabbit
You might want to watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp4WUFXvCFQ Dr. Peter Boghossian's May 6th public lecture, "Faith: Pretending to know things you don't know"
YES, Hotair, pretending to know something you don't is BAD and WRONG, DON'T DO IT.
Use Science, study, learn, grow. Science checks and rechecks over and over again to evaluate hypothesis.
Then you can negate Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Polytheism etc quite quickly. Could there still be a deity? of course, but why dwell on it, as it certainly is not any of these manmade pieces of junk
I love you... I love you soooo much... <3
There is a section of "heaven" where Christ followers who get in
...get to look down on those that didn't....
the AMERICAN WAY!!! sign me up, where is one of them christ churchy places anywaz
Get a room.
?
🙂
It doesn't take an atheist to show that Creationism and Creation Science are built on false information, sometimes complete fabrication, sometimes misrepresentations, and is false throughout. Are these falsehoods actually lies? Or do the people who come up with this stuff and spread it around believe that God gives them the truth about all things and wants them to go out and share it with the world? It is sad to see people so deceived.
we are the most religious country in the western world.. murica
We, being Switzerland??
Boom.
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-27700697-origin-of-species-charles-darwin.php?st=c19c9cf
To all of our Christians...Adults with imaginary friends are STUPID.
Good thing God is real.
Good thing you consider emotional states to be "evidence."
That's and extraordinary claim that there is a god, you got any proof?
you are hallucinating if you really believe in Santa Claus at this point in your life.
Which god, AE? Zeus? Odin? Osiris? Ra? Ahura Mazda? Torngasuk? Arawn? Raijin? Krishna? The christian god? Any of the other one of the thousands of gods humans have worshiped?
There is equal evidence for all of them, so you had better choose wisely.
Praise ALLAH!!
ZEUS?
THOTH?
ANUBUS?
TIAMAT?
THOR?
QUETZLTANANGO?
HERA?
RA?
RAVANNA?
GARUDA?
...wait, why do all these walls have big white pads on them??
There is evidence of God all around us. Everything I learn about science points to a Creator. I'm a creature. I have a Creator. It is that simple.
You have no creator, AE. Your development from conception to now didn't involve one.
You have zero evidence other than your feelings that you are right.
None.
Zip.
Nada.
Not one measurement can be made. Nothing.
Feelings, nothing more than feee-eeelings.
Your creators were your mother and father, AE.
If we know anything about how humans interpret information, it's that we are inherently susceptible to type I errors (i.e. false positives). This flaw that accompanies intuitive reasoning and which is further compounded by our predisposition to teleological thinking is readily apparent, has been observed in innumerable studies, and even has its own special little name:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apophenia
Didn't you get that talk in school?
No. I don't know how you would know what I know and don't know. It is not like I can't prove God to anyone or share in the experience. There are plenty of intelligent, reasonable and sound-minded people that believe in God.
God is real. I can't deny this. I used to deny it. Now I can't.
I love the people saying he has no creator. Wanna think about that for a second?
There isn't a single shred of evidence to support your belief, so basically you have put your emotion of a pedestal, worshiped it and named it god.
I did point out the mother and father, FrmrMarine.
I'm doing fine placing my trust and confidence in God.
Trust God. Or don't. I didn't for the longest time. Now I do. Peace be with you all.
Right On!
So when you're sick or hurt do you pray, or do you see a doctor? If your car breaks down, do you pray or do you see a mechanic? If you are hungry, do you wait for god to feed you, or do you get food that a human has grown or processed? Do you honestly depend on god, or do you depend on humans but give the credit for their efforts to god?
That is completely subjective,just because you feel something...if that's the case ,Leprechaun's ,unicorns ,Allah .Buddha , Santa and any other deity ending with A are true.....not!!! Science supports it's evidence on quantifiable evidence...not how one 'feels'. Proof is provable...not because you believe something true with no evidence!
I probably do the same thing you do when I'm sick, hungry or when my car breaks down.
I do pray, too. And I'm very grateful for the people that are in my life that can help me in those instances. I thank God for them.
I honestly depend on God. He is my rock.
I honestly don't put any trust in Leprechaun's ,unicorns ,Allah .Buddha , or Santa. I don't feel the need to be hostile toward them. I just don't have confidence in them. Not like I do for God.
Well, AE, if you need a crutch, so be it. Just remember that your inability to stand on your own isn't proof of god.
Sure. God is like a crutch. Crutches can be helpful. Especially for imperfect creatures. Someday you may need a crutch. There is no shame in that.
{best Monty Python voice}
you're a bleeding looney you are!!
If you're angry at creationists and their evangelism I can understand. But why you choose to lump all Christians together when you only know about the crazies who make the news is beyond strange. On the other hand, pound sand.
Christians are deists and god/christ/deists are by their own definition, CRAZY.
simple.
horrific religion yours, and islam, hinduism, all of them. ridiculous waste of time/energy/thought/life ..... get over the gods of Man and be well 🙂
I have friends and family who are christian (and jewish). I get along great with them because we generally don't talk religion (or politics). But when someone on an internet blog makes a claim, they'd better have more proof than a special feeling or an old book of mythology or badly misinterpreted science, which is all I've seen presented here as proof by christians. I was raised to be honest. If someone tells a flat-out lie, I'm going to speak out.
jesus can lick my nütsåck and gargle my bålls godlovers
Fine, but I don't have to watch, do I?
Not possible. He doesn't have balls. I have it on good authority that trolls are made by snipping Republicans.
You're old, you're American, you use internet/T.V., you have a favorite chair, a bad diet, and your thoughts go round and round the same track.
Fast. Exercise. Study science. Give up gods. Be well 🙂
Let's share nice billboard ideas; I like this one:
http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9600000/Jesus-Wallpaper-jesus-9613530-1024-768.jpg
The little red points on the shield remind me of Satan horns. Route 666 maybe?
Of course, you have to prove that Jesus isn't actually just another dead end. Like all highways, even the really long ones, none keep on going forever.
I am an atheist, I think of my position as pragmatic ignostic apatheism. But I really can not stand the organized, evangelical, capitalized Atheism that has become so big in America. Who really cares if someone believes the world is something it isn't? What harm does it do you?
Sure, atrocities have been committed in the name of religion, but plenty of atrocities have also been committed without religion at all, even by the most hard core of atheists. Religion is used as a convenient excuse for those atrocities, but religion is hardly needed for atrocities to happen.
The vast majority of Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Jainists, Sikhs, Wiccans, Neo-Pagans, and whateverelseists are just folks. They mean no harm to anyone and few would harm anyone. Sure, they believe things that are demonstrably wrong, but so what?
Evangelical Atheists I have talked to are among the most bigoted people I have met. They continually pile hate and vitriol on something close to 90% of the population of the world, it frankly disgusts me.
If believing in something makes peoples lives and their wold make more sense to them, then leave them to it, it will do us no harm at all, nor will it harm them.
"Believing in it" is not the issue. The issue is pretending to have superiority in morality and law because of your invisible and undetectable (may as well be imaginary) friend you claim to have an invisible and undetectable (maybe imaginary) relationship with. (Of course I don't mean, "you.')
Exactly
We really don't need people in powerful positions deciding the fate of millions based on whispers from their imaginary friends.
So the Westboro Church or the KKK mean no harm? You aren't thinking clearly. I know some people who are religious aren't bad, but there is quite a religious majority out there that do nothing but force others to believe as they do.
You are certainly welcome to you own opinion.
Which creation story in Genesis do they recognize as the correct one? The first telling or the second? Albeit neither is correct they at least need to explain why they are different. I think a good guess would be that there were most likely 2 competing myths at the time. In order to appease everyone they combined the two best they could. I get tickled every time I hear someone say the Bible is perfect and never contradicts itself. Obviously they never made it all the way to Genesis Chapter 2.
Chapter three will be revealed soon, and it will mention the planets, electromagnetism, AND alien life!!! (gushes 🙂
Kangaroos too!
@Bemused
There is only one creation story. Genesis chapter 1 gives an overview of the creation week. Chapter 2 goes into the details of what happened on day 6.
Nope. The order doesn't match up. You're doing mental calisthenics again to make it work.
The order DOES match up. Read carefully.
" Now the Lord God HAD FORMED out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them." Genesis 2:19
"had formed" is the past perfect tense meaning they had already been created.
As astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson explains, throughout history most of the great minds gave virtually no mention to any god for their discoveries and explanations. (Ptolemy, Isaac Newton, Laplace, Huygens, Galileo.) That is, until they reached the problem they felt they could not and would never fully tackle. Dr. Tyson demonstrates this with writings including footnotes from the great minds in his talk "The Perimeter of Ignorance". Perhaps that is all God has ever been – a placeholder for discomfort or frustration over the unknown; an excuse when, for one reason or another, one gives up investigation.
President Bush after 9/11: "Our God is the God who named the stars".
How erroneous. Two-thirds of star names have Arabic names. They came from Islam's fertile period (AD 800-1100.) During that time Baghdad was the intellectual center of the world, open to people of all or no faiths. During that time were some of the greatest advances known to mankind: engineering, biology, medicine, mathematics, celestial navigation; along with many "naming rights" – the source of the names of the numerals we use, terms like algebra and algorithm – all traceable to that 300-year intellectually fertile period.
Enter Imam Hamid al-Ghazali in the 12th century. He writes about math being the work of the devil. The fundamentally religious period of Islam begins, the intellectual "naming-rights" period of Islam ceases and it has since never recovered.
Another poster pointed out that Dr. Tyson also stressed that non-believers have to acknowledge intelligent design because it has occurred throughout the history of science, even with some of the greatest minds. But for the latter, apparently it has only been an option when they felt they came to the end of their ability. Perhaps today's leading scientists should be mindful that newer discoveries and explanations have already replaced someone's god of the past.
Young-earth Creationists are like al-Ghazali. They are simply attempting to stunt intellectual growth via commercial dissemination of their really, really, really bad "science".
al-Ghazali must be Arabic for Limbaugh.
Do you demand scientific proof for all beliefs? Have you had DNA testing verifying that your parents are who they say they are? Or your children? Have you submitted your friends and wife to psychological testing verifying that they really love you? No? How can you live not knowing for sure about basic relationships?
Faith!
"Faith" at its best is licence to believe in something without proof.
"Faith" at its worst is license to believe in something despite proof AGAINST it. (like against gods, souls, living after death etc)
Faith is complete trust and confidence in something.
For example: I have faith in God. I don't have faith in your opinions.
Those were not opinions in the strict sense of the word, they were facts.
Your "faith" is belief in metaphysical conjecture that is not known, not proven, not logical, not grounded in any sense of reality or reason. You believe in;
1. Humans have a soul.
2. Humans have a soul that will live after they die for "eternity" (??)
3. Humans were "created" by a deity.
whoa. hold it right there Pal. Three serious claims about the nature of reality and existence. Now if you could provide one shred of evidence, you hear me screaming this right, one tiny little incalculably small piece of evidence that our scientific community could look at, bear witness to, evaluate, over and over from varying angles, and then report back the findings to the community at large. But that is the problem isn't it? No religion in the history of Mankind has ever been able to give even one piece of evidence as proof of their deity. And there have been over 23,000 gods, goddesses, and belief systems and counting. You are atheist to all 22,999 of those but the last one sounds good to you (ego feeding on eternal life and love??). RIGHT.
Get over yourself religion and god.
Dark energy didn't even "exist" until the 1990's. Humans are a YOUNG, arrogant, brash, infantile, immature species......BUT THE FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT AHEAD 🙂
How do you prove an immaterial reality using material measurements. Since science only measures matter interacting with other matter, it may not be the best way to "prove" what you are asking. Yet, science is not even the most fundamental form of knowledge. It presupposes apprehension, judgment and logic. For a human to have a soul it must have something immaterial in it. I have a "will" and an "intellect."Is a human person simply a material being? Is there nothing immaterial about us? I have a "will." I can move my body and objects if I choose to or if I choose not to. I have a reason and can think about great ideas. I can create music that has never existed before. Words convey meaning and I am moved by great speeches such as Martin Luther Jr.'s "I have a dream." If I analyze the chemical makeup of the paints and canvas used to create the Mona Lisa but have not seen it, have I understood it truly. If I know the light frequency of a color, but am blind, do I truly know the color? No, I know one aspect of the truth of color, it’s not the full truth, it’s a partial truth. If I know the sound frequency of every note used in a symphony, but am deaf, have I truly captured what a symphony is? Science only measures material objects interacting with other material objects. Science is simply a method to obtain knowledge but will never answer all things.
Maybe scientific proof doesn't work so good with relationships. Jesus wants a relationship with us.
...and you know this... how?
I believe it based upon what Jesus said and the witness he gave and finally on the witness of his followers.
This Jesus fellow didn't write anything down and neither did the people who were alleged witness to his alleged sermons.
It is amazing how people will wholesale dismiss peer reviewed evidence for carbon dating dinosaur bones but swear that the gospels are accurate accounts of the characters within them.
Critical thinking fail.
The gospels of Mathew, Mark, John are called that for a reason. They wrote those gospels and were witnesses to the things of Christ.
Uh no, it is a well known among biblical scholars that no people named MML&J wrote those stories, whoever wrote the stories weren't eyewitnesses and that they were written decades after the alleged events.
Research is your friend
If someone tells me they just went shopping, I will most likely believe them because there isn't much invested in that belief. I know the person, they haven't lied to me before. There is no reason too lie now, etc...
However, someone tells me they died, and rose from the dead after 3 days... Well that requires a LOT of evidence.
Get the difference?
So you don't demand scientific proof for everything, not even relationships? Seems like you are being selective. Lol. You take people at their word, they haven't lied to you in the past, they seem reasonable, they are a creditable witness to what they are telling you. You trust them. I believe the witnesses of Jesus's resurrection are credible and sincere. Many died for there beliefs. This doesn't scientifically "prove" anything. But like you said, it's reasonable to trust some witnesses. Can they be wrong? Sure. Can your parents not really be your parents? Sure.
Athy was right. You didn't get it.
To believe in Christ's resurection, you have to suspend all the laws of physics and biology. It is a tremendous claim, and thus requires tremendous evidence.
To believe my wife loves me requires only that she has demonstrated this to me already. But believing this still requires something.
I wager you, outside of religion, there is nothing you believe without adequate reason.
The evidence is in the Bible, read it and study it... Do it for yourself so that you know you get the TRUTH .You will see that all of the countries, cites, and landmarks are there today under different names, archeological digs have recovered much of the stuff that is mentioned over 2000 years ago. Even all of the people have coincided with each others writings to prove they all wrote about the same events, yet they didn't know each other. You can take what you want from the media but they have an agenda too. Plus, I was an atheist once.
The bible is just the mythology of a specific middle-eastern tribe added to myths written about one of many Roman messianic cult figures, then edited by a group of church leaders in the 300s. Not a single thing was written about Christ during his alleged lifetime; in fact most of the first four books of the new testament were cribbed from Mark, which itself was written 60-70 AD. Another large portion of the new testament was attributed to a man who never even met Christ, Saul of Tarsus, who tries to legitimize his authority by claiming to have seen Christ in a vision.
And you fell for that?
"""Do it for yourself so that you know you get the TRUTH """
The TRUTH is not BELIEF.
Am I supposed to be impressed that the people who wrote the Bible knew the names of the towns and cities that they lived in? Is that the best you can do? Is Zeus real because they found Troy?
Parents, spouses and children actually exist. There is no proof that any god exists. Everything from there is just window dressing.
Does this clear thing up for you a little, Trucker?
I'm not questioning their existence. I'm questioning their love for you. How do you really know?
Evidence of actions. There is a real person making real choices in behavior in regards to you. With god, you're saying that someone invisible and undetectable is doing the good behavior, but it's not really that good, when you look at it closely and its completely imaginary or attributable to some other force of nature.
There's billions of measurements I can make to calculate a measureable prediction on whether or not one person "loves" another. Don't be ridiculous.
Through their actions, of course. One can generally discern the motives of people by their observable actions.
The same can't be said for gods, because you can't even prove they exist, much less observe their actions. People will often credit some god for the good things that incidentally happen to them, while ignoring the bad. It's sad that adults can fool themselves so easily.
My point is that it is not unreasonable to have faith. You may have different criteria for what means "reasonable" but having faith in another's witness (whether that be the love of your parents, or what they tell you) can be reasonable. Scientific proof? No. But we live our relationships everyday just fine without scientific proof. I have faith (ultimately because I believe it is a gift from God) and it is based upon the witnesses of other Christians. Are all Christians good? Of course not. Statistically 1/12 of Christians will be a Judas.
Faith is a very useful tool with many applications, but it should not determine something so important without some objectively verifiable measurement to imply a rationality. God is invisible, undetectable, and irrelevant, no matter how much faith you have, so that's the big difference you're looking for.
So you have faith in some things? So the idea of faith in principle doesn't bother you, just faith in God?
Not really, but I'm acknowledging the way you will use the term if I say that I don't use faith. I have this really cool brain that is somewhat good at calculating probabilities. You would say that I operate under faith to attempt to crank my car in the morning, because I have zero evidence that it will start. What I would say is that I am making a very reasonable prediction based on past experience, but yes, we might call that feeling of "this car will start" "faith."
And yes, faith, when practiced by a person experiencd in logic and critical thought can be a very useful tool to utilize for important tasks/behaviors.
Faith is a useful tool with many applications, but it should not be employed for determining "truth" about the most powerful being in existence, supposedly. God is completely invisible and undetectable and irrelevant. Use faith on something worthwhile.
Faith is a useful to ol with many a p plications, but it should not be employed for deter m ining "truth" about the most powerful being in exi stence, su p posedly. God is completely invisible and undetectable and irrelevant. Use faith on something worthwhile.
Faith is a useful t o ol with many a p plic ations, but it should not be employed for deter m ining "truth" about the most powerful being in exi stence, su p posedly. God is completely invisible and undetectable and irrelevant. Use faith on something worthwhile.