Originally Posted by c659smith
If you are here to learn about Catholism I have my doubts BlaineTog is a Catholic but am conviced not a practicing one that does not know his faith.I didn’t need to be told that (though I occasionally need to remind myself), but I am sure there are many Catholics reading who are happy to hear you addressing Smith on these matters.
But are they practicing Catholics, and I profess I have used logic and reason for your answer was you don’t need evidence as you are a disbeliever and without seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, the evidence is not good enough for you to believe unless Extraordinary.I didn’t need to be told that (though I occasionally need to remind myself
Please note that I absolutely have no glory now that I can speak of, and that I believe that if I had any, it would only be evident to me after the time of my passing from this world. Also, it is not the kind of glory commonly understood in the human, earthly sense; it is glory that comes about from sacrificial love for God.
Not my words - I definitely didn’t say only. I believe His glory is revealed everywhere, and one way is through willful suffering.
Do you think there is any merit to pain? Can anything positive come of it?
Not unusual for a Being Who has choice. He came to us where we’re at in our humanity. He knows what we’re about.
Are you strongly opposed to someone suffering out of love for you?
That might be a point, except for the fact that Christian belief holds that Jesus died a real death, was buried, descended to the dead, and rose again on the third day.
I’m not a big UFO fan – it’s just not my thing. And I only have a certain amount of time I’m going to dedicate to reading wiki pages about abductions. But at a very quick glance, I am baffled by how you can draw any parallels between this and the apostles’ testimony.
Correct. I certainly see no reason to believe that thousands of people had a spontaneous hallucination.
I don’t understand how you came to that conclusion. How have you fixed a probability to either event? I would tend to say that since humanity has never observed a shared hallucination of this sort, that a shared hallucination must be vastly improbable. It must be less than one in several billion, simply from the fact that it doesn’t happen every single day to some group of people on the planet.
That’s maybe because we are too wise and nice to shoot each others’ brains out for Country, Führer or God.
Yes.
Interesting that you know better than me what matters to me and what not. Don’t you think that is a wee bit arrogant?
Oh, I assure you my life has a lot of meaning, surely not the one you seek. If this life has no meaning without a god why should it have meaning with one? Has the afterlife any meaning?
No.
Yes. I wouldn’t express my opinions to my relatives in front of my children. I would keep it separate, but I would let each party know my views. I have a great distaste for putting an adult down in front of children, and vice versa. There is no need for it, as long as both parties know where I stand. Either way, I wouldn’t attack the person or their beliefs; I would explain why I disagree, with love and charity.
See above. There are ways to disagree and still maintain some respect.
I think there are different levels of respect, depending on the urgency of the situation.
You assume correct.
Where I draw the line when it comes to another’s beliefs is when it directly puts me in immediate danger of compromising my moral convictions and beliefs. The scenario you propose is definitely on the extreme end of that. If I were a doctor with some power to intervene - Yes, I would give the transfusion to save a life, the same as I would try to save the life of an aborted baby that was still showing signs of life in a garbage can of the hospital. Mind you, I wouldn’t be working there in the first place if abortions were being offered there.
Wow time out… lets be clear if you did believe in God you’d be the stupid one to not do as he asks, that is If he asked you to kill another. But thats not reality because our God is a loving God; Sixth Commandment:‘You shall not murder.’
And lets not compare a Fuhrer to a God please. (being sarcastic) I really like how you guys play with words.
Putting the value of someone else or other people beyond your own.
Not all ‘agendas’ are insincere, or of evil motive.
Why is serving man inherently less selfish than serving God? Why do you serve God yourself?
Absolutely. Many do not. I have a lot of reason to be comtemptible to many Atheists as well as I do self-righteous theists (of any religion). I mean the Atheists that throw immature insults (often to an extent much more disgusting than many I have seen from Theists).
Why? What is the difference between 2 delusions and 10?
Is your point about dieing for what one has seen or about a group delusion?
Richard Dawkins (yes, him!) had an excellent answer to the above. I will try to find out.
A hallucination (shared or otherwise) is more common than a breach of natural law and therefore unless I contend them to be dishonest, I conclude they were delusional.
You know your a funny guy coming out here and since your such a smart guy being so sure that what people claim are delusions if I had your way of thinking I wouldn’t believe a word anybody said to me.
People claim a lot of extraordinary things. I do not insist everyone is deluded, only certain things that sound highly improbable, unrealistic or contradictory.
I’m not ‘so sure’ about anything.
I think we know that.
I don’t believe in God to start off with. That makes absolutely no sense.
I assume your analogy implies I am the horse and water being the God.