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tonyrey
Guest
The question is how we know? Are they tangible?
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Aloysium
Guest
I know I am thinking and understanding what I write.
No idea how that works, but it’s what I do and it is pretty amazing.
Perceptually speaking, the reality of one’s visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile world(s), is not so much seen as it is that by which one knows the world and the nature of oneself in relation to it.
Most of what I know is realized or revealed rather than proven.
I use proofs more to manipulate things, never to enter into relation.
You are likely just debating. The world of mere intellectual connection is pretty weird - no hugs and kisses - just ideas, suspicions, out there, never to be touched.
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ThinkingSapien
Guest
He’s in the queue…
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AyJSimon
Guest
No, but we experience them. Our own, for starters, and we do see evidence that others exist.
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clem456
Guest
Lewis is generally considered to be a brilliant mind. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea of course.I’ve always thought of Lewis as a wannabe Chesterton.
Very good but not quite so great.
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Charlemagne_III
Guest
Unlike Chesterton, he had not the insight to cross the Rubicon into the Catholic Church.
Though he had been invited to cross it.
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clem456
Guest
Yes it’s true he did not join the Catholic Church.
One of the reasons he speaks so lucidly about the existence of God is that he was atheist at one time and knows the pathways to there and back again.
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ThinkingSapien
Guest
Lewis said he was an atheist too.One of the reasons he speaks so lucidly about the existence of God is that he was atheist at one time and knows the pathways to there and back again.
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tonyrey
Guest
You **believe you experience them and you believe others exist but you cannot prove **it. You take it for granted - like good or evil, right or wrong, just or unjust, true or false, innocent or guilty, responsible or irresponsible, valuable or valueless, purposeful or purposeless and meaningful or meaningless - even though you could be dreaming…
Our sole certainty is the fact that we are thinking. We infer the existence of everything and everyone else. **Intangible reality **is our primary datum.
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AyJSimon
Guest
I don’t need proof to believe in something, just compelling evidence.
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Charlemagne_III
Guest
You want God to compel you to believe?
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Charlemagne_III
Guest
Simon, do you happen to think string theory is plausible?
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AyJSimon
Guest
I think if God wants me to believe, then he’d better start compelling.You want God to compel you to believe?
I don’t understand it well enough to have an informed opinion.
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tonyrey
Guest
What are your criteria for “compelling evidence”? Where do you start?
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clem456
Guest
In your experience, have you ever had a relationship that worked this way, where one person forces the other to have a relationship with them?
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Charlemagne_III
Guest
You might not make a good Catholic, but you might make a good Calvinist?
You seem to favor COMPULSION.
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ThinkingSapien
Guest
Force may be too strong of a word, but I have had something similar in which a person stands in my pathway and won’t let me continue until I have a conversation. This is repeated over time. I can think of two people that have done this with me. that was about 13-15 years ago. We are still good friends today.
Sometimes that strategy works.
Parson my mistakes. Sent from my mobile device.
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DrTaffy
Guest
So you do not believe in every possible God. QED.
Nor do you you address how an omnipotent omniscient God might be ‘unable’ to find me.
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clem456
Guest
An omniscient and omnipotent being would have no trouble finding you.So you do not believe in every possible God. QED.
Nor do you you address how an omnipotent omniscient God might be ‘unable’ to find me.
If you find someone and love them, are they required to find you back?
By your reasoning, the mere fact that you desire a relationship with someone means they are required to love you back.
If you had the power make someone love you, would you exercise it?
Would the fact that you don’t exercise your power mean that you don’t have it?
Or is there a difference between the ability to do something and using (mis-using) it.
I have the power to lock my wife in the house when I want relations.
Should I do it?
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Charlemagne_III
Guest
God is very able to find you.So you do not believe in every possible God. QED.
Nor do you you address how an omnipotent omniscient God might be ‘unable’ to find me.
You might not think you are able to find God.
God does not force himself on anyone by compulsion.
We force him out of our lives by compulsion.
So he leaves, but still hangs around in case we change our minds.
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