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Lochias
Guest
This is my hope. A person has to start somewhere, after all. But even so, God’s will be done.
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atheistgirl
Guest
Following the numbers is irrelevant and not an argument.
There are hundreds of millions of Muslims.
Should I be a Muslim, just because they’re so numerous, so there’s a good probability they’re right?
You’d contend all those hundreds of millions of Muslims are in error.
As to the rest, well, that’s just how it is. I can’t worship a being I have no evidence exists. If this Being wants me to worship Him, then He can show Himself to me in some way, or give me this faith that eludes me.
Why not?
He’s given this faith to you right?
And billions of others, apparently.
He’s performed miracles, appeared in visions, and revealed Himself personally to tons of people who make these claims, so I see no problem with expecting Him to reveal himself likewise to me, if He wants me to worship Him.
But He never does
Sarah x
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buffalo
Guest
My God? You list yourself as a Baptist? Do Baptists worship a different God?
The facts speak for themselves. Why God chose to do what He does is a mystery to us.
I think the point of the article is what they were doing at the time of the explosion.
- Whoever shall faithfully serve me by the recitation of the Rosary, shall receive signal graces. 2. I promise my special protection and the greatest graces to all those who shall recite the Rosary. 3. The Rosary will be a powerful armor against hell. It will destroy vice, decrease sin and defeat heresies. 4. It will cause virtue and good works to flourish; it will obtain for souls the abundant mercy of God; it will withdraw the hearts of men from the love of the world and its vanities, and will lift them to the desire of eternal things. Oh, that souls would sanctify themselves by this means. 5. Those who recommend themselves to me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish. 6. Whoever shall recite the Rosary devoutly, applying himself to the consideration of its sacred Mysteries shall never be conquered by misfortune. God will not chastise him in His justice, he shall not perish by an unprovided death; if he be just, he shall remain in the grace of God, and become worthy of eternal life. 7. Whoever shall have a true devotion for the Rosary shall not die without the sacraments of the Church. 8. Those who are faithful to recite the Rosary shall have during their life and at their death, the light of God and the plentitude of His graces; at the moment of death they shall participate in the merits of the saints in paradise. 9. I shall deliver from purgatory those who have been devoted to the Rosary. 10. The faithful children of the Rosary shall merit a high degree of glory in heaven. 11. You shall obtain all you ask of me by the recitation of the Rosary. 12. All those who propagate the holy Rosary shall be aided by me in their necessities. 13. I have obtained from my Divine Son that all the advocates of the Rosary shall have for intercessors the entire celestial court during their life and at the hour of death. 14. All who recite the Rosary are my sons, and brothers of my only son, Jesus Christ. 15. Devotion to my Rosary is a great sign of predestination.
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atheistgirl
Guest
I’m keeping my word and have dialogued as promised, in all sincerety. I meditate every day, usually at night under the stars but sometimes when the sun is rising if I haven’t been able to get a quiet time in the evening or night. This is the time I’m using to try to dialogue with this Deity.
Of course, if it comes to pass that after a month or two of this, I report back that there is nothing to report, I alrwady know what ya’ll going to say - well, of course there was nothing, you can’t put God to the test, who are you to think God will reveal Himself to you, you have to have faith, Scripture says do not put the Lord your God to the test, you didn’t pray with an open heart and mind … the list goes on and on …
All I can tell you is honestly, sincerely, as I promised, I am setting aside some quiet time, every day, to attempt to dialogue with the God you believe in, the God of the Bible.
I can do no more.
Sarah x
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buffalo
Guest
I am not making an argument from popularity. My point was that there are many many Christian examples out there.Following the numbers is irrelevant and not an argument.
There are hundreds of millions of Muslims.
Should I be a Muslim, just because they’re so numerous, so there’s a good probability they’re right?
You’d contend all those hundreds of millions of Muslims are in error.
As to the rest, well, that’s just how it is. I can’t worship a being I have no evidence exists. If this Being wants me to worship Him, then He can show Himself to me in some way, or give me this faith that eludes me.
Why not?
He’s given this faith to you right?
And billions of others, apparently.
He’s performed miracles, appeared in visions, and revealed Himself personally to tons of people who make these claims, so I see no problem with expecting Him to reveal himself likewise to me, if He wants me to worship Him.
But He never does
Sarah x
Muslims, Catholics and Jews all worship the same God, the God of Abraham.
The Muslims receiving mechanism it fouled up:
Muslims Worship the One True God Only Their ‘Receiving Apparatus’ Is Defective
http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0301fea4.asp
http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/2003/0301fea4.asp
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buffalo
Guest
One cannot tell if it will take 30 days or the 31st day.I’m keeping my word and have dialogued as promised, in all sincerety. I meditate every day, usually at night under the stars but sometimes when the sun is rising if I haven’t been able to get a quiet time in the evening or night. This is the time I’m using to try to dialogue with this Deity.
Of course, if it comes to pass that after a month or two of this, I report back that there is nothing to report, I alrwady know what ya’ll going to say - well, of course there was nothing, you can’t put God to the test, who are you to think God will reveal Himself to you, you have to have faith, Scripture says do not put the Lord your God to the test, you didn’t pray with an open heart and mind … the list goes on and on …
All I can tell you is honestly, sincerely, as I promised, I am setting aside some quiet time, every day, to attempt to dialogue with the God you believe in, the God of the Bible.
I can do no more.
Sarah x
A stone cutter hit the rock 100 times and nothing happened, on the 101st time the rock split just as he wanted. Perserverence is knowing that the 100 hits before were necessary. (it goes something like that
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atheistgirl
Guest
Lol … it’s started already lolOne cannot tell if it will take 30 days or the 31st day.
A stone cutter hit the rock 100 times and nothing happened, on the 101st time the rock split just as he wanted. Perserverence is knowing that the 100 hits before were necessary. (it goes something like that
Nope.
I’m on a schedule.
30 days
No.
I’ll make that 40 days as per the Bible and Jesus in the desert.
In all sincerity.
That’s it. If within 40 days this Deity does not see fit to at the very least give me some indication I am not wasting my time, then I’m not prepared to spend any more time on it. I’m being honest.
Sarah x
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buffalo
Guest
Then I pray - “Jesus, I trust in you”Lol … it’s started already lol
Nope.
I’m on a schedule.
30 days
No.
I’ll make that 40 days as per the Bible and Jesus in the desert.
In all sincerity.
That’s it. If within 40 days this Deity does not see fit to at the very least give me some indication I am not wasting my time, then I’m not prepared to spend any more time on it. I’m being honest.
Sarah x
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Marc_Anthony
Guest
Actually, look at your quote; Einstein believes in Spinoza’s God.
spaceandmotion.com/albert-einstein-god-religion-theology.htm
He was not religious, but he was at least deist, which I believe is a form of theism.
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mdisse
Guest
Didnt Einstein also believe in an afterlife?
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inocente
Guest
Jesus didn’t teach that the God of unconditional love protects Christian adults while allowing non-Christian children to be killed.
I dispute that they are facts:
- The article you posted is from an organization said to have been condemned by Brazilian bishops as a cult, see for instance here and here.
- Their website is not exactly a scholarly source, containing as it does downright silly invective such as saying it’s on a “XXI Century Crusade
” because “The vast majority of these [Catholics] have died under the continuing onslaught of Communism and Islam, both inveterate enemies of our Faith and of Christian civilization”. - The article gives no author and contains no references except that it was republished from a similarly named UK organization, which gives a PO box as its address, and from what I could see has no website, no list of directors and no membership list. Not exactly open journalism.
- The story is plain wrong - around 30% survived without major injury in Hiroshima alone, see for instance here.
- There’s lots of internet froth about, and it doesn’t take long to check it out rather than believe everything put in front of us.
The story says the priest in Hiroshima was eating his breakfast grapefruit at the time. Are you claiming that grapefruit contains an active ingredient that protects us from atom bombs?
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inocente
Guest
OK if you take theism in it’s broadest sense, but I think most take it to mean belief in a personal, active god, the God of traditional religion, in which Einstein didn’t believe. Offhand it appears that most theoretical physicists don’t either, so for them at least science has destroyed organized religion.
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Marc_Anthony
Guest
Correct
Einstein believed in no personal God but he was indeed a theist.
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buffalo
Guest
**From Thomas Nagel no less…
**
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology.
Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such.
Nagel’s skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic.
In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.
**
Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology.
Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such.
Nagel’s skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic.
In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.
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joe370
Guest
Science can’t, and in my opinion, does not want to destroy religion and it of course is based in reality.
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Alberti_Devoveo
Guest
Most dictionaries that I have looked at (Merriam Webster, Oxford, etc) state that theism is the “belief in the existence of a god or gods.” Most do say, “specifically, the belief in one god as creator of the universe” which still does not beg for the ‘God of traditional religion’ as you put it.
And, being an astrophysicist who deals regularly with theoretical physicists of all sorts (condensed matter, classical, quantum, etc), I hope I can convince you that ‘most’ is the wrong modifier; ‘many’ is the more appropriate one.
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Faithdancer
Guest
Actually, your time might be better spent reading the Summa Theologica.I’m keeping my word and have dialogued as promised, in all sincerety. I meditate every day, usually at night under the stars but sometimes when the sun is rising if I haven’t been able to get a quiet time in the evening or night. This is the time I’m using to try to dialogue with this Deity.
Of course, if it comes to pass that after a month or two of this, I report back that there is nothing to report, I alrwady know what ya’ll going to say - well, of course there was nothing, you can’t put God to the test, who are you to think God will reveal Himself to you, you have to have faith, Scripture says do not put the Lord your God to the test, you didn’t pray with an open heart and mind … the list goes on and on …
All I can tell you is honestly, sincerely, as I promised, I am setting aside some quiet time, every day, to attempt to dialogue with the God you believe in, the God of the Bible.
I can do no more.
Sarah x
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atheistgirl
Guest
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ThinkingSapien
Guest
Deism and Theism are both derived from words that translate into “god” (greek: theos/θεός, Latin deus). The words used to be interchangeable. I don’t think that one is a form of another in much the same way I wouldn’t say that philosophy of a Jehovah’s witness isn’t a form of the philosophy of a Shinto. Though there are elements that they share in common.
In the case of deism and theism the common elements include a tendency to believe that there is some entity that some refer to as “God.” However a deist doesn’t necessarily see this entity as a “person” but instead may see it as rather impersonal and possibly without emotions and without personal concerns for what we [humans] do with our lives and our time. Deist tend to reject religion, miracles, and dogma. Given that deism isn’t in any way an organized religion you’ll find that responses to several questions may vary from one person to another, such as to whether or not there is an afterlife.
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inocente
Guest
Errr … the quote isn’t from him, it’s an advertizing blurb for a book not yet even published. I suggest that rather than debating what we think he might argue in the book, it would be better to wait until the book is published and then those who are interested can tell the rest of us what he actually wrote.
And of course, we’ll try to sound interested.
As you failed to reply to post #518, I take it you agree that the article you linked was a fiction from start to end.
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