Why choose the Catholic faith?

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I think you will find that with all science and the desire to further knowledge - people make attempts, and theorise and proffer explanations to help move us closer to answers. Philosophy does not do that. It does not help explain how things work.

As someone once said - Philosophy can be the birth place of ideas, but they have to leave home to grow up and become part of the real sciences.
Do you have any empirical, scientific evidence that proves your belief, april?

If you can’t proffer any, what you have posited is simply a faith-based assertion.

Nothing wrong with that, of course, but I hope you always keep that point in mind. You need to say, “April, I have my own faith-based beliefs. Things I believe even though there’s not a single scientific study that proves this belief.”
 
I think you will find that with all science and the desire to further knowledge - people make attempts, and theorise and proffer explanations to help move us closer to answers. Philosophy does not do that. It does not help explain how things work.

As someone once said - Philosophy can be the birth place of ideas, but they have to leave home to grow up and become part of the real sciences.
I think you will find the same thing of faith, that is why the Catholic Church is responsible for so much of what scientists and the culture at large just take for granted. Allow me to name a few examples:

The Scientific Method
Big Bang Theory
Huge discoveries in astronomy (do you know how many craters in the moon are named for Jesuit Priests?)
The University System

the list really goes on and on. Honestly it is clear to me that you fundamentally misunderstand religion and that goes double for the faith you were raised in your self. If I may, I would like to invite you to take the opportunity to actually get acquainted with the Catholic Church, her claims, her witness and her works.

In all fairness, I honestly don’t think your in a great position to be advancing secularism right now. It is not good to diminish faith, and advance secular thought when you honestly don’t know much about faith to begin with. I’m not trying to knock you here, what I say was probably true of most of us at one point (certainly was of me). But let me say this, there is no truth greater than the final truths of faith and God. If God exists (I maintain he does, and that the Catholic faith is correct about him) then believe me, you don’t want to go through your life continuing in ignorance of the great gift you were given at birth, that is your Catholic Faith.
 
I think you will find that with all science and the desire to further knowledge - people make attempts, and theorise and proffer explanations to help move us closer to answers. Philosophy does not do that. It does not help explain how things work.

As someone once said - Philosophy can be the birth place of ideas, but they have to leave home to grow up and become part of the real sciences.
So it’s fine to say something = nothing, as long as it’s Real Science. That’s OK, I knew when I posted the links that you wouldn’t understand, or even try to understand. So, knowing what I was up against beforehand, I’m not disappointed.
 
That’s an interesting way of looking at it but calling the phenomena that ‘created’ the universe ‘God’, causes confusion with other Gods and what people generally mean by God, as in some type of super natural entity.

The part I don’t get is that you seem to be saying that because you don’t know what ‘kick started’ the universe, if it was ‘kick started’, you just call it ‘God’. I don’t think that is a rigorous examination of what started the universe and is not a very scientific approach.
You are still not examining the situation carefully enough. The Law of Causation (which you have accepted as proving a first mover) and the Law of the Conservation of Energy, taken together, prove that there must have been a non-contingent first being who set the universe in motion.
That’s an interesting way of looking at it but calling the phenomena that ‘created’ the universe ‘God’, causes confusion with other Gods and what people generally mean by God, as in some type of super natural entity.
You say I’m “causing confusion” but actually it makes perfect sense. For the phenomena that created the universe to do so, it would make perfect sense for it to be a supernatural being, because what natural being is capable of creating energy out of nothing?
The part I don’t get is that you seem to be saying that because you don’t know what ‘kick started’ the universe, if it was ‘kick started’, you just call it ‘God’. I don’t think that is a rigorous examination of what started the universe and is not a very scientific approach.
Again, you are evaluating it from the wrong perspective. I am not saying that I am naming the being that “kickstarted” the universe “God,” I am saying that the DEFINITION of said being IS God. As I said before, you can call it something else, but it still fills the definition of said being.

After you accept that logical conclusion, then we can move along to the next steps and answer your further questions.
 
So it’s fine to say something = nothing, as long as it’s Real Science. That’s OK, I knew when I posted the links that you wouldn’t understand, or even try to understand. So, knowing what I was up against beforehand, I’m not disappointed.
Why are you against Science? It is the best tool we have to advance knowledge.
 
Why are you against Science? It is the best tool we have to advance knowledge.
As stated, no one is against science. Certainly not the Catholic Church. Again I invite you to start learning about your own faith of your birth.
 
You are still not examining the situation carefully enough. The Law of Causation (which you have accepted as proving a first mover) and the Law of the Conservation of Energy, taken together, prove that there must have been a non-contingent first being who set the universe in motion.
Can you be more explicit on how you make the leap to 'prove that there must have been a non-contingent first being who set the universe in motion The best you could say here is that you don’t know.
You say I’m “causing confusion” but actually it makes perfect sense. For the phenomena that created the universe to do so, it would make perfect sense for it to be a supernatural being, because what natural being is capable of creating energy out of nothing?
I understand what you are trying to achieve, but it does not ‘make perfect sense for it to be a supernatural being’ I think your attempt needs more work, explicitly on the leap to there being a supernatural being. Why do you assume it would be a ‘being’. Why do you assume that it is necessary.?
Again, you are evaluating it from the wrong perspective. I am not saying that I am naming the being that “kickstarted” the universe “God,” I am saying that the DEFINITION of said being IS God. As I said before, you can call it something else, but it still fills the definition of said being.
Your positions strikes me as the ‘god of the gaps argument’ because we have not yet discovered or solved the problem of how the universe started, you ‘insert God’. That is the same argument no doubt, sun worshippers used, until man discovered how the sun actually works.

I am sorry dshix, but I contend that that is intellectually lazy. It reminds me of the debates with William Lane Craig, where he struggles to make the same contentions.
After you accept that logical conclusion, then we can move along to the next steps and answer your further questions.
With all due respect it is not a logical conclusion, it’s wishful thinking.
 
The First Mover argument is nothing like the God of Gaps. Had you actually studied each, you would know this.
 
That’s a good question. I am very open minded. Anything that could be peer reviewed and established as accepted, so that we would not have all these conflicting gods and religions.
It would also be nice to see a practical application of God, that would help humanity. Something that could not be done without his help.
You have faith in scientist and their peer reviews, but not in eye witness accounts of Christ from 12 apostles. Why is it different?

It sounds like you want hard tangible evidence that can be replicated in a lab in order to believe. It is just not going to happen. You can’t put the holy spirit in a test tube or kill Jesus over and over to see if he is going to resurrect everytime. God/Jesus is not revealed to us by science. Jesus said to Peter after he professed his faith, that he knew who Jesus was because the Father had revealed it to him. You are either open to it or not open to it. Your choice.

People have said to me Extrordianry claims require extrordinary evidence. Well, we have it. The resurrection and all other miracles from Christ. But what do none believers do with it? Discredit it, deny it, explain it away. So again, you are either open to God’s revelation or not.
 
You have faith in scientist and their peer reviews, but not in eye witness accounts of Christ from 12 apostles. Why is it different?
Plus one very significant outsider. edit ok yeah also plus Roman (Jewish) historian Josephus.
 
Why are you against Science? It is the best tool we have to advance knowledge.
I see what you did there. Framing a baseless charge in the form of a question, to pretend that it has already been established. Sophomoric debating trick.

If Science (love the capitalization!) is the best tool we have to advance knowledge, then Science should be able to tell us why Hitler and Stalin and Mao committed their great evils. Please point me to the appropriate peer-reviewed journal articles.
 
The First Mover argument is nothing like the God of Gaps. Had you actually studied each, you would know this.
The god of the gaps is simply the perspective of where we have gaps in knowledge - these gaps are taken as evidence of the proof of God’s existence.

The first mover argument fits the bill! 🙂
 
I see what you did there. Framing a baseless charge in the form of a question, to pretend that it has already been established. Sophomoric debating trick.

If Science (love the capitalization!) is the best tool we have to advance knowledge, then Science should be able to tell us why Hitler and Stalin and Mao committed their great evils. Please point me to the appropriate peer-reviewed journal articles.
Any CapitalS you see in my posts are simply poor typing.

I don’t doubt it could. I am not sure if any scientific studies are being done on this at the moment, but will have a look. There are certainly many historians with views, but these would not count as scientific study.
 
I can’t let this one pass. Krauss’ “something from nothing” is a philosophical joke (what is it these days with atheist scientists doing embarrassing philosophy?).

nytimes.com/2012/03/25/books/review/a-universe-from-nothing-by-lawrence-m-krauss.html?_r=0

firstthings.com/article/2012/05/not-understanding-nothing
Indeed.

I would like to see some peer-reviewed scientific studies that show something coming from nothing.

Until then, anyone who believes that something can come from nothing is making a purely faith-based assertion.

That’s fine, but it’s usually people who deride faith that happen to believe the scientifically unverifiable belief that something can come from nothing.
 
You have faith in scientist and their peer reviews, but not in eye witness accounts of Christ from 12 apostles. Why is it different?

It sounds like you want hard tangible evidence that can be replicated in a lab in order to believe. It is just not going to happen. You can’t put the holy spirit in a test tube or kill Jesus over and over to see if he is going to resurrect everytime. God/Jesus is not revealed to us by science. Jesus said to Peter after he professed his faith, that he knew who Jesus was because the Father had revealed it to him. You are either open to it or not open to it. Your choice.

People have said to me Extrordianry claims require extrordinary evidence. Well, we have it. The resurrection and all other miracles from Christ. But what do none believers do with it? Discredit it, deny it, explain it away. So again, you are either open to God’s revelation or not.
I hear what you are saying, but I still prefer old fashioned evidence. I don’t have faith in ‘scientists and their peer reviews’ per se, The beauty of science is that it can be tested. If something no longer holds true, then our knowledge advances and so on and so on. All of our knowledge is science. Nothing can be ‘outside science’.

At this point in human understanding, bodies don’t arise from the dead. Eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable. I would imagine, even moreso after thousands of revisions over 2,000 years.
Our legal system, not sure about yours, relies on evidence and corroboration because eye witness events are unreliable.

I have a feeling it is not going to happen, which is a shame as evidence for a god’s existence would be a game changer.
 
I hear what you are saying, but I still prefer old fashioned evidence. I don’t have faith in ‘scientists and their peer reviews’ per se, The beauty of science is that it can be tested. If something no longer holds true, then our knowledge advances and so on and so on. All of our knowledge is science. Nothing can be ‘outside science’.

At this point in human understanding, bodies don’t arise from the dead. Eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable. I would imagine, even moreso after thousands of revisions over 2,000 years.
Our legal system, not sure about yours, relies on evidence and corroboration because eye witness events are unreliable.

I have a feeling it is not going to happen, which is a shame as evidence for a god’s existence would be a game changer.
I would be very careful in saying that nothing can be outside science. That simply is not true, at least not with our current abilities.
 
Indeed.

I would like to see some peer-reviewed scientific studies that show something coming from nothing.

Until then, anyone who believes that something can come from nothing is making a purely faith-based assertion.

That’s fine, but it’s usually people who deride faith that happen to believe the scientifically unverifiable belief that something can come from nothing.
I think you will find science is trying to find answers and not making faith-based assertions, - that is the province of religions.
 
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