Which truth? (Page 5) deuce916: Well, I am just saying that at least they have proof of at least one dinosaur. Now what one piece of proof do you have for your god? smoke4ever: The evidence that God exists is everywhere. The vast variety of living things, etc... The problem is that you're in denial. (Edited by smoke4ever) CoIin: A lot of theists seem to have a very flimsy notion of the concept of evidence. They point at anything - cats, dogs, cancer - as evidence of their God/Satan or whatever hypothesis. Such "evidence" might just as well be used to "prove" the theory that superintelligent s once visited the Earth. Our confidence in a hypothesis is greatly enhanced if the hypothesis is "bold", i.e. entails surprising and hitherto unobserved consequences. A good example is the bending of light by massive objects predicted by General Relativity. Before Einstein, no one had ever suspected the existence of such a phenomenon. When the prediction was tested, shortly after WW1, it turned out to be spot on. If it had been wrong, the whole theory would have been in grave jeopardy. Now, I must emphasize, the prediction and confirmation of such surprising evidence does not "prove" a hypothesis, but it would seem to add a great deal to its credibility. Actually, the nuts who keep making predictions for the end of the world fit this criterion rather nicely - they're always wrong of course, but at least their predictions are bold and testable, i.e. verifiable or falsifiable. The standard God hypothesis makes no such predictions. No matter what happens or what is observed, it's mindlessly explainly away (yes, "explained away" not "explained" ) as the work of God, directly or indirectly. The God theory is neither verifiable nor falsifiable, in other words meaningless. You might as well predict that something will happen today.  Trifle: I don't understand how people can deceive themselves so thoroughly by clinging on to this religious "evidence" nonsense. At least they don't fool me. And as it happens, neither are they willing to put their hypotheses to the test, so what they actually profess are a buch of unsubstantiated claims. It they had so much faith in their ideas, one should think that they were overeager to prove them right, so why aren't they? Trifle: Of course. Both in Norwegian and English, to be presice. But that's beside the point if you also don't study the social environment that it was written in, from the first oral Hebrew traditions to the last Christian amendments to the text in the 16th Century. It is definitely not a self-explanatory work, so to counter-balance its propaganda, you also need to understand how and why it has become the way that it is today. Trifle: So give me one good reason to lie? There is no point in studying something if you don't do it thoroughly and from all angles. To just accept the content of the Bible literally at face value would be both unwise and unethical. Trifle: Unwise - because one discards all criticism from being considered. Unethical - because one only learns one side of the story, which could even be called dishonest in some cases. smoke4ever: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline. Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech: "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery and fools hate knowledge?" Proverbs chapter 1 verses 7, 20-22 smoke4ever: Jesus said, "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering." When Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose Him fiercely and to besiege Him with questions, waiting to catch Him in something He might say. Luke chapter 11 verses 52-54  orkanen: smoke4ever: Can you answer me this? Who, on Noah's ark, brought with them the Ebola virus, HIV, Clamydia, Herpes, the black plague and genital warts? | Religion Chat Room 39 People Chatting Similar Conversations |