isn't faith coming to a conclusion blindly with no reasons to substantiate it? this type of rationale is dangerous. as in history, many Germans bought into Hitler's unproved claims of how Jews brought down the country. we all know he it ended. really? FULL of holes, guesses, and assumptions? it's better than religion which provides nothing.
Then Chirality and Entropy come along and, like 2 year-olds, knock down the building blocks and laugh about it. Mother nature scolds them for mocking Father time's effort, but they run away to come back another day.
MOND sounds very interesting. I can't pretend to understand it, but I wonder if MOND and dark matter could be reconciled. Personally, I think Einstein's theory of relativity, the impossibility of going faster than light, and so on, will eventually be shown to have holes you can drive an FTL ship through. I also believe that we will understand more about gravity, and the basis of magnetism, which we really don't understand, but manipulate everyday with technology, and develop anti-gravity technology, among other things. I think we can look foreword to an exciting future of amazing discoveries, if we don't destroy ourselves and/or the planet, first. One thing we can be assured of... every time humanity felt that it pretty much knew all there was to know about anything, and everything, we discovered another staggering technology, and/or a scientific discovery. It's inevitable, in my opinion. What does a god have to do with it? In my opinion, nothing. It's more likely that a god, or gods, if they exist, are what we ourselves would appear to be to a people like the American Indian, pre-European discovery, or Europeans during the Dark Ages and beyond, or the Chinese 1,000 years ago. Gods, reveling in our superiority, and scaring the hell out of the "natives." Keep D&D Civil.
I don't believe in your god. (But it makes me scared to say that just in the 1E-1,000,000,000,000 off chance that the jealous, vindictive, unforgiving and strangely temporal entity does turn out to be the one true god.) Agnostics should not be grouped with Atheists. They are fundamentally different in that one still believes in an unprovable concept, whereas the other does not. Having said all that, Nobel prizes, discoveries, worldly accomplishments all look very silly and insignificant next to creation and such. It's like having a bunch of 3 year olds questioning their parents' judgment, times one trillion. Not a fair fight at all. Now if it were Jesus versus Santa Claus....
He did claim to be God. I never met him (though inside me it feels differently) I believe in Him, who He is and what He did for me And yes you are not getting something here, but you are not as far from it as you think. Jesus loves you. (the Jesus who died on the Roman cross outside Jerusalem and His followers claimed He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven- somewhere around 30 AD)
I asked the question because I don't believe knowledge is the supreme goal in life and trying to 'best' one another doesn't get us anywhere. How many very knowledgeable people are shooting rockets at each other, getting divorces and profiting by hurting others. You could pump the sum of human intelligence, knowledge and understanding into the minds of every person on earth and I have a hunch that racism, abuse, wars, greed, and revenge would still be alive and well on planet earth. If we evolved from primates then one might argue that as far as love and deceny goes it was de-evolution. I don't have alot to prove about the existence of God, He said His creation proves it. OK - fine with me. But I do know that 'God' (think what you will) put love in my heart. I know I married my wife and abused her for years, then 'God' put love in my heart. Changed me. And no, I can't explain it. (At least not without sermonizing ) There is a God. No doubt in my own heart and I have seen enough reason and logic for my mind to be clear on the matter.
A God who truly loves me will not make me burn for eternity, even if I believe in Him but spit on His image and turn Him away. I'm not even anywhere near to such an extreme. But nooo, I burn anyway A mother who has been disowned by her unfilial son may still be able to afford him unconditional love. And the supposed embodiment of all things good cannot? Or even worse, will not? Now we are supposed to believe that humans are held to a higher moral standard than the creator of the universe Himself? Or is it a case of "do as I say, not as I do"? I remember MadMax using the words "cosmic rapist" once, and I found the term particularly compelling. I don't love Him, He punishes me. If that's not rape, what is?
A rhetorical question, so if a non-believer gets burned eternally in hell, won't he at some point feel kind of numb, and then say to himself: "wtf, to hell with fear, pain, and suffering"!?
I'm no expert, but I don't think so.. MOND kinda negates the very reason for dark matter to exist, by proposing a change (albeit slight) to Newton's second law itself. It's clever and it works, but tweaking the formula just to explain the flat rotation curve problem does seem a little arbitrary to me. Although if TeVeS is as promising as it sounds.. well, we'll just have to wait and see I like the way you think, sir. I also recall one of your posts sometime back, when you said space exploration is the only way forward for mankind, or thereabouts. Just want to let you know (belatedly) that I couldn't agree more
love=forgiveness and even if you spit on His image and turn Him away He would like to forgive you. I am a father. A known violent rapist (since you used the example) comes to the door of my house and asks if I mind him staying with my wife and 12 year old daughter while I'm out of town for a couple of days. I certainly have no reason not to love this man, but letting him move in even for a short time doesn't seem all that loving to me. I don't see why God wouldn't let all 5 yr old children go to heaven. I doubt they would give him much trouble. But judging from what I see on the 10 pm news I pray a God of love would have some reason and intelligence in opening His home to the rest of us- me included. You may be a very very special person who God can trust to share His love with everyone you meet. I personally need some intervention, some help, some forgiveness. Jesus offered it to me. I believed He was sincere. So I followed Him... I find that it is next to impossible for us to understand God's love, justice and judgment without a frame of reference... Has anyone ever loved you with God's love? Do you have a frame of reference?
Speaking as an agnostic (unless Batman shows up here and tells me my personal description is off... again. ), you're description of a Christian's belief in burning in hell if you are divorced, or gay, are a b*stard, (yes, i'm using some latitude here), or any number of other "offenses" that supposedly get you a ticket to the barbeque pit in the Here-Down-Under, are beliefs more in line with the Catholic Church and Fundamentalist Christians, not all Christians by a long shot. Just thought I'd throw that in there. Keep D&D Civil.
I think the whole concept of hell for Christians can best be understood in Ivan's "I return the ticket" speech from just before the Grand Inquisitor. Rhester has said some rather interesting things regarding knowledge. Citing Dostoevsky again, look at Stepan in the "Devils". He writes this poem in which man ultimately takes his place atop the Tower of Babel as true ruler of the world. To me, it seems as if that's what we are left with in pursuit of knowledge. What do we do when get there, and as rimbaud asked, "what's the point?" "Yay! We're number one!" will ultimately be followed by death. So, once again, what's the point? I think life, is about love, active love in fact. This is not a knowledge but a disposition of the heart. In love, there is God, the eternal, something that transcends who we are and goes beyond our earthly time. I feel that if you seek love, you are seeking God, even if you do not call it that. Not to be overly touchy feely, but I believe there is an antithesis to love, a rejection of love. To me that;s teh real danger inherent in hell, in that we realize love and reject it. As for the video, some Columbia grad thought he would do some photo slicing and make atheism look cool. *yawn*.
what if hell is just the absence of God for eternity? what if it's not a place with literal burning? what if it's just a matter of getting exactly from God what you want of him...however much or little??? does that change your opinion any? that's certainly what i meant by cosmic rapist not forcing himself. wouldn't anything less be an insult to human dignity?
ok, i hardly come into D&D and when i do, it's mostly to lurk. but this line is so absurd that i have to comment. i'm an atheist. i don't go defaming other religions. what you believe is fine with me. if it makes you happy to believe in god, so be it. i don't, and that has never had an effect on my "happiness". jeez, it's quite pretentious and arrogant to claim that someone could not be happy b/c their beliefs don't coincide with your own. are all religous people happy? Andrea Yates, you happy?
