Embiggener

Where can i find out more about this troubling issue that will surely reduce chinas population in the near future?

plausability has nothing to do with how many people believe in it. Christianity is not more plausable than the FSM religion simply because it has more followers. And the number of copies of the bible also has nothing to do with the plausability of the religion. As noted there are plenty of harry potter books, does that make it more plausable that the stories are true?



seriously? supernatural effects? what effects might those be. Science can explain them very easily. They don't exist!

Im guessing you will disagree so please elaborate on how theology can provide us insight into evidence of the supernatural, and what evidence might that be.

Kerostasis

You have the causality reversed. "More followers" does not cause "more plausible". However, "more plausible" does generally tend to cause "more followers". Therefore it is fair to say that the two effects are correlated.

To our specific example -- No, Christianity is not more plausible than FSM because it has more followers. Rather, Christianity has more followers because it is more plausible.

Edit: You know, I was gonna offer an explanation here, but this is such a massive tangent that it won't accomplish anything except to distract us from the real point. Suffice it to say I disagree with you that they don't exist.

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Hambergler

Just that fact that you can clinch up on a date and not experience the humiliation of letting out a little methane monster is proof enough in intelligent design. Someone had to think of that.

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Kerostasis

My apologies to anyone who started responding to that post before I edited it. I was going off on a total tangent and I've since retracted that in a futile attempt to get back on topic.

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Embiggener

I just think its a very weak argument to use. Theres lots of muslims, so which is more plausable, islam or christianty? A lot of people believe in professional wrestling, does that make it plausible that its not acting?

Kerostasis

Given that there are lots of followers for both Islam and Christianity, additional evidence would be required to make a determination between them. However, both can be safely said to be more plausible than FSM, which has no followers.

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Requital

The Harry Potter serious was not written as a witness to the accounts of Harry Potter or magic in general. Harry Potter was written as fiction.

The Bible was written as a witness to God's interaction with man. It was written by over 20 authors from different walks of life (from peasant, to soldiers, to kings) over the course of thousands of years of time to reveal the character and nature of the unseen in a way that could be understood from the simplest minds to the most intelligent. It starts with the creation of the world and ends with the anihilation of the world. There is no book like it on earth in either integrity or continuity. No other book has withstood as much critisism and attack for it's authentisity. Nations have tried to eraticate it from existance, but have not succeeded. It chronicles the issuance of the Moral Law and the Fullfilment of that same law. It is what it claims to be a, Revelation of God in all his Mercy, Wrath and Love. The only thing God asks is for faith. Not a tough list of requirements. Everyone could believe.

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mentholated

This thread has gone from being a thoughtful evoking conversation about what is real to another little pissing match between those who believe in something non-physical and those who do.

I've been down this road in my mind a thousand times, and I'm sure there are people who have been down this road in their minds a quintillion times. I looked towards science (quantum theory to be exact) for the answer, and it gave me one. The universe in its whole, is far too perfect in its operation to be simply a random occurance. I don't know if there is a "god", but I know that there is something out there far "bigger" than our minds can come to grasp.

With that said, we are all unique consciousness, and we are special for that reason, we can hold whatever beliefs we want to. I think people who use "god" as an excuse to cause harm to another being in ANY way deserve to be cast down into nothingness. Nothingness is the only real hell there can ever be. The state of non-existance. That is something people fail to grasp; if your death is really the end of your consciousness, wouldn't you take eternal fire and brimstone over that? Being forced to eat donuts for eternity like homer simpson? I sure would! Because I would still exist, somehow.

BeSiege82

I will continue this...

BIG QUESTION GUYS- how do you explain the fact that the historical Jewish man Ezra founded a school for the scribes, in this school they copied the ancient manuscripts by methods of word counting, letter counting, spellchecking, and looking for wrong words. NOW in this copying school, the scribes copied the book of Isaih which was originaly written before 200 B.C., ... skip to modern day, a copy of the Book of Isaih was found dating to 200 B.C.- it is part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This ancient copy matched the present day translation of Isaih, which when studied reveils that the prophecies matched the historical data. All one can do is believe- "For blessed is he who believes and yet has not seen.''

If you cannot say otherwise read this please... http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/266

and whoever said about super natural being unreal, tell me- how is it people have recieved scratches inexplicably by things we call demons, or even have so-called false readings of a human body walking infront of you when using a thermal imaging device have been observed, and what is science but truly the study of observed phenomenons?

if these things wich we call demons are real, where did these non-corporeal beings come from? It leads one to see that God the Creator and loving Father is real.

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lTG-Irrl BeSiege82
A former platoon leader...

"Courage grows strong at the wound."
"Virescit Vulnere Virtus."

"{My grump-o-meter starts to make a high-pitched whine when I point it at your post, though.}" -- Axis

Kerostasis

BeSeige, I don't think thats going to work. Remember what Jesus said in Luke:
Simply offering evidence of supernatural events will never persuade a man who has convinced himself they do not exist. Only the Holy Spirit can move their hearts.

...

To those of you who do not believe: I can accept the fact that nothing I say here will change your mind about Christianity. I only ask that you show us respect in our beliefs (as a few of you have already professed a desire to do) by refraining from making insulting comparisons between our Lord and a flying chunk of spaghetti. Is that not a reasonable request?

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Zephyr

WOAH WOAH WOAH.

Back up.

It is fine to have an opinion but to say something to back it up that is so horrendously wrong and misinforming is just awful. Please check your facts, especially if they're emotionally sensitive and/or discriminatory towards various world groups.

-Zephyr

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CingularDuality

It's absolutely not a reasonable request! You may ask to not be compared to FSM followers now, but where does it end? Don't compare us judeo-xians to the idiot muslims? Don't compare us judeo-xians to the idiot buddhists?

Step back and look at where the true lack of respect is coming from. You're insisting that your religious beliefs are factual and that everything else is silly? C'mon, man...

My whole argument was that you used the word 'fact' when you should have used 'belief'. I have no problem respecting your beliefs, but when you try to put them out as being factual, I'll call you on it every time.

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Kerostasis

Who invoked "everything else" besides you? I simply asked not to be compared with a religion that is SO absurd its OWN FOLLOWERS dont even believe it. Why does it pain you so much to admit that might just possibly make it less credible than the most widely followed religion in the history of mankind? Is it that important to you to hold Atheism as the only possibly logical viewpoint that you cannot even allow any other possibilities to be acknowledged?

I used the word "fact" where it was ENTIRELY appropriate to use the word "fact". It is a fact that the Judeo-Christian God is more believable than the Flying Spaghetti Monster. That is not an opinion. That is not a belief or an assertion. That is simply the way it is. By asking us to hold those two beliefs on an equal level you only betray your own derision of them both as not worthy of consideration. And you have the nerve to call that "respecting your beliefs"? Trust me, I can see exactly where the true lack of respect is coming from.

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CingularDuality

I'm glad you choose to restate your disrespect for MY beliefs. I absolutely believe that the xian god and the FSM are equally believable. Wishing something were a fact does not make it so...

Please, read what you just wrote and think again about disrespect.

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mentholated

Thats being a tad bit hypocritical, don't you think?

Why would god be insulted by being compared to a flying chunk of spaghetti? HES GOD. Nothing any of us can say would insult Him, He would not be capable of being insulted, because He is a perfect being.

You could compare god to a steaming chunk of fecal matter and it wouldn't bother him. For all anyone knows, god could very well be a steaming chunk of fecal matter. Does what god "is" diminish what god means to us?

God is a concept, not a person. We humans have a bad habit of personifying something we couldn't possibly come to grasp. You can't say god is this or that, isn't this or isn't that. You can't say god is a he or a she, all you can say is "he" is or isn't. Your decision on that matter is personal, and the consequences of either decision are only upon your shoulders.