This_person
Well-Known Member
This is one of those "ignored". I've answered this question previously, and asked you to show me where I was wrong.
You ignored it, to belittle it again later.
See my point?
And now...
- Thread starter Beelzebaby666
- Start date
You ignored it, to belittle it again later.
See my point?
This_person
Well-Known Member
Good for you, buddy!
This_person
Well-Known Member
Well, what is the scientific explaination for the origins of the stuff that makes up the universe?
This_person
Well-Known Member
This is your inaccurate assumption, and invalid.
The athiest has faith that science will eventually be able to explain the universe and the questions surrounding it, the theist believes that the answers are there, and we can find them if we seek them. The atheist is happy with not knowing, the theist is happy that he will understand as much as he can fathom, and be given the understanding for which he can't grasp now, later.
This_person
Well-Known Member
This_person
Well-Known Member
Then explain it to me. I'm putty in your cynical hands.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
Okay then, let's start over. Where did you learn that wet rock becomes life? If you didn't learn this, why do you keep saying it?
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
No idea. You can google "Abiogenesis" for some answers. I'm not very well versed on abiogenesis.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
This_person
Well-Known Member
What was the planet before life? What was the stuff life could have been made from?
I learned this (in more detail, obviously) in school.
What did you learn about it?
This_person
Well-Known Member
Mine is, yes. Other theists have different answers. Other Intelligent Designers have different answers.
But, yes, that's mine.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
See 'abiogenesis' in the Wiki. I didn't study abiogenesis in school. Now you answer my question.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
How did you come to that conclusion? Do all questions stop after the "God did it" answer?
This_person
Well-Known Member
I don't know what I didn't answer. I'll attempt to answer, but I don't know what I didn't answer.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
Never mind, I just saw it - I wanted to know where you learned that a "wet rock became life", and you said you learned it in your school. Holy cow, what other nonsense did they teach you there?
This_person
Well-Known Member
I came to the conclusion about God after years of reflection on things that happened in my life, and the complexities of the interrelations of many happenings. In my years, I've witnessed countless things I consider small miracles, I've had prayers answered and recognized a hand behind many actions and inactions in my and loved ones' lives. The reasons I came to that conclusion would be literally hours of conversation - a book's worth of information, not really something I can adequately summarize in a post or two.
Suffice it to say, I was very skeptical and downright arrogantly against the possibility, and had a series of things happen that changed my mind. This is why I'm not a good "church" Christian - I actually oppose the concept of a lot of organized religious denominations as limiting and interpretting that which they have no business limiting and/or interpreting. My Christianity comes entirely from my life, and I'm struggling to understand the Bible without any further clouding or skewing from "organized" religion. In my view, my personal understanding, Jesus's teachings demand we know personally, not collectively, and that's what I try to do.
As for the questions stopping, my goodness no. Indeed, much like a scientist, all I've come to is a theory (one that I firmly believe in, but a theory nonetheless). It started as a hypothesis I could not refute, and became a theory I put to test on a daily, sometimes hourly, basis. Unfortunately, I can't document such tests with beaker numbers or trial run series - that's not how life works. I am not a strict literal Bible follower, as I've shown before (taking the "fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" as a metaphor, for example. I don't believe this is a banana or an apple type fruit, but a knowledge that one can "sink your teeth into" metaphor since that's the only logical conclusion), because I don't think you take each and every detail of any story literally, but you must look at the literary context with which the story is told. In other words, I don't care if God created other men and women without it specifically being in the first chapter of Genesis - it clearly happened, there were wives for Adam and Eve's kids. I don't need to be told that means there's more to the story, it's pretty obvious. On the other hand, I need to better understand many concepts, such as how to render unto Cesear without that going against my principals (for example, the funding of abortion clinics with tax dollars).
So, there are many questions on a daily basis that get asked. Xanquin's repeated questions as to the meaning behind illnesses/diseases, bad fortune for good people, etc., are things that plague me on an hourly basis, especially when it's someone I love. I struggle with these issues. What was before the world (since that's more apro po to what we're discussing) is also a question for me, though it has little meaning on my day to day life. The mechanism behind how it all happened, though, could very well have meaning to me or my children, or beyond, though. Maybe we can dissect humans enough to find out exactly how to make life more physically bearable, more enjoyable. Yes, questions get asked repeatedly!
This_person
Well-Known Member
Again, it was a gross simplification, but it doesn't feel like an inaccurate one.
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
The problem is that it's highly inacurate, and I hear theists say stuff like this all the time, eg. turning pond scum into life, or green slime into life, and in your case, wet rock into life. I was seriously wondering if you guys were taught this somewhere, and if you actually believe it, literally. And thank you for your well thought-out reply to my other question above.
This_person
Well-Known Member
Certainly, I don't think anyone believes it as simple and literally as I've said it or you've heard before. It comes from the arrogance of both sides, thus the inability to work together to a common understanding.
Theists arrogantly insist life has meaning, so some highly unlike, unrepeatable, random chemical reaction could not be all there is to life. So, we belittle the concept of it happening by misrepresenting the theories surrounding it.
Atheists (in my opinion) generally are unable to accept that there is something bigger, stronger, smarter, more important than themselves (or mankind in general), that we are to some other being what our pets are to us (is how I perceive their impression of religion). Thus, they belittle and misrepresent Creation and/or Intelligent Design as impossible, illogical, mythological, fairy tale. If they can't imagine how they could control and manipulate it (by being able to classify and recreate how things happen), then it must not be true.
Odds are, neither side is EXACTLY right. But, each side has it's beliefs, and each side has trouble accepting what may be right in the other side's argument.
As for answering the other question, I wish I could relate better my reasons, but it's not a sound-bite type thing to happen to someone, and it's just a lot more personal than I could even attempt to do in a fashion like this forum. As I said, I will try and answer you as honestly and non-cynically as I can, and I appreciate you saw that!
wxtornado
The Other White Meat
And here's why I'm an atheist - tell me if I'm being illogical: I'm an atheist about the Big Three like you're probably an atheist over the Olympian and Norse gods -- I doubt you believe in Zeus and Odin. I simply add Yahweh and Yeshuah to that list. If some evidence came along to prove Zeus, Odin, or Yahweh, I'd accept that proof. Pretty simple!