Posted on 04/26/2012 7:47:20 PM PDT by lbryce
Scientists have revealed one of the reasons why some folks are less religious than others: They think more analytically, rather than going with their gut. And thinking analytically can cause religious belief to wane — for skeptics and true believers alike.
The study, published in Friday's edition of the journal Science, indicates that belief may be a more malleable feature of the human psyche than those of strong faith may think.
The cognitive origins of belief — and disbelief — traditionally haven't been explored with academic rigor, said lead author Will Gervais, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
God does not exist within the parameters of time and space. We do, however. We cannot begin to understand the true nature of god no matter how hard we try.
And that, is really all there is. It is not possible to know. This is why the question is stupid.
Ridiculous, I am a thinker and GOD has saved me through Jesus Christ-even using logic at times, and extra Biblical Historical evidence to strengthen my faith in Him!~
-J.S.
I already preempted question like yours in post #14. So where did God come from? He’s existed for all eternity, no beginning, no end? Unlikely. God emerging from nothingness? God emerging from nothingness says a lot less about God, the Supreme Being (emerging from nothingness) than it does about the Universe, empty space(coming from nothingness).
I should have said scientists. They are the ones demanding the godless base of science these days.
Science cannot scoff at anything.
It’s merely a tool. A nice, efficient, data gathering tool at that, but still just a tool.
The analysis of the data falls squarely into the realm of philosophy, something most scientists are in deep denial about judging by the responses of many on these threads.
Yeah, I loved that one. Apparently you’re more likely to believe in God if you can’t count correct change. Who knew?
Most often it's intellectual suicide to say I don't know--nobody wants that for an answer and it can be a very dull and short discussion. In any case, if you're really interested, the most intellectually rigorous form of I-don't-know that I've come across is in Hans Urs von Balthasar. Try his Presence and Thought: An Essay on the Religious Philosophy of Gregory of Nyssa if you are intellectually fit.
Don’t forget Romans 1.
Because God cannot bring His full presence into this dimension without destroying it, and in place of His presence there are cosmic forces and immutable laws that point subtly to His existence. There is One beyond our existence, that willed this existence to be. That will is present in this plane, and here takes the appearance of these forces and laws. IMO.
“actually the reverse is true. a more ridiculous assertion, completely ignorant of the history of science, could hardly be imagined.
the greatest scientists and thinkers ever born, people like boyle, faraday, newton, einstein, and i could go on and on described their work as attempts to discover the mind of God.”
Likewise, the list of great Athiest fathers of science is very short.
Too much thinking is how we got global warming.
This “Would-love-to-hear-some-answers-that-don’t-border-on-the-inane” from you sounds a lot like this “cognitive origins-of-belief—and-disbelief—traditionally-haven’t-been explored-with-academic rigor” from the article.
Both statements assume a shared understanding of what is inanity or what is academic rigor. It reminds me of Socrates, who many many years ago who insisted that for discussion to continue they should first agree that they are human.
You know, as many of these intellectual wastes of time as I’ve seen float through the media over the years, I begin to conclude that many of them are efforts just to troll the thought-space for “oddball” and “radical” responses from the religeous side. It’s nice to see reams of cogent response and discussion of it here. :-)
Well-put. It's an important distinction to stress.
What, then, of those who perished? God chose not to protect them, not to give them the will to survive and not to inspire others to help them?
Your mind is trapped in an existence defined by time and space. To understand how nonsensical your question is, you first have to imagine an existence without the parameter we call time. This is the existence of god. It is not possible for our minds to truly comprehend an existence without time so in the end it is folly.
But...I’ll give it a go anyway...
If there is no time for god, when did he “begin”?
See? that is a nonsensical question, is it not? If there is no time, then there is no beginning and no end. Church goers use the phrase “god is eternal” or “ever lasting” or “existed before creation”. All this is just primitive ways of saying god exists outside parameter of time and space.
Now, lets look at science. They say that time and space are constructs that exist only within the universe. The vacuum of space is not really a vacuum at all. It is filled with a substance that creates the dimensions we call time and space. Therefore, time only exists within the universe. Distance only exists within the universe. You can imagine them as being artificial constructs like a holodeck (star trek) or the matrix(of the movie). Prior to the “big bang” there was no time and there was no distance. If time and distance exist only within the universe, then where are you when you step just outside the universe? Go ahead and try to answer that question. Here’s a hint, you cant use distance to explain it because distance does not exist there.
You can’t answer that question. And that is just the way it is. You also cannot answer the question “from where did god come from” for the same reasons you cannot answer the question “what caused the big bang”.
Read the Critique of Pure Reason by Emmanuel Kant
I am working my way through this concept in the Sunday School class I teach. It took us three weeks to get the class to understand this logical conclusion. They have never been challenged to consider their Christianity through the prism of logic and reason, yet they are coming to understand that logic and reason lead us to God, not away from Him.
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