Consider the birds of the air / You shall see him coming in the clouds *PING*.
Posted on 03/02/2013 3:30:22 AM PST by grey_whiskers
Consider looking at the sky. One can often see a layer of clouds, where the sky is completely clear below a certain height, but the clouds seem to mushroom expansively, all emanating from the same height, as though resting on a great unseen glass shelf in the sky. In other, rarer, circumstances, one may happen to see a column of smoke rising, and abruptly halt and spread out horizontally, as though it has hit an invisible ceiling.
The same thing happens in the mind: one travels along the paths of knowledge, absorbing information and learning all one can about a subject, until either one's capacity is full, or (more frighteningly) one reaches the limits of what one can, or is willing ("...it's late, i'm tired, and there's so much left to do, " as Blaufeld observed James Bond in Diamonds Are Forever) to absorb -- whether intrinsically, or whether it is "as far as one has had the stomach to travel". At this point, the mind retreats from rigorous examination, skepticism, back-checking, and resorts either to approximations, stereotypes, or belief.
I often think that one of the reasons so many scientists and other intellectuals reject faith altogether is that they are fearful of this phenomenon in themselves, and therefore despise and reject it in others: and having had no comparison within their own lives, they falsely attribute all piety and devotion to a mere throwing up of the hands and intellectual surrender: which is to them of all evils to commit, the one they fear most. (Being closely aligned as it is with the prospect of being dominated, and compelled to do obeisance without assent: which is how they also characterize the prospect of Worship.)
Consider the birds of the air / You shall see him coming in the clouds *PING*.
How is your characterization of Worship any different?
Loyalty with allegiance to One who deserves it both de facto and de jure.
As opposed to compulsion, unwilling and (in their heart) unacknowledged.
The roots of atheism are almost always moral not intellectual.
Amen.
Well said, Grey Whiskers!
I don’t have any invisible friends in the sky. And neither does anyone else.
Many scientists begin with the assumption of ‘No God,’ and then conduct their “experiments, hypothesizing, theorizing” accordingly. It’s funny, though, when it comes to discussing origins, when it comes to considering the presence of matter which cannot self-create, when it comes to trying to understand the beginning of beginnings, they have no answer (even the “bang” of the Big Bang Theory” requires that very same non self-creating matter in order to have something to “theorize about.)
As much as science (or the atheist) wants to run from this, this much can be concluded with all certainty: since matter is not self-creating, then the existence of matter has been determined by something (SOMEONE?) non-material, to wit, spiritual. One wonders where would we be in our understanding, in finding cures for diseases, for example, if the scientist would start from the position of “there IS [a]God.”
A scientist walks up to God one day and says, “We don’t need you. We can find the answers to problems on our own, we can find cures for illnesses on our own. We can discover reasons and causes that don’t require You...In fact, I bet you I can go into a lab right now and create life just like You did!”
So, God, reluctantly takes up the bet and the scientist begins. He walks outside his lab and begins to look around until he finds what he believes is a favorable spot in the ground and commences to dig. After he has scooped up a shovelful or two he hears a voice from Heaven say, “You must use your own dirt.”
“The Earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof...”
“All things were made by Him and for Him and in Him all things consist”
“The fool has said in his heart, “[There is] No God”
Are you going to take your ball and go home now?
Do you worship the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster?
;^)
If believers are wrong, it makes no difference. If unbelievers are wrong, it means damnation. I’d day the stakes are high.
I meant to type “say” not “day”.
Watched a good youtube of Ravi Zacharais last night called, “The Incoherence of Atheism”. He quotes a great (and amusing) poem about those who deny a Creator and their reasons for doing so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tThGBThxlx4
For some there is no evidence great enough - it will take the sky peeling away and the throne of God exposed - they’ll have their proof but it will be a little late at that point. For those more willing, God says you can find him if you seeks with all of your heart.
I did. But he owes me money.
Who said God was just in the sky?...lol
I don’t think we have the capacity to fully comprehend God but there do appear to be natural laws and mathematical relationships that strongly suggest an intelligent design and not just attributed to the analysis and interpretation of Man. Whenever I sit and watch nature like say a spider spinning a geometrically perfect spider web and note that her offspring do the very same thing with no training by the mother or a bird that builds a nest in the same manner it suggests to me a higher design. But to each his own I guess. If I’m I will enter into Heaven one day. If I’m wrong I will still have lived a good life in harmony with others doing good deeds and gone to meet twice a week with good friends who have become my extended family. If you’re wrong...not good and I’d hate to see that happen
Who said God was just in the sky?...lol
I don’t think we have the capacity to fully comprehend God but there do appear to be natural laws and mathematical relationships that strongly suggest an intelligent design and not just attributed to the analysis and interpretation of Man. Whenever I sit and watch nature like say a spider spinning a geometrically perfect spider web and note that her offspring do the very same thing with no training by the mother or a bird that builds a nest in the same manner it suggests to me a higher design. But to each his own I guess. If I’m right I will enter into Heaven one day. If I’m wrong I will still have lived a good life in harmony with others doing good deeds and gone to meet twice a week with good friends who have become my extended family. If you’re wrong...not good and I’d hate to see that happen, especially to a fellow conservative...lol
I understood your point, and you are right.
Don't worry, He has a pill for that.
But it's rather bitter going down.
Where did God come from?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.