Alien Ideas: Christianity and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life

CRISIS magazine via CERC ^ | BENJAMIN D. WIKER

[stuartcr]

What is this moral error/guilt?

[exmarine]

What is the moral error? It is called sin. Missing the mark of God's perfect moral standard. God gave his rules in the 10 commandments and no one (and I mean NO ONE) is able to keep them. If you break a commandment, you are in moral error. Have you ever lied? (I have) Have you ever lusted after a woman not your wife? (I have) Have you ever coveted someone else's possessions (I have) Have you ever disprespected your parents (I have) Have you ever hated someone with your heart (I have - same as murder as murder starts with hatred).

[stuartcr]

Everything you say is referenced to the bible, not everyone is a Christian.

[Johnny Shear]

Got any provable examples of this lying and hypocrisy?

Read down through the posts, hypocrite.

[exmarine]

Everything you say is referenced to the bible, not everyone is a Christian.

Yes, that's right. I realize many people have other beliefs, held sincerely, but they are sincerely wrong (with all due respect). The Law of non-contradiction does not allow that everyone's view of God be true and correct, as the various conceptions of God contradict each other, i.e. they are all different Gods. All can be wrong, or only ONE can be true. Since you believe in God, you must know that only ONE can be true. Your conception of God is based upon your opinion, mine is based on the bible, history, the life of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection. Whose conception is better supported by evidence? Indeed, Christianity is the ONLY faith with any true evidence - it is rooted in actual-space time. The entire bible is written in terms of actual space-time history. The people and places are real, they are not stories, and archeology has gone a long way to prove that.

[stuartcr]

All can be wrong, but that is not to say that any are right. It is one of the facts of life that all our faiths are nothing more than faith.

[exmarine]

All can be wrong, but that is not to say that any are right. It is one of the facts of life that all our faiths are nothing more than faith.

"Logically," all COULD be wrong, that doesn't mean all ARE wrong. It is a fact that my faith is more than faith. My faith is in a real person - Jesus Christ, who really lived, really died, and really lives again, and who really loves me and gives me eternal life. My faith is based on real evidence - it is a rational faith. Faith in faith alone is a non-rational leap. There is a difference between the two. It sounds like your faith is a sort of vague hope that if there is a god up there, you will find out when you die, and hope that he is not the Christian god I am telling you about. Do you really want to pin your eternity on that vague unsubstantiated hope?

[stuartcr]

As I said, all could be wrong. Your beliefs cannot be more than faith, as nothing about God or our beliefs, can be proven. It's still faith.

[exmarine]

YOu are right, they cannot be "proven" to be certain. In that sense, I do have faith they are true. By the same token, however, nothing in history can be proven to be absolutely certain, can it? Did George Washington really exist? Prove it beyond a shadow of a doubt. Do you know that there is actually a trend in our universities that says that no true history can be known about anything (historical relativism)and that it depends on a person's perspective? Indeed, universities teach that there is no truth at all that can be known. This philosophy is self-refuting and cannot stand up to logic. However, they dispense with this by saying that logic is also relative. The only problem with that is, they must use logic to make the statement! See what happens when mankind thumbs his nose at God and goes his own way? In any case, I wish you well. I feel we had a good discussion and I thank you for your kind answers to my questions.

[babaloo999]

Well, if you're asking for a profound rational reason I can't really give you one. I'm just one of those poor, misguided believers. Not that I'm much of a practitioner, I just don't have any reason not to believe.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

but the God described by some here as one that would condemn skeptics...

MATTHEW 7:14 "Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."

Only God knows who is saved and who is condemned. But as creations of God, we each live out the life He has given us.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

That knowledge is not substantiated, it's believed. Faith.

Faith is a gift. A substantial gift.

When my kids were small and learning to walk, they believed I would catch them when they fell.

I always did.

[yendu bwam]

There is a distinct difference between possible and plausible.

If you think about science (quantum mechanics, relativity, the Big Bang, DNA, consciousness, etc. etc.), most of what we have discovered in this century was possible, but for most hardly plausible. A great deal of what we can do today would have been magical or miraculous to those who preceded us. Something to think about.

[MEGoody]

"Without actually observation, and hard proof. . ."

You know, it's funny that there are so many who demand this when the topic is the resurrection. Yet their standards of evidence are quickly lowered when the topic is evolution or some other such thing.

[MEGoody]

"Not a single document written by any of those eyewitnesses exists."

LOL You must be joking.

[MEGoody]

"I might add that I don't find in the words of Jesus, much demand for theological purity."

John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by Me."

[MEGoody]

"Your beliefs cannot be more than faith, as nothing about God or our beliefs, can be proven. It's still faith."

Well, I guess it's pretty clear you do not have any kind of personal relationship with God. After all, you can't have a relationship someone and then logically say that you can't know they exist, only believe.

[Dr. Eckleburg]

Yep. E.T.s more plausible than God.

I think it's often because a belief in aliens and spirits and elves is less intellectually rigorous than Biblical study (though they'd deny that, never having studied the Bible).

[stuartcr]

You are correct, but as I said before, those historical events, and peoples, are believable, in that they currently exist...ie...people are born, wars happen, etc. Resurrection, virgin birth, etc. do not happen on even a recurring basis. It's simply a matter of faith, many faiths differ.

[stuartcr]

I ask nothing, as I too, am a believer. Our beliefs are different.