Choosing a faith

I have no way of knowing and you have no way of knowing that I am wrong. I have only said that the Biblical creations stories are mythology, which only means that I view them not as literal truth but, mythologies can hold greater truths than literal accounts. As for the rest of the OT there is a lot that is history usually told with a biased POV, as well as their evolving understanding of their god.The Bible can be broken down into the OT and the NT, but in reality it is a collection of 66 books. Not really. I know we have a world that has enough coherence to it that science has been able to accomplish what it has. I know that we have the ability to discern right and wrong. I know we can look at raw matter and find beauty. I know that I can experience love, along with all the other emotions.Your explanation is that natural processes are responsible. I'm afraid I just don't buy it which is evidence of nothing. I am not trying to convince you of anything and have no expectation that I can. I do however want to dispel the notion of some of the fundamentalist thinking as being a perverted view of the Gospel message.As I said in another post, Jesus made it clear that our belief is not a theological belief, but I belief that all humanity is called to live by the code of loving and caring for others, and even loving sacrificially. The only instances in the Gospels where Jesus mentions people who have great faith, it turns out to be a Roman centurion and a Canaanite woman. He tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. All outsiders.Today I contend it would be the story of the Good Muslim or even, heaven forbid, the good atheist.

I don't see it.Like you, I've been through this experience with multiple kids of my own and others. What I see is the kid's first brush with death comes with the adults acting strange to the point it is obvious they think something bad happened. Death, whatever that is, is now bad, makes everyone cry and takes my friend away from me.Told that their friend has died and gone to heaven means nothing. Died has no meaning other than "not here now" and gone to heaven may as well be she went to visit her grandmother in Schenectady and won't be back, ever.So, yeah, kids learn this thing called death is bad from watching the reactions of others and feeling the loss themselves. When empathy sets in they won't want to visit that on others. I don't see an instinct kicking in. I see acculturation. And I see no glimmer of understanding of the actual results and permanence of biological death until middle school, 12-14 years old.

I have no way of knowing, can't show my knowing, therefore you can't show I am wrong which leaves open the minor probability that proves me right. Therefore god!Brilliant, GDR. Absolutely brilliant. There is that superiority showing again. There is no "The" bible. There are hundreds of them. But those others don't necessarily lead to the comforting attributes you ascribe to your favorite flavor of god so they have to be labeled as wrong. Bad bibles. Heretical bibles. Products of evil doers out to subvert the path to god. Kill the heretics! Kill the heretics!Got carried away in my religious person role. Sorry. Yes, god forbid a good atheist.I tried that. Your god does not like that. He tried to forbid me walking the streets of heaven. After a couple hours of his constant shouting, pleading with me to please leave, I walked away still laughing. Last I saw he was sobbing on his knees pointing to the pearly gates gasping and choking, "Please, please, leave. Go away!"You believe me, don't you, GDR? I mean I have no way of knowing and you have no way of knowing that I am wrong. So you do believe me, right?

I didn't offer the Bible as evidence. I would say though that the Bible, when read in totality through the lens of the words that are credited to Jesus, we can see that it does portray a positive model of morality, but again, that isn't evidence.
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We can see that chemical reactions exist. Not so with gods. That would seem to tip the balance towards chemical reactions.On top of that, of the processes that we know of a cause, none are caused by deities. There have been many phenomena that were once described as the product of the supernatural, but are now explained through known natural causes. Never has this gone in the opposite direction. At no point have we had a suspected natural cause turn out to be the outcome of a known and verifiable supernatural process.

I think it is more accurate to say that it is more about studying what I believe my nature should be. For example I believe that as a Christian I am called to love all animal life and should therefore be a vegetarian.So far...not happening.

Edited by GDR, : Always preview first.

It has taken us from dinosaurs to sentient beings.

I should have been more specific. I meant modern medicine with hospitals. The first hospitals were in Rome and built by the church.
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History of hospitals - Wikipedia When I was 6-7 years old we lived on the outskirts of Calgary a city then of about 150,000. Every Sat. morning my folks would give me 25 cents and I would catch a bus and go downtown and attend "Eaton's Good Deed Radio Club" along with a couple of hundred other kids from around the city. Today that would be neglect.I was allowed at the age I would all over the place on my bike. Sometimes Mom would pack me a lunch and I'd be gone all day. Today that would be neglect.I was walked to school for the first and last time for my 1st day in grade one and there was never any thought of being driven. About 6 years ago I started a band called 12 O'Clock Rock playing primarily pre-Beatles rock n roll. That music was fun and it was great to see people, including kids at some venues, just having fun. It was fun music, and no insult intended, but much more so that disco.

You think sentience is an evolutionary plus for the planet?

I see love as being omni-present in our world, and I guess that I was thinking it was limited to of mammals and I shouldn't just limit it there. You are probably right. Thanks

Firstly that I would point out that the universe was once infinitely small. I can't remember which one, but one scientific writer I read claimed that "our world is an emergent property of a greater reality" which then would I suppose just leave me with a god that is responsible for life and how that life perceives this universe. I'm fine with that. ......or that it might have always existed in one form or another. Science of the Gaps, which does not make it impossible I agree I disagree
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You may well disagree, but your disagreement is irrational - there is no equivalence in the two positions and I suspect you know it, you're not a stupid guy, just deluded.

It's not Science of the Gaps. It's experience.We have millions of natural explanations for what was once unknown. We have zero verified supernatural explanations for what was once unknown. It is completely rational to expect to find a natural explanation for the origin of life instead of a supernatural one.

Some of my responses are brief as instead of discussing these subjects with one person as all of you do, I'm having to carry on discussions with a half a dozen or more.I have no scientific evidence as I have said numerous times. I think that some things like the anthropic principle imply a comic intelligence but it isn't proof or scientific evidence. If it is inherent in our existence then it remains an open question as to why that is the case. There is no evidence to give us an answer one way or the other. If morality was an instinct then we would all react the same way to it. If someone throws a rock at you we all would duck. However, morality varies between individuals and cultures and I suggest that all of us ignore our sense of morality. I frankly use the terms synonymously. However, now that I think about that might be a mistake. I suppose that an atheist could believe in things that a materialist wouldn't such as dark matter. I would say that atheists deny him but attribute only natural causes for his rules but not necessarily denying that the rules are there. Religion isn't just about love and is often the opposite. Religions are manmade institutions that focus, at least predominately, on their beliefs about the nature of a deity.​

On a related note, I noticed that the ceremony for the transfer of power to Charles III is an Anglican church service. It is odd how humans anthropomorphize at times.