“The work of God”?

[Ban-jani]

Will this become the new Brexit thread. Believers vs Unbelievers?
I fear it will be a little one sided.

I’m told to turn the other cheek so I doubt I’ll put up the same fight leavers/remainers will in the Brexit thread ;-)

 

[Saddleworth2]

I’m told to turn the other cheek so I doubt I’ll put up the same fight leavers/remainers will in the Brexit thread ;-)

I'll remind you of that on the Scottish Politics thread next time ;-)

 

[Ban-jani]

I take my hat to you for sharing this so honestly on a forum like this. You must have known the reaction you would get but then you do love a good debate ;-).
The first 10 years of my life were spent in a gentle dip into the waters through sunday school and church. As soon as I hit my teens that was binned I'm afraid. I have quite a bit of experience of the results of a catholic upbringing, both the good and the bad through marriage. Have never met anyone that has had a late conversion like you have described.

If I'm totally honest I don't have a concrete belief either way. I often used to think quite deeply as a child about the nature of the universe and our place in it. How could we be the only world in the whole of creation to hold sophisticated life? I still don't believe that question has been answered definitively. I may well keep my options open just in case I need to :-)

I certainly expected lots of piss taking, I didn’t really expect one or two to get angry about it but hey ho, I don’t mind the odd harsh comment.

It’s very common for that to happen to people, in what happened to you. I read recently 7/10 people raised in different Christian denominations households/schools etc. have binned it by 18.

To be honest up until I was 18 I had zero interest in the big questions or politics etc. City and girls and drinking beer was pretty much all I thought about until then.

 

[Ban-jani]

I'll remind you of that on the Scottish Politics thread next time ;-)

I’ve certainly mellowed in there.

I don’t think there’s much use in discussing IndyRef2 until it’s in the calendar so I can’t really be bothered at the mo.

 

[ZenHalfTimeCrock]

When the anti-religionists on here begin to discuss something like Nagarjuna’s Mulamadhyamikakarikas, the inner chapters of the Zhuangzi, Meister Eckhart, the mystical insights of Ibn Arabi, or the impenetrable lyricism of Dogen’s Shobogenzo with some kind of rudimentary facility, it might then be possible for a meaningful discussion to take place.

Until then....

 

[Saddleworth2]

I’ve certainly mellowed in there.

I don’t think there’s much use in discussing IndyRef2 until it’s in the calendar so I can’t really be bothered at the mo.

I hope you don't mind me saying but I notice a mellowing in general and a greater tolerance of contrary views. Thats a compliment be the way.

 

[Ban-jani]

It doesn’t take grit to stand up for your faith. Faith by definition is believing something without evidence, so all you need to do is just keep deluding yourself.

As for putting the onus on Atheists to disprove your delusions, that is a typical religious cop out, but I’ll go with it. Can you please disprove my belief that up in space there is a rainbow coloured unicorn currently having tea with Elvis. Until such point as you can disprove it, it’s more believable than anything you currently believe in.

You can also have faith in something with evidence to go alongside it.

I have faith City will win tonight because we’re a better team than Everton.

Anyway, what he meant by grit, is that defending it despite the ridicule and abuse you receive.

Agnostics have nothing to prove as they’re not claiming to know how the universe was formed, an atheist is claiming that it wasn’t created intelligently and with that claim, they’re making an assertion without evidence too.

 

[Ban-jani]

I hope you don't mind me saying but I notice a mellowing in general and a greater tolerance of contrary views. Thats a compliment be the way.

I don’t think that’s all down to my faith but it’s certainly helped.

When you view even those you disagree with as God’s children too, you tend to not get as angry with them.

Some arguments were during a time when I was under a lot of stress earlier this year and it’s why I took a break to be honest.

 

[stonerblue]

Science and religion aren’t mutually exclusive.

Science has shown us there’s a Big Bang, which religion arrived at there being a beginbefore science.

Science has shown us the universe is incredibly finely tuned and “looks as though it’s been created” I think, according to Einstein?

Also, eye witness accounts are taken in a court of law now, especially independent ones, so why are they so readily dismissed now?

Atheism doesn’t have a monopoly on science, it’s a belief that also takes faith.

Are you going to claim you know more about science than Francis Collins or John Lennox?

By the way, your comparison to a flat earther would be a reasonable one if we’d found the body of Christ and then I still believed in the Gospels, that would be a ridiculous thing for me to do as there is evidence I can view about the truth, just like now, where I can see the curvature of the world.

It’s a lazy, stupid argument.

So much to go at in this post but i really can't be arsed

 

[stonerblue]

Fucking hilarious. Keep it up fellas.

@Ban-jani s xmasses have all come at once on this thread. He gets to argue, sorry, 'debate' with almost all the members at once.