For example, if you believe God has a hand in everything, you have to therefore believe the earthquake was caused by Him and to believe that, you’d have to believe he did it for a reason. You would also have to suspend disbelief that God would harm innocent people for no reason, and trod upon the already-suffering masses in a country that’s had more sadness than most others in the world. You’d essentially have to believe that your God, for no apparent reason, decided to smite a country with a natural disaster. What’s that, you say? I don’t understand.
Well, actually I do, because on top of believing that, if you believe God has a hand in everything, you’d also have to believe that God didn’t save thousands of people from torturous deaths in Haiti, but helped you graduate college, get a job promotion, or helped P. Diddy win a Grammy. In fact, we know he helped the Yankees win the World Series, and he helped numerous R&B singers win AMA’s, Grammy’s, and MTV VMA’s because, as they remind us when they win, they’d like to “thank God.”
That this leaves us in, at the very least, a contradictory position, is obvious. In order to believe God tinkers with our daily lives, we have to accept the fact that He destroyed a tropical nation of impoverished people, while at the same time gave Soulja Boy mad stacks on deck, lotsa hunnys, and so on. Does that even make sense to anyone?
78 Phydeau
“Belief” already has some doubt & a level of confidence built into the definition.
RBG
Re:#73, MrMiGu: “If evolution is indeed fact then please explain the LAW of evolution to me.”
MrMiGu, RBG, this link explains the facts about evolution, and answers all religious skepticism. It’s a long read, but if you are truly interested in determining the truth you will read it. I’ve read the bible several times in my lifetime, as I grew up in a Catholic home.
#80
I never claimed that creationism was a scientific theory. I guess my sarcasm didnt really come across on that statement. My argument was that evolution is just a theory and not truth. I accept it as the best model used to explain the origins of life but insisting it is truth is absurd. All of our knowledge is attained from subjective observations no matter how unbiased we try to be. If we are suddenly able to make observations from a new point of view all of our knowledge may become worthless, which was the point I was making about being able to see that the sun does not revolve around the earth.
Thomas and I were arguing pretty much the same thing, though I think I offended him by suggesting that a hypothesis was little more than an educated guess.
#83
My argument was that evolution is just a theory and not truth.
A great deal of the confusion is that you are co-mingling the scientific meaning of the word “theory” with the vernacular one. In science, theories are the truth. They are the best explanation for the observable facts but they are not set in stone. Just as Newton’s theories were revised to accommodate new data, so too can any other scientific theory.
Thomas and I were arguing pretty much the same thing, though I think I offended him by suggesting that a hypothesis was little more than an educated guess.
I’m not offended in the least. What I see is a lack of precision in the vocabulary that you use which is clearly creating confusion.
Actually, you did not say that a hypothesis was a guess. You said that a theory was a guess. A hypothesis actually is a guess of sorts. In science, it is a falsifiable, educated guess that explains the observable facts. A theory however is a completely different thing. It requires evidence to elevate a hypothesis to be a theory.
In the vernacular, a hypothesis and a theory are somewhat synonymous. In science, they are very different.
#83, MrMiGu,
You make “truth” out as black and white. It seldom is.
“Truth” is based upon the best available evidence. Every day we discover that we thought was “true”, wasn’t.
A hypothesis is a lot more than an educated guess. An educated guess is what you order in a restaurant.
JCJ7161 YOU STILL WITH THAT CHEATING WHORE?