Question

[DeterminedJuliet]

Lulz at Black claiming that this is a "philosophical" discussion all the while continuing to tell people that he's "praying for them".

[Whitney]

Lulz at Black claiming that this is a "philosophical" discussion all the while continuing to tell people that he's "praying for them".

I don't know why people try to argue over very simple easy to follow new member rules; breaking them just means their posts get moved to where they can't participate and breaking them repeatedly just annoys me (and the rest of the mods) because we have to move a lot of threads; and that's how people get themselves banned quickly.

[Asmodean]

Who created this forum is actually an interesting question.

Whitney owns and directs it and is responsible for several visual design features. A server farm hosts it. Every posting member contributes to it. Internet providers and telephone companies maintain access to it. SMF design the software - its backbone. That's not even getting into power, materials and a whole mess of other things.

Look at it this way: You have a concept in your head. It's yours and yours alone. You pick up a pencil and make a blueprint. Is it still yours..? Well, the concept is, but did you make the paper? The graphite? Did you cut and shape the wood? What about plastics, light bulbs and all the other things you use or are surrounded by - things that are, while often unappreciated and uncredited, still essential to making the blueprint a reality?

The thing is, almost everything you do is ultimately a collaborative effort and thus, very few people or companies can truly claim something as of their making and their alone. And, going beyond that, the atoms of which everything is made were in turn made by the stars.

If you follow the chain of events from the making of this forum and back far enough, you will discover that, as theorized, the big bang was the event that created everything. It is not unlikely that this event in itself had a cause. Perhaps one of higher dimension than the four we regularly operate with..?


My point is: Why do you have this urge to look for a creator? Who- or whatever takes the credit for something is, after all, usually but a part in its creation.

[Gawen]

As I mentioned earlier, I'm a Bible believing Christian.
vs.
Therefore, I believe that all people KNOW that God is there, based on what is given in the first chapter of Romans.

Could you narrow it down for us? Are you a CHRISTian or a Paulinian?

Consistant with my belief claim, I believe that scripture is divinely inspired and it reveals certain truths about reality which could not be known without scripture.

It would help to explain these truths.

Basically, it says that all are without excuse, in terms of acknowledging the existence of God and that we all recognize that we have each violated the purpose of God, who we all know is there.

Looks like Paul was wrong. And that a pretty hefty assertion for something that has no good evidence for it's existence. Same as the assertions below:

The reason all are without excuse, according to scripture, is because we have all been given creation and conscience. Creation shows us that God is there, and conscience shows us that we have violated the purpose of God.

How does one violate the purpose of an omni-being?

Have you ever truthfully thought that there was more to the physical reality we all share?

What Asmodean said. Ask me about the supernatural and the answer is no.

[Crow]

Can you define God? What do you mean with 'God'?
I understand in the way that God has created the universe and is essentially One. (In every religion)
But what is the essence being One, what makes Him One?
And how does He relate to creation and what makes Him different than creation?

I think the term "God" is hard to define as it means different things to different people. When I used the word it was a loose reference to the Jewish-Christian-Isamic god that created everything, made man from soils of the earth, woman from the side of man, is all knowing and powerful, and uses angels to do his earthly bidding with man.

The reason I state Tao and God are not the same is that in Taoism was created as a philosophy (not dissimilar to platonism) that later became a religion but at its essence is polytheistic and doesn't use the structures of the monotheistic religions. To define the differences between the two the popular view of Tao with scholars is that Tao came from nothing and is basically the fundamental building blocks of the universe, from which the Taiji formed - this as the best way I can explain is the flow of everything, this flow allowed for Yin Yang which is balance through its most basic form of opposites creating the source of each other, this then created Qi (chi) that is the energy that sustains life, thus creating everything. In the first text on the philosophy the Tao Te Ching this concept is referred to as the Tao and the Three Pure Ones, One being the Taiji, Two the Yin Yang, and Three the Qi. As the philosophy and religion is polytheistic the closest reference from the monotheistic God would be the Three Pure Ones(TPO) not the Tao as they are part of everything and together create everything but the Tao is what binds the TPO's to the many. If you were looking at it from a theistic context it would be the Tao that created God and is part of God, everything, and nothing. I can understand why Tao could be referenced to the Islamic view of God using this: "No vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision. God is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with all things" as the concept of Tao is "The Tao that can be explained with words is not the Tao." but the roles of the two are very different.

The teachings of the Monotheistic religions and Taoism couldn't be any further apart if they tried.

[history_geek]

Have you ever truthfully thought that there was more to the physical reality we all share?

Well, as some of us might have noticed, we're still living on a single rock, and though we have visited our moon, sent machines to Mars and probes far beyond, we're still barely out of bed, let alone the room. There are worlds worth of stuff yet to be discovered, and personally I think we might even stumble on creatures that we might consider "gods", ghosts, etc.

However, human religions are just that. Human religions, made by humans, for humans, supported and swallowed and fed by human. Period.

[Too Few Lions]

Here's a question:

As I mentioned earlier, I'm a Bible believing Christian. Consistant with my belief claim, I believe that scripture is divinely inspired and it reveals certain truths about reality which could not be known without scripture. Therefore, I believe that all people KNOW that God is there, based on what is given in the first chapter of Romans. Basically, it says that all are without excuse, in terms of acknowledging the existence of God and that we all recognize that we have each violated the purpose of God, who we all know is there. The reason all are without excuse, according to scripture, is because we have all been given creation and conscience. Creation shows us that God is there, and conscience shows us that we have violated the purpose of God. I've said all this to ask the "atheist":

Have you ever truthfully thought that there was more to the physical reality we all share?

I can only repeat what's been said before, there's a million miles between suggesting there might be a creative force or deity behind the Universe (which I personally don't believe) and claiming the Universe is proof of the Christian god, the Jewish god, the Muslim god, Zeus, Odin, Ra, Mithras or any other deity.

Your choice of which god to believe in is based on a book and an organised religion, not the physical reality of the Cosmos. Nothing in the Universe specifically points to your deity above any of those others (or the fairies at the bottom of my garden) as the creative force behind it all.

I also have to wonder why, if the Bible is divinely inspired, it's full of myths and stories that are historically inaccurate, and often plainly ridiculous. Rather than just revealing a load of silly myths, surely your god could have revealed some scientific truths to the writers of the Bible (or the Qur'an in the case of Muslims). For example, the writers of both the New Testament and the Qur'an thought that the Earth was at the centre of the Universe and the Sun revolved around it. I've never received any divine revelation, but I have a far better understanding of the Universe than the writers of either the Bible or the Qur'an.