Quote (Handcuffs @ Mar 26 2020 07:45pm)

The difference between Christianity and other religions is that 1 gets a subforum on JSP and the others don't.

Quote (Ghot @ Mar 28 2020 09:29am)

Christianity has more letters in it's name than any other religion. Such an easy question. :D

Quote (Testiclese @ Mar 28 2020 12:32pm)

Zoroastrianism says hi.

Quote (Ghot @ Mar 28 2020 09:34am)

Pfft. Only serious religions here, please. :/

Quote (LazyDazy @ Mar 28 2020 04:09am)

Faith is a word with many nuances. One biblical definition is "(...) Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." The gospels and letters in the New Testement can produce faith, which can also be translated as assurence and trust. Trust in the historical significance of 4 separate accounts of the events described. Now that might not be enough for most people.

You see faith in everyday life, faith in your wife or husband. Faith in economics, which is pretty fragile under the current events.
Other perspectives and realities that helps build the foundation of faith besides the gospel and personal hope of each individual, is by looking at the natural world while applying science, philosophy and theology as a mean of translating what's before our eyes.
I'm sure you're familiar with the cosmological and fine-tuning arguments, so let's skip further discussion on those.

What I'm trying to argue is that faith is not blind as you seem to apply. Faith is drawn towards truth. One might adopt a highly sceptical "scientific" approach to the world, being faithless towards reality itself, because of the barriers and methods one is using. I would say that as a book produces faith in my heart that someone wrote that book, so does the DNA of the human body produce faith that intelligence was behind. That doesn't seem to satisfy most who are atheist or agnostic.

Who can tell what makes a man take the leap of faith. Personally I went from being sceptical myself to where I'm standing now, unable to have faith in the religion of atheism. I think we fall prey to our own ego's, wanting to be the masters of our choices. Apathy, blindness, hatred, all sorts of things clouds the mind. Only help from outside is able to lift the curtain to the Light of this world. Jesus Christ.

Quote (Thor123422 @ 28 Mar 2020 18:32)

You are just trying to make a stronger argument by implicitly substituting "faith" and "trust". The bible does not call for trust, because trust is based on previous experience, it calls for faith that will survive regardless of contradictory experience.

Quote (LazyDazy @ Mar 28 2020 02:31pm)

From Wikipedia:


Faith, derived from Latin fides and Old French feid,[1] is confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept.[1][2] In the context of religion, one can define faith as belief and trust in God or in religious teachings.[3] Religious people often think of faith as confidence based on a perceived degree of warrant,[4][5] while others who are more skeptical of religion tend to think of faith as simply belief without evidence.[6]

As I said, the meaning of faith is nuanced and not just a simple word as many unbelievers tend to think.

Quote (Thor123422 @ 28 Mar 2020 20:42)

I'm sorry, I thought we were using the Bible. The Bible is very explicit on the type of thing that it wants from its Believers and its unwavering belief regardless of contradictory experience

Quote (LazyDazy @ Mar 28 2020 02:49pm)

Do you have some example for discussion? Paul in his letters for example highly encourage that all that he said should be tested, that people should think critically. He, a Jew and a former Pharisee, one who executed Christians to begin with. He, converted to Christianity because of his experiences. He talks about 500 people being eye witnesses of Jesus resurrection and the list goes on.

What would it take for you Thor, to make the leap? You talked about consciousness a few days ago - what do you make of the fact, that scientists seriously consider that the universe might be a simulation of some sort, that quantum mechanics behaves like a halogram with infinite possibilities, the double slits experiment that atoms behave differently when observed and finally: the whole structure of the universe with all the galaxies form what seems like one big neurological-network of a brain! The last line might be taking it too far, but everything in existence is pretty mind blowing to begin with, so why not?