Well, if heaven is a place on earth, as per Belinda Carlisle, then the obvious corollary is hell can also be a place on earth.
Question. Not enough evidence for what? Enough evidence of the existence of the Christ? Enough evidence for the literal interpretation of scripture? Something in between?Quote:
multiple direct experiences with the presence of Jesus Christ," yet this is not enough evidence for you?
Quote:
Based on my study, I find the mythological, big picture, of Christianity to be the pinnacle of this second kind of truth (Note: I am using the definition of myth that religious scholars use and not using it to demean religion). I have also had multiple direct experiences with the presence of Jesus Christ. In none of my study and in none of my experiences do I find it compelling to use a literalist view of the Bible or of the teachings in it.
I mean, I'm super excited by the rational/theological tradition of western Catholicism. I just wish both science and religion could find a way, as a group of people, to move behind the conceptions in both.Amazing Moves said:Quote:
Based on my study, I find the mythological, big picture, of Christianity to be the pinnacle of this second kind of truth (Note: I am using the definition of myth that religious scholars use and not using it to demean religion). I have also had multiple direct experiences with the presence of Jesus Christ. In none of my study and in none of my experiences do I find it compelling to use a literalist view of the Bible or of the teachings in it.
- Claims of direct experiences with Jesus.
- Pro-Science.
- No literalist view of the Bible.
In this world that makes you a Catholic.
This post pretty much fills in all the blanks in the stereotype. 'Perciate it.wargograw said:
First off your experience, if it is God at all, would be with the Holy Spirit, not Jesus.
Secondly, even for the saints the Bible is not all literal. There is a lot of symbolism in there. Maybe you don't know how to distinguish between the real and the symbolic?
Thirdly, while the Bible does lay down good and perfect law, you do realize that following it does not save you, right? That your works of lawfulness are as filthy rags before the Lord? Moreover, do you know what the punishment for your myriad violations of those laws is? Do you know how to be spared that punishment? Do you think you will be?
Haven't read the entire thread, but just some things to think about.
The first part of that sentence is very key. The strength of the philosophy of Jesus is very strong evidence of his divinity. It is evidence that:americathegreat1492 said:Question. Not enough evidence for what? Enough evidence of the existence of the Christ? Enough evidence for the literal interpretation of scripture? Something in between?Quote:
multiple direct experiences with the presence of Jesus Christ," yet this is not enough evidence for you?
As I've come to realize, this is probably going to make me sound like an ass:BusterAg said:The first part of that sentence is very key. The strength of the philosophy of Jesus is very strong evidence of his divinity. It is evidence that:americathegreat1492 said:Question. Not enough evidence for what? Enough evidence of the existence of the Christ? Enough evidence for the literal interpretation of scripture? Something in between?Quote:
multiple direct experiences with the presence of Jesus Christ," yet this is not enough evidence for you?
1) There is a God
2) Jesus is his son; and
3) Christianity is the way to live the life of most fulfillment and joy.
I'm quite aware of not only people with down's syndrome but also those with other heritable intellectual dysfunctions. It's not that these people can't exist independently in society to an extent, they definitely can. It's more a question of whether they can think logically about the results of their and other people's actions. My answer is that I don't know. I don't know what the limit is on that. There is without a doubt a limit. The limit doesn't exist on full scale IQ but on one or a number of the subscales. And it's not a trivial difference. Even if you accept the culture argument you have to accept that something is causing people to not only accept but choose to engage in higher levels of corruption. Maybe it is just culture. Maybe it isn't. It doesn't seem obvious to me that one or the other is the only explanation.Texaggie7nine said:
Have you ever watched documentaries on or read about the people with down syndrome that have, for the most part, independent lives? They have jobs, live away from their parents ect. If you snapped your fingers and magically created millions more of these people I do not think it would put our republic or culture at risk, it would probably just create a lot more people that would be happy to do lower level work. Because we still have the millions and millions of people who are intelligently capable of running things.
Even in Idiocracy , it wasn't just the genetic dumbing down of the nation but mainly the cultural decline that caused the future to be so horrible. People that knew how to read and speak properly were called derogatory words.
And this argument is with assuming that people in non western counries are on the whole less genetically capable of having kids with high IQs, which I don't really buy.
As Sam Harris says, the variance of scores within each race is far larger than the variance from race to race, so it's really a pointless statistic.