Christianity is a false religion

Yeah, why not? If Christianity is false, that doesn't mean Islam or Scientology are right. Logic 101.

Look who's talking. Anyways, I think we better leave it as it is, Mr. It is what it is.

@modernpaladin, yepp, it's plausible.

 

Asking questions is trolling?

 

I don't believe your story about raising a carnivore species as an herbivore.

 

Yes, this is the lack of difference between atheism and agnosticism that I pointed to.

The precise dictionary definitions are different, but in the real world there really is no difference that I know of.

 

Supposing a sufficiently advanced extraterrestrial being or beings that have, for example, existed for hundreds of millions of years, travel through space at faster than light, learned how to manipulate or even exist within the altered physics at the event horizon of a black hole and even manipulate and travel through time, seeded life on our planet and/or guided our evolution for a specific purpose ...what would be the meaningful difference between such a being and 'god'?

 

I haven't heard of this mountain of death required to support vegetarian or vegan diets.

Ideas?

 

The god's of man pretty much all have rules of how we are to run our lives, objectives for our actions, ability to change at least significant portions of the universe, provide an afterlife, etc.

There are those such as some of our own founding fathers who saw god as simply creating this universe and then leaving us alone. But, that doesn't seem too popular today.

 

Might it simply be that those 'rules' are actually natural laws? If, for example, it turns out that we have a non-biological energetic aspect of ourselves, a 'life force' if you will, that transfers to another dimension once its no longer tied to our biological body upon 'death', and that 'life force' is predisposed to transfer to either a dimension of chaos and suffering or a dimension of order and bliss depending on how that life force interects with others in this physical reality, its not difficult to imagine that such knowledge, if gifted to humanity thousands of years ago when we were celebrating the advent of the wheel, would instead be presented to us in more simple terms, like 'god' and 'soul' and 'sin' and 'savior' and etc.

 

OK, I hope I'm not misunderstanding your point here.

I don't accept the supernatural "life force" ideas that some hold.

Surely the behavior of all life forms is explainable without resorting to a supernatural source (god, aliens, something even more abstract, whatever).

As for practical reality as we study life forms, it's important to NOT use escape clauses such as the supernatural. When it's decided that the answer to something we don't understand is "supernatural", that's the end of exploration/science. One can't continue beyond that, until you decide that the "supernatural" is probably NOT the answer.

In real life, this has happened over and over again, with those believing in the supernatural working to prevent continued exploration.

 

Ch*mk is also aterm for a faulty piece of iron. Sorry the race game won't be played here.

 

I wasn't criticizing you, just letting you know in case you were sincere in not knowing. I can't recall what it was right now but there was some other word that has a racial and a non-racial meaning that I would leetspeak in to pass the profanity filter here in the past.

 

So where did you get the idea that you must be a "priest" to baptize? I did "serve" as a Deacon and I guess the Elders and Pastors see me fit to baptize, but more important, I am a believer and brother in Christ to all who believe. Even "priests" have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God as we all have.

How would you even know anything about Jesus without it? Would you take the word of a "priest"? My faith, what I believe, is based on the fact the Father has drawn me to Him. I see too many conflicts in worldly wisdom. My earthly Father had good principles but no relationship with God. When I saw him fail and not show the humility to face it, it shattered my complete belief in him. My heavenly Father never fails. I see it as a gift. The Bible is His effort to communicate to me while giving me a choice. Jesus told Thomas "you have seen and believed. Blessed are those who have never seen and believed!" If you looked into the Canon of Scripture, you would see how painstakenly men and women of different denoms prayed, consulted with eachother and invited the Holy Spirit to guide them to compile the written truth. Jesus did say I will send you a "teacher". Then the miracles of the martyrs who gave their lives to translate these scriptures into everyday language. The Bible was then the first book to be printed after the invention of the printing press. It is available to everyone. #1 best seller worldwide. The fact we have it and it has been preserved is a miracle.

 

I was criticizing FB for being so "WOKE"! It's happened before. Free speech is on the chopping block.

 

George Washington and John Adams, Tisdale and others would gladly disprove you. In fact, I could do it but why waste the time? The beauty of the Founders was that they set "petty denominational differences aside and got down to the business of founding a Nation on Christian/Judeo principles.

 

I wanted to address the subject of baptism for you. There are five scriptures in the Book of Romans we call the "Roman Road" . If you're interested Google it. It explains why we baptize only those who understand it's purpose and desire to make a public confession.

 

su·per·nat·u·ral
[ˌso͞opərˈnaCH(ə)rəl]
ADJECTIVE

1. (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature

Everything outside of current scientific understanding is by definition supernatural. Unless you're prepared to argue that we currently understand everything about the universe, then by definition the supernatural does exist. And what the supernatural might include is advanced aliens with technological abilities we could attribute to god and superdimensional life force energies that transcend our biological existence. And maybe not, of course.

Theres no reason that any of this would prevent continued exploration... I for one would very much like to be able to find out.

 

I think the common understanding of that definition is that the supernatural is beyond ability of science to EVER understand - that science is not adequate, because of what science is.

I think a clearer definition is that supernatural means "beyond the laws of nature". Again, science is excluded, because of what science is. If it is supernatural, then the methodology and foundations of science are irrelevant.

At one time, the belief was that the presence of numerous species on Earth was supernatural - thus science should stop exploring, because there was an answer that was outside of the laws of nature. Thus scientific investigation should be STOPPED. Galileo could have been executed, because he blasphemed against the supernatural answers of the heavens, addressing that realm with science! (Galileo was too popular to execute, fortunately.)

Science can't answer what dark matter is. But, nobody believes that dark matter is outside the laws of nature. Science can make progress on figuring out dark matter.

Supernatural can't be all those things we don't know. That would mean that nature is what WE think it is. Surely its better to see the universe as nature, with humans progressing in their efforts to learn about it. Then, the supernatural becomes all those things that aren't nature, thus things that science can never address.

 

So what you're talking about is magic. I'm not talking about magic. And I think trying to reduce religion/spirituality to magic is a game for the lazy. AND btw its not just religion that gets in the way of scientific progress. Science gets its own way too, such as when an academic community decides that a new theory doesn't have merit simply because it stands to contradict an old theory that academics have based too much of their work on already.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. If we can accept that advanced alien civilizations might be able to know how to travel faster than light, extend their lifespan indefinitely, harnass the energy of entire galaxies and bend black holes to their will, then we're talking about god stuff, and its not magic.

 

No, what is ludicrous is going on about ‘thou shalt not kill’ and seeing Leviticus as the word of God then killing and eating animals. Wasn’t Jesus once supposedly witnessed calling some people hypocrites?

 

Too bad.
It is the truth, they are my grandchildren actually and are both fit and healthy living in North London. Uncontaminated by having their stomachs used as a charnel house.
I think you will find the correct term is omnivore not carnivore.

 

I'll take things that didn't happen for 500

 

Nope. I’ve put this post through Google translate and it still makes no sense.

Plenty of children are raised vegan, but maybe not in America seeing as how obese so many Americans are.

 

There are various belief systems that include the supernatural. We see beliefs in god, reincarnation, notions of a universal consciousness that helps us with our consciousness or decisions, or whatever. There are those on this board who follow the advice of those who die and come back with greater knowledge! There are those who like crystals - a lot.

Your last paragraph is interesting in some ways, but it isn't a guide to how to think about the supernatural. First, lots of things have looked shocking to us. Relativity theory, quantum theory - absolutely shocking. Major noted scientists actually refused these ideas. That has not meant we should look at them in some new way, because they appear supernatural.

Also, let's be careful about throwing away our physics. We've tested it! It works! It won't stop working if we get smarter.

You certainly can (and many do) put together a list of all the things an alien life form might have to solve in order to visit! To me it seems more likely that they would send robots that are smarter than chatgbt. Then they can worry less about keeping a lifeform alive. One might estimate how useful or how long stuff would take to develop.

 

Don't believe you.

 

Too bad.