Of course I don't take all Christians to be one way or another. The one thing
they all have in common is that they
identify themselves as Christians. I was raised a Christian myself and I only
considered myself an atheist maybe a year or two ago at the most.
One thing I've thought about is that there may be things beyond our
understanding. Imagine if we created an intelligent robot. It could think for
itself, but we also programmed it to not believe 2+2=4. No matter how logical
the conclusion would be, it would reject it even if it could think for itself.
The same could be true for humans too. The only problem with that is that we can
only truly go with what we are able to reason to be true or else we could say,
"Maybe we were made to believe 2+2=4 when it actually is 5." It's
worthless to say that and there's no way to confirm it.
The same is true with God. If we want to get as close to the truth as possible,
we can leave the possibility open that God exists, just as it's possible 2+2
actually is 5, but we have to go with what the most logical explanation is that
requires the least assumptions. If we look back in history, to people then there
weren't explanations for nearly anything. Imagine you're someone 5,000 years
ago. If you see that it starts raining, you're probably going to assume some
supernatural entity is causing the rain and attribute some human quality to it,
such as it's because it's upset so it's crying. Of course, even if you don't
know the explanation now (which you probably do), you probably know there is one
(feel free to do a search for it if you want). Now, using rain as proof of the
existence of God wouldn't work since we actually know why it happens. What
people used to use was what is known as the "God of the gaps" to
justify their belief. When you don't know how something happens, it's proof of
God's existence. That is obviously illogical, but it's usually hard for people
to see that unless they have it explained to them.
Another example of the God of the gaps is that we don't know everything about
how we came into existence, so God must exist. Now that we have a lot of
knowledge this sort of thing, such as evolution and cosmology, the people who
used to assert God exists because they don't know how else we could have come
about are the people who say that the theory of evolution, for example, doesn't
explain the complexity of humans (which it does, but so few non-biologists have
a decent understanding of evolution that this argument is pretty effective). In
other words, they're denying "new" knowledge because they don't want
to change their beliefs. Most people have changed their beliefs to reflect new
knowledge, but many refuse to and they don't even know why they do.
Sorry, I kind of went overboard with my reply.
Edit: Also, I noticed your post on the Christian-Fellowship guestbook (though I
don't visit that group very often I happened to right after writing this post).
You said: "The question i asked myself is, "What makes us different
from Non-Christians?"" The only thing that makes Christians different
from non-Christians is that one group calls themselves Christians and the other
"group" doesn't. Although you probably didn't mean to, it's a subtle
form of dehumanization where a member of one group makes it seem as though it's
"us versus them". For example, a white supremacist might say that
"white" people should act with more civility than people of African
descent, thus dehumanizing those people who have lived or have ancestors from
Africa. We're all humans beings and it's important you keep that in mind. ^_^
Hi! Thanks for the comment on my thread...^-^...
You're a Summer lover... the beach is always the best place to be...haha
I love the beach too... *hi-five
Cya around in MT.
Bye!
Please don't post wallpapers into the scans gallery. That's considered ripping,
and is against MT policy. There is only 1 exception to this -- official
wallpapers, if the proper size, may be put in the scans gallery with proper
credit. (An official wallpaper is one made by the original company -- for
example, official Final Fantasy wallpapers come off the Square-Enix website.)
Quote by mishmash So you did the hsc
last year ey?
i'm a lazy bum and i wish i were more with the time thingy i
love my anime too much, not to mention my computer ^^ which school did ya go
to?
yes i did. haha, dw, that's what i was like in year 12 too. hrm, wait, i'm still
like that.
and as for school, i went to MFIS (islamic school in chullora).
Hihi! Just wanted to welcome you to 'Chibi-Fest'!!
Ahh you love drawing chibis? That's great! Even though our competition is
closing soon, you might want to submit something?
Anyways, have a wonderful and I'll see you around^^
Hey mishmash, nice to meet you! I'm CLAMPchic, the admin for the MT group
Christian-Fellowship, and I wanted to welcome you to the group! Sorry it took
so long for you to get added...I've been gone and haven't been on MT much
recently, so I hadn't gotten around to managing the group and adding people.
Anyway, I hope you come around every once in awhile and post in the guestbook;
hopefully I'll see you around! *waves* 'Bye for now~
Quote by mishmashif you havent looked at
my avatar, its mish^^ short for michelle. And i
dont know my chinese name (0.o) but if you say 'michelle' in chinese it
means 'rice poo' LOL
lllooolll are you chinese? my friend is chinese but she
knows her chinese name though she never told me cuz i wouldnt pronounce it right
probably ^_^ woo minitokyo does rock ^_^ ill add you to my friendslist
Hey, My msn is marfish14@hotmail.com. I dont use it much anymore, but I'd like to read the articles you have there. Thanks
Of course I don't take all Christians to be one way or another. The one thing they all have in common is that they identify themselves as Christians. I was raised a Christian myself and I only considered myself an atheist maybe a year or two ago at the most.
One thing I've thought about is that there may be things beyond our understanding. Imagine if we created an intelligent robot. It could think for itself, but we also programmed it to not believe 2+2=4. No matter how logical the conclusion would be, it would reject it even if it could think for itself. The same could be true for humans too. The only problem with that is that we can only truly go with what we are able to reason to be true or else we could say, "Maybe we were made to believe 2+2=4 when it actually is 5." It's worthless to say that and there's no way to confirm it.
The same is true with God. If we want to get as close to the truth as possible, we can leave the possibility open that God exists, just as it's possible 2+2 actually is 5, but we have to go with what the most logical explanation is that requires the least assumptions. If we look back in history, to people then there weren't explanations for nearly anything. Imagine you're someone 5,000 years ago. If you see that it starts raining, you're probably going to assume some supernatural entity is causing the rain and attribute some human quality to it, such as it's because it's upset so it's crying. Of course, even if you don't know the explanation now (which you probably do), you probably know there is one (feel free to do a search for it if you want). Now, using rain as proof of the existence of God wouldn't work since we actually know why it happens. What people used to use was what is known as the "God of the gaps" to justify their belief. When you don't know how something happens, it's proof of God's existence. That is obviously illogical, but it's usually hard for people to see that unless they have it explained to them.
Another example of the God of the gaps is that we don't know everything about how we came into existence, so God must exist. Now that we have a lot of knowledge this sort of thing, such as evolution and cosmology, the people who used to assert God exists because they don't know how else we could have come about are the people who say that the theory of evolution, for example, doesn't explain the complexity of humans (which it does, but so few non-biologists have a decent understanding of evolution that this argument is pretty effective). In other words, they're denying "new" knowledge because they don't want to change their beliefs. Most people have changed their beliefs to reflect new knowledge, but many refuse to and they don't even know why they do.
Sorry, I kind of went overboard with my reply.
Edit: Also, I noticed your post on the Christian-Fellowship guestbook (though I don't visit that group very often I happened to right after writing this post). You said: "The question i asked myself is, "What makes us different from Non-Christians?"" The only thing that makes Christians different from non-Christians is that one group calls themselves Christians and the other "group" doesn't. Although you probably didn't mean to, it's a subtle form of dehumanization where a member of one group makes it seem as though it's "us versus them". For example, a white supremacist might say that "white" people should act with more civility than people of African descent, thus dehumanizing those people who have lived or have ancestors from Africa. We're all humans beings and it's important you keep that in mind. ^_^
Hi! Thanks for the comment on my thread...^-^...
You're a Summer lover... the beach is always the best place to be...haha
I love the beach too... *hi-five
Cya around in MT.
Bye!
Please don't post wallpapers into the scans gallery. That's considered ripping, and is against MT policy. There is only 1 exception to this -- official wallpapers, if the proper size, may be put in the scans gallery with proper credit. (An official wallpaper is one made by the original company -- for example, official Final Fantasy wallpapers come off the Square-Enix website.)
Konnichiwa Mishmash-san,domo arigatou gozaimasu for applying to the Samurai group.Also welcome
yes i did. haha, dw, that's what i was like in year 12 too. hrm, wait, i'm still like that.
and as for school, i went to MFIS (islamic school in chullora).
Hihi! Just wanted to welcome you to 'Chibi-Fest'!!
Ahh you love drawing chibis? That's great! Even though our competition is closing soon, you might want to submit something?
Anyways, have a wonderful and I'll see you around^^
EDIT: Oooo Australian? Cool! Me too!!
Hey mishmash, nice to meet you! I'm CLAMPchic, the admin for the MT group Christian-Fellowship, and I wanted to welcome you to the group! Sorry it took so long for you to get added...I've been gone and haven't been on MT much recently, so I hadn't gotten around to managing the group and adding people. Anyway, I hope you come around every once in awhile and post in the guestbook; hopefully I'll see you around! *waves* 'Bye for now~
hey hey, doing your HSC this year are you? well, gl. i did my HSC last year, so i know how you feel.
you don't happen to visit the www.boredofstudies.com hsc forums, do you?
as for anime during the HSC, i sure as hell watched quite a lot, but just try to keep a balance between study and play, and you should be fine.
lllooolll are you chinese? my friend is chinese but she knows her chinese name though she never told me cuz i wouldnt pronounce it right probably ^_^ woo minitokyo does rock ^_^ ill add you to my friendslist
minitokyo rocks.