Art48

I'd say we cannot be wrong about subjective experience but we can be wrong about how we interpret it. For example, "I see water" may be an erroneous i...

I expected this objection. The math of Quantum Mechanics works; it can describe phenomena within the accuracy equal to describing the distance from Ne...

Jesus. The Bible. St. Paul. Take your pick. They all failed.

I'd say an important difference is that merit-based immigration (ideally) would look at present, demonstrated needs and try to fill them. "There are n...

You'll need to define efficiency. Also, cos(x-pi/4) = sin(x+pi/4) but which is more efficient?

Gnomon, I like your two suggestions for column labels. "Intuitive, Mythical" vs. "Empirical, Rational" refer to epistemological methods, which may be ...

Applies now. Probably a bit of both innate and learned. Education can help change from left column to right. Open-mind Liberals vs closed-mind Conserv...

There's a difference between describing two types of people and a binary categorization which assumes every person belongs to one of the two types. Ex...

I'm more interested in the rows, the contrasts, than the column titles. With hindsight, I wish I had named the columns "Type 1" and "Type 2" so that m...

Quite true. Are people in heaven free?

The OP concerns the claim that objective moral values prove Gods existence. So, God is part of the claim I'm addressing.

I don't know how to describe a post-scientific column. Do you have any ideas?

Correct. One of the Ten Commandments could have been "Thou Shalt Not Enslave." Or, thinking outside the box, there could have been eleven commandments...

I'm not 100% happy with the labels. Progressive vs traditional is good but I'd need to resist the temptation to make it progressive vs regressive.

I take science as we know it today as beginning about the time of Newton. Christianity originated before modern science.

Yes, the sand never gets blown away. We know what we did but were we free to do something else? I feel I was free, but that's not the same as knowing.

I disagree. I think the issue revolves around "know". I mean "know" with absolute certainty. In your example, you "know" with high probability but not...

I'd say the best account is that people use the Bible to give themselves support for whatever they wish to believe. People will claim they are merely ...

Of course, that's possible in some cases, especially if the person is naive and simply takes their preachers word as to what the bible says. But since...

Christians have a long history of taking scripture out of context and deluding themselves into believing that it supports using scripture to support w...

Let’s consider the phrase “purpose of living.” A definition of purpose is “an object or end to be attained.” So, it seems asking “what is the purpose ...

I'd say that many people really don't believe in heaven and merely want to destroy someone they hate. But having never killed anyone, I don't speak fr...

I agree that many religious people have enough doubts about heaven that they fear dying. But your quote neglects the possibility that the crying is du...

This brings to my mind Sherlock Holmes who would sometimes turn to playing the violin. For what purpose? To put thinking aside, to still the mind? To ...

T Clark: Yes, I think they are relevant, too. And then there's Plotinus and others.

Yes, the OP can be taken as describing the origin of the "god shaped hole in the heart"

The experiences may well be common. Do you have any idea how an experience of a non-person God could translate into accepting a religion with person G...

Lewis omits an obvious alternative: legend. Not necessarily that Jesus is entirely legend but that what has come down to us is mostly legend. Just as ...

The OP is my attempt to understand a phenomena I've witnessed many times. It contains the example of King David's census, but multiple similar example...

There's an Australian mathematician, Norman Wildberger, on YouTube who doesn't accept infinities. Here's a link to one of his videos. Difficulties wit...

I agree that it's plausible; we can't prove psychic/paranormal abilities are impossible. On the other hand, we've had centuries to uncover positive pr...

I don't claim to know what Tillich or Hart have in mind, but "God is being itself but not a being" suggests to me that God, like the Hindu Brahman, is...

I agree. But the “shallow end of the pool” is occupied by, let’s say, 100 million people whereas the Tillich and Hart end is occupied by, let’s say, 1...

This is my first response in this thread so I'm responding to the OP.. Here's an excerpt from an article I'm working on which is relevant to the quest...

Good point. I'd say the OP concerns the ego but we also may be said to have a deeper self in that we are an expression of the entire universe, not tha...

I like it. Haven't seen it before.

Cuthbert, I don't agree with your assessment but there no point arguing. The link to the document is in the OP. People are free to accept your opinion...

If you read further, you'll see no claim that "I have the truth" is made.For instance, the section "The Nub" has "If and when it is shown that no fund...

1. I clearly do believe that God exists (as a reading of the document at the link shows) but not a God who is a person. 2. Moreover, a Christian might...

What he says seems clear: Thorne at 5:28: There is not matter in that black hole. It’s not a dense object made of very dense matter. There is no matte...

I'm quoting Kip Thorne. Listen to the Closer To Truth episode to hear then entire session.

Here's a possible response. My friend is kind; my friend is unkind. Contradiction. My friend sometimes behaves in a kind way; my friend sometimes beha...

Tate, The Historical Jesus link to Wikipedia "Historical Jesus" has this: "There is little scholarly agreement on a single portrait." Hm. Sounds like ...

OK, so I know what Jesus said according to the bible. And I have someone I don't know on the Internet claiming to know what Jesus meant, what Jesus wo...

The fine-tuning argument is simply the successor to the idea that lightning and thunder are physical signs of God's displeasure. A point against fine-...

Correct. What has come down to us is mostly fiction.

Killing a child who curses a parent is not the moral thing to do. It's an evil teaching.

Can you suggest a better label than "pre-science"?

The facts as I understand them determine my belief.

It means that we shouldn't take the Bible too seriously. I don't accept "the Bible says" or "Jesus says" as a valid argument.