University Students Are Being Failed In Exams Because They Quote Sayings From The Bible Or Qur'an As Scientific Facts

[gazza]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

 

nar id shoot the f**ker see if he was really real.

[La_Dolce_Vita]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

Nobody would deny he existed if he presented himself to everyone and performed what we would consider miracles. But that isn't the reality. It would not appear that he has presented himself to anyone from what I have read and been told. There is no evidence of him having done so.

[gazza]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

Nobody would deny he existed if he presented himself to everyone and performed what we would consider miracles. But that isn't the reality. It would not appear that he has presented himself to anyone from what I have read and been told. There is no evidence of him having done so.

 

Ahh you see LDV theres the perfect plan. he only shows himself to the ones that have faith, thats why we dont see him

[Lao]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

 

 

If such a thing did happen, i would probably assume that i had sanity issues, however if he appeared to me but was more evident and physical than a halucination would be, like for example was also seen by others that would be quite compelling evidence.

[Chinahand]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

DjDan - I think the central dictomy between the non-religious and the religious is that many religious people see God directly acting in the world - and non religious people do not.

 

As the physical world is identical in both cases the difference has to be down to perception.

 

You say the non-religous deliberately surpress evidence of miracles etc. I say you surpress evidence that such events are not so beyond the mundane as to only have supernatural explanations.

 

People have gone and looked at whether praying for people improves their recovery - quite big double blind studies have been done - they showed nothing.

 

Cases of spontaneous remission of cancer etc exist in all cultures and belief systems whether people ask a deity for help or not.

 

I feel you have a much harder burden of proof to say something was miraculous. There are lots of mundane explanations - as Mr Sausages has pointed out - and for you to say that what happened was miraculous means you have to show these mundane explanations don't fit. If Christians who prayed to be cured of cancer or whatever had a recovery rate far above the rate for others then that might be evidence that something unusual was going on. But unfortunately for you that isn't so.

 

DjDan - are you going to say this isn't true - that cancer recovery rates or whatever are higher for Christians than for other groups. As you've been asked multiple times - have you any evidence for that? Or are you just relying on the fact that you and your peer group claim its true.

[Evil Goblin]

The error is in believing that the miracle stories in the Bible are literal descriptions of things that actually happened - they are not, they are allegories. It was common practice in the ancient world to stress the importance of a teaching by dressing it up as a miracle story. By and large, the miracle stories in the NT are stressing the vital importance of faith. It is unlikely that any of Jesus' contemporaries would have understood it in any other way.

[Chinahand]

By and large, the miracle stories in the NT are stressing the vital importance of faith ...

... in miraculous interventions.

[Evil Goblin]

By and large, the miracle stories in the NT are stressing the vital importance of faith ...

... in miraculous interventions.

Not at all. Faith can be a device by which people achieve things which they otherwise would give up on. Modern psychology would find a lot of common ground with many NT teachings.

[Lao]

i always felt that the miracles of the bible, rather than being evidence of divinity or something upon which to base a faith, were instead just examples of weak plot devices by unimaginative writers.

 

All the 'miracles' wrote about in the bible had been used long before, sometimes over a thousand years earlier, which points to real lazyness on the part of the storyteller, who not only had to rely on deus ex machina but also on plagiarism.

 

If there really was one holy book written by a divine being, it would be able to stand up to the most critical of examinations without problem, there would only be one such book and there would be no splits or divisions, no need for different denominations and no disagreement on interpretation. In short it would be perfect.

 

As it is the holy books of today are a sad disapointment when looking for insights on how to live your life, i could write a better book that was more applicable for todays society myself.

[jimbms]

I think we should all join the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster http://www.venganza.org/

 

BTW did you know Britney Spears name is, in fact, an anagram of Presbyterians

[Chinahand]

Aparantly his noodlely appendages are everywhere.

 

[DjDan]

If God himself stood in front of you and did every miracle you could ask... you would deny he existed then too.

 

No I wouldn't. What a bizarre post.

 

You've given examples of "miracles" which have other logical explanations. It's as simple as that, Danny boy.

 

Well of course - Miracles are logical.

[gazza]

theres no point in showing the truth,

there so called faith keeps them from seeing the light.

because non belives go to hell,

 

Then again im sure hell is far more fun then up top

[La_Dolce_Vita]

The only logic you see if one where you attribute things you understand cannot happen or believe impossible to the workings of some deity.

[Mr. Sausages]

Well of course - Miracles are logical.

 

Oh. So how do we differentiate "miracles" from "things".

 

I.e. if a lucky coincidence, or an incomplete understanding of medical science can be considered a miracle, is it also a miracle that I've got socks on? Are you coming from the angle that it's a miracle that anything exists or happens at all?