Easter Is Coming in 8 Weeks

Quote: FrGamble

Another thing that drive me nuts is assuming a supernatural cause cannot be the cause to events which we do not understand.

Can you name just one instance where a
supernatural cause has been proven to be
the correct answer? Not believed to be,
not thought to be, proved to be.

99% of what people used to think had
supernatural causes were proven over
time not to have them at all.

Quote: FrGamble

Isn't it obvious that all energy, space, and time - our Universe - had to come from somewhere?

All the energy we have came from the last big
bang. There's always a next one. Forever. The
universe will eventually collapse in on itself
and it will start all over again. We are it and
it is us. And the cockroach.

Quote: FrGamble

How can you observe or test that which existed before energy, space, or time?

Perhaps you can't. perhaps you can recreate the conditions. Perhaps there is no such thing as "before" energy, space or time.

Quote:

Surely you acknowledge the limits of scientific knowledge.

Of course. Science, unlike your arrogance, has limits.

But we don't know what the limits are. There are things we cannot do, observe or detect now, which may become possible in the future. If we were having this discussion in the 1860s, you'd have perhaps said "impossible!" to determining what the basic building blocks of matter and energy are. Barely 50 years alter, we were well on our way to doing just that.

Quote:

You have to follow your conscience. This is why it is essential to form your conscience and listen to it. It is the place where God speaks to us in our innermost being. It is easy to silence this voice and confuse it with our feelings, desires, and wants. Only in silence, meditation and prayer can we truly listen to this inner voice.

Got it. I need to await further programming form the master. My conscience is not mine, it's your god's. My judgment, if I persist on having one, does not count.

Quote: FrGamble

What a joy it is to just sit back and let the awesomeness of our universe try to sink in! It is beyond us. Which is why it is crazy to reject outright the possibility of God.

The last sentence has no logical connection to the rest of the paragraph.

Quote:

Why do I believe so strongly in God then, why don't I just see Him as a possibility, like every thinking person should?

A thinking person should not waste time entertaining baseless claims for which there is no evidence. For a thinking person God isn't a possibility any more than Santa Claus or the Loch Ness Monster.

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This is not the stuff of science, but of religion, spirituality, or philosophy.

Religion likes to impose answers rather than seek them. I mean, all too often the answer is "God."

Quote: Dalex64

What drives me nuts is assigning a supernatural cause to events which we do not understand.

Apropos of this:

"The universe isn't stranger than we imagine. It's stranger than we can imagine." J.B.S. Haldane.

I just realized the good father won't be here for a while because it's ash Wednesday.

I've no idea what to say. Do I wish a happy holiday? Do I say "I hope you had a good/nice ash Wednesday?" I'm clueless about it.

Quote: Nareed

I just realized the good father won't be here for a while because it's ash Wednesday.

I've no idea what to say. Do I wish a happy holiday? Do I say "I hope you had a good/nice ash Wednesday?" I'm clueless about it.

Hey, I've been overlooking this miracle all these years...

Jesus, by all account that I've seen, was a slender man. You know what happens to slender folk after 40 days without food? Most die. Others suffer kidney failure, loss of limb, wasting, etc. And those are the folks who are bed ridden. Jesus was out tramping through the wilderness, seemingly outside the bounds of biological function.

It is good to be the King, indeed.

Quote: Face

Jesus, by all account that I've seen, was a slender man. You know what happens to slender folk after 40 days without food? .

The answer is god, he was sustained by god.
That's the answer for everything there is no
explanation for. Blame it on god.

Quote: FrGamble

Because people keep trying to use science to answer the questions of religion.

That is not a good reason.

Quote: Dalex64

What drives me nuts is assigning a supernatural cause to events which we do not understand.

But that is what happens. Just ask the famed rats of Richter the Rat Torturer. He taught the drowning rats to have hope. They saw this great hand descend from above and lift them to freedom. What more proof of a God did the Richter Rats ever need?

Those who believe in religion saving them from eternal damnation are people who have been Richtered.

First they are convinced of this Good and Bad, Right and Wrong stuff. Then they are convinced that the one true Answer is known to the Priests as revealed by ancient scribblings by zealots. Then the Priests come around demanding taxes and adherence to rules often with Draconian penalties. The Richter conditions are set: a dire peril has been created and a unique hope has been created. So the Priests get provided with money and young children, the church members get continued hope of this resurrection and eternal life thing and meeting their favorite pets again.

Now when men with vowels on the end of their name do this sort of stuff its called extortion or intimidation or "a shakedown", however, when men of "the cloth" do it, its called Revelation of The Truth of the Ultimate Clock Maker.

Richtered Rats are blameless, after all they are just poor tortured rodents; Richtered Humans are not blameless however, they are simply fools.