Saint John Henry Newman

Quote: Wizard

I'd be happy to believe if I had some evidence to go on. It doesn't even need to be a rock-solid case. I just need to get to 51%. I'm at about 5% right now.

Newman's idea is that we act on small bits of accumulated evidence all the time. You believe and act on many things every day with less than 5%. He compared the adventure of faith to rock climbing. You will never get anywhere if you have to arrive at 100% or even 51% certainty before grappling and moving. We intuitively act and move based on what our intellect and heart convince us of. In fact just the desire to climb a mountain requires us to move before certainty is achieved. If we ever want to accomplish anything great or reach new heights we must act on where even the smallest amount of faith and trust compels and points us to go. This is again where our desire comes into play. Another way of saying I want a rock-solid case before I believe or act is to say I do not truly value or desire such and such. You desired your breakfast today so with little evidence it was not poisoned you scarfed it down. You desired to travel somewhere today and so you acted on little evidence to trust the other drivers on the road to reach your destination. A 5% case is all you need to begin to act upon where it points you and you will have begun the adventure of faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. Over time as you reach new heights your desire combined with newly acquired knowledge, evidence, and experiences will show that as certain as your breakfast was safe is as certain as your faith in Jesus.

Monkey bars: a common playground rig where the next bar or ring must be grabbed but it is necessary to release the grip on the old bar first.

No one has certainty of results, just probabilities.

Big deal

note: I know you said newman but I somehow was thinking of Spellman, the only cardinal I had heard of outside the Godfather movies.

For hundreds of years ALL maps that depicted Australia also bore notations of Dragons.
Yet people still relied on them.

Quote: FrGamble

Newman's idea is that we act on small bits of accumulated evidence all the time.

"Accumulated evidence?" That's rich. I'd settle
for any evidence at all. The tiniest bit of
evidence. In the 7 years you've been here
we have yet to see even a glimmer of
real evidence. All you have is theory and
anecdotal clap trap. Some of us are a
little more demanding than you are,
obviously. And please don't say for
the umpteenth time that you have
'personal experience' of a god. Dozens
of books have been written by people
that claim to have been abducted by
aliens. I don't believe their personal
experience either.

Look, I'm back to responding directly
to you again. I can't stand by and let
you get away with this canard.

Definition of canard. 1a : a false or unfounded report or story

Quote: FrGamble

Sorry for the long post but I love this guy and happy to answer any other questions anyone may have about him or his legacy.

His legacy is that he was probably Gay.
He had a life partner for 32 years and
claimed to be more devastated at his
death than if he were a husband or
wife. He was buried in the same grave
as his partner. But before declaring
him a saint, the Church had the body
dug up and buried in it's own grave.
Of course the Vatican says even if
they were Gay, they never had Gay sex.
Sure they didn't.

From what I've read there are lots of Gay
saints. The Vatican, thru the Pope, has
banned Gay men from joining the
priesthood.

Pope Francis warned Italian bishops this week to vet carefully applicants to the priesthood and reject anyone they suspected might be homosexual, local media reported on Thursday. “Keep an eye on the admissions to seminaries, keep your eyes open,” the pope was quoted as saying by newspaper La Stampa’s Vatican Insider service. “If in doubt, better not let them enter.”

A little late, with 80% to 90% of
Vatican priests being Gay. All they'll
do is lie to get in, just like they've
always done.

Quote: Evenbob

Dozens of books have been written by people that claim to have been abducted by aliens. I don't believe their personal experience either.

Nor do I. Perhaps that is why neither of us joined Hot Blonde running around the New Mexican desert with her arms extended backwards.

I thought canard meant duck!

Quote: AZDuffman

Think genetics. Natural Selection is one thing. Survival of the fittest. Strong survive. Or best survive. For example, in birds the male is always the most colorful. In fact, in all of nature the male must be beautiful to attract a female, except for mankind where a beautiful female attracts the best males. Anyways, over the years this means that your average bird will look more colorful as the better color genes get passed down. This is how nature intended it. Substitute "God" for "nature" and you get a powerful proof that a God exists IMHO.

Not in my opinion. Humans are still animals, where the female does the choosing. I think women see past fancy clothes and look for men who are tall and can provide for a good nest. You can't buy height. You can buy a good nest. It is no big secret that the more wealth a man has, the better is bargaining power on the singles market.

I'll just end it there. If you can show many any serious scientific studies challenging the theory of evolution, I'll take note.

Quote: azduffman

This is how nature intended it.

But nature doesn't 'intend' anything,
it doesn't have a brain or a will. It
doesn't have a plan, it acts spontaneously.
So you cannot substitute god for
nature, two complete;y different
concepts. Nature reacts, a god acts.
Nature has no will, god in theory
is all will.

Quote: Wizard

Not in my opinion. Humans are still animals, where the female does the choosing. I think women see past fancy clothes and look for men who are tall and can provide for a good nest. You can't buy height. You can buy a good nest. It is no big secret that the more wealth a man has, the better is bargaining power on the singles market.

I'll just end it there. If you can show many any serious scientific studies challenging the theory of evolution, I'll take note.

The female does the choosing in most species. That is why the male has to look good, it attracts the most possible females. But in humans the female has to look good to get the males swarming around. So she has to look good to be able to choose.So it is flipped.

I do not have any scientific studies and am not going to look for any. I have stated my reasons. Similar to why I question global warming, I believe a person needs to use their own reason and not just believe because "the scientists said so."

I will leave it with this. The Bible is allegory. Just because a person believes there is intelligent design by a superior God does not mean we believe word for word that God spend seven days creating everything. Well, six days, then a day admiring and checking on what he created. I forget which book it was of Ann Coulter but she brings up the fact that we had a fairly short period where we can trace quite a bit of "evolution" to. It should be a fairly straight line, but instead it was a burst. Was probably in "Godless," IIRC.

I started a thread on science/evolution/religion so that we can quit hijacking here