paramedicmike Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 This discussion so far rather highlights CHBARE's point about the student in question. How do you really reconcile a theological belief that requires blind faith with no evidence short of parables and unverifiable stories that have been handed down over thousands of years with what appears to be the need for quantifiable evidence? The two positions are inherently opposite and, despite the ability of some who claim the contrary, totally irreconcilable. This is the benefit of education. Collect as much information from as many viewpoints on a given topic as is possible. Weigh the evidence. Weigh what can and cannot be verified. The learning and development of one's own belief system stems from this. It's certainly not easy. There's a lot of work involved including the realization that one will be, at some point, ostracized for beliefs held. Unfortunately, many aren't interested in doing the work. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chbare Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Kaisu, we did not formally recognise that things like antimatter were anything but hypothetical until we had verifiable evidence of their existence. Paul Dirac predicted the existence of antimatter as a consequence of his work on relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. However, he was not awarded a Nobel prize until 1933, about a year after the positron (an anti electron) was discovered. In general, we do not accept something until we have both theoretical and experimental evidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaisu Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Paramedic mike, why didn't you come on earlier? You could have saved me a lot of fumbling :-) Blind faith in anything is stupid and lazy. Chbare - point taken. The fact that someone had the insight to postulate antimatter is amazing. Einstein predicted it as an offshoot of E=mc2 (I know - facetious). Matters of faith have been greatly hampered by a system that discourages questioning. Christianity was hijacked by a bunch of guys (Constantine - who made Christianity the state religion nevertheless remained pagan till his deathbed when he was too weak to protest his baptism) concerned with temporal power over spiritual freedom. I can only state what I have found to be true at this point in time. I am not stupid or lazy, but my faith has enabled me to survive in situations where most have not. I am not the only one. It's what I got and is my facet. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paramedicmike Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I was here earlier. I think you might've missed my earlier commentary and questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kaisu Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I went back mike,,, and yeah.. there it was, I ran over it in my enthusiasm to expound. I saw it, was just steaming ahead.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paramedicmike Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 I'm pretty sure it's happened to all of us at one point or another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ERDoc Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 Yes, actually, the existence of quarks and antimatter can be proven mathematically, which is why we knew to look for them. We then built particle accelerators and created them. I'm not talking about the parts of the bible that contradict other parts of the bible (that is a whole other discussion). I'm talking about the parts that contradict known evidence. I mentioned the story of Noah before. The flood killed all people on the earth except those on the ark. How does that happen when other civilizations around the world existed then and were not wiped out, nor do they have any record of a world wide flood? How did all of those creatures survive on the ark? There are estimated to be 8.7million species in existence today, meaning there were 17.4million organisms on the ark. In order for the rain to cover the earth in 40 days, it would have to rain at a rate of 1 foot per minute. There is not enough water available on the earth for that to happen and if it did there would be so much energy created that the water would boil off. I would think that if a book were divinely written it wouldn't be open to interpretation or transformation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
island emt Posted March 21, 2013 Share Posted March 21, 2013 What is religion??? Is it the beliefs taught and translated from the 10th century or from BC? Is it the Roman Catholic church which runs the largest inteligence network on earth?? How about the hellfire & brimstone Southern Baptist preachers??? Is it the Jim & tammy Baker televangilist crowd robbing people of their life savings on overnight radio & TV??? or the Jim Baker preacher murdering his cult because they were beginning to question him??? Is it the ultra right winger who brainwashed his "family" into believing it is ok for him to father children with his own 12 yo daughters again & again ??? Is it the olympic stadium sized church of modern times with television productions resembling a broadway production?? Is it a core belief in some supreme being that caused everything to happen???? Is it the muslims who follow the Quran and believe in Jihad???? Please provide a legitimate definition Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chbare Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 We can go of off Merriam-Webster as the primary definition is as good as any: Religion: The service or worship of God or the supernatural. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chbare Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Also, I'm not sure why you want a "legitimate definition" as this conversation is broadly about dealing with people who experience conflicts with their belief systems, religious or otherwise. Therefore, the context of this thread is broad enough that specific definitions are not really needed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts