quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
You’re leaving out the fountains of the deep releasing water. Obviously if it only rained forty days and nights that wouldn’t be enough water.

Oh, right: you got me there. Now everything else suddenly becomes fully possible and reasonable to believe.

I will leave it at that. I sometimes feel a little bad about having influenced a few people to abandon their religious beliefs and the comfort they provide even though that influence was never deliberate. I don’t need to add to my karmic burden in that manner.

If you're going to play the "God can do anything card", why not just have Him vaporize every human on Earth except for Noah and his family and leave the animals alone? What did they do to deserve killing?

....regardless of 'how much water' I was told by a serious buddy that if the petitioners prevail in their suit, they will have to change the name of the boat to the "Arc d'Triumph"

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
I will leave it at that. I sometimes feel a little bad about having influenced a few people to abandon their religious beliefs and the comfort they provide even though that influence was never deliberate. I don’t need to add to my karmic burden in that manner.

The Bible tells us that people who abandon the faith were never of it. But those who are, no one will snatch them away. So while the Bible doesn't specifically tell us that Sigfreund can't possibly have the perfect knowledge of the past (God pretty much told Job that, but you know, it was just Job), it does tell us you don't have the power to get people to abandon their faith. So you needn't feel burden yourself with regret - you can sleep easy.

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
So you needn't feel burden yourself with regret - you can sleep easy.

I drafted a reply expressing my thanks for making me feel better, but then I realized that you missed my point, just as I had myself.

I don’t feel bad about influencing someone to abandon beliefs because loss of faith means he will now go to hell rather than some sort of paradise after death. The entire world would benefit if we all abandoned irrational beliefs, and at one time I felt sort of an evangelical fervor to spread that word to the unenlightened. Ultimately, however, I came to realize that that goal was like attempting to stop the tide with a teaspoon and I gave more thought to the temporal benefits that people get from their religions.

Despite countless opportunities provided by this forum to interject my analyses of religious beliefs, I very seldom do, just as I hardly ever discuss the topic with people in person. The main reason for my reticence is of course because very few people are actually interested in contrary opinions about the subject, but that’s not the only reason. The other is, as I said, that I’m reluctant to cause them to lose the comfort they get from their beliefs. It’s sort of like not telling one’s aged mother in the nursing home, “You know, Mom, I never liked that green bean casserole you kept feeding us.” The tenets of Islam make it hard to be tolerant of religious beliefs these days, but I do my best to tell myself we all have a right to believe—if not do—whatever makes us feel good.

quote:

Originally posted by Micropterus:
The Bible tells us that people who abandon the faith were never of it.

That, though, is a variety of the “No true Scotsman” argument, so I’m curious where the Bible makes that statement. I like to collect such things and would like to add it to my list.

1 John 2:19

The other is John 10:28.

Thanks for those.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
If you're going to play the "God can do anything card", why not just have Him vaporize every human on Earth except for Noah and his family and leave the animals alone? What did they do to deserve killing?

Dude that's a little later in the Bible, and reversed. He vaporizes the true believers and leaves the rest here.

The story is impossible, I can poke fifty holes in it. I'm going to assume that many of the tales from the Bible are embellished or allegory. Maybe some of the stories aren't 100% accurate, but even to a non-believer have meaning.

quote:

Originally posted by MNSIG:
If you're going to play the "God can do anything card", why not just have Him vaporize every human on Earth except for Noah and his family and leave the animals alone? What did they do to deserve killing?

Like Sodom and Gomorrah.