Evidence for the existence of God

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 12:17:29 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:

All the more true when we consider the probable lack of historicity of
many of these characters- Saul, David, Jesus... none of these people
existed, or to the extent they did they were but feeble inspirations
for the largely fictional representations presented in the Bible. We
don't even know anything about the words or actions of these myths...
let alone what they looked like.

There is good probability that the old testament characters existed and their lives were fairly close to their descriptions. The old testament was written as a history book and although parts were added at later dates nothing was allowed to be deleted.

http://www.richardfisher.com

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 06:28:25 -0700 (PDT), Helpful person
wrote:

On Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at 12:17:29 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:

All the more true when we consider the probable lack of historicity of
many of these characters- Saul, David, Jesus... none of these people
existed, or to the extent they did they were but feeble inspirations
for the largely fictional representations presented in the Bible. We
don't even know anything about the words or actions of these myths...
let alone what they looked like.

There is good probability that the old testament characters existed and their lives were fairly close to their descriptions. The old testament was written as a history book and although parts were added at later dates nothing was allowed to be deleted.

Well. no. Many of the OT stories were just modifications of earlier
mythology from older cultures. Some of the most important characters
are almost certainly total fiction, like Moses. The kings are mainly
fabricated or based on the leaders of tiny little tribes. The stories
of the OT had multiple authors and editors over many hundreds of
years.

Not history.

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 03:54:00 -0700 (PDT), Gary Harnagel
wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 7:34:35 PM UTC-6, palsing wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 3:06:27 PM UTC-7, Gary Harnagel wrote:

Of course, what he really looks like is irrelevant to the supposed average.
The man in the portrait does indeed give a slight Jewish impression, which
has been commented on many times. I have NEVER seen a picture of Jesus
that looked like that. I found it to be, as Razzy said, stunning.

My point is that no one has a clue, a 'stunning' portrait notwithstanding.

You are assuming the story of the portrait is false in order to come to
that "conclusion." If it's true, then your claim is false.

He is doing exactly what reason demands: assuming the null hypothesis
until objective evidence arises to reject it.

I can't even work out what possible evidence could exist that would
causally connect a child's painting to the actual existence of a
mythological character portrayed in that painting. But I do know that
anybody making that claim bears the burden of identifying such
possible evidence in order that it can be searched for.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 3:12:13 PM UTC-4, palsing wrote:
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 4:47:50 AM UTC-7, wrote:

The dude in the painting sure looks like Jesus to me.

As if you, or anyone else, could possibly know.

The little kid who was almost dead says it looks like Jesus, so who are you to argue?

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 12:57:00 PM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 09:35:10 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 10:08:01 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 06:10:38 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 8:50:11 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

The minimalist mathematical religion has just two axioms which it shares
with all proselytising "our God is better than yours" religions.

Axiom 1: All people not believing in The One True Religion(TM) will burn
for eternity in hellfire.

Axiom 2: It is the duty of all true believers in The One True Religion
to minimise suffering.

They find it very easy to get from there to applying any finite amount
of torture in this world to convert the misguided souls who do not
believe in TOTR. The Spanish inquisition were particularly good at it
and had invented a version waterboarding (toca) long before the CIA.

Nothing like that is going on at my local churches.

Not in the Jewish ones. But it happens in all the Christian and Muslim
ones.

First, Jews don't have Churches, they have Temples and Synagogues.
Second, Muslims don't have Churches either, they have Mosques.

Jews and Muslims certainly have churches.

No, the primary definition of "church" is: a place of worship for Christians. Places of worship for other religions have other names.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 11:56:20 AM UTC-5, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 09:35:31 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 10:06:06 AM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Tue, 13 Sep 2016 04:47:48 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 12:49:38 PM UTC-4, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Mon, 12 Sep 2016 09:40:43 -0700 (PDT), Quadibloc
wrote:

On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 10:10:05 AM UTC-6, Chris L Peterson wrote:

I don't see anything here that even remotely rises to the level of
objective, or even reasonable evidence for the existence of a god. A
girl can paint? A boy thinks he went to heaven? Two people have a
similar idea what Jesus looked like?

If it happens that a number of similar anecdotes come up - and in the majority
of those anecdotes, Jesus looks the same, and His appearance is not simply
modeled on a commonly-known portrait - that would indeed be objective evidence,
even if not ironclad.

On the other hand, if there are many similar anecdotes, and in two of them,
Jesus looks the same, yes, that isn't evidence.

Of course in this case we have only one painting, which looks very
much like a conventional representation of Jesus, and everything else
is people making claims without evidence. This is hearsay of the
lowest quality at this point.

The dude in the painting sure looks like Jesus to me.

I'll bet he does.

Who do you think he looks like, peterson?

Nobody I know.

He looks exactly like someone I knew in College. He was a pothead and dropout and spent a lot of time in coffee houses quoting weird poetry and playing backgammon.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 12:53:02 PM UTC-4, Mike Collins wrote:
wrote:
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 11:47:12 AM UTC-4, Mike Collins wrote:
wrote:
On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 6:32:36 PM UTC-4, roland c. wrote:
On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 2:46:02 PM UTC-5, Gary Harnagel wrote:
On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 10:46:06 AM UTC-6, Razzmatazz wrote:

On Monday, September 12, 2016 at 10:29:02 AM UTC-5, Gary Harnagel wrote:

https://art-soulworks.com/pages/prin...peace-painting

That's a stunning portrait for an 8 year old to have painted. very
talented youngster indeed.

For me, images of Jesus have no meaning whatsoever. However, his words
are priceless gifts.

Razzy

I may be wrong, but I think these two experiences are indeed connected
and were designed by Providence (as George Washington would say) for those
whose faith has been eroded by the caustic winds of doubt.


If you are really interested in what constitutes a free nation run on
Christian principles, consider this essay by Bill Moyers, who I consider
to be a moral voice of reason, a true Christian in the classic sense:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/1761...meri ca/#more

Let me know where you think Trump stands, what principles he espouses
(besides making oodles of money for himself).

roland c.

Trump once wrote that it isn't the -money- than motivates him, it's the
-process- whereby he makes the money that motivates him. It's the
journey, not the destination.



Was that Trump or his ghost writer?

Wouldn't matter, the idea is quite plausible.

delete

Is this the kind of man you want as president?

The ill-debeest would be far worse.



Why did you snip this bit?

It has not been verified.

Were you a fraud to look it up. There's a lot like this on the Internet.

Oh, well then, if it's on the -Internet- ....

Try to keep an open mind.

I do have an open mind. Learn to follow your own advice, hypocrite.

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 1:08:25 PM UTC-4, Mike Collins wrote:
wrote:
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 11:47:12 AM UTC-4, Mike Collins wrote:

Is this the kind of man you want as president?

The ill-debeest would be far worse.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...don ald-trump

Irrelevant to my comment about the "ill-debeest."

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 08:13:18 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 3:12:13 PM UTC-4, palsing wrote:
On Tuesday, September 13, 2016 at 4:47:50 AM UTC-7, wrote:

The dude in the painting sure looks like Jesus to me.

As if you, or anyone else, could possibly know.

The little kid who was almost dead says it looks like Jesus, so who are you to argue?

Good point. I try not to argue with the kids in my classroom about the
color of unicorns, either.

On Wed, 14 Sep 2016 08:15:27 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

Jews and Muslims certainly have churches.

No, the primary definition of "church" is: a place of worship for Christians. Places of worship for other religions have other names.

It must hurt to be so stupid. It must be hard to go through life
limited to just one meaning for every word.