IntenseDebate - Tim Lee

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 0 replies · +1 points

Agreed, Sue. Human consciousness encapsulates something that will never be replicated in a lab. We may call it life-force or the spark of Life or, simply, the soul.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 0 replies · +4 points

Minions fillet (or filled) with free will? Now that's a spicy dish for a chef who reckons he's god of the kitchen! ;)

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 0 replies · +5 points

If software could suffer, hell would be a program looping endlessly into the bottomless pit of its electronic ego.

9 years ago @ MercatorNet - MercatorNet: Great suf... · 2 replies · +7 points

I'd be happy with filet mignon... it's almost lunchtime here but I'm on a diet.

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 0 replies · +3 points

Which part of "There is no such thing as amoral laws when we consider their normative effect" and "They either reflect transcendent truths or normalise moral decadence" do you understand to mean that only the normative effect matters, Radical? And the normative effect of laws in favour of euthanasia is to say that our lives have no value beyond a utilitarian notion of a life worth living.

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 1 reply · +1 points

Good on you, Radical! 8)

One of the philosophical threads common to the major world religions is seeing beyond sight. Related to this is asceticism or spiritual detachment from a world that's the biggest illusion of all.

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 1 reply · +2 points

You see what you want to see and reinforce what you look for, Radical.

From the outside, a stained glass window is just some plates of dull coloured glass. Its beauty is revealed when we step inside the church. This may not be obvious from the outside but just because the Church teaches that something is true does not stop us from asking how it is true.

In the footsteps of thinkers like G K Chesterton and C S Lewis, the hardest questions are actually asked by those on the inside. In truth, we have been there, done that and come away with our faith intact. Another expression of this is Anselm of Canterbury's "credo ut intelligam" – "I believe that I may understand". And the parable on faith and reason I shared with Jimmy two years ago: http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/brother_have_you_been_saved/#IDComment475211099

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 3 replies · +4 points

Jimmy, while 38-40% (depending on source of stats) of religious adherents is technically a minority, Christians number significantly more than Muslims, the next most numerous group at 25-28%. Together, the four major world religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) form 90-92% of all religious adherents and 74-77% of all people.

If you care to look, you'll find a remarkable core of truth shared by the four world religions. Hence, the point of my parable is that there is significant consistency of teachings across 90% of all schools, tracing their ancestry to the Master. And that 40% of these schools call themselves by the Master's name shows that the Message remains untainted by the sins of his messengers. Of the founders of the four world religions, only Christ claimed to be God.

Open your heart and your mind to the Eternal, oh guru of the open mind!

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 1 reply · +6 points

Ayame, all these verses speak of God deceiving men in the sense that in their hardness of heart, they rejected the truth and God allowed them to be deceived. This is what happened to Pharaoh when "God hardened his heart" such that he refused to let the Israelites go. The analogy is putting cement and wax out in the sun. The same sunlight hardens one and softens the other but that is due to the nature of the material.

This can be discerned in the context of the last verse you quoted. In 2 Thess 2:9-10, we read that "The coming of the lawless one is apparent in the working of Satan, who uses all power, signs, lying wonders, and every kind of wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved." And Adam and Eve did die – first spiritually and then physically – when they were meant to partake of the Tree of Life and be immortal.

9 years ago @ Conjugality - Don’t meddle wit... · 2 replies · +5 points

There is no such thing as amoral laws when we consider their normative effect, Radical. They either reflect transcendent truths or normalise moral decadence.

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