Sentinel
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11 years ago @ Unwinnable - Allow Natural Death · 0 replies · +1 points
12 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - An outsider's view of ... · 0 replies · +1 points
What's also sad is that I can completely recognise everything in that paragraph. On the plus side, I'm not in that kind of church any more, but it's still kinda depressing that it is what so many people experience as "church".
12 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Taking stock (again) · 0 replies · +1 points
So it certainly helped at least one reader... :)
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Defining away the supe... · 1 reply · +4 points
Recognising a natural cause for something which previously had supernatural attribution does not do away with the supernatural, it merely changes the categorisation of the phenomenon under discussion.
But to say that "all that there is or will be is necessarily restricted to the natural" is a statement of faith.
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - What confidence? · 0 replies · +2 points
What's striking is that the above cartoon is a logical extension of philosophical naturalism, the claimed worldview of many (if not most) atheists, and yet I've never seen someone who honestly lived there life as the cartoon describes.
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Making fun of Airport ... · 1 reply · +1 points
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Misplaced bet: does Pa... · 0 replies · +2 points
(Of course, it's possible that the believers in God also do not base their beliefs on rational arguments, but we can't deduce that from Pascal's Wager. All we can be sure of is that rejecting God is not rational).
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Want to know how to pu... · 0 replies · +3 points
If you're not interested in what other people actually say, what is the point of any conversation at all? Why not just talk to yourself and write your own replies?
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Telephone · 0 replies · +3 points
It's also worth noting that the culture in which all this was taking place was not an overly credulous one. If there were an easy an non-miraculous explanation for what the people had witnessed, they would surely have settled on that as the collective account. The fact that thousands of people were willing to agree that something truly miraculous had taken place is far greater assurance that it was not a reconstruction or wishful thinking.
As regards the written record, it should be pointed out that the gospels in their current forms were not the first written record of the life, teaching and miracles of Jesus, just the most comprehensive. Paul recorded the details in his letters long before the gospels were penned, carrying the message to people far from Jerusalem who had no eye-witness testimonies. Even the gospels themselves (particularly the synoptics) were written from other source material that had been recorded closer to the time.
Churchill's definitive account of the Second World War was not the first report that had been written. He also didn't write it as the war unfolded; it was compiled later. But the combination of personal experience and relying on excellent contemporary accounts (either written or oral) for more detail as necessary makes his record of the war outstanding.
13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Myers vs Knox: towing ... · 0 replies · +2 points