Sentinel

Sentinel

34p

22 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

11 years ago @ Unwinnable - Allow Natural Death · 0 replies · +1 points

A beautiful piece. Thank you for sharing what you went through.

12 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - An outsider's view of ... · 0 replies · +1 points

Ouch.

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

Well, I can say at least that this particular post pointed past you to the previous Driscoll post, and to the extended quotes, and thereby to some important insights into the nature of God's love for the sinful: both what it is and what it is not.

So it certainly helped at least one reader... :)

13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Defining away the supe... · 1 reply · +4 points

An important distinction, Findo.

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

Well, it would be the worldview of a philosophical naturalist, if any were actually honest about their beliefs...

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

Nice.

This was also a great article on airport security:
http://www.thestar.com/printarticle/744199

13 years ago @ Things Findo Thinks - Misplaced bet: does Pa... · 0 replies · +2 points

Pascal's point was that if you approach the question from a purely logical perspective, there's no reason not to believe and very good reasons for it: ergo, acting rationally, everyone should be a believer in God. The fact that we observe some people who choose not to believe in God then suggests that those people are not basing their belief stance on rational arguments.

(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

askegg, you have rather missed the point. Whether you agree with Findo's comment is irrelevant: by misquoting him you are lying about what his comment actually was.

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

The corrective pressure of thousands of people who all saw the same things and stayed in community afterwards, sharing their experiences and clarifying misconceptions is an under-appreciated point. You're right, it has no real overlap with Chinese Whispers!

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

Of course! All questions about purpose and meaning and joy and emotion and love and passion are irrelevant - sounds like a sure-fire recipe for a happy child!