MARYANN261

You wrote, " I often do wonder, given what the human race has endured through the ages, why people have not given up on the concept of God. I will leave that to science, to an understanding of the human mind."

The reason is because God is Real and so is satan.

Science will neither prove nor disprove the Reality of God, but one day all will know that God is Real.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

"In any case, we all have ultimate default or faith-based beliefs as well as the trust they require for rational living."

You may well believe this (I don't), but your beliving it does not make it so.

"PSOLUS is confused in another way...

The confusion is on your end.

PSOLUS - - -

"If one does not believe in God, what does one believe in? I'd really be interested to hear."

Easy: I believe in nothing.

PSOLUS is confused in another way - - - about the difference between "believe that" - such & such is the case - and "believe in" - to trust [have faith in] the so & so of the such & such that one believes is the case!

In any case, we all have ultimate default or faith-based beliefs as well as the trust they require for rational living. And that is not a paradox, just a fact of the human predicament of bounded rationality.

Gnothi Sauton - Know Thyself!

Seems Ms Mary Magdalene also has a confused epistemology of the semantic relationships of some key terms - - - faith, belief, reason, knowledge, proof, evidence, truth, etc.

Said more directly, her essay suffers from a lack of conceptual coherence & therefore cognitive integrity.

Let's see - What are the truth conditions of "Faith itself is the only evidence, the only proof of God" . . . and a god's existence & efficacy?

Grade = B-

Dixon wrote "She was right. God cannot be proved."

WRONG.

Your eyelashes serve as a shade or dimmer to very bright lights. They don't grow more than its DESIGNED length to serve its purpose.

Your eyebrows is DESIGNED to block your sweat from streaming straight to your eyes. It's DESIGNED to be placed on top of your eyes and not under it. They don't grow too long to serve its purpose.

Look around you. There are millions or billions more which are DESIGNED to serve their purpose.

If you haven't notice one, there seems to be a problem how your brain works.

Have you ever wondered why your noses' holes are not facing upwards like chimneys? IT'S DESIGNED THAT WAY SO YOU DON'T DROWN WHEN IT RAINS.

Start thinking and hopefully begin your New Year right by contemplating on who is that GREAT DESIGNER.

"If one does not believe in God, what does one believe in? I'd really be interested to hear."

Easy: I believe in nothing.

Maududi:
If a servant betrays his master you denounce him as faithless. If an officer becomes disloyal to the state you brand him as a traitor and renegade. If a person cheats his benefactor you have no hesitation in condemning him as ungrateful. But such acts cannot begin to compare to the one which the disbeliever commits
The greatest obligation that a man owes on this earth is to his parents. But who has implanted the love of children in the parents' heart? Who endowed the mother with the will and power to nurture, nourish and feed her children? Who inspired the parents with the passion to spend everything in their possession for the well-being of their children? A little reflection would reveal that God is the greatest benefactor of man. He is his Creator, Lord, Nourisher, Sustainer, as well as King and Sovereign. So what can be greater betrayal, ingratitude, rebellion and treason , through which a man denies and disobeys his real Lord and Sovereign?
Such a man will meet with failures in all the affairs of his life. His morality, his civic and social life, his struggle for livelihood and his family life, in short, his entire existence, will be unsatisfactory. He will spread confusion and disorder. He will, without the least compunction, shed blood, violate other men's rights and generally act destructively. His perverted thoughts and ambitions, his blurred vision and distorted scale of values, and his evil activities will make life bitter for him and for all around him.

Azad Ex-president of India said"
Without God, there can be no understanding of the origin of life in the universe. There is only one solution to this problem. There is one way out of the maze. There is one piece to solve the puzzle. The problem of life in the universe is like a book with the first and last page missing; we know neither the beginning nor the end. If there is an omniscient being behind the curtain, everything has meaning; if not, all is dark.

Francis Bacon, the famous philosopher, has rightly said that a little knowledge of science makes man an atheist, but an in-depth study of science makes him a believer in God. Scientists today are eliminating models of God, but they are not eliminating God.

The non-believers from centuries have the same questions and they can bring nothing to prove otherwise that there is no God.

Al-Quran:
"Most surely in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the alternation of the night and the day, and the ships that run in the sea with that which profits men, and the water that Allah sends down from the cloud, then gives life with it to the earth after its death and spreads in it all (kinds of) animals, and the changing of the winds and the clouds made subservient between the heaven and the earth, there are signs for a people who understand." (2:164)

There is absolutely no proof of the existance of God. Belief is not proof of any type of divine entity. Anyone can believe in anything from Santa Claus to the Easter Bunny or anything else for that matter, but that does not make it true. Science demands proof, and so far, there is not a shred of scientific evidence to support the existance of any type of God. It seems that most humans need God. I think it comes down to all the suffering in the world and a certain death. God is the way to believe that there is an entity that helps the human race and to defy death. Given all the suffering in the world, I find it impossible to be a believer in what is not backed by any science. I often do wonder, given what the human race has endured through the ages, why people have not given up on the concept of God. I will leave that to science, to an understanding of the human mind.

I believe that I am accompanied at all times by a six-foot rabbit.

My faith itself is the only evidence, the only proof that is needed that my six-foot rabbit companion exists.

And, my six-foot rabbit can beat up your god.

Isn't make-believe fun?

Jung said that "God is an archetype."

That statement tells the whole story of "God", "faith", and the working of the human mind.

It's nice to see the intellectuals come in and happily take this argument to pieces.

However, if God cannot be disproven, except by lack of faith and demands for proof, then you have all quite handily proved her argument correct.

One fact alone for me remains clear. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, and Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit. And because I believe, I'm perfectly willing to leave the saving of the world in His hands. His counsel will stand despite my scurryings. He is ageless, where I will age and die. He is unchanging, where I can't hold the same thought in my head for more than a few moments. No other force or entity, calling themselves God, will earn my allegiance unless the above are true. Any god who can't do these things can't have my soul.

That is my own faith, my own belief talking. If one does not believe in God, what does one believe in? I'd really be interested to hear.

I love you Valerie,
but your position is idiotic.

You are of course correct that the existence of God can not be proved (or disproved), at least the way that most people (circularly) define God.

It is a free country, and anyone can believe in whatever they want. Zeus, Allah, Yahweh, Albert Shanker.

If there is a God who acts in the world, there should be evidence of it. Let's see: Tsunamis. Young children getting terminal diseases. If there is a God, she is either powerless and totally ignorant, or she is a sadist.

It is idiotic to believe in something for which there is no evidence, and about who there is the most fundamental reason to doubt - the problem of Evil. No God worthy of the name can co-exist with this problem.

If God acts in the physical world, then he is subject to scientific inquiry. Either the bush burns miraculously or the bush does not burn miraculously. Either people get cured miraculously or they do not. Either God influenced people to write the Bible or he did not. If you deny God's action in the physical world, you are not a Christian. If you accept God's action in the physical world, then the existence of God becomes a scientific and physical question, and so far, there is no evidence at all for the existence of God.

Seems Ms Dixon has a confused epistemology of the semantic relationships of some key terms - - - faith, belief, reason, knowledge, proof, evidence, truth, etc.

Said more directly, her essay suffers from a lack of conceptual coherence & therefore cognitive integrity.

Let's see - What are the truth conditions of "Faith itself is the only evidence, the only proof of God" . . . and a god's existence & efficacy?

Grade = B-