Hi Dick;
Dick Fischer wrote:
> Sam Olsen wrote:
>
>
>> As much as I dislike the discovery that the issues you discussed are
>> not so
>> easily verifiable, I am left with the realisation of the importance
>> of
>> faith nevertheless. The words of Augustine quoted by someone on the
>> chat
>> group "Credo ut intelligam/I believe in order to understand" and
>> from one
>> of the minor prophets (Hab 2v4): "the just shall live by faith" take
>> on a
>> new meaning for me ( have I taken this latter phrase erroneously
>> into this
>> context George?). Take Hebrews 6v1and6 ("assurance" = subjective ;
>>
>> "without faith impossible to please God") and we once again see that
>>
>> systematic reasoned factual foundation is unfortunately not what
>> will hold
>> me to Christianity or any world view for that matter.
>
>
> "Unfortunately" is the key word here. Unfortunately, there are
> millions hooked
> by cults who can't be reasoned with because they have "faith." I
> talked just
> yesterday with a Buddhist friend who, simply because she was born in
> Cambodia, is of that faith. Is my faith in Christianity stronger than
> her faith? I
> doubt it. Could I convince her and her husband because of Christian
> love? They
> have a family love that I can only envy.
>
> I do have the one thing that can be used to support my religious
> belief - data and
> evidence - the stuff of science. Christ appeared to the masses after
> the resurrection
> to give credibility to the apostles, who thereafter would have members
> in the
> audience who had seen the risen Christ, and could testify to that
> fact.
"Unfortunately" Dick, this is the stuff of history--not the evidence of
science in the sense of the hard sciences. The data and evidence, if it
exists at all, only supports the existence of a man called Jesus and
not our religious beliefs concerning his persona. Moreover, such
evidence does not remove the primacy of faith, for we must believe in
these eyewitness accounts. (There are other account about Jesus that we
do not believe in as sacred, e.g. the Gospel of Thomas, etc..)
>
>
> If we choose to ignore supporting evidence for our faith, and for our
> methods of
> apology, we are reduced to a shouting contest only that we can either
> win or
> lose simply on the power of our rhetoric. God has given us better
> ammunition
> than that. We ignore it at our peril.
>
> Dick Fischer - The Origins Solution - www.orisol.com
> "The answer we should have known about 150 years ago."
NO WE ARE NOT!! :-) (sorry I couldn't resist)
We are witness not lawyers of the Kingdom of God. The doctrine of
election, which ought to engender extreme humility and not arrogance, is
pertinent here: only those who have ears to hear will hear; for we do
not choose God, He chooses us. We need to pray for your Cambodian
friend.
George A.
-- George A. Andrews Jr. Physics/Applied Science College of William & Mary P.O. Box 8795 Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795
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