Dubious Plot and Cast

[Tassman]

(I don't think I actually did resort to Ad Hominem - he was trolling - but )

Nonsense! You made a sweeping claim which I asked you to substantiate. And, as I thought, you couldn't.

Well, I live in a country of 60 million +, and the vast bulk of them actively believe in ghosts, evil spirits and so on. And many people here have had what they believe to be experiences with these kinds of things. AFAIK there are numerous other countries where the bulk of the population believes in these kinds of things as well. A fair chunk of SE Asia; India; the Middle East; Africa; and I guess large parts of South and Central America. So, although the 'theology' may differ, there seems to be a broad consensus that there are evil spirits 'out there'. And people's testimonies to that effect are evidence that such spirits do exist.

All that said, it can be rational not to believe that evil spirits exist. That would depend on things like what evidence one has, how one has analysed that evidence, what other explanation one has for the evidence, and so on. So it can be rational not to believe.

{Note: this is not the same as 'All disbelief is rational'. Neither belief nor disbelief per se in Christianity and associated beliefs is rationally justified - it depends on how one has approached the evidence }

Indeed there is such broad consensus, especially in the country to which you refer, i.e. Thailand where I'm also based, but then Thais tend to be a superstitious people in many areas of life. More to the point the belief in evil spirits doesn't necessarily make them true. It's interesting that everywhere in the world the better educated tend not to accept the existence of such entities.

[shunyadragon]

Indeed there is such broad consensus, especially in the country to which you refer, i.e. Thailand where I'm also based, but then Thais tend to be a superstitious people in many areas of life. More to the point the belief in evil spirits doesn't necessarily make them true. It's interesting that everywhere in the world the better educated tend not to accept the existence of such entities.

The Dubious plots and casts is indeed universal with humanity, as are many other attributes that make us human. These beliefs are far too anecdotal to be a reasonable argument for the existence of God. Based on the evidence it becomes even more unreasonable that one 'dubious plot and caste' is true and all the others are false, or evil.

I believe in an apothatic 'Source' some call God(s) without the 'Dubious plots and casts. My argument for my beliefs avoids this faulty reasoning.

[Rushing Jaws]

I would hope that any honest Christian will concede that the narratives found in the Bible are simply hard to believe. The fact of the matter is that the supernatural, miraculous interventions and/or manifestations recounted in the biblical text are so utterly foreign to our experiences that we are left struggling to believe that they literally happened. It's certainly not a logical impossibility, but taking into consideration the context of the text (my tribal deity vs. your tribal deity) which is from an ancient people with a primitive worldview, well, it's rather difficult to believe that they were just recordin' literal history.

With that said, I do in fact believe that the one true God revealed himself to the ancient Israelites and more-or-less interacted with them in the manner described in the biblical text. However, I do have my doubts and often say to the Lord: "I do believe; but help me overcome my unbelief"..and he does.

## The narratives in the Bible are far too varied to be treated as being all equally hard or easy to believe. David's adultery is not hard to believe, in the way that an alleged miracle might be. And what makes miracles hard to believe in the first place ? I can honestly say that I have not the slightest difficulty believing that the miracles in the Bible may happened. If Jesus Christ is indeed God Incarnate, and promised that His disciples would do greater works than His, I would be very surprised if the Church's life were free of miracles. What I do find impossible to believe is the cessationist position that God no longer works miracles. I realise that it can claim some distinguished names in its favour, but I think it imprisons the Holy Spirit in the Apostolic Age. Not all Christians struggle to believe in the reality of miracles.

IMHO, it is a misconception to regard miracles as historical, at least without qualification and explanation. That sounds too much like saying that God is historical. But that is perhaps a different question.