Marshall Brain on the Design of the Universe

[Makarios]

Part of this is addressed in my post 19.
The problem is we need faith to help us fulfill our God given earthly objective of accepting God's Love. If you had obvious signs or scientific evidence there would not be the need for faith.

Doesn't it seem odd that we want evidence that things work in every area of life except for religion? We want to know that an airplane is flightworthy, or that a drug is safe based upon evidence. I believe my car brakes will work when I need them to because they have been tested. We require doctors to prove they are capable through a long series of classes, tests and experience before we let them practice surgery. We require contractors and architects to prove they know what they are doing so their buildings don't fall down.

But when religion fails to live up to its promises that is actually considered a good thing, because belief without evidence or even belief in the face of counter-factual evidence is thought to be a virtue. I don't get it.

[bling]

Doesn't it seem odd that we want evidence that things work in every area of life except for religion? We want to know that an airplane is flightworthy, or that a drug is safe based upon evidence. I believe my car brakes will work when I need them to because they have been tested. We require doctors to prove they are capable through a long series of classes, tests and experience before we let them practice surgery. We require contractors and architects to prove they know what they are doing so their buildings don't fall down.

But when religion fails to live up to its promises that is actually considered a good thing, because belief without evidence or even belief in the face of counter-factual evidence is thought to be a virtue. I don't get it.

Do you need to know a bridge in South America works if you and/or any of the people you know never plan to go on it?
You do not want to clutter your brain with useless information, stuff you would not care to know, would only forget it, and consider it worthless to you. So do you really want to know there is a God for the right reasons (not just to win an argument) to help you with your life. God is here and wants to help you, but if all you will do is ignore Him or by having knowledge of Him it causes you pain, then God will remain hidden for your sake.
The true Christian has wonderful evidence, because it helps Him in his spiritual growth, but would have been detrimental to his first accepting God’s Love in the form of accepting God’s forgiveness which is a humbling experience needing trust (faith) to accept charity?

[Makarios]

Do you need to know a bridge in South America works if you and/or any of the people you know never plan to go on it?

No...huh?

You do not want to clutter your brain with useless information, stuff you would not care to know, would only forget it, and consider it worthless to you. So do you really want to know there is a God for the right reasons (not just to win an argument) to help you with your life. God is here and wants to help you, but if all you will do is ignore Him or by having knowledge of Him it causes you pain, then God will remain hidden for your sake. The true Christian has wonderful evidence, because it helps Him in his spiritual growth, but would have been detrimental to his first accepting God’s Love in the form of accepting God’s forgiveness which is a humbling experience needing trust (faith) to accept charity?

What does all this have to do with my post about prayer?

[VenomX]

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then the human body would be this way."

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then the human body would be that way."

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then we'd expect to see this."

etc.

Is it just me, or could that entire essay be boiled down to "I think God should have done things one way, but since he did them the other way, he doesn't exist"? Furthermore, could we not dismiss the entire thing out of hand because it is based on the logical fallacy of Appeal to Motive?

[Sparko]

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then the human body would be this way."

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then the human body would be that way."

"If an Intelligent Designer were involved, then we'd expect to see this."

etc.

Is it just me, or could that entire essay be boiled down to "I think God should have done things one way, but since he did them the other way, he doesn't exist"? Furthermore, could we not dismiss the entire thing out of hand because it is based on the logical fallacy of Appeal to Motive?

pretty much, he is just angry because God didn't do things his way. Most morons like Marshall have no idea about designing anything in the first place. They think everything should be perfect. But ask any engineer, when you design a system you don't try to make everything perfect, you make your systems flexible and make compromises to allow for the widest range of usability.

[bling]

No...huh?

What does all this have to do with my post about prayer?

The question I am addressing has to do with “Doesn't it seem odd that we want evidence that things work in every area of life except for religion? We want to know that an airplane is flightworthy, or that a drug is safe based upon evidence. I believe my car brakes will work when I need them to because they have been tested. We require doctors to prove they are capable through a long series of classes, tests and experience before we let them practice surgery. We require contractors and architects to prove they know what they are doing so their buildings don't fall down.

But when religion fails to live up to its promises that is actually considered a good thing, because belief without evidence or even belief in the face of counter-factual evidence is thought to be a virtue. I don't get it.
And this question: “Why God does not immediately grow a limb back on an amputee with a pray. It all has to do with why God is “hidden” for the unbeliever so they have to have faith which is needed to help them complete their objective.
On pray I said the following:
God does answer pray done correctly. What God asks us to do is for our own good, to help us. We are bringing God into our lives and He will support us in any good effort. Pray is to be a two way communication, but often we are asking for stuff and do not patiently wait for God’s response, so it becomes a two way communication. It is always our desire that the best takes place for all those that do and will Love the Lord. It is our privilege and honor to be a part of His work in our pray time.
When a true Christian prays for something all for the right reason it does happen. This has been my experience. If I truly Love my neighbor as myself then, I am just as happy if he wins the lottery as I am if I win, so why would I want to win over others or why would I want to bring the problems associated with winning on anyone that could not handle it?