Apologetics and Debate (facts vs. theories)

[Nanimose]

Not saying that I can't leave this place anytime I want, ever since I was a christian theist I've liked to talk about God. I have a habit of it, but sometimes it gets overwhelming and seems too strong for my comfort. Is it safe and healthy to talk openly about the supernatural like there's a possibility for it? (I'm convinced that people make up things and that's the end of it).

[Mark Little]

Not saying that I can't leave this place anytime I want, ever since I was a christian theist I've liked to talk about God. I have a habit of it, but sometimes it gets overwhelming and seems too strong for my comfort. Is it safe and healthy to talk openly about the supernatural like there's a possibility for it? (I'm convinced that people make up things and that's the end of it).

I personally don't see a problem with taling about the supernatural like it is a possibility. Just about anything is possible to some greater or lesser extent, but there would have to be very compelling evidence before I would be convinced that it actually existed.

I don't think everyone makes such things up ( that is, a conscious lie), but I do think that people misinterpret things that they see or experience.

If I talk about the supernatural as if it could exist, it is usually to show what I see as the inconsistencies of that position.

[mentored1]

Well met Nanimose

Not saying that I can't leave this place anytime I want, ever since I was a christian theist I've liked to talk about God. I have a habit of it, but sometimes it gets overwhelming and seems too strong for my comfort. Is it safe and healthy to talk openly about the supernatural like there's a possibility for it? (I'm convinced that people make up things and that's the end of it).

Talking about the supernatural is part of human existence - it always has been (at least what we know of our existence). I'm not convinced that ancient man really thought in literal terms when he talked about gods and goddesses - from what I've read and understood at least. It's more likely they were types, templates for forces they didn't understand. Yet somewhere along the line the concept of god became a literal one, a being directly and intimately involved in the affairs of men. Or perhaps those two vantage points were always a bit blurry.

Nonetheless to speak about things we don't understand - as is self-evident - is a necessary thing for us. Philosophy has been musing on the mysteries of existence for a long time; and science has to ask questions about mysteries in order to form hypotheses. We no longer pray for rain because we understand the basics of climate as it affects our world; nor do we need to beg for the healing of an infection because we have antibiotics. The mystery gets filled in and pushed out to the frontiers.

I'm not sure that denying the progress or advance of science is healthy; so if a theological tenet is never questioned there might be a problem. Talking about and questioning the supernatural is akin to contemplating mystery: it is healthy and necessary - and probably unavoidable. Just keep talking...

Take care

[Jayhawker Soule]

Is it safe and healthy to talk openly about the supernatural like there's a possibility for it? (I'm convinced that people make up things and that's the end of it).

Good grief ...

[Abelard]

ever since I was a christian theist I've liked to talk about God. I have a habit of it,

What made you lose faith, buddy?

[rizdek]

What made you lose faith, buddy?

I know I wasn't the one abelard is asking, but I started losing faith when I read the bible....straight thru with no one "reinterpreting" it as I went. My loss of faith sped up when I realized "how" the stories of Jesus were first passed on orally for many years, and that, simultaneously to those stories, other god-man stories (with supernatural events) existed that were also being handed down orally. Both the possibility that the various stories might get "mixed up" with one getting incorporated with the other, and the very likely possibility that at least some and perhaps all of them are probably myth precluded me from being able to, with conviction, say that I believed the critical elements of the life of Jesus that would make him the Christ.

[zorathruster]

I think that humans attempt to visualize the ideal. Because of our brain's ability to model our world, we can imagine various scenarios that resolve a long list of human limitations and feelings. Contentment, resolve, peace, ... all of which are never really achievable. However, since we can imagine them, we can express this ideal and since it doesn't exist we are actually debating what is the ideal. Our debates on the supernatural are really debates on what is the pent-ultimate form of existance.

It might be more like the matrix than the biblical heaven.

[Zeluvia]

Just want to remind you guys, this is NON - THEIST forum