Evidence For Belief

It's the only evidence we have. If there is evidence, there's no excuse for belief. Worst copout ever.Leprechauns hide because they want you to have faith in them. The Loch Ness monster hides because she wants you to have faith in her. Bigfoot hides because he wants you to have faith in him. Martians hide because they want you to have faith in them. Phlogiston hides because it wants you to have faith in it. The earth pretends to be round because it wants you to believe it's flat.

There's nothing wrong with speculation that's based on reality - but how can you invent something useful with no basis in reality?

You make the mistake that Faith constantly makes. Creativity is evidence of A creator - one of many - not THE Creator. In the case of humour, the creators are us.

Are the twelve patients who think they're Napoleon really Napoleon? It can be considered as evidence but no definite conclusions should be drawn from it. We're confining reality to reality. Otherwise, we wouldn't have bothered to make up words for fantasy, fiction, etc.And those chemicals didn't exist "forever", only since some time after the Big Bang.

Why not? It's a brain function and brain functions are electrochemical. Yes, going back to Miller-Urey. No sillier than it is to speculate that a hobbit could protect a magic ring from orcs and wizards. No more sensible either.

That's why I said, "going back to," Miller-Urey. Anybody who contends that life and non-life are fundamentally different is responsible for refuting ALL of the evidence since Miller-Urey.

ICANT is as close to "the devil" as you're likely to get. Remember that "the devil" is the one who tells you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear.

That isn't true. A century or so ago, authors of fiction went to great length to suggest that their stories were true. They found the manuscript in a bottle or they were told the story by somebody they met in a bar.

So was The Lord of the Rings.

It seemed fairly straightforward to me. How does the Bible differ from The Lord of the Rings?

Were they? Was the author of Job at the board meeting where God and Satan agreed to torment Job? Was the author of Genesis in the Garden of Eden? It was made up on 66 or more spots. There is no evidence that they weren't.And since it IS fiction *cough* talking snake *cough* they were either intentionally writing fiction or they were intentionally lying or they were just plain wrong or.... Nope.

Actually, that's my point. If your God has no basis in reality - i.e. no evidence that he's doing something in the world, what good is he? Apologists made up the God you believe in.

Of course. People born into Christian cultures tend to be Christians, people who are born into Muslim cultures tend to be Muslims. If you had been born anywhere else in the world, do you think your beliefs would still be so American? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by putting your foolish beliefs on the same plane as other more sensible beliefs. They are equal in the sense that they equally lack evidence. They are not all equally sensible or palatable. You tell me. Is it possible that Zeus is closest to reality?

That's a poor analogy. There are thousands of insurance companies and your belief is that only one of them pays out. Of course. It was intended to be silly. It's a parody of your belief in a hiding god. If there's any reasoning involved, why don't you present it instead of just parroting the apologists? Polly want a cracker? As far as I know, we have no definitive evidence for ANY "uncaused cause". That's not an excuse for you to make one up. How would you go about measuring wisdom? You're looking at a computer right now that Stephen Hawking understood and Isaiah didn't.

Your cult is. And there are Muslims in every culture. The point is that most people acquire their religion accidentally by being born into it. Read my posts. I have pointed out many times how nonsensical your beliefs are. For just one example, the idea that God sent his "son" (himself) so that we could kill him and only then could he forgive us. Will you ever learn? There is no such thing as subjective evidence. But is it possible that he is closest to reality? That's what you asked me about your god.