qetzal
Posts: 311
Joined: Feb. 2006
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| Quote (afdave @ May 15 2006,08:01) | | I agree that it is only a hypothesis and never will be provable. Put I do make predictions. See my steps above. (and there are more besides this) |
I hope there will be more besides this. You only listed one: "This 'ET' probably can communicate to humans." And your only cited evidence for this prediction is the Bible.
The problem there is that the Bible is more readily explained as a product of purely human activity. We know humans exist. We know they write books. We know different human groups have claimed the existence of different (and often mutually incompatible) Gods throughout history. We know humans sometimes believe things that are objectively false. We know that groups of humans sometimes share common beliefs that are objectively false.
Thus, we can explain the Bible using entirely known phenomenon, without recourse to an undemonstrated God.
Which does NOT, of course, disprove God. Nor does it disprove the Bible as His word. It just means that the Bible is not useful evidence of God communicating with us.
| Quote | | We all know the Bill Gates quote about DNA being software which is far advanced beyond our own software. I think he should know. |
Why? Because he's such an accomplished molecular biologist and geneticist? I submit that the real reason you 'think he should know' is that you've already reached your conclusions (God exists, He made us, etc.), and you accept or reject others' opinions based on whether they agree with those predetermined conclusions.
And that's fine with me. You should just recognize that it's faith, not evidence.
| Quote | | I would turn this around and ask, "What would it take to convince you that the God of the Christian Bible exists and is really as He is described there?" I'm serious. What would it take? |
Any of the following would certainly make me give it stronger consideration:
* An objectively verifiable burning bush talks to me and/or to others.
* A sea gets parted, preferably accompanied by a booming voice.
* The earth stops rotating for a while, then starts up again, all without killing us.
* A new species of dats appears suddenly, preferably in a place where there were definitely no previous dats. Molecular analysis shows that half the dats' genes came from dogs, and half from cats.
If the Bible is true, God did all those sorts of things before, so he can presumably do them again, right?
You may say that the Bible shows he already did them, and i should accept that. Unfortunately, we have no corroborating evidence that those things happened. In fact, objective evidence frequently contradicts modern translations of the Bible, e.g. regarding the age of the earth, claims for a global flood, etc.
On the other hand, we do have evidence that people sometimes make up stories like those, or misinterpret 'natural' phenomena as being the work of God.
So, if God exists, and He wants to do some of those things again now, when we're better equipped to observe and record them objectively, I'll reassess my non-belief. Or, maybe you can present actual evidence that is not more readily explained by known phenomena. You haven't done so yet, and I strongly doubt you can, but maybe I'm wrong.
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