Except that phones are not like Windows. PC hardware is pretty much standardized, but that is far from true for smart phones. Those who write software for the iPhone, don't have to worry about hardware incompatibilities between different phones. And the iPhone is an iPhone is an iPhone and then there's the iTouch, all like peas in a pod.
...How could I become a son, or not a son, by what I believe?...
By nature of our human birth, we are all sons of Adam. It is written:
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name
Just as you became the son of your earthly father by birth, so you also must be born into the kingdom of God.
It is written:
John 3:1 And there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. John 3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles which you do unless God is with him. John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? John 3:5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again.
I became a son of God and was filled with the Holy Spirit that night, as I wrote you in an earlier post. Before that night I was only a son of Adam and as such, because of my sin, subject to eternal separation from God, eternal death.
Now this is true of me and it can be true of you:
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
(...I suppose our conversation is over, for now...)
I have tried to communicate with you, but I realize that until the seed of faith is planted by God and begins to grow in you, that unfortunately is true. I pray that God will communicate with you in a way that you will accept. It is impossible for me to accept your point of view because it is impossible for me to be unborn. I was born into physical this world and I cannot go back. Similarly, by faith, I was spiritually born into the kingdom of God. I used to be as you are now, but there is no return path to that old life. A butterfly cannot go back and be a caterpillar again.
The amount of evidence necessary in order for you to believe the word of God and Jesus Christ is obviously more than you have been given at this time.
In one of my previous posts, I have told you about the evidence that convinced me to become a follower of Jesus Christ. I cannot do the work of the Holy Spirit, nor can any other human, convince you of God's truth and bring you into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
Since you only believe in the natural, it is impossible for you to believe:
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
I will pray for you that God will plant a seed of faith in you by whatever means he chooses, before you die. You will die, someday, whether you like it or not. I pray that seed of faith grows in you, so you too may become a son of God. I will pray that you come to faith in your Messiah.
As for me, just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit lives within me. I know this as surely as I know that I am alive right now, sitting in front of my computer. What the apostle Paul wrote to his young friend and disciple Timothy, such a long time ago, is true of me also.
2Timothy 1:12... I am not ashamed: for I know WHOM I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Notice that he does not write about "WHAT" he believed, such as a religion or philosophy, but "WHOM", Jesus Christ the eternal living God man. Being a Christian is about being committed to a person, Jesus Christ.
...All of these explanations are much more plausible....
A court of law doesn't go by what's plausible, but what actually took place.
(... you assume that it's a trick...) In court you don't assume, but provide evidence. YOU have to provide witnesses or other evidence. It is generally implausible for someone to rise from the dead, but the case of Jesus COULD be an exception. You could, if able, provide your own eyewitnesses who contradict the Gospels. Then the jury would have to decide whom to BELIEVE.
(...How many times has a court ever been convinced of a supernatural explanation...) Courts are interested in evidence and testimony, not explanations.
(...What if....) Neither I nor courts are interested in "what if" questions. Courts deal with real events, almost always in the past..
(...Because they said so....) But it is up to you, the opposition to bring evidence that shows the testimony, or in this case the deposition of the eyewitnesses is false.
(...Maybe specifically it DID happen to Jesus....) That exactly is what the GOSPEL eyewitnesses assert. YOU, as the opposing party, must provide witnesses that actually were there as observers, who provide evidence that the Gospel witnesses are wrong. Remember, that the Gospel witnesses testify that they were there. You would also have to provide such eyewitnesses. Saying there is no supernatural will no fly in court.
For an essay on the evidence of the gospels look here:
It was written by one of the founders of Harvard Law School. He also wrote a big volume still used by lawyers and courts called "The Rules of Evidence". Before he researched the Gospels documents like a lawyer looks at testimony, he was an unbeliever, but came to believe after his examination of the gospel witnesses.
...How many times has a supernatural explanation held up in court?...
Witnesses are assumed to be telling the truth. They are sworn to do so. You, as the opposition are required by the court to refute the testimony of these Gospel eyewitnesses. Applying your limited logic by saying there is no supernatural is not good enough. It is their word against yours. They witnessed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Ordinarily of course we can say that this does not happen, but that does not mean specifically, that it did not happen to Jesus. You, as the opposing party, have to come up with evidence why you think this did not happen, that the witnesses are lying or deceived. In the end, it is up to the jury to decide whom to BELIEVE. Nothing is ever PROVED in court.
...Eternal punishment for something that's not even your fault. God-the-psychopath again..
The Bible, which I firmly believe is the word of God, tells us that everybody who does not accept God's grace offered in Jesus by faith, will come before God who will examine how each person lived. Based on that record, nobody will complain that they got an unjust verdict.
Furthermore it states that those who do accept God's grace will not be judged, because Jesus Christ carried their judgment on the cross. So now you have the choice of coming before God on the basis of the forgiveness he offers in Christ or on your own life record. Since God requires perfection and Jesus was the only perfect, sinless man who ever lived, someone who has accepted forgiveness will be eligible to spend their eternity with that perfect God.
When you stand before God, you will not offer any excuses, because everything you have ever done or thought will be brought up in this final court.
How many times does a person have to lie in order to be rightfully called a liar? How many things does a person have to steal before they can be labeled a thief? We are all sinners, like prisoners on death row.
The governor has signed a pardon for every single one, but only those that accept the pardon will be set free.
I have a copy of the book somewhere, but since we moved, I don't know where it is. I remember the book to be very scholarly, very much different than Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ. I don't know what you have against the idea of appeal to authority. Lee makes this the cornerstone of his work, going from authority to authority on different subjects. In my mind, there is nothing wrong with quoting someone who knows more about the subject, having studied it extensively. It is striking to note that Jesus Christ does not quote any human source as authoritative and the people noticed this.
(...Why do all those "bigoted" religion professors...) My daughter has a master's degree from Duke University Divinity school. She is now studying for her doctorate in theology there. She is a committed Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit. She believes that Jesus was a real person, God become man.
(...a lot can happen in two thousand years....) Simon Greenleaf, an expert on evidence disagrees with you. He found that the documents we have are reliable and truthful. I appeal specifically to his authority even though you think appealing to authority is wrong or at least not a good idea.
(... I doubt the witnesses themselves existed...) Other than applying your incomplete logic, you never tell me the reason why you think so.
(...If I have ever ascribed to you a view which you do not hold....) Because the supernatural is outside of your senses and understanding, you don't believe it. The resurrection and other deeds of Jesus do not fit into our normal human logic. If you deny the existence of the supernatural, you are in effect saying that you only believe your senses.
(...because most accounts are at least plausible...) Plausible by your incomplete human logic which does not believe in anything supernatural.
(...while I don't agree that the New Testament is sufficient evidence for a historical Jesus, that disagreement itself is irrelevant...) No, that this agreement is the heart of our differences. I believe that Jesus is a real historical person, God come to earth, Emmanuel God with us.
(..."it is unlikely that Josephus would have mentioned Jesus here simply--as it were--in passing...)
Josephus, like many of his day, consider Jesus nothing more than a common criminal executed for his crime. It is only later, when Christians turned the whole Roman world upside down with the message of the resurrection, that more attention was focused on Jesus.
(...I shall argue that none of these writers provide independent confirmation of Jesus....) The fact that they mention him, provides powerful evidence for the historicity of Jesus. If he had not ever existed they would not have mentioned him.
(...You've said this before, and it still sounds quite strange to me...) Why is that so strange? Courts focus on the past, not the present and not the future. History focuses on the past. Witnesses are supposed to tell what happened, not give their opinion. This is what you find in the Gospels. They are eyewitness testimony of what took place, not opinion or hearsay. Courts of law are always trying to figure out what truly happened in the past.
(...And what does a court of law do when several eyewitness accounts are presented, but they are inconsistent?..) The witnesses are assumed to be truthful, unless the opposition can bring forth testimony contrary to those witnesses or show that the witnesses are unreliable. Like I've said so many times before, as the opposition, you are obligated to bring forth evidence that these witnesses are NOT truthful or reliable. Saying that their testimony is illogical holds no water. In the end however, the verdict comes down to belief, faith if you will. The jury has to BELIEVE one side or the other. Nothing is ever proven in court.
(...More than that, I believe that the evidence is inconsistent and unreliable,...) You BELIEVE, but you do not know. Of cou
You may consider it a minor flaw, but a perfect and holy God, does consider all sin a big deal. If you violate any law that decrees a certain punishment, then that is what you get. If the law decrees a prison sentence, the judge may not give you the maximum, but you won't go free either. God says that the whoever sins shall die.
Death is not the cessation of existence, but a separation. Upon physical death, your soul and spirit are separated from your body. Eternal death is the separation of the real you, your spirit and soul from God. The degree of punishment depends in life you now live on earth.
The good news is, the Gospel, is that Jesus Christ suffered this punishment, so that if you believe and trust him you will be saved from eternal death. Forgiveness of sin is the essence of what it means to be a Christian. Your body will die, but your spirit and soul, your eternal self need not be cast away eternally from God, because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross.
...If this were true, you would be able to make a logical argument for it....
I have given you a few pieces of EVIDENCE of why I believe in the message of the Bible and in Jesus Christ. There are others who have written thick books on the subject. Here is one of the better ones:
As I said before, the Bible is like a deposition taken from eyewitnesses. The fact that these eyewitnesses lived almost 2000 years ago is immaterial. In all your replies, you have stated that you do not believe these witnesses, mainly because you do not believe in anything your senses cannot tell you.
Do you believe that Constantine, Aristotle or any other ancient figure of whom we have historical records lived? Do you believe that these records are substantially accurate? What evidence from history do you accept and what do you reject and on what basis? Was Martin Luther a real person in history or fabrication of the church?
Historical evidence is different from scientific evidence. Most evidence entered into courts of law is historical. There are documents, depositions and live witnesses of what they have seen or heard. All of these things are presumed to be truthful unless someone who opposes their statements shows otherwise.
All you have ever shown is that you do not believe the evidence as presented, because it does not seem logical to you or someone else. By definition, that which is supernatural is not logical. It is not logical for someone to rise from the dead, but that doesn't prove it didn't happen. As the opposing party, if this were a court of law, you would have to show why the evidence given by witnesses is false or inaccurate. Simply stating that it is illogical or unscientific won't cut it.
You have elevated logic and science as the sole criteria of whether something historical is true or false.
(...You've told me several times, and quite clearly, that God does not work within the realm of the scientific method...) You make it seem as if the scientific method and logic are the only ways we can arrive at truth. If we had a means of traveling back in time, then this might be a good way to go. As it is, we have to rely on witnesses and their testimony. Simon Greenleaf was one of many, who did examine the historical evidence of the testimony by the standards that a court of law would apply. He did not use the scientific method or your kind of logic.
(....but this is why faith is needed...) Yes, reasonable faith is needed to believe that the witnesses are reliable and truthful. It is not however a leap in the dark.
(...Why is a living sacrifice reasonable, and why would a loving god demand one?...) To answer that question one would first have to define or find out what Paul means with that statement. To do that, you'd have to read at least the book of Romans. To me it means that I am to sacrifice my selfishness on the altar of God's love in the service to my fellow man.
(...Simply claiming something is not enough to show that it is true...) As I said before, witnesses in court are assumed to be truthful. It is up to the opposition, such as you, to bring forth evidence of why the witness testimony is false or inaccurate. Other than stating that the testimony is illogical, (to you) you have not come up with any evidence why it is false. You know about the idea that an accused is innocent until proven guilty?
(....They have done so through their own reason...) You consistently elevate human reason and logic as the final arbiter and determiner of truth. There are plenty of things in this universe that are beyond human reasoning and understanding.
(...Crick and Watson, and many others...) There are many scientists such as Pascal, Faraday, Newton and others who laid the foundations of our modern science who were devoted Christians. Christianity is not only for the intellectually
...Just tell them there is no mention of Nibiru in the Bible...
The Bible does however say this about the end times:
Luke 21:25 "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and there will be distress on earth among the nations that are confused by the roaring of the sea and its waves. Luke 21:26 People will faint with fear and apprehension because of the things that are to come on the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken loose.
Jesus was asked by his followers what would be the signs of his coming. Those two verses are embedded in the answer he gave them. Anyone interested should read the whole chapter to get the context.
Before I get into this, I would like to thank you for always being polite and spending an awful lot of time on this. I wish I could meet you personally sometime, but I guess that's not likely.
Maybe, instead of this public forum, you would like to send your reply to:
reasons@fhrsporthorses.com
I think in your definition of faith you have hit the crux of the matter. You see, biblical faith is NOT unreasonable. It is based on good historical evidence that would hold up in any law court. Faith and trust are like two sides of the same coin.
The apostle Paul makes an appeal to reason:
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your REASONABLE service. Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking for God writes:
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us REASON together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.
You are making a big mistake, if you are truly of the opinion that Christian faith is a leap in the dark. Tolkien, CS Lewis, Simon Greenleaf and Lee Strobel are a few of the people I have mentioned who have researched the Christian gospel. They all, as well as myself, have come to the conclusion that a Christian need not leave his brains at the church door, before entering.
Now, let me get into a few additional points of your post.
(..Argument from Authority..) Do you really think that it is wrong to depend on and consult an authority, a source that is more knowledgeable about a given subject? The people of Jesus day recognized that he had authority, unlike their religious leaders. The people that heard him recognized this:
Mat 7:28 And it happened, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His doctrine. Mat 7:29 For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Scientists quote each other all the time. Because Jesus was God, as well as human, he could not consult a higher authority because there is none. By his resurrection he showed that he had authority even over death itself. It is interesting that the narrative first includes women in the resurrection account, by which Christianity either stands or falls. The testimony of a woman in those days and that culture was worthless. If the accounts of the resurrection were a fabrication, the fabricators most certainly would not have included the testimony of women as a cornerstone of their story. It is therefore REASONABLE to conclude that their story has merit and should be looked at more closely. There are entire books written on that one subject. Here is a good one that costs only eight dollars. It is titled: "Who Moved the Stone?"
(... but hold a few irrational beliefs...) The belief that Christian faith is a leap in the dark and therefore irrational, is irrational itself. Other than the power of suggestion and the placebo effect, I agree with you on homeopathy. The placebo effect is well established in medical science. The power of faith is greater than we generally give it credit for. An event in Jesus ministry illustrates this:
Mar 5:34 And He said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be whole from your plague.
Get your Bible out and read the whole passage so you can get the context of this.
(....millions of people believed that the Earth was flat...) Other than a few sailors, this belief did not materially affect most people. This is not true of millions of Christians, who were deeply changed by Jesus Christ and his message. I am inc
...First, I don't believe for a second that he's honestly arguing from a position of nonbelief,..
He wrote this essay as a believer, but he became one, because he HONESTLY examined the written evidence, a deposition as it were of the Gospels, the same way as evidence might be examined in a court of law. Before he examined the Gospels he was an unbeliever.
If witnesses testimony matches too closely, it may be evidence of collusion. The fact that there is some variation makes the witness all the more believable.
(...probably from Peter's memory...) So what is wrong with that? Mark was just somebody that was taking Peter's deposition. Years later, Peter wrote this himself:
2Peter 1:16 For not having followed fables having been cunningly devised, but becoming eyewitnesses of the majesty of Jesus Christ, we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord. 2Peter 1:17 For He received honor and glory from God the Father, when was borne to Him a voice from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." 2Peter 1:18 And we heard this voice being borne from Heaven, being with Him in the holy mountain.
(..I saw blanket assertions that such inconsistencies don't impeach the overall accuracy and truthfulness of those writings...) Even today, the account of several witnesses to an auto accident may differ in some minor details, but the account of the event itself remains consistent. There are indeed minor differences in the testimony of the Gospels, but the main story is remarkably consistent. In accounts of the resurrection we read that Jesus first appeared to women who testified to this. If the story had been a fabrication, the fabricators would have never brought up the testimony of women, because in that society, the testimony of a woman was worthless.
(...had faultless memories...) Neither he or I believe that human memories are perfect. The gospels were written with different audiences and viewpoints in mind. Matthew wrote as a Jew to Jews. Mark portrays Jesus as a servant. There is no genealogy in Mark, because the pedigree of slaves was unimportant in those days. Luke a physician, portrays Jesus as the Son of Man, a human being. John portrays Jesus as the eternal self existent son of God.
(...their own holy writings...) Each of these other writings were written by one or two people within one human lifetime. The Bible is a collection of 66 books penned by 40 different authors, living in vastly different places and cultures, over a period of over 1500 years. Even so, these writings bear the hallmarks of a single author, God himself. Also, the Bible has been distributed and translated more than any other writing. Atheist Voltaire's houses is now a distribution center for millions of Bibles.
(...they believed and wanted to prove...) In court, witnesses are generally accorded to be telling the truth which of course they believe, but they better not try to prove something or have an agenda. Similarly these eyewitnesses of the Gospels had no agenda, but were simply relating what they heard and saw.
(..."most perfect indifference on their part, whether they are believed or not"...) This is simply Greenleaf's way of saying that the Gospel writers had no agenda, but simply wrote down what they experienced.
(...Gospel writers suffered and died...) The difference here is that they suffered and died for what they saw and experienced, not what some teacher told them.
....If you have an argument to make, you should be able to make it yourself.....
Sometimes other people who are smarter than you and I or at least have studied the subject more extensively can come up with better reasons as to why they believe a certain thing. Simon Greenleaf knows more about evidence and its interpretation than either you or I. He considered the evidence of the four Gospels taken together as reliable, but you do not. As far as I am concerned, he is a far better person to examine evidence than you are.
(...only rational....) So all the people, millions of them, who believe in Jesus Christ and order their lives accordingly, are all irrational and deluded. You are one of the relatively few who has all knowledge and insight. They are all wrong, but you are right and correct.
Because they cannot be explained by a so-called rational mind, the resurrection or many of the other deeds of Jesus are considered false in your estimation. When Jesus demonstrated divine control over the wind and the waves of the storm, it was a literal event. As evidence I take the great fear reaction of those who were with him. If this had not actually taken place, you would not have such a reaction from those who witnessed it. The same thing can be said to the reaction of his enemies after he raised Lazarus from the dead.
You have set your limited, so-called rational mind, as the arbiter of all things. I have news for you, it isn't like you know everything there is to know, that is if you were omniscient. What do you consider the "baggage of religion" for example?
Atheists claim that there is no God because they have never seen him. Have you ever seen your brain? No? How then can you be sure you have one? Long before radio waves were discovered, the universe was filled with them. Does that mean if we never had invented radio, you could claim that radio waves don't exist?
(...who one particular sports star, actor, or other celebrity...) Can you name a popular actor or sports hero from 1910? Jesus Christ on the other hand has been worshiped for almost 2000 years and still is by millions of people. Our calendar is counted from the time of his first appearing.
(...The Lord of the Rings...) R. R. Tolkien and his close friend and fellow professor, CS Lewis, were both committed Christians. Both of them wrote fanciful stories based on a biblical worldview.
(...How many Bibles were sold, versus Harry Potter books?...) I am sure that you can look that up if you really want to know. The Bible has been distributed more widely over the centuries than any other book. This is still true today. When the art of printing was first invented by Johannes Gutenberg, guess which book was first printed?
(...but the Bible is fact. It deserves a special place...)
The Bible, is a library of 66 books penned by 40 writers over about 15 centuries. It contains every literary form known to man. Other books may be like a hard-hitting hammer, but the Bible, as the word of God, is the anvil. The world around this anvil is littered with countless worn-out and broken hammers. Your atheistic rantings, as well as Hume and others are among them. The house of Voltaire, someone you probably look up to, since he was an atheist, has become and still is a place from which millions of Bibles are distributed. It seems, perhaps, that God has a message in this for all atheists.
(...One of which actually exists...) Are you really so narrow as to put forth the idea that because something cannot be measured and quantified, it does not exist? We have measured the speed of light, but what is the speed of thought? Have you never experienced thought transference? Does the earth "feel" the gravity of the sun instantly and thus remain in orbit, or only after eight minutes?
(...The rest of your post is not an argument...) My point here is not to argue with you, but to expand your thinking outside the box of your own limited rationality, into the realm of faith. You live by faith much more often tha
....Well, since scientific research has proven that the NT was written 300 years ac....
That is patently false! The entire New Testament was complete by the year 90. The gospel of Mark was complete about 30 years after Christ arose. Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed by the Romans, for nothing that important event is recorded in any of the Gospels. It was prophetically foretold by Jesus that it was coming.
What you're talking about is that there are no original documents from this time, only copies. Professional people, called scribes, made painstakingly sure that they copied any documents they came across with meticulous accuracy.
He was one of the founders of Harvard Law school and wrote a volume of books titled "The Rules of Evidence", which is still found on the shelves of lawyers and courts of law across this land.
Just because somebody labels himself a scientist, doesn't mean they are authoritative in fields outside their study. You seem to think that science is the be-all and end-all and has the ultimate grasp on our all of reality. There is more to our existence than science.
(... It's called "Appeal to authority."...) Yes, and it is quite valid to appeal to a higher authority than you, someone who has studied the subject of weighing evidence, whether historical or in a court of law.
(...That he was not somehow fooled...) All the billions of Christians that have lived and are living on this world are are wrong, deceived, foolish and you are a brilliant intellectual in your beliefs. They have accepted the evidence that God has given of himself. The fact that the Bible, to you, nothing but a pack of lies at worst, or fairytales at best, is the most translated and distributed book on earth means nothing. Last year 83 million of them were distributed worldwide.
There are three places for humans to be. There is earth, heaven and hell. Here on earth good and evil are inextricably mingled. That is only temporarily true, because good and evil on earth will not always be mixed up. In heaven, where God dwells, there is only good and light. In Hell there is only darkness and evil.
Those who refuse to believe in God and show this faith by obeying him, God calls fools. I cannot think of a worse fate to befall a human being, than to be labeled a fool by the Creator God of the whole universe.
After you draw your last breath here on earth, you will stand before the God that you denied. All of your excuses of lack of evidence that you wrote in your post may be brought up and others you haven't posted here and you will be ashamed of them all.
God may say something like this to you: "Because of grace and my love for you, I was willing to forgive your sins and foolishness, on account of my son Jesus Christ and what he did for you. You refused him on earth and I will not force you now to be with me in the place where there is only good and light. You will now leave my presence forever and be in that place where there is only evil and darkness. It would be evil of me to compel you by my almighty power for you to be with me here eternally. I respect the choice that you have made while you were yet on earth.
Yes they are, and making huge profits and laughing all the way to the bank. As one of their stockholders I am laughing with them. They do this not with illegal monopoly tactics like Microsoft, but actually making products that people want to buy.
That cheap to run and quiet part are especially hard to get together. The mini only uses 14 W when not working hard. In places where electric rates are high, this is very significant.
Re:Psystar winning would be terrible for Microsoft
on
Psystar Crushed In Court
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· Score: 2, Insightful
...Seriously though, a $600 computer without monitor, keyboard, and mouse is really not much of a bargain....
Yes, but you still have only a computer with Windows and not OS X. The whole point of this Pystar thing was to permanently and legally tear OS X out of Apple's exclusive grasp, so that people like Dell and HP could legally install it on their hardware.
I also wonder out of whose deep pockets the huge amounts of money came to pay all those lawyers.
...There's nothing anywhere in Genesis that says that there are no other "people",...
That is true. In fact this is what Jesus said about the subject:
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. John 14:2 There are many rooms in my Father's house. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you? John 14:3 And if I am going away to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will welcome you into my presence, so that you may be where I am.
Are some of those rooms, or as the King James version of the Bible puts it, "mansions" inhabited? The Greek word here could be more correctly translated simply as "dwelling places". We read in the Bible about other beings such as angels and demons. There are also other creatures mentioned, such as Seraphim and Cherubim.
We read in the Bible, that sin and salvation apply only to this world, a fallen world and the fallen human race. Nobody is condemned for Adam's sin, but because Adam sinned, we too all sin ourselves and are therefore condemned for our own sin, unless we obtain forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
...but myself, born thousands of years afterwards, is?...
No, nobody is condemned for Adam sinned, but because of Adam we also sin constantly. If you have ever lied, even once in your life, you are a liar. As such a liar you are subject to judgment and that judgment is eternal separation from God - otherwise known as Hell. That is only one of the 10 Commandments.
However, Jesus came so that if you believe, that is obey him, you will be forgiven and not die eternally.
Except that the universe has a beginning and God has no beginning but is eternally self existing. He is the one that brought the universe and everything in it into existence.
....The civilization that visited us is long gone by now....
The reality is stranger than fiction. We have been visited by an eternal person, God himself. We still celebrate his coming every year. Our calendar is numbered from the time he appeared. He claimed to have come from an eternal place he called "heaven". 1 billion years is a long time to us time bound mortal beings, but to him who exist in eternity it is no time at all. He said that he has come to give us eternal life, which is far better than instantaneous travel in this time bound universe. He also told us, just in passing, that there are many habitations in what he called his father's house.
Indeed, we were visited by none other than God himself. We still celebrate the birth of Jesus every year. He came the first time as a man, but is coming back as God to Judge every person. This is his earth, not ours, but he will return to take full possession of it. We have made quite a mess of his earth. I wonder what he'll have to say about that.
Slashdot Mirror
...It's Windows vs Mac all over again....
Except that phones are not like Windows. PC hardware is pretty much standardized, but that is far from true for smart phones. Those who write software for the iPhone, don't have to worry about hardware incompatibilities between different phones. And the iPhone is an iPhone is an iPhone and then there's the iTouch, all like peas in a pod.
...How could I become a son, or not a son, by what I believe?...
By nature of our human birth, we are all sons of Adam. It is written:
John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name
Just as you became the son of your earthly father by birth, so you also must be born into the kingdom of God.
It is written:
John 3:1 And there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
John 3:2 He came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles which you do unless God is with him.
John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?
John 3:5 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, Unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:7 Do not marvel that I said to you, You must be born again.
I became a son of God and was filled with the Holy Spirit that night, as I wrote you in an earlier post. Before that night I was only a son of Adam and as such, because of my sin, subject to eternal separation from God, eternal death.
Now this is true of me and it can be true of you:
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
(...I suppose our conversation is over, for now...)
I have tried to communicate with you, but I realize that until the seed of faith is planted by God and begins to grow in you, that unfortunately is true. I pray that God will communicate with you in a way that you will accept. It is impossible for me to accept your point of view because it is impossible for me to be unborn. I was born into physical this world and I cannot go back. Similarly, by faith, I was spiritually born into the kingdom of God. I used to be as you are now, but there is no return path to that old life. A butterfly cannot go back and be a caterpillar again.
...Believe, believe, believe.....
The amount of evidence necessary in order for you to believe the word of God and Jesus Christ is obviously more than you have been given at this time.
In one of my previous posts, I have told you about the evidence that convinced me to become a follower of Jesus Christ. I cannot do the work of the Holy Spirit, nor can any other human, convince you of God's truth and bring you into the kingdom of God by faith in Jesus Christ.
Since you only believe in the natural, it is impossible for you to believe:
1Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
I will pray for you that God will plant a seed of faith in you by whatever means he chooses, before you die. You will die, someday, whether you like it or not. I pray that seed of faith grows in you, so you too may become a son of God. I will pray that you come to faith in your Messiah.
As for me, just as Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit lives within me. I know this as surely as I know that I am alive right now, sitting in front of my computer. What the apostle Paul wrote to his young friend and disciple Timothy, such a long time ago, is true of me also.
2Timothy 1:12 ... I am not ashamed: for I know WHOM I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.
Notice that he does not write about "WHAT" he believed, such as a religion or philosophy, but "WHOM", Jesus Christ the eternal living God man. Being a Christian is about being committed to a person, Jesus Christ.
God bless you,
Armin
...All of these explanations are much more plausible ....
A court of law doesn't go by what's plausible, but what actually took place.
(... you assume that it's a trick...)
In court you don't assume, but provide evidence. YOU have to provide witnesses or other evidence. It is generally implausible for someone to rise from the dead, but the case of Jesus COULD be an exception. You could, if able, provide your own eyewitnesses who contradict the Gospels. Then the jury would have to decide whom to BELIEVE.
(...How many times has a court ever been convinced of a supernatural explanation...)
Courts are interested in evidence and testimony, not explanations.
(...What if ....)
Neither I nor courts are interested in "what if" questions. Courts deal with real events, almost always in the past..
(...Because they said so....)
But it is up to you, the opposition to bring evidence that shows the testimony, or in this case the deposition of the eyewitnesses is false.
(...Maybe specifically it DID happen to Jesus....)
That exactly is what the GOSPEL eyewitnesses assert. YOU, as the opposing party, must provide witnesses that actually were there as observers, who provide evidence that the Gospel witnesses are wrong. Remember, that the Gospel witnesses testify that they were there. You would also have to provide such eyewitnesses. Saying there is no supernatural will no fly in court.
For an essay on the evidence of the gospels look here:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/jesus/greenleaf.html
It was written by one of the founders of Harvard Law School. He also wrote a big volume still used by lawyers and courts called "The Rules of Evidence". Before he researched the Gospels documents like a lawyer looks at testimony, he was an unbeliever, but came to believe after his examination of the gospel witnesses.
...How many times has a supernatural explanation held up in court?...
Witnesses are assumed to be telling the truth. They are sworn to do so. You, as the opposition are required by the court to refute the testimony of these Gospel eyewitnesses. Applying your limited logic by saying there is no supernatural is not good enough. It is their word against yours. They witnessed that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Ordinarily of course we can say that this does not happen, but that does not mean specifically, that it did not happen to Jesus. You, as the opposing party, have to come up with evidence why you think this did not happen, that the witnesses are lying or deceived. In the end, it is up to the jury to decide whom to BELIEVE. Nothing is ever PROVED in court.
...Eternal punishment for something that's not even your fault. God-the-psychopath again..
The Bible, which I firmly believe is the word of God, tells us that everybody who does not accept God's grace offered in Jesus by faith, will come before God who will examine how each person lived. Based on that record, nobody will complain that they got an unjust verdict.
Furthermore it states that those who do accept God's grace will not be judged, because Jesus Christ carried their judgment on the cross. So now you have the choice of coming before God on the basis of the forgiveness he offers in Christ or on your own life record. Since God requires perfection and Jesus was the only perfect, sinless man who ever lived, someone who has accepted forgiveness will be eligible to spend their eternity with that perfect God.
When you stand before God, you will not offer any excuses, because everything you have ever done or thought will be brought up in this final court.
How many times does a person have to lie in order to be rightfully called a liar? How many things does a person have to steal before they can be labeled a thief? We are all sinners, like prisoners on death row.
The governor has signed a pardon for every single one, but only those that accept the pardon will be set free.
...Can you quote a passage here...
I have a copy of the book somewhere, but since we moved, I don't know where it is. I remember the book to be very scholarly, very much different than Lee Strobel's book, The Case for Christ. I don't know what you have against the idea of appeal to authority. Lee makes this the cornerstone of his work, going from authority to authority on different subjects. In my mind, there is nothing wrong with quoting someone who knows more about the subject, having studied it extensively. It is striking to note that Jesus Christ does not quote any human source as authoritative and the people noticed this.
(...Why do all those "bigoted" religion professors ...)
My daughter has a master's degree from Duke University Divinity school. She is now studying for her doctorate in theology there. She is a committed Christian, filled with the Holy Spirit. She believes that Jesus was a real person, God become man.
(...a lot can happen in two thousand years....)
Simon Greenleaf, an expert on evidence disagrees with you. He found that the documents we have are reliable and truthful. I appeal specifically to his authority even though you think appealing to authority is wrong or at least not a good idea.
(... I doubt the witnesses themselves existed...)
Other than applying your incomplete logic, you never tell me the reason why you think so.
(...If I have ever ascribed to you a view which you do not hold....)
Because the supernatural is outside of your senses and understanding, you don't believe it. The resurrection and other deeds of Jesus do not fit into our normal human logic. If you deny the existence of the supernatural, you are in effect saying that you only believe your senses.
(...because most accounts are at least plausible...)
Plausible by your incomplete human logic which does not believe in anything supernatural.
(...while I don't agree that the New Testament is sufficient evidence for a historical Jesus, that disagreement itself is irrelevant...)
No, that this agreement is the heart of our differences. I believe that Jesus is a real historical person, God come to earth, Emmanuel God with us.
(..."it is unlikely that Josephus would have mentioned Jesus here simply--as it were--in passing...)
Josephus, like many of his day, consider Jesus nothing more than a common criminal executed for his crime. It is only later, when Christians turned the whole Roman world upside down with the message of the resurrection, that more attention was focused on Jesus.
(...I shall argue that none of these writers provide independent confirmation of Jesus....)
The fact that they mention him, provides powerful evidence for the historicity of Jesus. If he had not ever existed they would not have mentioned him.
(...You've said this before, and it still sounds quite strange to me...)
Why is that so strange? Courts focus on the past, not the present and not the future. History focuses on the past. Witnesses are supposed to tell what happened, not give their opinion. This is what you find in the Gospels. They are eyewitness testimony of what took place, not opinion or hearsay. Courts of law are always trying to figure out what truly happened in the past.
(...And what does a court of law do when several eyewitness accounts are presented, but they are inconsistent?..)
The witnesses are assumed to be truthful, unless the opposition can bring forth testimony contrary to those witnesses or show that the witnesses are unreliable. Like I've said so many times before, as the opposition, you are obligated to bring forth evidence that these witnesses are NOT truthful or reliable. Saying that their testimony is illogical holds no water. In the end however, the verdict comes down to belief, faith if you will. The jury has to BELIEVE one side or the other. Nothing is ever proven in court.
(...More than that, I believe that the evidence is inconsistent and unreliable,...)
You BELIEVE, but you do not know. Of cou
...Eternal punishment for a minor flaw....
You may consider it a minor flaw, but a perfect and holy God, does consider all sin a big deal. If you violate any law that decrees a certain punishment, then that is what you get. If the law decrees a prison sentence, the judge may not give you the maximum, but you won't go free either. God says that the whoever sins shall die.
Death is not the cessation of existence, but a separation. Upon physical death, your soul and spirit are separated from your body. Eternal death is the separation of the real you, your spirit and soul from God. The degree of punishment depends in life you now live on earth.
The good news is, the Gospel, is that Jesus Christ suffered this punishment, so that if you believe and trust him you will be saved from eternal death. Forgiveness of sin is the essence of what it means to be a Christian. Your body will die, but your spirit and soul, your eternal self need not be cast away eternally from God, because of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross.
...If this were true, you would be able to make a logical argument for it....
I have given you a few pieces of EVIDENCE of why I believe in the message of the Bible and in Jesus Christ. There are others who have written thick books on the subject. Here is one of the better ones:
http://www.amazon.com/Evidence-That-Demands-Verdict-Historical/dp/0840743785
As I said before, the Bible is like a deposition taken from eyewitnesses. The fact that these eyewitnesses lived almost 2000 years ago is immaterial. In all your replies, you have stated that you do not believe these witnesses, mainly because you do not believe in anything your senses cannot tell you.
Do you believe that Constantine, Aristotle or any other ancient figure of whom we have historical records lived? Do you believe that these records are substantially accurate? What evidence from history do you accept and what do you reject and on what basis? Was Martin Luther a real person in history or fabrication of the church?
Historical evidence is different from scientific evidence. Most evidence entered into courts of law is historical. There are documents, depositions and live witnesses of what they have seen or heard. All of these things are presumed to be truthful unless someone who opposes their statements shows otherwise.
All you have ever shown is that you do not believe the evidence as presented, because it does not seem logical to you or someone else. By definition, that which is supernatural is not logical. It is not logical for someone to rise from the dead, but that doesn't prove it didn't happen. As the opposing party, if this were a court of law, you would have to show why the evidence given by witnesses is false or inaccurate. Simply stating that it is illogical or unscientific won't cut it.
You have elevated logic and science as the sole criteria of whether something historical is true or false.
(...You've told me several times, and quite clearly, that God does not work within the realm of the scientific method...)
You make it seem as if the scientific method and logic are the only ways we can arrive at truth. If we had a means of traveling back in time, then this might be a good way to go. As it is, we have to rely on witnesses and their testimony. Simon Greenleaf was one of many, who did examine the historical evidence of the testimony by the standards that a court of law would apply. He did not use the scientific method or your kind of logic.
(....but this is why faith is needed...)
Yes, reasonable faith is needed to believe that the witnesses are reliable and truthful. It is not however a leap in the dark.
(...Why is a living sacrifice reasonable, and why would a loving god demand one?...)
To answer that question one would first have to define or find out what Paul means with that statement. To do that, you'd have to read at least the book of Romans. To me it means that I am to sacrifice my selfishness on the altar of God's love in the service to my fellow man.
(...Simply claiming something is not enough to show that it is true...)
As I said before, witnesses in court are assumed to be truthful. It is up to the opposition, such as you, to bring forth evidence of why the witness testimony is false or inaccurate. Other than stating that the testimony is illogical, (to you) you have not come up with any evidence why it is false. You know about the idea that an accused is innocent until proven guilty?
(....They have done so through their own reason...)
You consistently elevate human reason and logic as the final arbiter and determiner of truth. There are plenty of things in this universe that are beyond human reasoning and understanding.
(...Crick and Watson, and many others...)
There are many scientists such as Pascal, Faraday, Newton and others who laid the foundations of our modern science who were devoted Christians. Christianity is not only for the intellectually
Before that happens he'll move to San Francisco
...Just tell them there is no mention of Nibiru in the Bible...
The Bible does however say this about the end times:
Luke 21:25 "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and there will be distress on earth among the nations that are confused by the roaring of the sea and its waves.
Luke 21:26 People will faint with fear and apprehension because of the things that are to come on the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken loose.
Jesus was asked by his followers what would be the signs of his coming. Those two verses are embedded in the answer he gave them. Anyone interested should read the whole chapter to get the context.
...Faith is belief without reason...
Before I get into this, I would like to thank you for always being polite and spending an awful lot of time on this. I wish I could meet you personally sometime, but I guess that's not likely.
Maybe, instead of this public forum, you would like to send your reply to:
reasons@fhrsporthorses.com
I think in your definition of faith you have hit the crux of the matter. You see, biblical faith is NOT unreasonable. It is based on good historical evidence that would hold up in any law court. Faith and trust are like two sides of the same coin.
The apostle Paul makes an appeal to reason:
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your REASONABLE service.
Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.
The prophet Isaiah, speaking for God writes:
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us REASON together, says Jehovah; though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.
You are making a big mistake, if you are truly of the opinion that Christian faith is a leap in the dark. Tolkien, CS Lewis, Simon Greenleaf and Lee Strobel are a few of the people I have mentioned who have researched the Christian gospel. They all, as well as myself, have come to the conclusion that a Christian need not leave his brains at the church door, before entering.
Now, let me get into a few additional points of your post.
(..Argument from Authority..)
Do you really think that it is wrong to depend on and consult an authority, a source that is more knowledgeable about a given subject? The people of Jesus day recognized that he had authority, unlike their religious leaders. The people that heard him recognized this:
Mat 7:28 And it happened, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His doctrine.
Mat 7:29 For He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Scientists quote each other all the time. Because Jesus was God, as well as human, he could not consult a higher authority because there is none. By his resurrection he showed that he had authority even over death itself. It is interesting that the narrative first includes women in the resurrection account, by which Christianity either stands or falls. The testimony of a woman in those days and that culture was worthless. If the accounts of the resurrection were a fabrication, the fabricators most certainly would not have included the testimony of women as a cornerstone of their story. It is therefore REASONABLE to conclude that their story has merit and should be looked at more closely. There are entire books written on that one subject. Here is a good one that costs only eight dollars. It is titled: "Who Moved the Stone?"
http://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-Stone-Frank-Morison/dp/0310295610
(... but hold a few irrational beliefs...)
The belief that Christian faith is a leap in the dark and therefore irrational, is irrational itself. Other than the power of suggestion and the placebo effect, I agree with you on homeopathy. The placebo effect is well established in medical science. The power of faith is greater than we generally give it credit for. An event in Jesus ministry illustrates this:
Mar 5:34 And He said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be whole from your plague.
Get your Bible out and read the whole passage so you can get the context of this.
(....millions of people believed that the Earth was flat...)
Other than a few sailors, this belief did not materially affect most people. This is not true of millions of Christians, who were deeply changed by Jesus Christ and his message. I am inc
...First, I don't believe for a second that he's honestly arguing from a position of nonbelief,..
He wrote this essay as a believer, but he became one, because he HONESTLY examined the written evidence, a deposition as it were of the Gospels, the same way as evidence might be examined in a court of law. Before he examined the Gospels he was an unbeliever.
If witnesses testimony matches too closely, it may be evidence of collusion. The fact that there is some variation makes the witness all the more believable.
(...probably from Peter's memory...)
So what is wrong with that? Mark was just somebody that was taking Peter's deposition. Years later, Peter wrote this himself:
2Peter 1:16 For not having followed fables having been cunningly devised, but becoming eyewitnesses of the majesty of Jesus Christ, we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord.
2Peter 1:17 For He received honor and glory from God the Father, when was borne to Him a voice from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
2Peter 1:18 And we heard this voice being borne from Heaven, being with Him in the holy mountain.
(..I saw blanket assertions that such inconsistencies don't impeach the overall accuracy and truthfulness of those writings...)
Even today, the account of several witnesses to an auto accident may differ in some minor details, but the account of the event itself remains consistent. There are indeed minor differences in the testimony of the Gospels, but the main story is remarkably consistent. In accounts of the resurrection we read that Jesus first appeared to women who testified to this. If the story had been a fabrication, the fabricators would have never brought up the testimony of women, because in that society, the testimony of a woman was worthless.
(...had faultless memories...)
Neither he or I believe that human memories are perfect. The gospels were written with different audiences and viewpoints in mind. Matthew wrote as a Jew to Jews. Mark portrays Jesus as a servant. There is no genealogy in Mark, because the pedigree of slaves was unimportant in those days. Luke a physician, portrays Jesus as the Son of Man, a human being. John portrays Jesus as the eternal self existent son of God.
(...their own holy writings...)
Each of these other writings were written by one or two people within one human lifetime. The Bible is a collection of 66 books penned by 40 different authors, living in vastly different places and cultures, over a period of over 1500 years. Even so, these writings bear the hallmarks of a single author, God himself. Also, the Bible has been distributed and translated more than any other writing. Atheist Voltaire's houses is now a distribution center for millions of Bibles.
(...they believed and wanted to prove...)
In court, witnesses are generally accorded to be telling the truth which of course they believe, but they better not try to prove something or have an agenda. Similarly these eyewitnesses of the Gospels had no agenda, but were simply relating what they heard and saw.
(..."most perfect indifference on their part, whether they are believed or not"...)
This is simply Greenleaf's way of saying that the Gospel writers had no agenda, but simply wrote down what they experienced.
(...Gospel writers suffered and died...)
The difference here is that they suffered and died for what they saw and experienced, not what some teacher told them.
....If you have an argument to make, you should be able to make it yourself.....
Sometimes other people who are smarter than you and I or at least have studied the subject more extensively can come up with better reasons as to why they believe a certain thing. Simon Greenleaf knows more about evidence and its interpretation than either you or I. He considered the evidence of the four Gospels taken together as reliable, but you do not. As far as I am concerned, he is a far better person to examine evidence than you are.
(...only rational....)
So all the people, millions of them, who believe in Jesus Christ and order their lives accordingly, are all irrational and deluded. You are one of the relatively few who has all knowledge and insight. They are all wrong, but you are right and correct.
Because they cannot be explained by a so-called rational mind, the resurrection or many of the other deeds of Jesus are considered false in your estimation. When Jesus demonstrated divine control over the wind and the waves of the storm, it was a literal event. As evidence I take the great fear reaction of those who were with him. If this had not actually taken place, you would not have such a reaction from those who witnessed it. The same thing can be said to the reaction of his enemies after he raised Lazarus from the dead.
You have set your limited, so-called rational mind, as the arbiter of all things. I have news for you, it isn't like you know everything there is to know, that is if you were omniscient. What do you consider the "baggage of religion" for example?
Atheists claim that there is no God because they have never seen him. Have you ever seen your brain? No? How then can you be sure you have one? Long before radio waves were discovered, the universe was filled with them. Does that mean if we never had invented radio, you could claim that radio waves don't exist?
(...who one particular sports star, actor, or other celebrity...)
Can you name a popular actor or sports hero from 1910? Jesus Christ on the other hand has been worshiped for almost 2000 years and still is by millions of people. Our calendar is counted from the time of his first appearing.
(...The Lord of the Rings...)
R. R. Tolkien and his close friend and fellow professor, CS Lewis, were both committed Christians. Both of them wrote fanciful stories based on a biblical worldview.
(...How many Bibles were sold, versus Harry Potter books?...)
I am sure that you can look that up if you really want to know. The Bible has been distributed more widely over the centuries than any other book. This is still true today. When the art of printing was first invented by Johannes Gutenberg, guess which book was first printed?
(...but the Bible is fact. It deserves a special place...)
The Bible, is a library of 66 books penned by 40 writers over about 15 centuries. It contains every literary form known to man. Other books may be like a hard-hitting hammer, but the Bible, as the word of God, is the anvil. The world around this anvil is littered with countless worn-out and broken hammers. Your atheistic rantings, as well as Hume and others are among them. The house of Voltaire, someone you probably look up to, since he was an atheist, has become and still is a place from which millions of Bibles are distributed. It seems, perhaps, that God has a message in this for all atheists.
(...One of which actually exists...)
Are you really so narrow as to put forth the idea that because something cannot be measured and quantified, it does not exist? We have measured the speed of light, but what is the speed of thought? Have you never experienced thought transference? Does the earth "feel" the gravity of the sun instantly and thus remain in orbit, or only after eight minutes?
(...The rest of your post is not an argument...)
My point here is not to argue with you, but to expand your thinking outside the box of your own limited rationality, into the realm of faith. You live by faith much more often tha
....Well, since scientific research has proven that the NT was written 300 years ac....
That is patently false! The entire New Testament was complete by the year 90. The gospel of Mark was complete about 30 years after Christ arose. Jerusalem had not yet been destroyed by the Romans, for nothing that important event is recorded in any of the Gospels. It was prophetically foretold by Jesus that it was coming.
What you're talking about is that there are no original documents from this time, only copies. Professional people, called scribes, made painstakingly sure that they copied any documents they came across with meticulous accuracy.
....Go read about the inconsistencies among just the four canonical Gospels...
That is just what Simon Greenleaf did, trying, as a lawyer to dismiss the Gospels as fabrications. You can read what he had to say here:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/jesus/greenleaf.html
He was one of the founders of Harvard Law school and wrote a volume of books titled "The Rules of Evidence", which is still found on the shelves of lawyers and courts of law across this land.
...Lawyers are not scientists...
Just because somebody labels himself a scientist, doesn't mean they are authoritative in fields outside their study. You seem to think that science is the be-all and end-all and has the ultimate grasp on our all of reality. There is more to our existence than science.
(... It's called "Appeal to authority."...)
Yes, and it is quite valid to appeal to a higher authority than you, someone who has studied the subject of weighing evidence, whether historical or in a court of law.
(...That he was not somehow fooled...)
All the billions of Christians that have lived and are living on this world are are wrong, deceived, foolish and you are a brilliant intellectual in your beliefs. They have accepted the evidence that God has given of himself. The fact that the Bible, to you, nothing but a pack of lies at worst, or fairytales at best, is the most translated and distributed book on earth means nothing. Last year 83 million of them were distributed worldwide.
There are three places for humans to be. There is earth, heaven and hell. Here on earth good and evil are inextricably mingled. That is only temporarily true, because good and evil on earth will not always be mixed up. In heaven, where God dwells, there is only good and light. In Hell there is only darkness and evil.
Those who refuse to believe in God and show this faith by obeying him, God calls fools. I cannot think of a worse fate to befall a human being, than to be labeled a fool by the Creator God of the whole universe.
After you draw your last breath here on earth, you will stand before the God that you denied. All of your excuses of lack of evidence that you wrote in your post may be brought up and others you haven't posted here and you will be ashamed of them all.
God may say something like this to you: "Because of grace and my love for you, I was willing to forgive your sins and foolishness, on account of my son Jesus Christ and what he did for you. You refused him on earth and I will not force you now to be with me in the place where there is only good and light. You will now leave my presence forever and be in that place where there is only evil and darkness. It would be evil of me to compel you by my almighty power for you to be with me here eternally. I respect the choice that you have made while you were yet on earth.
...Apple is just a great marketing company...
Yes they are, and making huge profits and laughing all the way to the bank. As one of their stockholders I am laughing with them. They do this not with illegal monopoly tactics like Microsoft, but actually making products that people want to buy.
.... small, quiet and cheap to run? ...
That cheap to run and quiet part are especially hard to get together. The mini only uses 14 W when not working hard. In places where electric rates are high, this is very significant.
...Seriously though, a $600 computer without monitor, keyboard, and mouse is really not much of a bargain....
Yes, but you still have only a computer with Windows and not OS X. The whole point of this Pystar thing was to permanently and legally tear OS X out of Apple's exclusive grasp, so that people like Dell and HP could legally install it on their hardware.
I also wonder out of whose deep pockets the huge amounts of money came to pay all those lawyers.
...There's nothing anywhere in Genesis that says that there are no other "people",...
That is true. In fact this is what Jesus said about the subject:
John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
John 14:2 There are many rooms in my Father's house. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going away to prepare a place for you?
John 14:3 And if I am going away to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will welcome you into my presence, so that you may be where I am.
Are some of those rooms, or as the King James version of the Bible puts it, "mansions" inhabited? The Greek word here could be more correctly translated simply as "dwelling places". We read in the Bible about other beings such as angels and demons. There are also other creatures mentioned, such as Seraphim and Cherubim.
We read in the Bible, that sin and salvation apply only to this world, a fallen world and the fallen human race. Nobody is condemned for Adam's sin, but because Adam sinned, we too all sin ourselves and are therefore condemned for our own sin, unless we obtain forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
...but myself, born thousands of years afterwards, is?...
No, nobody is condemned for Adam sinned, but because of Adam we also sin constantly. If you have ever lied, even once in your life, you are a liar. As such a liar you are subject to judgment and that judgment is eternal separation from God - otherwise known as Hell. That is only one of the 10 Commandments.
However, Jesus came so that if you believe, that is obey him, you will be forgiven and not die eternally.
...Maybe He's the Universe itself....
Except that the universe has a beginning and God has no beginning but is eternally self existing. He is the one that brought the universe and everything in it into existence.
....The civilization that visited us is long gone by now....
The reality is stranger than fiction. We have been visited by an eternal person, God himself. We still celebrate his coming every year. Our calendar is numbered from the time he appeared. He claimed to have come from an eternal place he called "heaven". 1 billion years is a long time to us time bound mortal beings, but to him who exist in eternity it is no time at all. He said that he has come to give us eternal life, which is far better than instantaneous travel in this time bound universe. He also told us, just in passing, that there are many habitations in what he called his father's house.
...I'm pretty sure we were visited. Once. ...
Indeed, we were visited by none other than God himself. We still celebrate the birth of Jesus every year. He came the first time as a man, but is coming back as God to Judge every person. This is his earth, not ours, but he will return to take full possession of it. We have made quite a mess of his earth. I wonder what he'll have to say about that.