.....And, if I made robots, capable of building copies of themselves....
Provided that the parts they used were never part of any other robot or machine. Any parts composed of anything more than some or all of the 92 or so elements could not be used. Life takes mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, along with some of the others to build all organisms. Your robot would have to do the same or employ a hierarchy of robots that could do this. Also, if you believe in evolution, the application of external intelligence, human in this case, would not be permitted. Your robot or a huge army of robots, if needed, have to do it all by themselves.
For example, if your robot needed screws to hold it together, it would need the services of a robot that makes screws. That one would need the services of a steel mill and robots that get iron out of the ground etc. Get the idea?
....The Polio virus has already been synthesized from scratch from raw chemicals......
That is pure, unadulterated BS, a bald faced lie. NOBODY has ever made even a virus from all non-living components. They have taken chemicals that originated from life and combined these to make other chemicals which some have called life. To truly make life, ALL parts thereof MUST come from chemicals that were never produced by anything that was previously alive.
The definition of life is not clear cut. At minimum to be called alive, an organism must be able to reproduce itself and at some level at least, be self-repairing if damaged. Viruses do meet these two specs.
Nobody has ever demonstrated life coming from non-life.
....I think a bigger challenge for scientists is for them to insert their DNA into a cell naturally made by women......
A bigger challenge yet is to make some DNA from a rock and inject that into another rock, which then comes alive. That's what evolutionists claim happened originally, billions of years ago when minerals washed down from the rocky land into the "prebiotic soup" of warm seas. The claim is made in science textbooks, that this is where life "evolved", all on its own, without an intelligent scientist messing around.
So if humans do genetic programming, it's obviously designed. Otherwise it's random, mindless mutations, that just somehow happened over the course of billions of years. What useful code for computers has ever come about by any other means beside a human mind? So now human minds contemplate writing genetic code, yet those same human minds try to make themselves and the rest of us believe that the original genetic code did not originate in someone's mind, God's mind. Indeed, God expressing Himself through the Apostle Paul gives us His assessment in Chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans:
"But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools"
In other news:
Along with the "Creation of Life" some other patents were issued recently for "Cold Fusion", "Anti-Gravity" and a "Time-Travel" device dubbed "Stargate". Patents are also pending for "Eternal Youth" and "Perpetual Motion".
....there are a lot of kids who don't want to be there.......
I don't blame them. Most schools today are more like a prison than anything else. The kids, especially the younger ones, are confined there, like so may rats in a cage. Kids are meant to run free, explore, and satisfy their inborn curiosity.
Education as it is today in our society is a modern and unnatural institution that began with the industrial age about 200-250 years ago. Until then, for millennia, it was the job of the parents to bring up their children. That included educating them. In "primitive" societies it still is. In the animal kingdom, this principle is also seen. The little eaglet learns how to fly and hunt from its parents, not in some Eagle Flock Flying and Survival school where the little birds are crammed together for hours, to learn these skills from an uninterested stranger.
Kids deserve a complete home, which includes a mother and a FATHER, especially for boys. Sheer selfishness on the part of adults, is the cause for many, if not most maladjusted "problem kids". Kids will forgive adults poverty and lack of opportunity. An uncaring, selfish attitude is much less readily forgiven.
Many concerned parents are now teaching their kids at home. We also did not want to herd our kids like so many sheep into public school, where they learn more from the other sheep that the teachers. This was a considerable economic sacrifice for us, but well worth it. It was not until their basic learning, and more importantly, character development was mostly complete, that we sent them off to public high school.
By that time they had learned to study independently and were affected little by the sometimes foolish attitudes of their peers. One of them was the valedictorian of her high school. All graduated with top honors.
.....This is your speculation. It may or may not be true, but it was not said by Jesus..........
At some point words do have meaning. So then what is spirit? Is it material, subject to the laws of mass and acceleration? Do *any* of the laws of physics apply to God when Jesus used that word "spirit"?
What did Isaiah mean when he was told that God inhabits eternity? Is God subject to time? Does He get old?
The opening verse of the Bible lays the foundation:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Here we have the three basic elements of the world we are in. Beginning -> time, heaven -> space, and earth -> matter-energy. The Hebrew word translated created is to bring into being from nothing.
Since God brought everything into being, He has to exist independently of that which He made. Yet He also has the ability to interact and/or enter His creation.
(....what we think it means.....)
At some point we do have to look the written text and decipher some meaning according to the rules of language, even if we are fallible. Communication can and must happen even if it is not perfect.
.......I am terrified that WWIII could start over the delusional fantasies surrounding the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary......
You're not the only one. The final war of Armageddon is named for the valley of Megiddo, a little to the north of Jerusalem. This is where the last battle of mankind will happen.
We can read this in the book of Zechariah 12:2-3 "2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the peoples all around, and it shall also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who lift it shall be slashed, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it."
For what city on Earth does a zoning change raise concern in the important capitals of the world. What other city is such a bone of contention to the surrounding nations?
Many wars have occurred for "sick and stupid reasons". Why should there be an exception made for the last, nastiest, final one, before God is forced to intervene, lest man destroy himself and God's planet.
Maybe the things that are written in the Bible are more than merely metaphors and parables? Maybe the are -- gasp-- TRUE?
.....where Jesus (or anyone else for that matter) asserted that he became from beyond time and space........
Jesus tell us that God is spirit. Spirit is independent from and outside of our time-space-matter-energy universe. Through the prophet Isaiah God also tells us the "He inhabits eternity" ie. exists outside our familiar dimensions. Even logic tells us that the cause is always superior to its effect. How COULD God be subject to anything in our world or its laws. If that were so, then these laws would be above God.
Jesus claimed to be God. God came to live in a human body for a while. He is the God who formulated the laws that scientists discover as they study His creation. He is the eternally self-existent God who created everything else from nothing. Of all holy books, the Bible is the only one that portrays God as a real person and places Him outside and above all other existence. Jesus is also the only founder of the world's major religions, who conquered death, our common enemy. I surely believe that a God of such capability can communicate His truth to us even using fallible human creatures. His method of choice is the gift of writing, which He has given ONLY to humans. He did this over a period of almost 2000 years using 40 different writers.
This message was summarized by God Himself, shouting from Heaven: "And a voice came from Heaven, which said, You are My Son, the Beloved; I am delighted in You" -- Luke 3:23 and again "And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, hear Him." - Luke 9:35
Fish swimming in an aquarium have no way of exploring anything outside thereof.
OK then, how do you OBSERVE something that has happened in the past or may happen in the future? You can't. We can only deal with the present and make the assumptions (believe) that this observation could reasonably hold true even though we can't observe it directly. Directly observed knowledge is only tiny fraction of our total. Most knowledge comes by REVELATION, not observation. We must believe the witnesses we have of history. We must believe that George Washington, Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ or any other person actually lived and said and did certain things. The scientific method only works only in the present. For all other knowledge you have to believe what someone wrote.
(.....Evolution happens on a much longer time scale......)
When reason fails, evolutionists always resort to the magic of time. With enough of that magic, not only a frog, but even a rock can become a prince. You can read a summary of how this magic works here:
...... I'll quite happily admit to being wrong......
And exactly how much good will THAT do? You'll have missed the boat. You have to admit that now, while you are still breathing. He's not going to say " I told you so", but ask you for an account of your life. Everything you have ever done, especially things you knew were wrong and did them anyway, will be counted against you. At that time there will ONLY be justice. Right now you can have mercy, based on what Jesus accomplished on the cross. You choose -- mercy now or justice later.
It is these that make forgiveness and mercy possible. What mechanism is there in Islam for mercy and forgiveness? If Allah is the same God as the Christian God, then He has to be just and as such a just God MUST uphold His law. That law says that the soul that sins, it shall die. Jesus took that punishment for those who believe in Him. With justice satisfied the Christian God can now offer mercy. If Allah is just, on what basis can he offer mercy even if he wanted to? Maybe the Christian God and Allah are the same in name, but evidently not in character.
That means either Jesus or Mormon teaching is wrong.
Jesus said to the woman at the well: "....Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."--John 4:23-24
God made the physical universe, but is independent and apart from it. In Isaiah 57:15 we red: "For so says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity; whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place...."
God lives outside time and space, but can an does operate therein also. He can rearrange this aquarium we all swim around in in any way he wishes. Last time I checked, a spirit was not physical.
....in all arguments made to it's final authority.....
So who or what is YOUR final authority? Is it your reasoning ability or education? Is it your faith in science? 300 years ago, science looked very different than today. Where do you suppose science may be 300 years from today? Nothing gets obsolete faster than a science textbook.
The Bible is timeless and unchanging. So is human nature. Fundamentally you are no different than someone alive in ancient Egypt or Rome. Nobody has evolved in any measure, even in the slightest, from what humans were 5000 years ago. Yet some of the writings of antiquity, including parts of the Bible, indicate that people were highly civilized and intelligent back then. We still have not figured out how they built the pyramids.
It is easy to denigrate the value of the most widely distributed book of humanity. What do you suggest in its place as a guide for human behavior? Can you improve on the ten simple rules God gave Moses? Jesus boiled those ten down to two. Can you come up with something better? On what basis do you decide which parts of the Bible are true and relevant and which parts are false and need to be discarded?
Do you really think it is rational to postulate that all reality is confined to human senses and human reason? Was Jesus wrong or deluded when he confidently told those of His day about realities beyond what we humans call "normal" or natural? Was He wrong when He repeatedly asserted that He came from beyond time and space into our material world. Was He wrong when He caused extreme anger, leading to His crucifixion, by claiming to be God? Did He really back up this claim by rising from death? Does this resurrection set Jesus apart from other founders of religions, because those are ALL dead?
In Hebrews 9:27 We read: "And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment,"
Nobody argues much about the first part of that sentence, but what about that disturbing second part about the judgment? Is it totally impossible that there COULD be and even should be ultimate justice in the universe and that the Hitlers and Stalins of this world, along with you and me will have to answer for how we lived here?
Jesus said the He Himself was the ONLY way to God. Was he wrong or deluded? He also claimed to be God, come to earth. What IF He was right on all counts, in everything He said? Who has the courage to stand there before Him at the final judgment He talked about and there tell Him He is wrong?
....in the same way that we listen to an 18th century symphony as a museum piece.......
To many people, the 18th century music you denigrate as "museum piece" is a lot more satisfying than the much of the sonic pollution of today, mislabeled music. Just because something is new and modern, doesn't automatically make it good and right. Just because something is "old" doesn't make it decrepit or bad. Time has a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff in many areas of human endeavors. People today are pretty much the same as they have been for all time. Having a cell phone, riding in a jet or car, or knowing how to use a computer doesn't make a person "better" than someone skilled in the arts and crafts of earlier civilizations. We can still read the record of the Babylonian civilization from millennia ago. Will anybody be able access the records of our time 3000 years from now? Probably not since it mostly digital, much of it infested with DRM and encryption.
.......animals have been shown to form superstitions....
That is an interpretation of Skinner's experiment that has been disputed by others, cited even in in the article you posted the link to. What could be classified as "religious" activity has NEVER been observed in any creature besides humans. Man is incurably religious. Some put religion into category of illness or mental imbalance. If that is the case, then the majority of people on this planet are either incurably sick or crazy.
Evolution has no plausible explanation why religion is so pervasive and only exists in humans. If man is indeed a being created by God, the desire for religion and worship could be that this Creator wants man to have some kind of relationship with Himself.
.....Hell, that's why the Muslim religion has a standing death threat for converting away.......
Indeed, especially if a Muslim converts to become a Christian. Early scientists were mostly Christians. The Bible encourages examination of God's creation and our power of reason. It's just that those who call themselves Christians have often not paid attention as to what the Bible actually says about this matter.
Yeah like and how much does Photoshop cost? Apple's iPhoto edits and displays photos, adds music and makes great slide shows and it's all included with every Mac. You can even make your own music with Garage Band, also included if the iTunes Library doesn't include that exactly right music for the show. All these programs are integrated with each other and Mac OSX.
(....That does not mean they have to lock down their own parts......)
Actually, it it is likely easier to make OSX run on a Dell than to fit a Honda engine into a Ford. Almost any thing can be done, with enough effort and expense.
(....A "Universal Binary" is just a bunch of platform-specific binaries mashed together......)
Of course they are. I only gave that example as one way of making things easy to use, so Joe User doesn't have to know what processor their Mac has. Storage is cheap, so this principle could be extended to other hardware. Byte code languages have their own drawbacks. Speed was a big one in the past, but now that processors are so fast, it is less important. One still has to have the proper, current, Interpreter/compiler though. I have had Java programs error out with a message that this program needs version xxx to run.
(.....Except Windows still has to be booted.....)
True, but that has to be done only once and for other than VISTA is extremely fast on my Macbookpro. OSX manages memory, so RAM is a non issue, at least for my 2GB Mac. Wine is far less compatible for all I've ever heard. I cannot say this from experience however. For anyone who can afford a Mac, paying for a copy of Windows isn't a big of an extra deal.
(....Now I know you're a fanboy......)
You didn't read very carefully. Apple didn't invent a number of things I mentioned. Intel came up with USB, but their first iteration was and is much slower than the then already existing FireWire. Apple never charged royalty on that, unless someone wanted to use the trademarked term "Firewire". Apple was the first to come out with any sort of USB computer, even though Intel invented it.
Apple also didn't invent UNIX, but decided to adopt the NEXT version, which in turn was based on the BSD flavor. However, Apple had long filenames for their own OS in the first Mac, way back in 1984. That was 11 years before Windows 95 came out with that ability, for most PC users.
(....Man, this was painful.....)
Not for Mac users. They ALL had networking built in. Even in 1990 I had no trouble transferring lots of data from one Mac to another without the limitations of size or speed of a floppy. It was even possible to install software over the network, way back then. I had one Mac with a huge (imagine that!) 80MB hard drive in 1989 that was used as a server for three others.
(.....For years, the integrated audio -- at least on PCs -- was crappy enough.......)
Actually for years all that PC had was a simple beep, while Macs could talk and play music.
(....Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting a better deal......)
I suppose if you define a YUGO as better deal than a BMW, that's true. A YUGO will also get you from A to B, after all, so if that's all you want, then yes, you have a better deal.
....What if I don't find your particular religion compelling enough,.....
I am not and never have talked about religion. All Religion, including Christianity, is death as you rightly point out. What I am telling you that it is possible to have a personal relationship with the living God, the Creator of all. That is by faith, but not BLIND, unthinking faith. There are two ways of knowing. One is by your own experience, another is by revelation. We can experience and see some of the grandeur and majesty of God through nature. Centuries ago, a Jewish Shepherd looked up to the night sky and exclaimed: "The Heavens are telling the Glory of God....". Most of us agree that Einstein was pretty smart and had some great insight into the working of nature. Most people of his time however did not know him personally. They only knew of him from his works. Only those to whom Einstein was a friend and associate by revealing some things about his personality to them could they really know him by whatever he chose to reveal.
God chose to reveal what He deemed necessary, of His person-hood to mankind through the gift of writing He gave to us alone among all His creatures. He picked certain people to write some things down He wanted them and ultimately all of humanity to know about Himself and ourselves. He oversaw the collection of these into a book we have come to know as the Bible. We have therein among other things a record of His becoming a man, confined to time and space, communication some of His nature. This man's name was Jesus.
(...Why am I going to hell when the same evidence would convince me?.....)
Why do you think you are headed for hell? Where did you get such an idea? Do you really WANT to know God, even if He would turn your whole life upside down? Even if it would come at the cost of losing all your friends you now have? Even if your family might turn against you, at least initially? Even if it could come at the cost of His very gift of physical life you now still have? If you really can honestly answer YES to the God, whom at present you are not even sure He exists, He will reveal Himself to you in a way tailored your personal and deepest longings for Him. You are special to Him and He knows you far better that you even know yourself. He will do this on His, not your time schedule.
None of us can dictate to God how He should respond to us. You are not Thomas, but your own person, a special and unique creation of God, important to Him. He dignifies you as a human with the highest honor He could have ever given; namely the ability to freely WANT Him or not. We humans tend to use force on each other, but the One who has all power has chosen to not use that power to coerce us to want Him. You were not created as a machine or robot. If you want Him He will accept you, just as you are. All you need do is ask. He will accept you as you are, but will never let you remain in your sin, but make you clean and perfect, ready for His presence in heaven. Do you really honestly want God, not matter the cost?
....Unless they're talking about editing pictures and video.....
That's exactly what I'm taking about. You know, Joe User and family just came back from vacation in Hawaii. Mr. User has several videos and Mrs. User has her camera and several memory cards full of still pictures. They want to put all that together into a not too boring show with some music. There is no computer you can buy, that will do that better and easier than a Mac.
(.....Only because Apple refuses to sell OS X for non-Apple hardware......)
Apple is the ONLY hardware maker that builds a COMPLETE computer. They are not a computer parts maker, building chips, resistors, power supplies and software. They happen to buy chips and other parts for various sources, but build their own software in the same way that Honda or Ford build their own engines from parts, many of which are supplied by others.
(....At this point, it's essentially building a portable system on top of the non-portable OS........)
Exactly right. In the end the OS will become irrelevant as far as ordinary users having to pay attention to what OS a computer runs. Apple does this now for processors and their associated hardware. They call it a Universal Binary. It will run transparently on Intel or PPC hardware, which are very different in some respects. With the Parallels Virtual Machine setup running in what they call coherence mode, a document which needs a Windows program, starts up Windows (if it isn't already running) and then the relevant program. The Windows desktop disappears and the document shows up on the Mac screen like any other Mac document would. Clicking on another document that happens to be running on OSX brings that to the front and the Windows document behind it. The user can work on either document without paying attention which OS and program the document belongs to. In the case of text and certain common graphics, (JPEG, GIF, etc.) cutting and pasting also works. So in a still somewhat rudimentary way, Mac users already can have a universal computer where they don't have to devote much attention to what OS is underlying the work they need to do. As it has been in the past, (GUI, long file-names, USB, Firewire, goodbye floppy, integrated audio and video etc.) the things that Apple pioneered or first adopted, what Mac users enjoy and pay extra for, will eventually trickle down to everyone else.
In the future people will buy computers and won't even know, nor care to know the underlying technology. It will be like the phone. Jimmy pushes a few buttons and gets to talk to Grandma.
Indeed it is the software dog that wags the hardware tail. When I get asked; "What kind of computer should I buy?" I ask: "What do you want to do with it?" If in the answer there is anything about pictures or video I always recommend a Mac. If they answer games, I say get a console, unless they also make some noises about the web, business and email. In that case it is Windows. Sometimes I'm told; "I'd like to learn about how computers work". For that I tell them, get a naked PC and install one of the many flavors of Linux. The current flavor of the week appears to be Ubuntu. If they have a lot of dough, I tell them to get a Mac and install a number of OS all at the same time as virtual machines and learn about computers. The Mac is as close to a universal computer we have come so far. It will run almost any program in existence. Maybe someday we will all go into a software store, physical or online and just buy a program, without so much as even thinking about what the hardware requirements are. After all, I can go to any gas station to fill my Honda and my radio works with all broadcast stations. The present situation in the computer business will probably bring condescending smiles to people taking history of computing classes 20-30 years from now.
.... I can't see cheap hardware changing that........
I also can't see the fact that so many around here fail to grasp that it's the software that makes a computer what it is. That wouldn't change, even if the hardware cost less than a roll of toilet paper. Hardware can be mass produced by the millions, using cheap labor and machines. Software still has to be written by highly skilled people. I cannot be automated. There are no software writing machines. These highly skilled people have come up with increasingly clever ways to ensure that their work is harder and harder to rip off by cheap software copying procedures. Linux might get off the ground if a large hardware company would tell MS where to go and make a good, bulletproof release of Linux their only computer product, as well as give good support to their users.
.....as Apple stating that you can only use a certain ISP with their computers........
Apple did not sign a special contract with anyone other than AT&T. The others did not want to enable Apple to give customers a user experience like no other wireless provider does. To be able to provide a seamless end to end service for phones, akin to what Apple does for the Mac and iPod, they have to have end to end control of the hardware AND the software. Because they do this, iPhones, iPods and Macs "just work". This costs a bit more and gives them good profits. People who want to get on with their work and life, rather than dork with their gadgets, are willing to pay a little extra. People who shop by price alone don't get the hassle free use of their cheap, rock bottom gear. They get viruses, spyware and a smaller or larger hassle getting their music on some other portable music devices. Geeks on/. value choice a lot more than Joe and Jane User, who value convenience. That's why Linux will never make it in the market place to the scale of Windows or even the Mac. Linux is made by geeks for geeks who value choice far above simplicity and ease of use.
Of course not! Scientists of the past BELIEVED that light traveled at infinite speed. They repeatedly tested this with lanterns and shutters. The yBELIEVED that disease was caused by bad air and treated sickness by blood letting. The killed George Washington that way. They BELIEVED that atoms were indivisible. After that they believed that protons and neutrons were. They still believe electrons are fundamental and that the speed of light was always what we measure today. Ultimately they have to believe their senses, just like everybody else.
When you get into a car, airplane. elevator or horse-cart you have to believe they are safe and properly maintained. You don't and can't KNOW this. You have faith that the future is reasonably predicted by the past, but you can never be sure. Your whole life operates on faith.
You didn't answer my question about what God would have to to do, to give you enough evidence so you would WANT to believe and obey Him. Belief is not a matter of education. It was the most educated element of society, those proud of their knowledge, that hated Jesus the most and were behind His execution. If it were a matter of education, Jesus would not have held up little children as the epitome of belief and a needed quality to be a good citizen of God's kingdom.
The entire creation, is a KINGDOM, not a democracy or republic. A kingdom always has a King. Anyone who defies the King commits treason. Any creature that defies God commits cosmic treason and is worthy of death. Because we all have committed treason against the Creator, the rightful King of the Universe, we all die. God however also extends mercy to those who would ask Him for mercy by faith. You can either have justice which is death, or you can plead for mercy. You choose. Asking in faith, in Jesus name activates God's mercy. No visit to Mecca, bathe in a specific river, or any other religious rite is needed nor accepted. Anyone who doesn't WANT to believe cannot have the everlasting death sentence lifted by God's mercy.
So give me an example of what you would consider "concrete" evidence.
(.....my believing it wouldn't make it true.......)
How do you know anything is true. In the end, you have to believe it is true or not. Jesus made some astounding statements. Among others, He said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6) That among the many other supposed utterances (supposed, since you are skeptical of them) is either: 1) extremely arrogant, 2) self deceived or deliberately false, 3) truthful, Jesus is who He said He is; God come to earth, Immanuel, God with us. You may decide, only by belief, in which category you put Him. Ultimately it comes down to your will, and the ramifications of your choice, of your will, for your life. If you would pick the third choice, then you know you'd better find out what requirements God has put upon your life. You may not want to acknowledge that the Creator God of all has a right to demand your loyalty and obedience. That really is the crux of the matter. Denying His existence is a common way of deceiving yourself. You KNOW, that IF there is a God, you owe Him your very life.
(.... but the accounts of a poorly-translated, politically re-edited, ~2000 year old book will never convince me......)
So then you don't believe anything you read in any history book, whether recent or ancient history? On what criteria do you decide whether to believe any ancient writings? Are the ancient writings and inscriptions of Egypt, Persia, Greece etc. fabrications of fiction? How do you separate truth from fiction? On what criteria do you decide to accept or reject say the Declaration of Independence, or a narrative of the First or second World War, or even an account in the paper about a plane crash in India? In any court of law, written documents tend to be accepted as true, unless it can be shown that these are forgeries.
(....God started [directly] healing amputees, or performed some other undeniable miracle, I would have very good reason to believe......)
That's exactly what God did in Jesus, yet some believed and others not, all according to whether they WANTED to or not. The biggest evidence given was Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Those who believed it was true, wanted to believe it and those who did not want it to be true, did not believe it. His disbelieving enemies even admitted that the miracles he did were undeniable, yet still refused to believe. What makes you think it would be different today? If Jesus personally came today and emptied a few large hospitals by healing all the patients, do you think that some might accuse him of practicing medicine without a license? If He turned water to wine, is it likely that some might accuse Him of violating liquor laws? Are people any different today than they were back then?
It's really comes down to wanting to believe and accepting the ramifications of such belief. If the logical consequences of your belief are highly repugnant to you, such as having to submit your WILL to God's, no amount of evidence will make you believe. You either submit your will to His or not. It's not that you can't, but that you don't WANT to. A man convinced against his will remains unconvinced still.
Slashdot Mirror
.....And, if I made robots, capable of building copies of themselves....
Provided that the parts they used were never part of any other robot or machine. Any parts composed of anything more than some or all of the 92 or so elements could not be used. Life takes mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, along with some of the others to build all organisms. Your robot would have to do the same or employ a hierarchy of robots that could do this. Also, if you believe in evolution, the application of external intelligence, human in this case, would not be permitted. Your robot or a huge army of robots, if needed, have to do it all by themselves.
For example, if your robot needed screws to hold it together, it would need the services of a robot that makes screws. That one would need the services of a steel mill and robots that get iron out of the ground etc. Get the idea?
....The Polio virus has already been synthesized from scratch from raw chemicals......
That is pure, unadulterated BS, a bald faced lie. NOBODY has ever made even a virus from all non-living components. They have taken chemicals that originated from life and combined these to make other chemicals which some have called life. To truly make life, ALL parts thereof MUST come from chemicals that were never produced by anything that was previously alive.
The definition of life is not clear cut. At minimum to be called alive, an organism must be able to reproduce itself and at some level at least, be self-repairing if damaged. Viruses do meet these two specs.
Nobody has ever demonstrated life coming from non-life.
....I think a bigger challenge for scientists is for them to insert their DNA into a cell naturally made by women......
A bigger challenge yet is to make some DNA from a rock and inject that into another rock, which then comes alive. That's what evolutionists claim happened originally, billions of years ago when minerals washed down from the rocky land into the "prebiotic soup" of warm seas. The claim is made in science textbooks, that this is where life "evolved", all on its own, without an intelligent scientist messing around.
......genetic programming will do the same.......
So if humans do genetic programming, it's obviously designed. Otherwise it's random, mindless mutations, that just somehow happened over the course of billions of years. What useful code for computers has ever come about by any other means beside a human mind? So now human minds contemplate writing genetic code, yet those same human minds try to make themselves and the rest of us believe that the original genetic code did not originate in someone's mind, God's mind. Indeed, God expressing Himself through the Apostle Paul gives us His assessment in Chapter 1 of the Letter to the Romans:
"But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools"
In other news:
Along with the "Creation of Life" some other patents were issued recently for "Cold Fusion", "Anti-Gravity" and a "Time-Travel" device dubbed "Stargate". Patents are also pending for "Eternal Youth" and "Perpetual Motion".
....there are a lot of kids who don't want to be there.......
I don't blame them. Most schools today are more like a prison than anything else. The kids, especially the younger ones, are confined there, like so may rats in a cage. Kids are meant to run free, explore, and satisfy their inborn curiosity.
Education as it is today in our society is a modern and unnatural institution that began with the industrial age about 200-250 years ago. Until then, for millennia, it was the job of the parents to bring up their children. That included educating them. In "primitive" societies it still is. In the animal kingdom, this principle is also seen. The little eaglet learns how to fly and hunt from its parents, not in some Eagle Flock Flying and Survival school where the little birds are crammed together for hours, to learn these skills from an uninterested stranger.
Kids deserve a complete home, which includes a mother and a FATHER, especially for boys. Sheer selfishness on the part of adults, is the cause for many, if not most maladjusted "problem kids". Kids will forgive adults poverty and lack of opportunity. An uncaring, selfish attitude is much less readily forgiven.
Many concerned parents are now teaching their kids at home. We also did not want to herd our kids like so many sheep into public school, where they learn more from the other sheep that the teachers. This was a considerable economic sacrifice for us, but well worth it. It was not until their basic learning, and more importantly, character development was mostly complete, that we sent them off to public high school.
By that time they had learned to study independently and were affected little by the sometimes foolish attitudes of their peers. One of them was the valedictorian of her high school. All graduated with top honors.
.....This is your speculation. It may or may not be true, but it was not said by Jesus..........
At some point words do have meaning. So then what is spirit? Is it material, subject to the laws of mass and acceleration? Do *any* of the laws of physics apply to God when Jesus used that word "spirit"?
What did Isaiah mean when he was told that God inhabits eternity? Is God subject to time? Does He get old?
The opening verse of the Bible lays the foundation:
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Here we have the three basic elements of the world we are in. Beginning -> time, heaven -> space, and earth -> matter-energy. The Hebrew word translated created is to bring into being from nothing.
Since God brought everything into being, He has to exist independently of that which He made. Yet He also has the ability to interact and/or enter His creation.
(....what we think it means.....)
At some point we do have to look the written text and decipher some meaning according to the rules of language, even if we are fallible. Communication can and must happen even if it is not perfect.
.......I am terrified that WWIII could start over the delusional fantasies surrounding the Temple Mount/Noble Sanctuary......
You're not the only one. The final war of Armageddon is named for the valley of Megiddo, a little to the north of Jerusalem. This is where the last battle of mankind will happen.
We can read this in the book of Zechariah 12:2-3 "2 Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling to all the peoples all around, and it shall also be against Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. And in that day I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all peoples. All who lift it shall be slashed, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered against it."
For what city on Earth does a zoning change raise concern in the important capitals of the world. What other city is such a bone of contention to the surrounding nations?
Many wars have occurred for "sick and stupid reasons". Why should there be an exception made for the last, nastiest, final one, before God is forced to intervene, lest man destroy himself and God's planet.
Maybe the things that are written in the Bible are more than merely metaphors and parables? Maybe the are -- gasp-- TRUE?
.....where Jesus (or anyone else for that matter) asserted that he became from beyond time and space........
Jesus tell us that God is spirit. Spirit is independent from and outside of our time-space-matter-energy universe. Through the prophet Isaiah God also tells us the "He inhabits eternity" ie. exists outside our familiar dimensions. Even logic tells us that the cause is always superior to its effect. How COULD God be subject to anything in our world or its laws. If that were so, then these laws would be above God.
Jesus claimed to be God. God came to live in a human body for a while. He is the God who formulated the laws that scientists discover as they study His creation. He is the eternally self-existent God who created everything else from nothing. Of all holy books, the Bible is the only one that portrays God as a real person and places Him outside and above all other existence. Jesus is also the only founder of the world's major religions, who conquered death, our common enemy. I surely believe that a God of such capability can communicate His truth to us even using fallible human creatures. His method of choice is the gift of writing, which He has given ONLY to humans. He did this over a period of almost 2000 years using 40 different writers.
This message was summarized by God Himself, shouting from Heaven: "And a voice came from Heaven, which said, You are My Son, the Beloved; I am delighted in You" -- Luke 3:23 and again "And a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is My Son, the Beloved, hear Him." - Luke 9:35
Fish swimming in an aquarium have no way of exploring anything outside thereof.
.....Observe some phenomenon......
OK then, how do you OBSERVE something that has happened in the past or may happen in the future? You can't. We can only deal with the present and make the assumptions (believe) that this observation could reasonably hold true even though we can't observe it directly. Directly observed knowledge is only tiny fraction of our total. Most knowledge comes by REVELATION, not observation. We must believe the witnesses we have of history. We must believe that George Washington, Julius Caesar, Jesus Christ or any other person actually lived and said and did certain things. The scientific method only works only in the present. For all other knowledge you have to believe what someone wrote.
(.....Evolution happens on a much longer time scale......)
When reason fails, evolutionists always resort to the magic of time. With enough of that magic, not only a frog, but even a rock can become a prince. You can read a summary of how this magic works here:
http://www.fhrsporthorses.com/rock-time/rock-time.htm
If you can't observe or experience something for yourself, you have to take someone else's word for it. You have to believe it -- or not.
...... I'll quite happily admit to being wrong. .....
And exactly how much good will THAT do? You'll have missed the boat. You have to admit that now, while you are still breathing. He's not going to say " I told you so", but ask you for an account of your life. Everything you have ever done, especially things you knew were wrong and did them anyway, will be counted against you. At that time there will ONLY be justice. Right now you can have mercy, based on what Jesus accomplished on the cross. You choose -- mercy now or justice later.
.....the divinity and sacrifice of Jesus.....
It is these that make forgiveness and mercy possible. What mechanism is there in Islam for mercy and forgiveness? If Allah is the same God as the Christian God, then He has to be just and as such a just God MUST uphold His law. That law says that the soul that sins, it shall die. Jesus took that punishment for those who believe in Him. With justice satisfied the Christian God can now offer mercy. If Allah is just, on what basis can he offer mercy even if he wanted to? Maybe the Christian God and Allah are the same in name, but evidently not in character.
....believe that God is physical....
That means either Jesus or Mormon teaching is wrong.
Jesus said to the woman at the well: "....Yet the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. Indeed, the Father is looking for people like that to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."--John 4:23-24
God made the physical universe, but is independent and apart from it. In Isaiah 57:15 we red: "For so says the high and lofty One who inhabits eternity; whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place...."
God lives outside time and space, but can an does operate therein also. He can rearrange this aquarium we all swim around in in any way he wishes. Last time I checked, a spirit was not physical.
....in all arguments made to it's final authority.....
So who or what is YOUR final authority? Is it your reasoning ability or education? Is it your faith in science? 300 years ago, science looked very different than today. Where do you suppose science may be 300 years from today? Nothing gets obsolete faster than a science textbook.
The Bible is timeless and unchanging. So is human nature. Fundamentally you are no different than someone alive in ancient Egypt or Rome. Nobody has evolved in any measure, even in the slightest, from what humans were 5000 years ago. Yet some of the writings of antiquity, including parts of the Bible, indicate that people were highly civilized and intelligent back then. We still have not figured out how they built the pyramids.
It is easy to denigrate the value of the most widely distributed book of humanity. What do you suggest in its place as a guide for human behavior? Can you improve on the ten simple rules God gave Moses? Jesus boiled those ten down to two. Can you come up with something better? On what basis do you decide which parts of the Bible are true and relevant and which parts are false and need to be discarded?
Do you really think it is rational to postulate that all reality is confined to human senses and human reason? Was Jesus wrong or deluded when he confidently told those of His day about realities beyond what we humans call "normal" or natural? Was He wrong when He repeatedly asserted that He came from beyond time and space into our material world. Was He wrong when He caused extreme anger, leading to His crucifixion, by claiming to be God? Did He really back up this claim by rising from death? Does this resurrection set Jesus apart from other founders of religions, because those are ALL dead?
In Hebrews 9:27 We read: "And as it is appointed to men once to die, but after this the judgment,"
Nobody argues much about the first part of that sentence, but what about that disturbing second part about the judgment? Is it totally impossible that there COULD be and even should be ultimate justice in the universe and that the Hitlers and Stalins of this world, along with you and me will have to answer for how we lived here?
....that there are many paths to reach god......
Jesus said the He Himself was the ONLY way to God. Was he wrong or deluded? He also claimed to be God, come to earth. What IF He was right on all counts, in everything He said? Who has the courage to stand there before Him at the final judgment He talked about and there tell Him He is wrong?
....in the same way that we listen to an 18th century symphony as a museum piece.......
To many people, the 18th century music you denigrate as "museum piece" is a lot more satisfying than the much of the sonic pollution of today, mislabeled music. Just because something is new and modern, doesn't automatically make it good and right. Just because something is "old" doesn't make it decrepit or bad. Time has a way of sorting the wheat from the chaff in many areas of human endeavors. People today are pretty much the same as they have been for all time. Having a cell phone, riding in a jet or car, or knowing how to use a computer doesn't make a person "better" than someone skilled in the arts and crafts of earlier civilizations. We can still read the record of the Babylonian civilization from millennia ago. Will anybody be able access the records of our time 3000 years from now? Probably not since it mostly digital, much of it infested with DRM and encryption.
.......animals have been shown to form superstitions....
That is an interpretation of Skinner's experiment that has been disputed by others, cited even in in the article you posted the link to. What could be classified as "religious" activity has NEVER been observed in any creature besides humans. Man is incurably religious. Some put religion into category of illness or mental imbalance. If that is the case, then the majority of people on this planet are either incurably sick or crazy.
Evolution has no plausible explanation why religion is so pervasive and only exists in humans. If man is indeed a being created by God, the desire for religion and worship could be that this Creator wants man to have some kind of relationship with Himself.
.....Hell, that's why the Muslim religion has a standing death threat for converting away.......
Indeed, especially if a Muslim converts to become a Christian. Early scientists were mostly Christians. The Bible encourages examination of God's creation and our power of reason. It's just that those who call themselves Christians have often not paid attention as to what the Bible actually says about this matter.
.... Edit photos in Photoshop.....
Yeah like and how much does Photoshop cost? Apple's iPhoto edits and displays photos, adds music and makes great slide shows and it's all included with every Mac. You can even make your own music with Garage Band, also included if the iTunes Library doesn't include that exactly right music for the show. All these programs are integrated with each other and Mac OSX.
(....That does not mean they have to lock down their own parts......)
Actually, it it is likely easier to make OSX run on a Dell than to fit a Honda engine into a Ford. Almost any thing can be done, with enough effort and expense.
(....A "Universal Binary" is just a bunch of platform-specific binaries mashed together......)
Of course they are. I only gave that example as one way of making things easy to use, so Joe User doesn't have to know what processor their Mac has. Storage is cheap, so this principle could be extended to other hardware. Byte code languages have their own drawbacks. Speed was a big one in the past, but now that processors are so fast, it is less important. One still has to have the proper, current, Interpreter/compiler though. I have had Java programs error out with a message that this program needs version xxx to run.
(.....Except Windows still has to be booted.....)
True, but that has to be done only once and for other than VISTA is extremely fast on my Macbookpro. OSX manages memory, so RAM is a non issue, at least for my 2GB Mac. Wine is far less compatible for all I've ever heard. I cannot say this from experience however. For anyone who can afford a Mac, paying for a copy of Windows isn't a big of an extra deal.
(....Now I know you're a fanboy......)
You didn't read very carefully. Apple didn't invent a number of things I mentioned. Intel came up with USB, but their first iteration was and is much slower than the then already existing FireWire. Apple never charged royalty on that, unless someone wanted to use the trademarked term "Firewire". Apple was the first to come out with any sort of USB computer, even though Intel invented it.
Apple also didn't invent UNIX, but decided to adopt the NEXT version, which in turn was based on the BSD flavor. However, Apple had long filenames for their own OS in the first Mac, way back in 1984. That was 11 years before Windows 95 came out with that ability, for most PC users.
(....Man, this was painful.....)
Not for Mac users. They ALL had networking built in. Even in 1990 I had no trouble transferring lots of data from one Mac to another without the limitations of size or speed of a floppy. It was even possible to install software over the network, way back then. I had one Mac with a huge (imagine that!) 80MB hard drive in 1989 that was used as a server for three others.
(.....For years, the integrated audio -- at least on PCs -- was crappy enough.......)
Actually for years all that PC had was a simple beep, while Macs could talk and play music.
(....Meanwhile, the rest of us are getting a better deal......)
I suppose if you define a YUGO as better deal than a BMW, that's true. A YUGO will also get you from A to B, after all, so if that's all you want, then yes, you have a better deal.
....What if I don't find your particular religion compelling enough,.....
I am not and never have talked about religion. All Religion, including Christianity, is death as you rightly point out. What I am telling you that it is possible to have a personal relationship with the living God, the Creator of all. That is by faith, but not BLIND, unthinking faith. There are two ways of knowing. One is by your own experience, another is by revelation. We can experience and see some of the grandeur and majesty of God through nature. Centuries ago, a Jewish Shepherd looked up to the night sky and exclaimed: "The Heavens are telling the Glory of God....". Most of us agree that Einstein was pretty smart and had some great insight into the working of nature. Most people of his time however did not know him personally. They only knew of him from his works. Only those to whom Einstein was a friend and associate by revealing some things about his personality to them could they really know him by whatever he chose to reveal.
God chose to reveal what He deemed necessary, of His person-hood to mankind through the gift of writing He gave to us alone among all His creatures. He picked certain people to write some things down He wanted them and ultimately all of humanity to know about Himself and ourselves. He oversaw the collection of these into a book we have come to know as the Bible. We have therein among other things a record of His becoming a man, confined to time and space, communication some of His nature. This man's name was Jesus.
(...Why am I going to hell when the same evidence would convince me?.....)
Why do you think you are headed for hell? Where did you get such an idea? Do you really WANT to know God, even if He would turn your whole life upside down? Even if it would come at the cost of losing all your friends you now have? Even if your family might turn against you, at least initially? Even if it could come at the cost of His very gift of physical life you now still have? If you really can honestly answer YES to the God, whom at present you are not even sure He exists, He will reveal Himself to you in a way tailored your personal and deepest longings for Him. You are special to Him and He knows you far better that you even know yourself. He will do this on His, not your time schedule.
None of us can dictate to God how He should respond to us. You are not Thomas, but your own person, a special and unique creation of God, important to Him. He dignifies you as a human with the highest honor He could have ever given; namely the ability to freely WANT Him or not. We humans tend to use force on each other, but the One who has all power has chosen to not use that power to coerce us to want Him. You were not created as a machine or robot. If you want Him He will accept you, just as you are. All you need do is ask. He will accept you as you are, but will never let you remain in your sin, but make you clean and perfect, ready for His presence in heaven. Do you really honestly want God, not matter the cost?
....Unless they're talking about editing pictures and video.....
That's exactly what I'm taking about. You know, Joe User and family just came back from vacation in Hawaii. Mr. User has several videos and Mrs. User has her camera and several memory cards full of still pictures. They want to put all that together into a not too boring show with some music. There is no computer you can buy, that will do that better and easier than a Mac.
(.....Only because Apple refuses to sell OS X for non-Apple hardware......)
Apple is the ONLY hardware maker that builds a COMPLETE computer. They are not a computer parts maker, building chips, resistors, power supplies and software. They happen to buy chips and other parts for various sources, but build their own software in the same way that Honda or Ford build their own engines from parts, many of which are supplied by others.
(....At this point, it's essentially building a portable system on top of the non-portable OS........)
Exactly right. In the end the OS will become irrelevant as far as ordinary users having to pay attention to what OS a computer runs. Apple does this now for processors and their associated hardware. They call it a Universal Binary. It will run transparently on Intel or PPC hardware, which are very different in some respects. With the Parallels Virtual Machine setup running in what they call coherence mode, a document which needs a Windows program, starts up Windows (if it isn't already running) and then the relevant program. The Windows desktop disappears and the document shows up on the Mac screen like any other Mac document would. Clicking on another document that happens to be running on OSX brings that to the front and the Windows document behind it. The user can work on either document without paying attention which OS and program the document belongs to. In the case of text and certain common graphics, (JPEG, GIF, etc.) cutting and pasting also works. So in a still somewhat rudimentary way, Mac users already can have a universal computer where they don't have to devote much attention to what OS is underlying the work they need to do. As it has been in the past, (GUI, long file-names, USB, Firewire, goodbye floppy, integrated audio and video etc.) the things that Apple pioneered or first adopted, what Mac users enjoy and pay extra for, will eventually trickle down to everyone else.
In the future people will buy computers and won't even know, nor care to know the underlying technology. It will be like the phone. Jimmy pushes a few buttons and gets to talk to Grandma.
.....it is absolutely a software question.....
Indeed it is the software dog that wags the hardware tail. When I get asked; "What kind of computer should I buy?" I ask: "What do you want to do with it?" If in the answer there is anything about pictures or video I always recommend a Mac. If they answer games, I say get a console, unless they also make some noises about the web, business and email. In that case it is Windows. Sometimes I'm told; "I'd like to learn about how computers work". For that I tell them, get a naked PC and install one of the many flavors of Linux. The current flavor of the week appears to be Ubuntu. If they have a lot of dough, I tell them to get a Mac and install a number of OS all at the same time as virtual machines and learn about computers. The Mac is as close to a universal computer we have come so far. It will run almost any program in existence. Maybe someday we will all go into a software store, physical or online and just buy a program, without so much as even thinking about what the hardware requirements are. After all, I can go to any gas station to fill my Honda and my radio works with all broadcast stations. The present situation in the computer business will probably bring condescending smiles to people taking history of computing classes 20-30 years from now.
.... I can't see cheap hardware changing that........
I also can't see the fact that so many around here fail to grasp that it's the software that makes a computer what it is. That wouldn't change, even if the hardware cost less than a roll of toilet paper. Hardware can be mass produced by the millions, using cheap labor and machines. Software still has to be written by highly skilled people. I cannot be automated. There are no software writing machines. These highly skilled people have come up with increasingly clever ways to ensure that their work is harder and harder to rip off by cheap software copying procedures. Linux might get off the ground if a large hardware company would tell MS where to go and make a good, bulletproof release of Linux their only computer product, as well as give good support to their users.
.....as Apple stating that you can only use a certain ISP with their computers........
/. value choice a lot more than Joe and Jane User, who value convenience. That's why Linux will never make it in the market place to the scale of Windows or even the Mac. Linux is made by geeks for geeks who value choice far above simplicity and ease of use.
Apple did not sign a special contract with anyone other than AT&T. The others did not want to enable Apple to give customers a user experience like no other wireless provider does. To be able to provide a seamless end to end service for phones, akin to what Apple does for the Mac and iPod, they have to have end to end control of the hardware AND the software. Because they do this, iPhones, iPods and Macs "just work". This costs a bit more and gives them good profits. People who want to get on with their work and life, rather than dork with their gadgets, are willing to pay a little extra. People who shop by price alone don't get the hassle free use of their cheap, rock bottom gear. They get viruses, spyware and a smaller or larger hassle getting their music on some other portable music devices. Geeks on
.....science is not a belief system.....
Of course not! Scientists of the past BELIEVED that light traveled at infinite speed. They repeatedly tested this with lanterns and shutters. The yBELIEVED that disease was caused by bad air and treated sickness by blood letting. The killed George Washington that way. They BELIEVED that atoms were indivisible. After that they believed that protons and neutrons were. They still believe electrons are fundamental and that the speed of light was always what we measure today. Ultimately they have to believe their senses, just like everybody else.
When you get into a car, airplane. elevator or horse-cart you have to believe they are safe and properly maintained. You don't and can't KNOW this. You have faith that the future is reasonably predicted by the past, but you can never be sure. Your whole life operates on faith.
You didn't answer my question about what God would have to to do, to give you enough evidence so you would WANT to believe and obey Him. Belief is not a matter of education. It was the most educated element of society, those proud of their knowledge, that hated Jesus the most and were behind His execution. If it were a matter of education, Jesus would not have held up little children as the epitome of belief and a needed quality to be a good citizen of God's kingdom.
The entire creation, is a KINGDOM, not a democracy or republic. A kingdom always has a King. Anyone who defies the King commits treason. Any creature that defies God commits cosmic treason and is worthy of death. Because we all have committed treason against the Creator, the rightful King of the Universe, we all die. God however also extends mercy to those who would ask Him for mercy by faith. You can either have justice which is death, or you can plead for mercy. You choose. Asking in faith, in Jesus name activates God's mercy. No visit to Mecca, bathe in a specific river, or any other religious rite is needed nor accepted. Anyone who doesn't WANT to believe cannot have the everlasting death sentence lifted by God's mercy.
.....I would accept any concrete evidence.....
So give me an example of what you would consider "concrete" evidence.
(.....my believing it wouldn't make it true.......)
How do you know anything is true. In the end, you have to believe it is true or not. Jesus made some astounding statements. Among others, He said "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by Me." (John 14:6) That among the many other supposed utterances (supposed, since you are skeptical of them) is either: 1) extremely arrogant, 2) self deceived or deliberately false, 3) truthful, Jesus is who He said He is; God come to earth, Immanuel, God with us. You may decide, only by belief, in which category you put Him. Ultimately it comes down to your will, and the ramifications of your choice, of your will, for your life. If you would pick the third choice, then you know you'd better find out what requirements God has put upon your life. You may not want to acknowledge that the Creator God of all has a right to demand your loyalty and obedience. That really is the crux of the matter. Denying His existence is a common way of deceiving yourself. You KNOW, that IF there is a God, you owe Him your very life.
(.... but the accounts of a poorly-translated, politically re-edited, ~2000 year old book will never convince me......)
So then you don't believe anything you read in any history book, whether recent or ancient history? On what criteria do you decide whether to believe any ancient writings? Are the ancient writings and inscriptions of Egypt, Persia, Greece etc. fabrications of fiction? How do you separate truth from fiction? On what criteria do you decide to accept or reject say the Declaration of Independence, or a narrative of the First or second World War, or even an account in the paper about a plane crash in India? In any court of law, written documents tend to be accepted as true, unless it can be shown that these are forgeries.
(....God started [directly] healing amputees, or performed some other undeniable miracle, I would have very good reason to believe......)
That's exactly what God did in Jesus, yet some believed and others not, all according to whether they WANTED to or not. The biggest evidence given was Jesus' resurrection from the dead. Those who believed it was true, wanted to believe it and those who did not want it to be true, did not believe it. His disbelieving enemies even admitted that the miracles he did were undeniable, yet still refused to believe. What makes you think it would be different today? If Jesus personally came today and emptied a few large hospitals by healing all the patients, do you think that some might accuse him of practicing medicine without a license? If He turned water to wine, is it likely that some might accuse Him of violating liquor laws? Are people any different today than they were back then?
It's really comes down to wanting to believe and accepting the ramifications of such belief. If the logical consequences of your belief are highly repugnant to you, such as having to submit your WILL to God's, no amount of evidence will make you believe. You either submit your will to His or not. It's not that you can't, but that you don't WANT to. A man convinced against his will remains unconvinced still.