There are days I think God must be using sleight of hand on everyone. What made me think of this today?

I was looking at the first 4 sentences in the wiki on trial and error and realized that not only science but religious practice uses it as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_and_error

Religious practice contains insight (noesis) or intuition and theory (a looking at or beholding).

In fact if you study a lot of the people in the bible like Abraham they are always being told by God to "look up".

Gen. 13:14 The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, "Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever."

Gen. 15:5 The LORD said to Abram "Look up at the heavens and count the stars - if indeed you can count them."

Abram was lucky. God told him to "Look up!"

People always have to be told to "Look up!" or they won't do it for themselves.

So I think religion is a lot like science in that it contains trial and error before you learn anything. It always takes experience of both good and bad things to learn about anything of real or lasting importance.

The wisest people on this planet are the ones who have made the most mistakes.

no.

in science, if you don't find evidence that supports your hypothesis, you change the hypothesis.

in religion, if you don't find evidence that supports your hypothesis, you discount the evidence.

Only if you prioritize outside evidence over inside evidence.

God said we are made in his image. Don't you think we have any inside evidence we could be overlooking?

Oh thats right, because we are all part God. God is within. Deus est intus.

only the land he was able to see with his eyes around him? that's a pretty small area for so many people.. God created this big earth and then offered Abraham tiny area of it, for him and all his generations? lol.. that sucks.. crappy deal..


I don't think GOD was needed to point it out to any human that it would be very difficult to count all the visible stars... lol..


religion is a lot like science? lol.. no... i mean if you want to say that human $hit is like ice cream because it is made of atoms then yeah.. great comparison... that way you can make anything sound like two same things..

I think the reason for your post is because you are trying to add some credibility to religion, since science has so much of it.. is that true?

Well why God want to prove anything externally to you if he couldn't make a difference to you internally?

And no I don't think I need science to prove the trial and error process in faith. I think all you have to do is look at Paul walking on the Road to Damascus and falling down. Then he shipwrecks and has all sorts of trials. But he keeps going because he keeps looking up when he isn't looking inward through prayer. This is trial and error in action walking on God's Road which early Christianity used to call The Way.

If you read up on Martin Luther's incident on the Scala Sancta (Holy Stairs) in Rome he discovered "the just shall live by faith" by going through a trial and error process on the Holy Stairs in Rome:
http://www.ianpaisley.org/article.asp?ArtKey=unholy

I thought you were God's Little Joke.

are you saying that there are things that GOD can't do? I though he can do anything...

I asked a question. You went the standard dodge route by not answering but instead asking your own. Stop wasting my time.

If you can't answer a question then I can't answer any. Fair is fair.

God's motives are beyond mortal comprehension. This question has an answer, but you need to hear it from God. Sorry.

No. I can read the bible.

This, regrettably, does not mean that you can comprehend the mind of God.

your op only mentions admonitions to look outward.

evidence is something that can be shown to other people. inside 'evidence' is known as 'thoughts.'

this is evidence to you? the first is a story, for god's sake. the second is a sermon.

if this is your criteria for evidence, i'll counter with the Silmarillion by Tolkein.

It is shown to other people via testimony.

How does a doctor know if a drug works? He asks his patient and they respond with their impression of the affect.

So evidence can be internal.

Bunyan is an example. By his own account he was quite a wild fellow until he converted.

obviously i gave you a hard question right here and you did not want to answer so you complain i did not answer to you, your typical move are your bot answers....You almost never answer what I ask you.. Instead I get a response from you.. See writings of this person, see website of this guys, that guy...blah blah blah..

so again...
Originally Posted by gskowal
are you saying that there are things that GOD can't do? I though he can do anything...

Everyone knows the standard answer from scripture is "anything is possible with God".

Why are you wasting my time with inanities?

Again, you dodged.

so.. your post to me

Originally Posted by Splendour
Well why God want to prove anything externally to you if he couldn't make a difference to you internally?

looks really stupid right now.. because you stated that he wouldn't make any difference... so you just limited your god to things he can do and things he can't do.... keep making a fool out of yourself..

Obviously the only way you can know anything about God is by what he tells us about himself in his revealed word unless there is some other way of inference that you have but that is more difficult to prove to a skeptic.

But if you ask me even atheists depend on the revealed word to make statements about God. Many of the threads they run are based on Christian concepts like heaven/hell that are expressed in the bible. It's just they choose to stress the negative while a Christian theist chooses to stress the positive aspects of those writings.

Are you familiar with the idea commonly expressed by theists that the bible is not a science text?

If it's not a science text then what type of text is it and what is the purpose of the text?

here's proof that you are a bot and not a clearly thinking person..

WHAT THE HELL DOES THIS ANSWER OF YOURS HAS TO DO WITH MY REPLY!!!!

but ill answer your question..

it's a a book that fits the mythology section..

It's the proof that your idol is rationalism.

The bible doesn't exist so God can prove science principles though a lot of people like Newton have pursued the bible with the intent of proving God that way or of understanding his scientific purposes. That is their purpose not God's. The bible is the book of salvation and its work is to reconcile people with the primary aim of changing their nature.

If your idols weren't humanism/rationalism you might be able to focus on God's purpose instead of dismissing him with your own.

Yeah, see, we have these things called tests. The doctor performs said tests to determine the problem with the patient. When finished, the doctor prescribes the drug. After the drug has had a chance to be effective, he calls the patient back in and performs the tests again. These results tell us if the drug is working correctly or not. If any doctor decided whether to keep me on a drug or not depending on how I "feel" I would stop seeing him immediately, and report him to the health board.

Go get em, girl. We're taking over this dojo. Although, i have to ask how do we show the gray area to people that only see in black and white?