This is the start of Stu's slippery slope. Over/under on time before he's atheist?

what a major coup for the atheists that would be!

I meant what I said in my previous post, but still, someone seriously thinking that some evidence is in and they have the skills to evaluate it and rationally speaking, it is much more probable that god exists than the alternative, is just silly talk.

Over/under? How about never. He has a nice house with a white picket fence and a cat and a dog, over in fantasy land. He is never leaving. He's just admitting that he has foundation problems.

Sorry for the borderline personal attack... It isn't meant to be mean spirited, and you know, Stu has been a semi-professional troll of this forum since its inception, so hopefully I've got some leeway here. (And no, gnuth12314, I am not claiming "belief in god" = "troll").

I make a few assumptions concerning my belief:

1)There is an eternal and infinite reality(what we call our universe might be it or it might be a subset of it I don't know).
2)Reality is self-similar across different scales.
3)Reality orders itself toward intelligence.
4)There is no limit on intelligence.

I practice my religion because it is the one I was born into.

I never knew that.

How do you square up infallible Papal decrees with the above? It seems like you accept them as true (by virtue of the religion you were born into) whilst simultaneously considering them closer to fantasy (as being based on human conceptions of God).

Not necessarily. That is the view I have held for over 30 years. It is not deism and it is quite stable. No slide involved.

I'm impressed with Stu though. Very honest and reasonable.

I have considered the possibility he's just trolling us, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Wait, this thread wasn't worth making, remember? It fit so much better on the 4th page of a thread about UFOs and aliens.........

Stu came in and saved it.

I think every religious person or atheist who were "born in their belief" should take a step back and ask themselves honestly: "is this what i truly believe?"

That should be easy for you. You seem to be the kind of guy that would make friendship challenging. Just admit you have a man-crush on Stu.

INB4 ad hominem.

in after ad hominem..

nh

If catholicsm is true the pope is infallible on faith and morals...if it isn't true then the pope is a fallible as the anyone else.

Sklansky will sometimes throw out the idea that perhaps God is just some higher demensional 6th grade science student and creation is his science fair project. Let us entertain that thought for a moment. If the set of higher demensional 6th grade science students who play the role of God is large enough, then eventually you would find a student who plays the role like the God of the bible.

Until you understand God, you can never really rule out a specific religion as being incorrect.

Is there any reason to take christianity any more seriously than ideas we just make up that aren't even designed to be correct?

Sure - I understand that, I'm curious how you reconcile being probably wrong (and considering human conceptions of God to be closer to fantasy than fact) with following a religion which holds as one of its tenets that someone is always right about God.

Are you saying you don't think catholicism is true - yet you follow it since it's the religion you were born to?

If the pope is infallible on faith then his conception of God isnt a fantasy, right?

I wasn't arguing that you should take christianity seriously. I was arguing that you should not be 100% certain it isn't true. I was pointing out an error Rizeagainst is making.

I would say I am catholic mostly for tribal reasons. Nevertheless I am a very firm theist.

I never said you were. I was asking you, is there any reason to take christianity more seriously than stuff we make up off the top of our heads?

The fact that it is so integrated into our lives for so long is reason enough. Christianity isn't some fad its an institution. Its incorrect to compare it to something made up off the top of our heads.

Translation: Many people have believed Christianity for a long time, therefore that makes it's more likely to be true.

Stu, you realize that how many people believe something and for how long they have believed it has no absolutely no bearing whether or not it's true, right?

I can know the christian god doesn't exist for the same reason that I don't need to open every envelope in the post office to know that none of them contain a drawing of a square circle.