Posted on 01/03/2002 11:19:13 AM PST by ArGee
A very rich man decided that he wanted to show kindness to the people of the fair city where he lived. Since he was very rich indeed, he decided to throw a banquet for the entire city. He rented the largest sports arena in the city and began his plans. He planned for huge amounts of the best food possible, making allowances for every religious and medical diet. He advertised the banquet in every possible manner - television, radio, billboard, door-to-door canvassing. Considering that there might be some who could not travel, he arranged for free bus transportation to and from the event, and some special-needs vehicles for all who could not ride busses. He even scheduled the banquet to run for 24 hours a day for several days so that everyone could be sure of being served.
He planned long and hard and finally the big day came. The rich man ate quickly and then went about wishing all his guests well and personally making sure that all had every need met. After a while he went outside to tour the grounds and talk with those who had not yet gone in, and those who had already left. Everyone was happy. Many were profusely thankful. It was a glorious occasion.
At one point the rich man noticed a group of people sitting outside a locked door with most unpleasant looks on their faces. Sensing they were not happy, he went over to them. He did not introduce himself but simply asked them if he could be of service.
"We want to go in through this door," one of them replied.
The rich man explained to them that the hall was arranged to feed a large number of people as quickly and effortlessly as possible. This required order inside, and the entrances and exits had been carefully planned to be as efficient as possible. He then offered to go call one of the golf carts that were avaialbe to help people who could not walk far to take them to the entrance. But the man replied, "We do not want to go in the entrance. We want to go in this door. We don't understand why we can't go in any door we wish. We think the man who set this banquet up is mean and hateful for insisting we go in through the entrance. He has tried to bill himself as a very kind man by offering this banquet, but he is not kind at all if he will not indulge us and let us go through this door.
The rich man was distressed at these words, but still attempted to please these people. He tried once more to explain to them what was behind this particular door, and how if they went in this door they would disrupt the meal service being offered inside. He offered to drive them himself, not only to the door, but inside the hall to their tables if they would only go through the entrance to enjoy the meal. Again the man said, "No, but only a hateful man would keep us from going through the door of our choosing. And we will sit here and tell anyone who will listen to us what an awful man he is until he lets us in."
At that the rich man was enraged and he shouted, "Enough." Then he called a police officer to have them thrown off of the property and ordered that they not be allowed to return until the banquet was over and all the scraps had been hauled away. Then, mourning for their loss, he turned to visit with other guests.
(Which side are you on again????)
While this assumption is mathematically rational (in the best form of Solomonoff), it doesn't prove that your assumption will always be correct. The problem is that the rational choice and the correct choice are not always the same thing, so errors are quite possible. By the same token, to assert that ANY religion of the thousand is correct is irrational and all intelligent people should treat such an assertion as just that.
It is up to the individuals who hypothesize that a particular choice is correct to devise an objective metric that can be rigorously evaluated as rational in these cases. If the hypothesis is correct, the construction of such an objective metric must be possible.
Until some form of independently verifiable evidence is presented to support such an assertion, it is logical to dismiss such a notion as fallacious.
That never worked for me. Many people base their faith on personal experiences. Even though these experiences cannot by independently verified, they would be fools to ignore such experiences. For those of us who do not have such experiences, it is a matter of how much we trust the stories that we hear and the people who tell them.
This isn't just religion: Many of our beliefs -- aesthetic, romantic, even political to a certain extent -- are formed just the same way.
It is not foolish of you to reject religious belief, based on your experience. It is foolish of you to reject others’ faith and beliefs on that basis, unless you are going to reject other beliefs, based on unverifiable evidence, such as appreciation of a form of music or romantic love.
There was actually a point to it--Who are the rich man's servers at the banquet?
So it is with the Scripture. IF there were just SOME past prophecy that had come true, we might be tempted to check........
Nah, that's crazy........
Faulty logic..........
If 990 coin flips in a row are tails, the chances are pretty good that flip 991 will be tails as well. And by the time you get to flipping coin 1000, it stands to reason it'll be tails, too.
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Just change the wording and you'll see...........
Ummm...no. If I flip a coin 990 times, and it comes up tails each time, I'm thinking I'm dealing with a loaded coin. I can't *prove* the coin is loaded, and given the nature of relgion, I can't prove that any or all them are false- but I reserves the right to be dubious...
How about The Koran?
We could all be a god, who created the universe, in order to experience an almost infinite number of lifes. To do so, he makes himself forget that fact, each time he starts a new life.
I don't believe that; but there's nothing illogical per se about that.
Those are intriguing questions. I have a more intriguing one, though:
What about you?
That's the impression you've been giving me.
I don't trot Him out, He comes when you call to Him. He is there for you to find. He desires a relationship with you.
Been there, done that, nobody showed. Got over it. Moved on.
But, as Jesus said: (Luke 16:31) "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
There's your mistake. Luke said, Jesus said, and the guy pretending to be Luke wasn't even Luke! You accept third or fourth hand testimony. Even second hand testimony is inadmissable in our own fallible court system!
Even if He were to appear to you tonight, you would convince yourself you were dreaming.
Nice try, but it never happened before and it ain't happening tonight.
There is no more complete evidence than what already is. It isn't a lack of evidence that is bothering you, it is a lack of will.
In other words, you still have no independently verifiable evidence to present.
Open the eyes of your heart and you will see.
Been there, done that, nothing to see. Got over it. Moved on.
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