Divinity Of Doubt

DIVINITY OF DOUBT  by VINCENT BUGGLIOSI – Summary by The Wise Prophet, Gary Bahr and others.

Something to think about.

Most people see what they expect to see, what they want to see.

Everyone is ignorant about something in life.

tupidity and ignorance…are responsible for much, if not most, of the great problems, misery and injustice in this world.

Things that anger me most are hypocrisy and incompetence.

Try to make sense of the religious and theological arguments and beliefs.

Voltaire tells us that common sense is not that common.

There ain’t no answer… That’s the answer.

People have always looked to the heavens for help in their daily lives, and eternal life after death.

Theists – believe in God.

Athiests – believe there is no God.

Agnostics – take no position. I have no way of knowing whether God exists or not. There is no proof one way or other. He simply does not know.= Albert Einstein, Clarence Darrow,

Fact = a truth known by actual experience or observance.

Verification of God is not possible = Myth, superstition, and nonsense

We are inculcated with:

God is all-good, all-powerful, all-knowing and omnipesent.

But God cannot be all these at the same time.

If god is all-powerful he can prevent evil, thus he is not all-good if he does not stop evil.

God loved us so much he gave his only son to die for our sins. But does not love us enough to stop all the horror.

R- God could intervene – but allows all the tyrants and their crimes.

R- whatever happens to us is god’s plan.

R- Justice comes later

R- If we were always happy we would not know unhappiness. Thus God allows unhappiness. We cannot appreciate good if we did not experience evil.

? God could simply create people who could be happy and know good without experiencing unhappiness and evil.

?Why does good God put people on earth who would burn in hell?

R- God gives us free will and not responsible for that choice.

But there is no scriptural basis I Jewish or Protestant bibles for the concept of free will – just in an Old Testiment Catholic Bible verse – Sirach 15:14.

But God knows which path we are going to take.

R-? We can’t question God’s will.

God allows atrocities.

R- No matter what – God has his reasons and they are all good.

But if all-good and all-powerful why should we believe his reasons are good for evil?

R- When it comes to God all conventional notions of logic and common sense and assume a valid reason for all misery and horrors.

Confusing.

R- Though we mortals don’t understand it, God has his reasons, and they are always good.

The 4 gospels = contain supposed words of Jesus, conveyed by mouth, authors not certain. John or John the Elder?

Mark – 70 AD. Matthew and Luke 85 and 75 AD based on Mark.

No original copies found. Copies were made by scribes who had their own agendas.

1. All religions have been created by man.

2. More evidence that man created God to meet his needs and desires.

Christians really do not care if their beliefs are logical or not.

RELIGION:

– Religion is good in fulfilling human needs and desires

– Helps many lead meaningful lives.

– Fear brought God into life and belief in God helps people face fears.

– Faith can be the enemy of reason

– Blind faith can lead to violence and tragedy

ATHEISM:

– If God exists there would not have the hoors of life.

– God cannot be proved, thus does not exist. But, they have no proof of non-existence. God may have creates original life forms.

– The belief there is no God is no more valid that the faith-belief there is a God.

– The complexity of intelligent design makes God impossible. The complexity of God makes God impossible.

?Maybe God is more complex?

AGNOSTIC:

Both Theist and Atheist irrational.

The mystery of the beginning of all thiongs is insoluble by us.

Choose to be governed by logic.

Universe 14 billion years old. Earth is 4.5 billion years old. First life 3.5 billion years ago.

EVOLUTION:

The alternative to creationism or intelligent design.

The complexity and order of the universe must be intelligent design.

Organisms mutated, adapt to environment.

Natural selection rules = survival of the fittist. Gene timing. Bird specie beaks differ by food to eat on different islands, etc. In the struggle to survive, species develop physical characteristics to enable them to survive in the environment they found themselves.

Every species is in transition.

Not doubted.

Maybe God created evolution?

Man has memory, can contemplate his own existence, can reason thru situations, store his knowledge and teach others.

Intelligent design of the universe.

– The universe operates in perfect order.

– Every watch requires a watchmaker.

– 21% Oxygen. If 25% fires would start spontaneously, if 15% we would suffocate.

– Moons pull if greater tides would be too severe, if less climate would be too severe for life.

– if gravity pull was altered o.oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.1%, our sun would not exist.

– there are 6 to 122 constants that make life possible and for them to occur by chance is unlikely – thus a designer (More p81).

First cause hypothesis:

Every effect has a cause. A thing cannot exist without a cause. A thing cannot precde itself. Thus first cause was God.

? Who created God?

First cause existed, had no beginning?

Big Bang Theory: Caused explosion that caused universe to expand.

– From chaos came a universe in perfect harmony and order.

– But what was something that exploded and how did it originate?

Jesus said “I am the one who is, who always was…” (Revelation 1:8)

Who created the creator? Unanswered.

Go could be an effect without a cause in a non-material world about which we know nothing – am endity outside the laws of causality, time, space, and therefore not subject .

A mystery that cannot be resolved?

THE BIBLE:

The Bible is important in world culture. It is not perfect but offers enormous wisdom.

It is the basis for many Christian beliefs.

Fundamentalists see it as the last word and all true.

Faith healing, Holy Spirit, speak in tongues, rapture lift up born-again believers.

– Much is Myth, nonsensical,

Jesus died for our sins:

– But Jesus is God, so God killed God to Satisfy God? Or to atone for our sins?

– Einsteen – Jesus lived but another story to say he was the Son of God.

_ Will Durant – Disciple invention of so powerful amd appealing personality is a greater miracle far more than any other in Gospels.

– Will Rogers – “That’s the most unheard of thing I ever heard of.” – believers have to have a severe intellectual hernia.

We are all born with original sin:

Adam and Eve eat an Apple and God gets so angry he punishes future billions with original sin so he can forgive them by having his son die for us.

See The Wise Prophet et al at GaryBahr.com.