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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

So Robin,

Why for your e-mail address does not work?

At least this one did not: rhanson@gmn.edu

I wrote you an email about "ViewQuakes" and requested a response only to have it come back. So, PLEASE E-me at: religionsucks@webtv,net

THANKS

Neil

"A View Quacker"

P.S. "Reason" helps a believer? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Reason Child, is why MILLIONS & MILLIONS & MILLIONS or FORMER Christians have STOPPED believing in yourchildish myth and become Atheists.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

Hey Robin,

You make an interesting point, but I think it is flawed. You do present some strong reasons why Todd might not exist, but comparing Todd with God is not an apt approach to take. Todd is an individual within a concrete set of boundaries: the family home, with limited access to that space. Thus, the differing descriptions of one distinct physical individual would be sketchy to anyone investigating this case.

Religious believers, on the other hand, claim distinct experiences with different manifestations of God at different times and in different circumstances. These experiences do seem to show some consistency with the idea of God and thus, are not contradictory. The contradictions tend to come from the interpretations of these texts as done by the believers in their own situations.

As an example, all three monotheistic religions recognize Jesus:- Judaism recognizes Jesus as a heretic (or a prophet, depending on who you talk to - I don't want to split hairs here though).- Christianity recognizes Jesus as the Messiah.- Islam recognizes Jesus as a major prophet.

Thus, there is some consensus around the main claims of Jesus. Does that mean that Jesus does or doesn't exist? No. The evidence isn't sufficient enough either way here.

So, all three faiths make mention of Jesus. They interpret him differently. Other dogmatic discussions occur for numerous other religious topics. Does disagreement mean that the subject doesn't exist? Not at all... in fact, based on the great deal of discussion and early source documentation pointing to the subject (God), I'd argue that there is some strong justifications to believe.

Ultimately, the question becomes one of epistemology. And, with all things dealing with truth, we never can be too sure. As a Christian, reason helps me, but ultimately there is some level of faith involved. But, isn't faith also involved when you look at other worldviews?

Feel free to check out my blog (http://toddhdow.org/) for plenty more discussion on this topic.

Thanks and talk soon!

Todd Dowhttp://toddhdow.org/

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