Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site trwrba.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!hao!hplabs!sdcrdcf!trwrba!jnelson From: jnelson@trwrba.UUCP (John T. Nelson) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: Sargent on reality vs. illusion, etc. Message-ID: <998@trwrba.UUCP> Date: Thu, 4-Oct-84 17:46:28 EDT Article-I.D.: trwrba.998 Posted: Thu Oct 4 17:46:28 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 6-Oct-84 02:30:17 EDT References: <4011@tekecs.UUCP>, <499@ames.UUCP> <1138@pucc-h>, <1123@pyuxn.UUCP>, <1215@pucc-h>, <970@trwrba.UUCRe: Sargent on reality vs. iThu, 4-Oct-84 14:46:28 PDT Organization: TRW EDS, Redondo Beach, CA Lines: 46 There is of course the empty tomb near Jerusalem. Purely circumstantial evidence ;-) No one has yet backed up the claim that physical evidence is the BEST or the only valid convincer. Why this urge to view human beings -- those wonderful, ambiguous, irreproducible [in the laboratory sense, obviously] creatures -- as no more than lab specimens? Because it offers just one more avenue of exploration... as does faith. Alternate views keep our thoughts from becoming incestuous (and thus dependent upon the individual, not reality). There is no physical evidence that God does not exist. I am the first to agree. On the other hand, many people have embraced creation science as a means by which they can make physical evidence for their beliefs. > I thought Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden because of their > search for the knowledge of good and evil. If this is the root of man's > sinfulness and fallen state, then surely the search for knowledge is not > a good thing.... Knowledge of good and evil is not the same as knowledge of facts about the world. I consider them to be the same. Truth is truth. Nothing wrong with questioning. "Keep seeking, and you shall find; keep asking, and you shall receive; keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you." Of course God would like His creations to know more about Him. Some are so constructed as to naturally have simple, strong, readily functioning faith; this actually is probably the best way to God's blessings One could call this blind faith... not a healthy thing in my book. The questioning of Tim Maroney and others has a positive value when trying to find the true nature of God, otherwise our thoughts would indeed become incestuous... Look folks, I can take more of this than you can! - John