jimboston wrote:1) I believe in Free Will…so yeah we can accept that as agreed upon for a basis of any logical arguments.
2) Pascal’s Wager assumes that we humans are capable of interpreting God’s Will.
2b) Pascal’s Wager also has a couple logic flaws. First it’s presuming you’re options are limited to “God” and “No God”. It’s also presuming a Christian World View…. one could make the same argument for believing and any Religion. Yet you can’t believe (or act is if you believe) in EVERY religion just to “cover your ass” because some of those beliefs and actions will conflict.
2c) I’m also not sure you get into Heaven by “living as though God exists” even if you don;t believe. My understanding is that God can see into your heart… so even if you act pious a ddo “all the right things” if you are just doing these things and acting is this way to “cover your ass” it won;t work.
3) Bible quotes mean NOTHING to me just because they are from the Bible. Since I don;t believe the Bible is divinely inspired any more than The Lord of the Rings is Divinely Inspired. (i.e. I can believe both are or neither… there’s no logical reason from me to believe one is the other isn’t; except maybe the fact that “The Bible” as we know it is really an editted amalgamation of many writers.)
That said The Bible of Christ does have many quotes that offere value and wisdom… which I can see an appreciate even if I don;t believe it;s “The Word of God”.
As I said elsewhere, the existence of God cannot be proved or disproven by the intellect of man, any man. Since you have convinced yourself that God, or the Christian God, or any god does NOT exist, then I see no real point of trying to convince you otherwise.
As far as Pacal's Wager, I will take the logic of a known and intelligent thinker and mathematician over you or anyone else on CC on this matter. As I already said, your logic on this matter is flawed, so there is no point debating this issue as your mind is already made up. I will acknowledge that after my 3rd or more request on this matter that you finally offered some response.
i am not a bit surprised that you are so dismissive of the Bible. Again, no point is discussing this with you. I will add that I have read LOTS on this matter, especially by Christian apologetics writers such as C. S. Lewis, and they basically make many of the same arguments that I do. Lewis does argue for the existence of God from the perspective of "Moral Law" but I suspect that:
1) you will ignore me on that matter, or
2) that this is no better than the Bible TO YOU because it is written by those "duped' by God and by the writers (and interpreters) of the Bible.
Christian apologetics (Ancient Greek: ἀπολογία, "verbal defence, speech in defence")[1] is a branch of Christian theology that defends Christianity.[2]
Christian apologetics has taken many forms over the centuries, starting with Paul the Apostle in the early church and Patristic writers such as Origen, Augustine of Hippo, Justin Martyr and Tertullian, then continuing with writers such as Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Ockham and Anselm of Canterbury during Scholasticism.
Blaise Pascal was an active Christian apologist during the 17th century. In the modern period, Christianity was defended through the efforts of many authors such as John Henry Newman, G. K. Chesterton and C. S. Lewis, as well as G. E. M. Anscombe.
NOW, watching fireworks in the sky is more worthy of my time.