Albert Mohler’s new book is entitled He is Not Silent. So then why is God, well, silent? Who has God spoken to lately? Where has he appeared? What prayers has he answered that could not of happened of their own accord or have been done by people? Where is this God that is not silent?
They will point to men. God speaks through the Bible and through preachers, they say. Preachers are men, and the Bible was written by men. Why must this God always reveal himself to others — never to us? Why must we believe their testimonies, for which there is no evidence but their word? And what is more likely, for a man to lie or be deceived, or for a miracle to have happened?
Daniel,
Your viewpoints and skepticism are so undeniably logical and full of reason to me.
The more points I read like yours, the more I feel sad for those that base their lives on faith. The weirdest thing about that is, a religious person would feel sad for me for the exact same reason: Because I don’t live my life having faith in something that no one is able to prove to me.
Thanks for the kind words. It is also sad to me that people base much of their lives on a deception.
Humans are incredibly credulous, taken in by cons and scams all the time. All the time. Religious con artists, phone scams, e-mail scams… As I said on another blog’s thread, if there is a god (or gods) he/she should recognize this (since we are its creations and it would logically follow that the creator should know the creation’s limitations, no?) and quit playing hide-n-seek. Otherwise, it leaves us wide open to falling victim to more cons and con artists. It just seems like if there is a god, he/she is purposely jerking us around, and that’s not very nice.
Mohler is a scumbag of the highest degree. If god is speaking through people like him, god can kiss my ass.
As Mohler is heartily invited to do.
@Ty: I don’t agree Mohler is a “scumbag of the highest degree.” He’s a very nice guy and very intelligent. I don’t agree with his Christian beliefs, but I know of no evidence that he’s any more a “scumbag” than any of us.
It could all be settled with one giant change to the weather to bring rains to places where there is drought and relief to the flooded…
plus it would still leave us with our free will, which apparently God thinks is important, though he never actually said so in the bible
It is kind of suspicious that the all-powerful one can’t even manage to feed all his pets.
free will??? surely gods minions can’t be trusted with that!
Isn’t the evidence that man lies (instead of God speaking through them) all around us? Look how many different versions of what God “says” are evident around the globe. There is little in the way of consistency, yet all these folks claim to be speaking for God.
And consider the Bible and the incredibly long list of inconsistencies found within its pages. Was God just confused? Did God change his mind as the ages passed?
The only answer is that man no better knows the mind of God than do I the mind of my neighbor.
I thought the answer was that people are inherently stupid, if not purposefully deceiving themselves that there must be some greater purpose to their lives than birth, reproduction and a wholly meaningless death? God really is the Santa in the sky – his mere existence promises human immortality and a ‘place’ in the grand scheme of things.
To me , God speaks through a felling of peace and direction. A kind wisdom. I know all this is very subjective but this form of communication from God is not limited to only the Christian religion. There are many answers Christianity doesn’t answer such as ,”why are there so many starving people?”, “why is there disease?” etc. but sometimes having a feeling that there is something out there that cares for you and wants to help and give guidance can be comforting. It may be a figment of our super ego or imagination but it is real to some people.
Slightly off subject, where is the common ancestor that supposedly humans and chimps both came from?
This could explain all of the sightings of sasquatch like creatures from around the globe.
They are said to be very intelligent and elusive though many people have had encounters and even interaction with them.
They may be our proto ancestors who continued to exist along side our rise but by thier nature recluded more into the wild existing on thier hightened senses and developing thier own form of culture and interaction far removed from human eyes.
It’s still a pretty big planet. New species and ones thought long extinct are being discovered and rediscovered every year.
#10, Thank you for confirming my suspicions.
The common ancestor is dead. Unless you wish to conjecture that the species from which Homosapiens sapiens and the Common Chimpanzee were spawned has somehow managed to survive, genetically unchanged, over a 5 to 10 million year period for the express purpose of displaying expressly human posture in low quality amateur video.
Why not ? Homo sapiens and chimps have suvived unchanged for about the same amount of time and we don’t question it. I don’t really know that this is true but there are many anecdotal accounts of people seeingsasquatch nests inthe wild even seeing them sleeping together in a spooning position.
In another account a hunter and his buddy walking back from duck hunting came apon a bigfoot who motioned to the two ducks he was carrying. The hunter handed over the two ducks and the bigfoot took them. The bigfoot then returned one of the ducks to the hunter,handing it back to him. A sign of sharing a higher conciousness activity.
Another account is of a particularly hairy man who when hiking in the Cascade mountaind in WA st. came upon a bigfoot eating blueberries. They both startled each other. The bigfoot apparently noticed the hairiness of the man and motioned to him and the back to itself as if to say they were alike.
Bigfoot are generally thought to be non aggressive towards humans unless of course provoked but usually try to avoid contact altogether.
They are also known to mark tier home territory by whacking tree trunks with large tree branches in succession of twos and threes.
With so many accounts on record there are either alot liars, fleeting fame seekers,and delusionals or there is some truth to at least a pecentage of sightings.
Large cats are known to widely inhabit the western and even mid-western United States but are rarely seen.
@murrowcronkite:
> “Homo sapiens and chimps have suvived unchanged for about the same amount of time and we don’t question it.”
No, Homo sapiens (modern humans as we know them) have existed for about 200,000 years. It’s an arbitrary distinction, of course, but we’re certainly not talking several million years. Our ancestors of a million years ago looked very different from us. You see, we do indeed question such things.
Anyway, it’s not an argument for or against the evolution of a separate Bigfoot/Sasquatch species, as human evolution isn’t necessarily analogous to other primate species.
But I think I’ll have to refer to the general scientific consensus on the issue of Bigfoot/Sasquatch: “Man, that’s total bullsh*t”.
MC Deadreporter, did you ever actually read any science, or have you picked up your education entirely from The Simpsons’ parodies of conspiracy theories?
(I am not sure if Cronkite is dead, also white wine makes me sarcastic and loquacious.)
murrowcronkite: “…many anecdotal accounts…”
All of which are worthless. Anecdotes are hearsay, and hearsay is not admissible in the court of scientific inquiry.
If bigfoot is real, why are there no bodies? Bones? Tools, pottery, some sort of artifacts? There is a complete lack of ANY concrete evidence. All photos are blurry. All video is fuzzy. All anecdotes are vague and/or conflicting, not to mention that human memory is flakey and unreliable. I can’t say for certain that people who’ve “seen” bigfoot are liars (although some certainly are), but I’m pretty comfortable stating that they’re all at least mistaken. It’s very easy to convince oneself of what one wants so very much to be true.
Skepticism is a set of tools one must apply when analyzing information. Otherwise, how are you ever to know when you’ve been had? Skepticism sure as hell isn’t foolproof, but it’s all we’ve got for protecting ourselves from being fooled.
@murrow: Ah, now you believe in Bigfoot? Again, I’m surprised you think yourself “skeptical” — I haven’t seen any evidence of you applying any skepticism to your beliefs. You seem to believe everything. Do you also believe in the Loch Less monster? UFOs? Alien abductions? Psychics? Faith healing? Witches? Fairys? Batboy? Mermaids? Dragons? ESP? Demons? Ghosts? Magic? Levitation?
There is lots of anecdotal evidence for all of those things, but no scientific evidence. Where do you draw the line?
don’t be forgetting santa daniel
@sungirltan: Actually, only fools disbelieve in Santa. There is tons of anecdotal evidence for his existence — and think of all the packages that has his name on it every year! This god-man obviously gets around. For those who claim that Santa is silent, I say, he uses men! He uses parents! But Santa is behind it all. Everyone knows this from birth. Believing in Santa requires faith, and he blesses those with presents whom believe.
@ daniel – you know i’ve heard that theory used to descibe something else. Can’t quite put my finger on it though…
But seriously though…stronger faith is rewarded by personal gain with santa – sounds like religion to me!
Sorry, Daniel, but after reading the man’s diatribes on not having children, on homosexuality, and his arguments with other faiths that they are not in fact christian: scumbag.
In fact, I’d say arrogant scumbag.
I couldn’t agree more about the comment about God “playing hide and seek”. Why is demanding faith from us such a reasonable thing to do. If I were to ask MY friends (who I love and respect) to dedicate their whole lives to some sort of activity of MY choosing I would at least give them SOME indication that it was for a reason.
Oh, and #18 – Daniel’s point about Santa. I’m probably being very slow but it’s just occured to me that “Daniel” is an anagram of “denial”. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions…
;)
@ rik – yeh we’re all in denial right – and when we die and don’t go to heaven we’ll all be sorry. yada yada
I once had a vision sent to me by Yehovah. In it, Yehovah said “I don’t exist. Stop worshipping me. Go away.”
So, clearly gods still do speak to human beings. And they want us to leave them alone.
He stole the title from Francis Schaeffer’s “He is there and He is not Silent.” How uncreative.
@Jim;
Amazing that you have a francis Shaffer reference.
I thought he was really cool in the old days. At least he stresses creativity and some freedom for a theist writer.
Unusual since I think he’s Southern Baptist.
I agree, anecdotes are weak. Batboy- no,Lochness- no. There is a fairly credible video on aliens. Governments can be secretive. I stay open till something has been definitively disproved. The probability seems high that we are not the only life forms in the universe. I know it seems kooky , but most things are anecdotal till evidence is produced.
Decide for yourself.
http://www.archive.org/details/Disclosure
@murrow: “I stay open till something has been definitively disproved.”
How can you “definitively disprove” anything? Prove to me that unicorns or batboy or lochness do not exist. You find you can’t. It is much better to require positive proof of something.
I agree that it is unlikely that we are alone in the universe (though I’m surprised to hear you say that since you seem so against evolution), but I also think there is absolutely no evidence for alien contact of UFOs. All stories and blurry pictures. Same with bigfoot. With all the amazing telescopes and cameras we have all over the world, you’d think we’d have all kinds of clear pictures of UFOs if they existed. But we don’t. Only amateurs with cheap cameras that never show anything. Not good evidence.
As for Santa Claus, unfortunately many good meaning Christians view God like Santa Claus which is not how God depicts himself in the Bible. A relationship with God is described as a covenant- an open ended contract. He does not force us to act on our beliefs but we usually don’t see His manifestation till we do. As it’s been said , You cant steer a boat that’s sitting still in the water. Sorry to sound all religious on you, just read the book for many years. As you see I believe in other things too. Skeptism doesn’t mean you have to automatically reject something ’cause there’s no empirical evidence, it just means ,to me, that you take a measured approach. It’s not blind faith, more a searching for evidence. It seems foolish to hard scientists,but even CEO of microsoft, Steve Ballmer has invested millions in a radio telescope array near seattle to search for extra terrestrial life.
http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Microsoft-Steve-Ballmer-gestures-Switzerland-Microsoft-Chief-Executive-Officer/ss/events/tc/080101microsoft/im:/080910/photos_tc/2008_09_10t064029_326x450_us_nokia_microsoft/
Play the link on #27. It has even NASA astronauts and Air Force officers speaking of personal alien contact.
So NASA astronauts and air force officers can be credulous, is that what you’re saying?
Makes sense to me. I mean, I know we’re alone in the universe and that we’re very small, and I’ve hardly ever left the ground.
Imagine being able to actually see how small we are … I might well feel a need for something to cling to in the darkness.
Gods, aliens, compassionate conservatism, or some other fantasy …
Oh, God is listening all right. Here is a little ditty I heard about how God provides toothpaste to those in need, without any waiting.
We attended a casual birthday party recently at the home of a Christian acquaintance. I was the only non-Christian in attendance. One of the ladies began to talk about how her husband dumpster dives, which I find very interesting. She spoke to us as a group, but I felt perhaps I was being witnessed to (against?), “Ladies, I really saw how God works just recently. We were almost out of toothpaste and my hubby hadn’t found any lately. So I prayed to God, I said, ‘Lord, I haven’t had to buy toothpaste in years. Please don’t make me have to buy toothpaste now after you’ve been providing it for us free all this time.” The next day, he came home with a case of toothpaste! Oh, how the Lord does provide for us.”
They all oohed and aahed at the miracle of God’s providing toothpaste. So these awesome miracles are out there, though you might have to dig through a dumpster to find them.
I would like to say that the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence however it is very very unlikely that anything religion has to offer holds any ground in reality let alone be it the answer to all questions
Actually I disagree. The Christian God is touted, among other things, as being omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient.
1) Omnipotence. Such an entity must by it’s very nature leave traces if it does exist – because if it cannot be sensed or recorded in some way in this universe, then there is now way for it to influence matter or energy in this universe – ergo, it cannot be omnipotent.
2) Omniscience. To be omniscient, to know everything, is a paradox in itself. It would take more matter and energy than actually exists to store knowledge of every single subatomic particle and quark that actually exists. It cannot be done. There is no way in physics, philosophy or any other discipline. Further, in order to observe knowledge of every subatomic particle and quark, one would have to alter the information about the subatomic particles and quarks, thus leaving a trace – and bringing us back to point 1).
3) Omnipresence. To be honest I think the first two points neatly disprove this idea too, so I’m not going to worry about it too much.