Who sets the standard?

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Thu, 22 Oct 1998 21:29:59 -0500

At 03:45 PM 10/22/98 -0600, John W. Burgeson wrote:
>What I perceive here is that you, Glenn Morton, are dictating to the LORD
>of the universe the terms upon which you will accept his Word. The fact
>that your terms seem very reasonable, both to you and many others, is
>simply not pertinent, particular as you and I both know that many
>Christians are willing to accept other terms and have little or no
>difficulty doing so.

There is some truth to this. I also tell Vishnu that I don't accept him
because Hinduism's description of reality is highly flawed. If Vishnu
doesn't know what the universe is like, how can he be a God? This attitude
comes straight out of my crisis of faith in which I nearly became an
atheist. Christianity or for that matter, any religion, must be true or it
is false. The fact that many people are willing to accept something
without such evidence does not mean that what they accept is true. Many
people believe that some individuals have been abducted by the alien
'greys' and had instruments poked into their private parts. There is no
evidence for these claims but the third parties don't need it, they are
willing to accept it on other terms.

Is this what a religion is? A belief that has no evidence for itself?

>
>You conclude:
>
>"... the Bible must come up to some
>standard of verifiability in order to avoid fideism."
>
>Who sets that standard, Glenn, on the words of God?
>
>I would not.

I would suggest that If God is God, then He must be able in some fashion to
demonstrate that He knows more than others or that He is more powerful than
others and to demonstrate that power. After all, it is God who is
attempting to establish communication with man not the other way around. It
is up to Him to demonstrate to us his existence and his worthiness of
worship. Remember we are blind and there is none who seek god.

Psalm 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to
see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
3 They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is
none that doeth good, no, not one.

If the above requirement is not needed, why couldn't I worship the rabbit?
If that requirement is not needed, then I would like to apply for the job
of God. I would like to have thousands of adoring fans giving me money.

Faith alone; faith with no evidence is a faith that can and will beleive
anything and everything, from UFOs to spiritism, to David Koresh. The one
big area that the YECs are correct in is that they see the need for a
single truth and a verifiable truth in what the Bible says.
glenn

Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm