I sense a fundamental difference in our thinking, and that is I believe there is one reality in which we all live, and if we could all just agree upon that it would lessen the killing and the misery in the world.
Who said that your perception of reality is the only one?
I see bloodshed on a grand scale perpetrated by those who see politics as their 'religion'.
Some people's 'gods' are human. The misery in the world is caused by human beings doing inhumane things to other human beings, including innocent ones judged to be mere collateral damage, sacrificed for a political agenda. Just because a person rationalizes their conduct through their religion, doesn't justify their actions. I believe we will all ultimately stand before the same God.
You can judge a religion by how they view human life. For Christians, there can be no bloodshed or involvement in the affairs of this world, and this was to identify them in what we believe is "the final part of the days". (Isaiah 2:2-4; Matthew 5:44; 2 Corinthians 10:3-5; John 13 :34-35)
After thousands of years of living in darkness, scientific enquiry is arriving at some conclusions that can be agreed upon.
And this is what the Creator intended. As the maker of what science studies, he designed us to have inquiring minds and with intellect and curiosity to study and explore what he has made. Look how long it took us to get this far and we have only scratched the surface....imagine how long it will take to explore it all.....?
It is just a pity that men began to use their knowledge as an excuse to divorce themselves from the Creator and begin to worship human intellect itself. The higher the intellect, the more godlike their status became.
Does reality matter at all to you, or do you think hopes and fears are sufficient to live life, and upon which to make ones decisions? And I will refer to Heb 11:1, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see......... By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." This is gibberish to my mind, especially since the Bible doesn't describe reality.
Then you have misunderstood the meaning of that scripture.
Paul also said the "faith is not the possession of all people". (2 Thessalonians 3:2) That explains why some some people are spiritual by nature and some are entirely physical.
He also said....."But a physical man does not accept the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot get to know them, because they are examined spiritually. 15 However, the spiritual man examines all things, but he himself is not examined by any man. 16 For “who has come to know the mind of Jehovah, so that he may instruct him?” But we do have the mind of Christ."
We all seem to fall into one of those two categories.....yet there seems to be those who are caught somewhere in the middle. Science has produced some very convincing propaganda to support their godless theory, but despite what science is saying, nagging doubts remains. You only have to point out the obvious design in nature to see their defensiveness expressed in anger. When you see purpose in nature, it logically requires planning, and planning requires intelligence. A spiritual man can do the math, but the physical man cannot process spiritual things. To put that into plain language, the two groups do not speak the same language. For the physical man verything must be explained physically....but that leaves huge gaps. The spiritual explanation leaves none. Perhaps that is something to contemplate?
the Canaanites were living on their land for a couple of thousand years before the Christian 'God' began a genocide to remove them......
The Canaanites were a despicable people. They built up a particularly sordid record of immorality and depravity, as both Biblical and secular history testify. The curse pronounced on Canaan by Noah saw its fulfillment some eight centuries after he uttered it, when Canaan’s descendants were subjugated by the Semitic Israelites, later coming under the domination of Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome.
As the Creator of all the earth, God had a right to give whatever portion of the earth he chose to allot to his own people.
He also had the right to terminate the existence of those he considered unworthy to retain the gift of life. The Canaanites were disgusting and would only have bred more disgusting offspring like themselves. We have two other examples in the Bible where God wiped out whole populations because of their depravity. The flood of Noah's day, and the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Make of them what you will.
Sorry, but to say that reality is of less value than your or anyone's hopes and fears confuses me.....
When a person has hope, there is 'a light at the end of the tunnel'......for believers, that light is God with a promise of something better......for atheists that light is a train. If you want to get hit by the train, then you will not be disappointed....will you?
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