No, but I think [he]'s routinely imagined along those lines ─ what is petitionary prayer if not a request for a big wizard in the sky to poof some solution into existence?
Sadly there are many “Christians” who’s subscribe to the ‘big wizard in the sky “poofing” concept’. I am not one of them. Nor do I see him as some kind of celestial “waiter” who, when I snap my fingers, answers my request with “yes Mam, and would you like fries with that?”
Prayer is not a request for a miracle but for strength to endure the inevitable trials of this life, because there will be no miracles. (Matthew 24:13) Those counting on miracles are more often than not, very disappointed.
Reality is the world external to the self which we perceive via our senses. We can alter or affect parts of it, but most of it, no.
So many people live in altered states of reality....who is to say what is real anyway? If you have ever had anything to do with delusional people, you will understand what I mean. Our reality is not theirs.
My mind is easy to change. All that's required is examinable evidence, reasoned enquiry, and conclusions derived by transparent argument.
These are all right under your nose, but you do not have your eyes open. It requires hindsight, foresight and insight to discern the Creator’s activities and his spirit to open ‘blinded’ eyes (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)...but only if they want to. I see no apparent desire in you to know anything about him that requires you to alter your position. So be it.....that is your choice.
The bible has the understandings of nature that were available to its authors in the times and places it was written. They don't include any understanding of a spherical earth, gravity and orbits, satellites, stars, the solar system, deep space, galaxies, the Big Bang, the generations of stars and the formation of the heavy elements, relativity, quantum physics, the cosmic microwave background, dark matter (whatever that turns out to be) and so on.
Indeed....scientific details would have been meaningless to humans before the era when science became a substitute for religion.
But there were a few tantalising details in the Bible, that we today can better understand in the light of present day knowledge.
At Job 26:7, it says that God is
“hanging the earth upon nothing.” In the original Hebrew, the word for “nothing” (
beli-mahʹ) used here literally means “not any thing,” and this is the only time it occurs in the Bible. The picture it presents of an earth surrounded by empty space is recognized by scholars as a remarkable, especially for its time.
How could Job have known to phrase things just that way? Why would he say that nothing of substance holds up the earth, when it took the “experts” well over 3,000 years to arrive at the same conclusion?
It also describes the “circle” of the earth.
Isaiah 40:22 reads:
“There is One who is dwelling above the circle of the earth.” When this text says that God sits above the circle of the earth, (from his vantage point) this harmonizes with the fact that the earth is circular, viewed from all directions, but that also makes it globular in form. The Hebrew word
“chuwg” here is defined in
A Concordance of the Hebrew and Chaldee Scriptures by B. Davidson as “circle, sphere.”
Later astronomers knew that the earth was a circle but not flat. So did it’s Maker. As I said, scientific knowledge was waiting thousands of years into the future to discover what God had recorded in his word.
Israel’s hygiene laws are another example of scientific knowledge being implemented without a full understanding of why they were necessary. Quarantining and hand washing, as well as measures to minimise contamination were all there in God’s law. No one knew about bacteria or viruses.
How could any of the Bible writers know the details about which they were inspired to record? Up until the beginning of last century doctors were still going from an autopsy to a sick patient without washing their hands.
Why should they? They lived between two and three thousand years ago, and what they wrote reflects exactly that. Why would you expect them to know what we know in 2020? Why not expect them to know what we knew in 1000 CE? Or 1492? Or 1776? Or will know in Stardate 2649?
That is the point. Now we do know and what was written thousands of years ago reveals what God-inspired scripture only hinted at......that level of knowledge was going to take a long time to reach......so what level do you think we will reach in the future? (as long as clever humans haven’t wiped us out with all their misapplied scientific knowledge)
Their words, not mine. And I think by 'pathetic' you mean 'inconvenient'.
No, I mean just plain pathetic. The worst interpretation of scripture imaginable. Nothing even close to what was written. Interpretation does not just require precise knowledge of the original languages, but also the correct application of the intent behind the words. Your quotes were a miserable “FAIL” on both counts.
If they're real then there'll be photos and scientific studies. Please refer me to both.
LOL. Yes I’m sure that the Creator will provide you with all the evidence you need in the very near future. BTW....you won’t need photos.
I suggest you start to inform yourself how evolution works. Neither we nor the 747 were put together by a twister in a junkyard.
Oh, I’ve informed myself well enough.....which is exactly why I find it so comical that the most brilliant minds in the world can fall for such a childish substitute for factual knowledge. I don’t think many of you evolutionists ever see past the musings of your own peers. Your indoctrination bubble allows no excursions past your precious godlessness. But that is how it was prophesied to be.
Jesus said.....Luke 10:21....
I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have carefully hidden these things from wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children. Yes, O Father, because this is the way you approved.”
So even small children have an advantage over the most brilliant scientific minds of the era......they are not stuck in pre-conceived ideas, but are meek and teachable.
Oh yes it is. [He]'s a superscientist of a different species and [his] aims and purposes, hence [his] intentions from time to time, are not ours.
Or [he]'s a supernatural being, hence anything you care to imagine [him] to be.
He is who HE says he is....I have no reason to doubt that.....but you are free to think whatever you wish. That is a decision made by the gift of free will. The exercise of free will, will either save us or cause our demise, (according to scripture) so we are each determining our own future, just by the choices we make.
I didn't arrive lightly at my point of view. Good luck to us both.
Luck has nothing to do with it....IMO. I am wondering what led you to such confidence in your viewpoint?
