If humans, a large majority of whose history we know and/or witnessed, were to perpetuate panspermia in the future has no bearing on whether or not something similar happened here, or whether or not cephalapods we're descended from an alien ancestor.
Actually, the fact that we could do that in...
"Following Jesus means following a real person"
Why do you think that? Jesus is still a definite character portrayed in a particular way. Whether the character is real or fictional, I'm following the same thing. If I called perfect selfishness "Jesus" that would be completely baseless. If I...
Because it's my culture for one thing, and because I think it's pragmatically useful. Perhaps it's not necessary, but putting the abstract ideas into the form of a mythological image makes it something I can actually get a grip on. A lot of morality has been figured out through trial and error...
It depends on what your definition of god is. But no I think you read me right. I think the supernatural beliefs are the bathwater. The metaphor is the baby.
I'm certainly not opposed to the possibility or even plausibility of panspermia being an accurate explanation for all or some of the life on earth. But here's the thing. It needs more than just evidence. Like any scientific theory, it needs evidence that is strongly in support of that theory...
I don't literally believe in original sin or that Adam and Eve were real people. A lot of Christians seem to be on board with this being symbolic. Where I differ is that I believe the whole lot of it is symbolic, or at least most of it. The whole salvation because of the sacrifice of the...
Kind of not a Christian, kind of celebrate Christmas. My view on religion is that there is not a good enough reason for me to believe in a conscious deity. I believe in god, but what I call god is nothing like what most people call god. Certainly not a theistic belief, maybe qualifies as...
That's the approach I have to take when it's what I'm approached with. If a Christian mystic comes along and wants to talk about the esoteric inner spirituality underlying Christianity, we will be in the same page, but mystics are very rare in mainstream religions, and in Christianity and...
The typical Christian conception of god is one with human thoughts, human emotions, a human sense of justice, human morals, who loves as a human loves, etc. They will say that God is infinitely greater than we can imagine, yet act and talk about God as if they do understand him and his will, and...
If others are making a claim, I want evidence for that particular claim, nothing more nothing less. You don't seem to be understandding that I'm not "looking for" a god. Also, I said earlier but maybe I wasn't clear, I don't believe I was communicating with a god in DMT, I said that out of...
I think there is a more or less practical distinction that makes something a religion. It isn't the questioning of those 4 big philosophical questions that religion (as distinct from a non-religious approach) addresses, but the question of what to do about it, given the answer you came up with...
You assume I have a desire for evidence about particular gods or aspects about gods, when I don't. Not of my own accord for my own beliefs. I don't start with an end belief I want to find evidence for, I take evidence as I find it and draw a conclusion from it. For a person who is arguing for a...
I don't want to be convinced of any type of god. either there is a god or there isn't, I don't know. The god I believe in isn't a conscious entity with a will and isn't tri-omni. My Christianity is based on the ethics, not the supernatural beliefs that most Christians hold.
You've clearly...
If there is a god, I do think all those ways would qualify as communications, but that doesn't remove the problem of distinguishing a communication from a mistaken perception of communication. I don't know if there could be a way to know a real communication from a mistaken perception. It's too...
Pantheist is probably the closest but polytheist or monotheist would maybe also work. The problem is I'm not all that sure what I think god is, or even if there is anything I would consider a god. I have a difficult time fitting into any of these categories because it all is highly dependent on...
There is no evidence for Jesus being intersex. Being more feminine than an average man doesn't require an intersex condition, but aside from that, we don't really have much idea of what was stereotypically masculine and feminine in his time, aside from what we can gather. It very well not have...