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Originally Posted by photon
Even by having faith that your choice is correct, you are still saying that your choice is superior to others (that your choice is the right one, and theirs is the wrong one).
As you say, your choice is based on faith that it's the right choice, which is fine I guess, but that's arbitrary, and I think is the basis for why religious beliefs are primarily determined by geography.
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That's your interpretation, however, I have never said that my choice is superior to others.
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Originally Posted by photon
In your analogy there's no universal negative consequence for not choosing, so it can't be a good example.
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Well I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
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Originally Posted by photon
You aren't holding the gun in the analogy, god is, because god is the one that determines if the choice you make is the correct one.
And as I already pointed out you cannot make an informed decision, since an informed decision requires knowledge, not belief. And you even admitted it yourself, because you said it comes down to faith not reason!
Here's a different analogy: You are sick with a disease and you go to the doctor. The doctor has an injection that will cure you, and if you choose no injection you will die. He presents 10 different injections and you have to choose which one to use, only one will work. Oh and he gave you the disease in the first place by putting it in the drinking water.
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Okay I see where you are coming up with this one, but I have to disagree with the fact that the doctor is the one that gave the disease in the first place. This is where I go back to my beliefs of how the world started. I think I would change the analogy a bit to say that the doctor has a virus locked in a cabinet (say it's a liquid) and tells the patient, "don't open the cabinet and take that liquid." The patient ignores the doctor and takes the liquid anyway thus infecting them.
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Originally Posted by photon
Why do you believe what the Bible says vs. other possible sources?
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I believe what is in the bible because it makes sense to me, and I've heard no argument to the contrary that has convinced me that what the Bible is incorrect.
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Originally Posted by photon
I don't have a trap in mind about it, but when you were reluctant to answer I wanted to know why, so I pressed for an answer. Some people don't like to talk about the "you're going to hell" part of their faith even though they believe it because they are embarrassed about it, which exposes a flaw in their faith IMO.
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Okay I'll take you at your word. I have no problem talking about hell but I don't believe that should be the only reason a person chooses to follow God.
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Originally Posted by photon
For my point there is no difference between the two. You put your faith and trust in, and things happened to convince you.
Others put their faith and trust in, and nothing happens to convince them. Why are they held accountable for that?
Right, but the claim is that as a result of faith things will happen, but they don't seem to happen for everyone even if they have faith.
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This doesn't compute to me. How can a person put faith in and trust in God when they don't believe in God or are following God. Not only that but if you are putting faith in God just so something can happen to you than it seems to me like the reason for putting faith in God has the incorrect motivation and is almost like just putting faith in God to test God.
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Originally Posted by photon
Do you see the weakness in this statement though? It might work for you, but for someone asking deeper questions it is completely empty and unconvincing.
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Honestly it isn't up to me to convince anyone or coerce anyone into believing in God. I share my faith and leave it in God's hands to work in that persons heart.
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Originally Posted by photon
Actually I don't mean different translations, I mean different source texts. The original copies of the books of the Bible no longer exist, and the Greek source documents that do exist are a century or more older than when they were thought to be written, and the texts are filled with changes and differences.. out of 5700 Greek fragments of the NT, no two are the same. There are more differences among them than there are words in the NT.
And that's not counting books that were important to some groups that didn't make it into the NT which have different doctrines.
Even within the NT itself, there are different contrary messages from different authors.
You have faith that the Bible is correct, but really what you mean is you have faith that your interpretation of the Bible is correct.
And you believe the Bible because you have faith the Bible is correct. But why do you have faith that the Bible is correct?
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Okay, very well I have faith that my version of the bible is correct. I don't have the information at my finger tips before but I've read information before that has convinced me of this years ago.