#11
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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The point I was making is that an Ants mind is so far removed from a human’s mind that I suspect they are unable to have a comparable feelings of worship to that which a human feels towards his or her God. [/ QUOTE ] Parable. |
#12
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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P.S. It's a bit hypocritical to say that ants are not sentient enough to understand the motivations and desires of humans (I agree), but then say that humans indeed are sentient enough to understand the motivations and desires of an omniscient being that resides outside the physical universe. Don't you see that? [/ QUOTE ] You didn't really read my post and the TWO WORDS. It is God's DIVINE REVELATION to us that allows us to know so much about Him, not just our attempts as limited beings to try on our own to understand an unlimited being. And although more intelligent animals like dogs and cats can understand our motivations and intentions toward them to some degree, insects can't. Keep throwing rocks at a dog and he'll stop coming up on your porch most likely. Keep trying to step on ants and they won't get the message unless it's a chemical one derived from knowing others of their species have met an unfavorable end at a certain spot. |
#13
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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It is God's DIVINE REVELATION to us that allows us to know so much about Him, not just our attempts as limited beings to try on our own to understand an unlimited being. [/ QUOTE ] The concept of divine revelation IS an attempt of limited beings to understand an unlimited being. Still don't see that? |
#14
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
And can't you see that it is an attempt based on information supplied by the divine being and not just on their own reasoning? Or that ants are not capable reasoning or even of stimulus/response to as great a degree as more intelligent animals?
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#15
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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And can't you see that it is an attempt based on information supplied by the divine being and not just on their own reasoning? [/ QUOTE ] See, this is how any religious discussion breaks down and why the debate is probably futile. When a religious person makes a claim that cannot be supported (such as humans didn't reason out God, he just used "divine revelation" to make himself known, and rather selectively at that), the religious just throw out some buzzword that magically solves all problems with their argument. I believe that the world was created by a unicorn. If we get into a discussion of the details, I'll just say that the unicorn "divinely revealed" itself to me. |
#16
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
In fact I don't normally take the truth of the bible as one of my premises for that reason as do so many protestants. However, even if you presuppose no divine revelation, a sentient being will still be able to make rational inferences about a creator or a being superior to it which non-sentient creatures such as ants can't do.
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#17
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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In fact I don't normally take the truth of the bible as one of my premises for that reason as do so many protestants. However, even if you presuppose no divine revelation, a sentient being will still be able to make rational inferences about a creator or a being superior to it which non-sentient creatures such as ants can't do. [/ QUOTE ] The ants reference is a parable, get over it. The point is that how can a being on this planet be expected to understand the motives and desires of an omniscient (and thus not anywhere near our limited level of thinking) that exists outside our physical universe. You just claim that we can without any rational basis for this. Dogs are somewhat sentient beings, but they can't understand humans and what our purposes are, and we live in the same environment as them, let alone beyond their universe. |
#18
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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Dogs are sentient beings, but can they understand humans and what our purposes are? [/ QUOTE ] Look up the meaning of "sentient". It is not sufficient merely to possess a certain degree of intelligence to be labeled sentient. Also, although I said I don't usually take as a premise the truth of the bible in debate with non-believers, it is still rational to believer that if God exists, then he wants his creatures to know and understand him, and precisely because of their limitations in being able to do that on their own, would choose to reveal knowledge about himself. |
#19
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Re: Ants and Christians: redux
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it is still rational to believer that if God exists, then he wants his creatures to know and understand him, [/ QUOTE ] Merely an unfounded assumption. When you set up an aquarium to observe fish because they are interesting to you, is it because you want the fish to know and undersatnd you? |
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