RE: The Simulation Hypothesis, Religion, Deism, and Time... (Part 2) - Could Deism be the Same?

[dwinblood]

When I was much a child "Noah's Ark" was without a doubt my most favorite part of the bible. I even ended up getting it as several toys.

As I became older and learned more and more it is one of the stories I have the most trouble in accepting. Though if we are in a Simulation it is possible. :)

I will admit I have a lot of reservations about the bible. I have seen it help people though so I try not to go out of my way to bring them up. Doing so can take what for someone like yourself can be a doubt free and comforting existence and try to throw spanners into it. If the person is not a deep thinker they likely would ignore me and be okay. If it is someone like you though I think it can do more harm than good.

I see little to no benefit in sharing my misgivings. I found myself writing about such things in a reply to someone (possibly you) the other day then I deleted them. I thought... "Why?" These are my conclusions, my research, etc. Would knowing these things do more harm than good?

If a person is at peace, feels good about their life, and is doing good in their life then yes, I think it can do more harm than good.

If on the other hand you were one of those "On Sunday I am at Church" Christians that then seemed to think that gave them a pass to act however they wanted the rest of the week... I'd come for someone like that both barrels blazing. I am no fan of hypocrisy.

I can tell you. I do live by the teachings of Christ as best I can. They make sense to me. I don't believe many things that I'd be required to believe and call myself a Christian.

I also like some things from Taoism. I like some things from Buddhism. I even like some Native American ideas.

So I take them... I try to be them, follow them, use them.

I call myself a Deist because as it is defined it fits. No two Deists are alike except they believe there is a Creator/God.

I doubt I'll ever embrace and organized religion. I instead hope my actions and who I am are representative enough.

Comments

[trostparadox]

Doing so can take what for someone like yourself can be a doubt free and comforting existence and try to throw spanners into it. If the person is not a deep thinker they likely would ignore me and be okay. If it is someone like you though I think it can do more harm than good.

For me, you asking probing questions would not end up doing more harm than good.

I consider myself first and foremost a 'truth and wisdom seeker' (see my Hive profile). As such, I do not seek nor desire a 'doubt free' existence. With that said, I do not desire to interact with folks whose primary goal is to sow seeds of doubt -- not much fruit to be had from those interactions. However, I am happy to engage with fellow truth-seekers. I used to teach a Sunday school class called 'Difficult Questions' where the aim was to invite folks to bring up those theological issues that they have genuinely struggled with. The presence of evil and pain & suffering in the world represent a couple questions folks commonly struggle with but might not have the courage to grapple with.

This is not to say that all such 'difficult questions' can be answered. Many times, our exploration of a specific question uncovered even more questions. The point of the class was not to provide 'answers' per se but to say that it's okay to have questions and to explore the ramifications of different viewpoints, even if we end up with no definitive answers. We should never fear honest inquiry.

If I am believing a lie or adhering to a belief system that misrepresents or misconstrues the 'truth' then I would rather have that fact exposed, so that I can abandon falsehood and seek truth along a different path. That is why I welcome genuine questions about Christian doctrine and theology, Biblical worldview, veracity of the Scriptures, etc.

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[trostparadox]

When I was much a child "Noah's Ark" was without a doubt my most favorite part of the bible. I even ended up getting it as several toys.

As I became older and learned more and more it is one of the stories I have the most trouble in accepting.

Yeah, Noah's Ark is anything but a children's story. The annihilation of every human being on earth except 8 should never have been rebranded as a light-hearted bedtime story, imho.

A couple interesting thoughts about Noah's Ark for you to ponder:

• Many people label 'the flood of Noah' as just another 'global flood myth' because nearly every major culture on earth has its own version of a legend about a catastrophic flood. Personally, I think the prevalence of 'flood myths' lends credibility FOR the veracity of the Biblical account. If there truly was a global flood that wiped out all of mankind except one family, then one would expect that 'story' to be talked about by the descendants of those survivors for many generations. And, one would expect the 'story' to change a lot from retelling to retelling (so that different groups of descendants would end up with widely varying versions of the story).
• According to the Biblical record of genealogies from Adam to Noah, Noah's dad was 56 years old when Adam died (at the age of 930). That means 9 generations were all alive at the same time. When you think about having 900 years of productive learning, experimenting, etc., combined with 9 consecutive generations of wisdom to simultaneously build upon, it is quite possible that the civilization that existed before the flood may have developed technologies far more advanced than some of ours. When I look at technology today, I see a pattern wherein advances in technology enhance both our ability to do good and our ability to do evil. It may very well be that the reason evil was so prevalent during the time of Noah was because their civilization had advanced technologically to the point where their propensity to do evil was greatly enhanced, and they acted upon that propensity, and God finally said enough and brought judgment.

I don't expect you to agree with either of the above points -- just providing them as food for thought.

[dwinblood]

The toys were more centered around having two animals of each type... so you ended up with a bunch of toy animals. If I remember correctly the toys didn't even have any humans. :)

[trostparadox]

I wasn't implying that there is anything macabre in the way Noah's Ark stuff is presented to children; just that it is a misrepresentation of that event -- a global catastrophe that no doubt broke the heart of God -- seeing His creation become so corrupt that He had to wipe the slate clean, and there was only one family on earth displaying any righteousness at all.

When Abraham confronted God about destroying Sodom and Gomorrah, God was willing to relent if there were as few as 10 righteous people in the city, but there weren't. At the time of Noah, there were only 8 righteous people in the entire world. Sad days. Sad time in history.

[dwinblood]

Yeah. I knew what you meant. I was just recalling what it was packaged as to me. A toy with a bunch of plastic animals.