Imagine if I wrote a car's owner's manual or safety procedures for a nuclear reactor using parables, metaphors, and allegories. Most people would rightly point out this is both stupid and incredibly irresponsible. But when people's deities do the same in their various holy books, they strangely see no issues.
imo using parables isn't the issue. Metaphor and story telling can be a great way of conveying a message. Imo it's the contradicting messages and (sometimes) downright obsolete and barbaric version of those messages/morality in the ancient religious texts.
Not even an accurate analogy, unless someone else wrote the manual on your behalf, supposedly. Because apparently a god never wrote anything down themselves. So, anything a god said or did, is always going to be according to someone else, a fallible human being. Gods are literally characters in a narrative, and they are found nowhere outside the narrative. Whats funny to me is that god can supposedly communicate to individuals in order to give them inspiration and revelation, but cannot communicate to more than one at a time. It’s also funny that god can manipulate and interact with some matter, like weather, football games, people undergoing surgery, but he can’t pick up a pen and write something down himself? Where did god learn how to speak human languages? Isn’t that alone sort of weird? Languages, mind you, that developed in a specific time, and specific place in history. Languages with words that contain consonants, which require a tongue to pronounce! Now what would a god need with a tongue? Those are for eating… eating comes with a metabolism and a stomach. Would god have those too? What the hell would a god eat? It just goes on and on without explanation.
I am not really concerned about what any particular person BELIEVES. You may believe that there is an old man with a white beard perched in the clouds, that the Ultimate Reality is a young blackish-blue Indian guy, that the universe is eternal, that Mother Mary was a certifiable virgin, or that gross physical matter is the foundation of existence. The ONLY thing that really matters is your meta-ethics, not your meta-physics. Do you consider any form of non-monarchical government (such as democracy or socialism) to be beneficial? Do you unnecessarily destroy the lives of poor, innocent animals and gorge on their bloody carcasses? Do you believe homosexuality and transvestism are moral? Do you consider feminist ideology to be righteous? If so, then you are objectively immoral, and your so-called "enlightened/awakened" state is immaterial, since it does not benefit society in any way.
@@Bronco541 Parables and metaphores are a great way to hide contradictions. Just add in something like 'if you disagree, you just don't get it', 'you're bad person', or even 'god acts in mysterious ways'. In the end they won't even bat an eye when they are called sheep in their holy book. Then again, perhaps, that _is_ the case, even though there is no shephard.
@@ReverendDr.Thomas What a load of horseshit. There's nothing "objective" in the immorality you're describing. It's just some ass lint that got stuck in your head.
An omnipotent god could explain electric lights to a first-century Palestinian shepherd. An omnipotent god could provide each person on Earth with an indestructible and unalterable copy of his holy book, in that person's own language, And such a god could teach the illiterate to read so they could read his book.
The pyramids contain original writings. You wouldn't even have to be omnipotent or omniscient. Moses should already have known how to preserve the revealed laws of God. The Bible is just a post hoc rationalization for the existing beliefs.
@@JackgarPrime There is no difference between an omnipotent being's will and reality. Anyone claiming God is unhappy with the state of the world is wrong.
@@goldenalt3166 Which then just brings us back to the Problem of Evil, because there's so much suffering in the world that this proposed omnipotent being is fine with.
@@JackgarPrime That would be a problem except that the apologetics problem renders it an unnecessary assumption. Everything God wills us to know is already known. Apologists therfore cannot speak for God but only as themselves.
I like it. Until god hands us a universal understanding that is clear to all, honest god beliefs would have to be individually based & remain undefined to be honest people.
@@josephbelisle5792 I do not believe any actually exist. I leave it open because I don’t know everything & often test different ideas & old ideas to make sure I am not missing anything. I have never felt more honest about the god idea since. I have no reason to believe in one, nothing points only to gods existing.
Religion is and always has been about social and political control. From the first shaman who bamboozled an ignorant hunter-gatherer into providing food in exchange for having his dreams interpreted to Billy Graham telling Americans that Ronald Reagan was God's preferred candidate. Anyone who claims to speak for god can never be trusted.
@@pRODIGAL_sKEPTIC It's all good.👍 It's a good point and some people don't watch all the way and they may see this point here instead of in the video. 💁♂️
Why would we need a life, if God communicated in a direct way, everybody would become obedient Zombies. It would destroy humanity, because everyone knowing that there was a heaven would be so paranoid about the possibility of eternal hell and become dysfunctional.
@@SaintKimbo I'm not sure I understand your point. If for one God did communicate perfectly, there wouldn't be chaos over heaven and hell as the communication would contain clear, unambiguous instructions and it would be perfectly understood therefore. Otherwise the premise 'God communicated perfectly" would be false and he did not communicate perfectly but infact failed to do so. Most everyone would understand and follow through in this hypothetical assuming the message was indeed perfect and in this case only people designed with pathologies towards Lying or being contradictory would ever reject or argue against because they wouldn't have the free choice to do otherwise. In the real word no communication et all has happened and all people have to guess off of is badly written fanfiction. 🤷♂️
God is infinite in the past and in the future but decided to communicate to his creation at a time when almost nobody could write or read using a language that needs interpretation and different translations, but he's perfect.
And to top it off only a select few of their creations in a very specific part of the massive universe that they created and in a very specific region on one small rock. Yup sounds reliable!
You're lucky, he on and on at me for nearly four hours and I both drowned and was struck by lightening. What's the worse bummer is that it turns out that Buddism is true and I've come back as a spider, albeit one that can write.
I live a few kilometers away from Thor. He is on his Chariot, which is pulled by his Goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr. He is also beating up some Jötnar (Jætter/Giants). Don't believe me? Look up: THOR’S BATTLE WITH THE GIANTS in Odense. (Odins Vi).
I'd say author did a wonderful job, if their goal was to confuse readers, so they need to attend their weekly, paid for lessons about the correct interpretation. It's a very clever marketing scheme.
Yes, God can communicate clearly. In fact, he was very clear with me. Just yesterday told me you need extra mayo on that sandwich And throw a couple more tomatoes on there. It was as clear as if my wife was speaking to me in the same room.
I'd love to see Matt and Dave Letterman in conversation. Matt would get all hard-nosed with sound logic and superb delivery, while Dave would say "phenomenally well-structured discourse ... I mean, but it's nuts, just nuts." And I mean this in the good sense, I really do.
I once knew a guy who published a book that God Himself had dictated to him, and then God Himself helped him edit it as well. (As a special public service I will not provide any more details.)
After just retiring from running a technical publications group for an aerospace company, I can say that even degreed engineers have difficulty with communication.
Ever walk into a Bible bookstore? There are thousands upon thousands of explanations of the Bible. At the top are the so-called systematic theologies, which are essentially the Bible re-written in the author’s own words. What you have to ask yourself is, why can’t God write a book that people can understand? Why do God’s own words spoken for the very purpose of explaining himself to people need to be explained by… people? The whole purpose of the so-called word-of-God was for God to explain himself to us common humans. But thousands of books written by humans have been proffered to explain what the Infinite Being apparently cannot explain on his own.
Exactly. The existence of apologetics as a field is evidence against an omniscient God who wants to communicate with us. If an omniscient God wants to communicate something, it would be done. There would be ZERO room for interpretation. Their message would be communicated perfectly. And yet, here we are.
Most Christians already accept that God doesn't communicate clearly (and tend to accept that he can), and there are various apologetics that try to make excuses for why he doesn't (none of which really hold up under any amount of scrutiny). That's what apologetics are mostly about: trying to explain how actually God being all-loving, all-powerful and all-knowing makes sense, even though every sign points to such a being not existing, and those traits not being consistent with big parts of Christian theology. This video could probably have benefited from addressing some of excuses people come up with to explain this away.
Why would the Apologists excuses for the communication shortcomings be of any use? You either disbelieve or you don't, why the need for extra affirmation of your disbelief? Got doubts?
@@SaintKimbo Lol, you're funny. So I'm pointing out how people trying to rationalise away apparent contradictions in their beliefs. Are you saying that literally the only reason you can conceive of for why someone would do that is to satisfy a "need for extra affirmation" for their own rejection of that set of beliefs? Come on now, you don't actually think that's the only reason. I'm sure you can come up with a few more, using the brain you presumably think God gave you. If you do come up with more, the question would be why you chose to go with one of the least generous reasons. Strawmanning people's motives doesn't achieve much more than "scoring some points" for your side and letting you rest easy knowing that you're "right". People certainly aren't going to change their mind if your argument consists of asserting that they have motives that just aren't factually there.
@@blueredingreen You've got it all wrong. I am an Organic Atheist, I've never been to a Church service and was brought up in a religious free family environment. Religion is totally, and instinctively, irrational to me. You suggest adding more info, Apologist excuses, why are so many Atheists constantly in need of this type of affirmation? The reason I stated my bio, is that I am thinking that maybe people who were previously Christians and became Atheists are struggling to let go of the residual religious belief, or something, which is something that is foreign to me. I have been watching Matt, on and off, for over a decade, and now after not watching for 5 or so years, it's still the same old thing, most of the comments boil down to reaffirmations, as if people can't quite 'let go'. It's baffling to me.
@@SaintKimbo I asked you whether you could think of even one single other possible reason why people would talk about a thing that most of the population believes (in some form), and which influences who people vote for and which laws they support, and which has a direct impact on many lives. Can you conceive of any reason whatsoever, other than personal affirmation? Rather than answer that question, you just completely ignored it and doubled down on the reason you already gave... I suspect you already know about other reasons. It's really not that hard to figure out. If you want to make a case for one reason above every other reason, that's a distinct discussion, but at the moment you've already presupposed your one reason to be true, without bothering to provide any sort of justification for why that is. Are you going to answer the question, and explain why your reason is more reasonable than every other reason, or are you going to keep trying to worm your way out of responding to what I said?
@@blueredingreen Well, I guess there maybe other reasons. People might think they are part of some sort of crusade to convert Believers, or something like that. Maybe people are reaching out to people that are looking for support when they are confused, or having doubts, about their religious beliefs. But, having read the comments over the years, I'm pretty confident that most are just looking for affirmation or are just fascinated by the subject and want to add their 2 cents.
These were unknown people and the details were extremely specific. I even had my own experience with a medium that I know. My brother had died the week prior she was telling me things that he wanted me to know. I tested her. I asked her what color my grandmother’s car was. It was a running joke in my family. She hesitated for a moment, and the. Told me the actual color which is not a common color at all. I was quite impressed.
Yes, pray for me. Beg your imaginary friend to finally show up and prove he exists... so his followers can stop threatening me with he'll because of their ignorance and fear
@@SansDeity Your fiery response kind of gives away the game, doesn't it? If someone told you Santa wasn't delivering presents because you've been naughty, you wouldn't bat an eyelid because, well, everyone knows Santa's a tall tale. But the fact that the mere mention of hell gets you all fired up suggests there's a tiny corner of your mind playing devil's advocate, so to speak. After all, if it's all just fairy tales, why get hot under the collar? Maybe deep down, you're keeping the fire extinguisher handy, just in case. 😉
@@labamba3011 If you are certain of your religious beliefs, why are you on this channel posting a provocative comment? Perhaps it is YOU who has doubts, doubts about your god and hell. After all, why care what atheists think if you truly believe they'll get what's coming to them in the end? Maybe, deep down, you know that what Matt says is based on logic and reason, and that your own beliefs are based on non-evidentiary claims.
I mean, if God is maintaining the Bible through divine inspiration, then he absolutely *could* have instructed early followers to give rules that accounted for things they wouldn’t have understood. He could have just said, “look, this passage is for future generations. It’s vitally important that you preserve it as I present it to you. I know you don’t understand it: that’s okay. Just copy it and carry it forward.”
That is exactly what is said in Daniel. Daniel did not understand the meaning of what God showed him because the prophecies were/are for the end time, not Daniels time.
I so wish I could hear you have this sort of conversation with callers... instead of always getting pissed off like an angry drunk, dropping f-bombs everywhere and hanging up in an emotional rage quit. I miss the old Matt from AXP.
I'm a scientist. If I became aware of someone incorrectly referencing my publications in their own research, I would correct that person so that the misunderstanding doesn't spread. If the misunderstanding was due to unclear wording or other similar issues on my part, then I would apologize for my poor writing after correcting the misunderstanding. I am a flawed mortal but can still do this. What about a perfect being? Also notice how in scientific writing, you don't really see metaphors/parables/etc., and sentences are constructed very carefully, with tons of care going into choosing what terms to use. New terms have to be defined. Figures have to be properly labeled. This is because if you confuse the reviewers, your paper isn't getting through.
Just got another You tube prompt for this, even though I replied here 3 days ago! Did you change the Title or edit the vid or remove something? Clearly such a thing could change my perspective, I don't want to watch the vid again to find out a space was removed in the Title, as that would be misleading to the viewers.
@@SansDeity Ok, thanks for the response. Just RUclips saying (a few hours ago now) that your 'new' vid came out 30mins ago! Its just odd. Since I knew Creators can change Titles things like that, then clearly that was my best guess. But now I see that was wrong. Thanks.
Matt, now you freaked me out! I have an uncle named Robert, (Bob) and he told me how to avoid getting colds! Oh thee exaulted Prophet!!! Letteth me kneel before thou, and sucketh upon thee!!!😅🤪🤣
i read a lot of novels and i especially like the litRPG genre where there is a system that give people a status page and the ability to level up, receive rewards and such. Often with blue panel popping in the air with information that we can read no matter our ability to read or language. Why can't God do something like this? If he wants us to improve and there is a big reward like heaven, why can't he establish a system that would help us understand when we do something wrong and when we do something right? Why can't he uses an interface between him and each of us? Or more accurately why would that interface need to be humans, priests and popes, rather than a communication tool to directly and clearly communicate with us. Don't tell me that God wouldn't use panels to communicate, what are the ten commandments? The question is rather, if he can do the ten commandment method to communicate, why can't he do this in an even better way? That's the funny thing with those monotheism. They define their god as all powerful and capable of magic that ignore the laws of physic then entirely fail to look into the 'what is my god not doing that he could and would be smarter to do than what we know him to do?' and only focus on making sense of the scarce few things their god is known to them to be doing. Believer sometimes answer this by saying we can't understand god, he is on a completely different level of intelligence and information gathering than us. But the question is not 'Am i smarter than god?' but 'Why is god using flawed methods when even us, who are not so smart, can imagine better methods?' "God is talking to your heart" they say instead of saying "God is talking to our hearts because he has yet to realize that talking to our ears would work better." This is where faith-based beliefs are showing their inadequacy as a method to establish truth. Faith is to take something for granted then try to make sense of it with the experience we have of the reality we live in. A belief based on a willingness to understand reality properly do not have a convenient shortcut like faith. Instead if we want to properly understand reality we need to hone that understanding painstakingly without regard if we like the leading conclusion or not. And, with knowledge being flawed to begin with since it is always grounded on arbitrary beliefs, we can never stop inquiring and questioning, we can never be 100% sure. Faith is a tool to stop ourselves from the need and duty to keep inquiring. It's a tool to justify to start our thinking with the premise that God exists, period. And armed with that faith, it becomes the burden of the unfaithful to justify why they are not listening when God talk to them. Even if the existence of the god in question as not been established properly and that god fails to communicate flawlessly or simply communicate in a way that everyone could acknowledge at once. Sure we could still imagine that this communication tool, with blue panels and quests and levels, is in fact an advanced alien civilization messing with us, their joke on a crazy scale without achieving anything worth the effort... But as long as god can make the hypothesis of his existence the leading hypothesis by far that would be way better than having faith-based believers tell that their god speak to our hearts or through an unreliable book.
What do you make of this: an elderly woman I know well who is absolutely honest and does not make up tales told me this: Her sister in a nursing home died the day before. She had been crippled with arthritis for 4-5 years, needed assistance to get in and out of her wheelchair and on and off toilet, into bed, etc. One night She awoke to find her room flooded with light and a man who was the source of that light said to her, "Get up and walk!" She got out of her bed, no pain, and for the next 3 months before her last two days in a coma and then she died, she required no assistance, was pain-free, walked, and enjoyed being arthritis and free. Did she hear ftom God?
If God did that, he's a prick! It's a bit like that poisonous mushroom where you get seriously ill and suffer, then, just before you die, you start to feel better. What sort of evil bastard would make you suffer, heal you slightly, then kill you off anyway?
There is a lady that can tell you that your dead pet is trying to talk to you. Lots of people believe her too. Why? Because people want to hear from their dead pet.
Oh shit... the next messiah will be an AI. And it will talk clearly, having absorbed all the worlds' religions' writings. And it will spout evil bullshit. And some will fall for it.
I've never understood, even as a Christian, why it was, seemingly, easier and clearer to understand God's intentions and direction in the OT and, as a "new creation in Christ with a personal relationship with Jesus, God in the flesh" and a NT Christian, why it wasn't clear at all. Always dangling that carrot of "knowing God".
I understand what you are saying about psychic mediums, however, i have watched many of the top ones and I have seen them get very specific with names of those that have past, what they died of, what big events are happening in the live person’s life like moving, or a trip they are about to take, or another significant life event. I have seen them describe very personal things that would be impossible to know from either a large audience showing or a one on one internet reading. Who knows? It may be possible that our deceased love ones can actually communicate with us. There is so much that we currently cannot know or photon about the energies of the universe. I remain open.
How do you know it's impossible? They couldn't guess? They couldn't pick up on cues from cold reading or be informed of the details prior and perform a hot reading? These are all known techniques. Be more skeptical
You're watching a fraud who researched his audience and who had the audience FILL OUT CARDS describing who they wanted to hear from and questions or issues they have.
@@susankievman642 yes, until any of them can actually show evidence that they can do what they say they can do in an appropriate, scientific setting with certain double blind procedures and controls then there is absolutely no reason to think that any of them are more than shitty humans who are preying on those who have lost loved ones and taking their money while defrauding them.
The easiest resolutions to this would be to drop omnipotence or omnibenevolence. Not omnipotent: God can communicate clearly, but not all the time. Maybe it tires him out. Not omnibenevolent: God can communicate clearly and consistently but isn't invested in making sure everyone knows what he has to say. I expect a common Christian objection would be "this is somehow the best way for God to do things." Considering salvation is almost definitively the highest good for humans under Christianity's Heaven/Hell system, not taking actions that would result in more salvations should be wildly inconsistent with omnibenevolence, and clear + consistent revelations should result in more (and more peaceful) salvations than what we've had. Forms of "but God wants us to experience X" should be subject to the previous paragraph's logic because salvation of more people should always outweigh giving Christians a certain experience in life in terms of benevolence. And finally, the idea that clear and consistent communication by God would undermine free will is ridiculous. It undermines the concept of accepting on faith, but the choice on whether to accept God's offer or follow him, etc., can still be made in either direction even with God directly communicating. Unless you mean the unambiguous and confirmed threat of hell undermines free will through coercion, in which case it should also be true in our reality that the threat of hell undermines free will anyway, making no substantial difference. Anyway, I do think arguments about God's lack of communication are great evidence against God's existence. Also sorry, I'm not familiar with Islam and can't meaningfully comment on its stances.
I was raised Catholic and one of my early problems with religion was why would an entity powerful enough to create the universe have so much difficulty making his wishes known resulting is thousands of incompatible belief systems, the faithful of each feeling they had latched onto truth and everyone else got it wrong.? Keep in mind god is able to create humans anyway he wanted being an omnipotent being so why didn't he?
@SansDeity This thing is deeper than a what we can think beyond the words which we are given. The intake and practice of unforgiveness is the death to the minds of humanity. Please forgive me Matt for my approach to this community should have been better in the past.
@eaglewings1983 1) No one can confirm his existence, but I'll accept there's some person behind the stories 2) character in the Bible makes claims but there's no way to confirm any of them came from Jesus, but the story suggests he was divine 3) I have no good evidence that he or anyone or anything is divine If that's it, you failed. Epically
@@SansDeity thanks for replying. 1) no person in human flesh can confirm it. I agree. That doesn’t mean that no one can confirm it, one; -and two, it doesn’t mean the records of his existence as described in the gospels aren’t true. I can’t confirm it because I was not there, but it is exactly the same with basically any historical writing since time travel is impossible 2) I believe the accounts of him as found in the 4 gospels are true and trustworthy. You can choose to believe them or not, but I think we somehow agree on the fact that he claimed to be divine. In fact, he claimed to be the Son of God and God himself 3) ok. This question is irrelevant if you don’t believe in point 1 and if we don’t agree on what he claimed to be, point 2. I know who he claimed to be based on what the gospels say he claimed to be! lol! If we can’t agree on his existence based on the historical accounts found in the gospels, then the discussion shifts radically to another topic, and I think that’s a whole different talk
To be fair, it was discovered in 2004 that there were actually 20 commandments. There were 10 more written on the back. Moses didn’t notice. Don’t blame God for that. Source: Weekly World News
God totally sucks at communication. He's never spoken to me. He's never telephoned me. He's never sent me a letter. He's never asked to "friend me" on facebook. Haven't found his email address anywhere. If God chooses to ignore me, then I'll ignore him.
Language is any form is flawed, subjective and limited. The claim that a god communicates this way shows how human made these claims are and how flawed it is.
Matt looking alot like Moses Lately...I am a Democrat Liberal and I take offense to that...so can you please change your looks please to make me feel better...Thankyou...Thats all I ask
I do care, but I can't know. And just so you know, I am very well educated (graduate degrees in physics and) mathematics) and have a moderately hig IQ (145).
People 2500 years ago were just as smart as people are today. I’m pretty sure we could put together an 800,000 word book that does a whole lot better job of explaining how the world works, and the history of the universe than the bible. Include some basic math, biology, medicine, etc.; explain how the scientific method works, so they can test out stuff on their own, and figure out the things we couldn’t fit for themselves; add a couple of chapters on morality and ethics; maybe put in a couple of maps of world, and stuff like that.
Everything wrong with Abrahamic religions is encapsulated in Genesis 17, and provides the strongest indication of why there is enmity between them to this day.
The other day I said to my husband, who is still a fundamentalist Christian, that all 3 religions, Judaism, Christianity and the Muslims all serve the God of Abraham, which in effect mean a Christian and a Muslim serve the same God. He was very pissed off about that statement, not happy at all. And he obviously disagree 100% with such a statement, and see it as pure blasphemy.
Imagine if I wrote a car's owner's manual or safety procedures for a nuclear reactor using parables, metaphors, and allegories. Most people would rightly point out this is both stupid and incredibly irresponsible. But when people's deities do the same in their various holy books, they strangely see no issues.
imo using parables isn't the issue. Metaphor and story telling can be a great way of conveying a message. Imo it's the contradicting messages and (sometimes) downright obsolete and barbaric version of those messages/morality in the ancient religious texts.
Not even an accurate analogy, unless someone else wrote the manual on your behalf, supposedly. Because apparently a god never wrote anything down themselves. So, anything a god said or did, is always going to be according to someone else, a fallible human being. Gods are literally characters in a narrative, and they are found nowhere outside the narrative. Whats funny to me is that god can supposedly communicate to individuals in order to give them inspiration and revelation, but cannot communicate to more than one at a time. It’s also funny that god can manipulate and interact with some matter, like weather, football games, people undergoing surgery, but he can’t pick up a pen and write something down himself? Where did god learn how to speak human languages? Isn’t that alone sort of weird? Languages, mind you, that developed in a specific time, and specific place in history. Languages with words that contain consonants, which require a tongue to pronounce! Now what would a god need with a tongue? Those are for eating… eating comes with a metabolism and a stomach. Would god have those too? What the hell would a god eat? It just goes on and on without explanation.
I am not really concerned about what any particular person BELIEVES. You may believe that there is an old man with a white beard perched in the clouds, that the Ultimate Reality is a young blackish-blue Indian guy, that the universe is eternal, that Mother Mary was a certifiable virgin, or that gross physical matter is the foundation of existence.
The ONLY thing that really matters is your meta-ethics, not your meta-physics.
Do you consider any form of non-monarchical government (such as democracy or socialism) to be beneficial?
Do you unnecessarily destroy the lives of poor, innocent animals and gorge on their bloody carcasses?
Do you believe homosexuality and transvestism are moral?
Do you consider feminist ideology to be righteous?
If so, then you are objectively immoral, and your so-called "enlightened/awakened" state is immaterial, since it does not benefit society in any way.
@@Bronco541
Parables and metaphores are a great way to hide contradictions. Just add in something like 'if you disagree, you just don't get it', 'you're bad person', or even 'god acts in mysterious ways'. In the end they won't even bat an eye when they are called sheep in their holy book. Then again, perhaps, that _is_ the case, even though there is no shephard.
@@ReverendDr.Thomas What a load of horseshit. There's nothing "objective" in the immorality you're describing. It's just some ass lint that got stuck in your head.
An omnipotent god could explain electric lights to a first-century Palestinian shepherd. An omnipotent god could provide each person on Earth with an indestructible and unalterable copy of his holy book, in that person's own language, And such a god could teach the illiterate to read so they could read his book.
The pyramids contain original writings. You wouldn't even have to be omnipotent or omniscient. Moses should already have known how to preserve the revealed laws of God. The Bible is just a post hoc rationalization for the existing beliefs.
An omnipotent god could just make everyone believe and be perfect.
@@JackgarPrime There is no difference between an omnipotent being's will and reality. Anyone claiming God is unhappy with the state of the world is wrong.
@@goldenalt3166 Which then just brings us back to the Problem of Evil, because there's so much suffering in the world that this proposed omnipotent being is fine with.
@@JackgarPrime That would be a problem except that the apologetics problem renders it an unnecessary assumption.
Everything God wills us to know is already known. Apologists therfore cannot speak for God but only as themselves.
In god's defense, it's really, really difficult to communicate clearly over several millennia when you're imaginary.
@@RafalLabuda777 🤣
@@RafalLabuda777It is even greater for a being that can do that without existing.
@@RafalLabuda777 Hhuuuh
Well my imaginary friend always knows how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking. That's omnipotence and omniscience isn't it? 😂
@@josephbelisle5792 That's called being you. :)
I like it. Until god hands us a universal understanding that is clear to all, honest god beliefs would have to be individually based & remain undefined to be honest people.
This was my last prayer when I became an atheist. I left the door open for this thing to make clear it's existence. Still waiting.
@@josephbelisle5792 I do not believe any actually exist. I leave it open because I don’t know everything & often test different ideas & old ideas to make sure I am not missing anything. I have never felt more honest about the god idea since. I have no reason to believe in one, nothing points only to gods existing.
Matt, I say this with the utmost respect for both of you, I was not wearing my glasses and I clicked this thinking it was a video about James Randi.
😂😂😂
Thanks, Matt that was very clear and concise. Appreciate all you do.
If God could communicate this message, not only would there not be denominations.. but WHY WOULD WE NEED A PRIEST OR PASTOR??
*update.. I made this comment at 11:00 & Matt literally says all this at 11:30
I feel sheepish 🐑
Religion is and always has been about social and political control. From the first shaman who bamboozled an ignorant hunter-gatherer into providing food in exchange for having his dreams interpreted to Billy Graham telling Americans that Ronald Reagan was God's preferred candidate.
Anyone who claims to speak for god can never be trusted.
@@pRODIGAL_sKEPTIC
It's all good.👍 It's a good point and some people don't watch all the way and they may see this point here instead of in the video. 💁♂️
Why would we need a life, if God communicated in a direct way, everybody would become obedient Zombies.
It would destroy humanity, because everyone knowing that there was a heaven would be so paranoid about the possibility of eternal hell and become dysfunctional.
@@SaintKimbo
I'm not sure I understand your point.
If for one God did communicate perfectly, there wouldn't be chaos over heaven and hell as the communication would contain clear, unambiguous instructions and it would be perfectly understood therefore. Otherwise the premise 'God communicated perfectly" would be false and he did not communicate perfectly but infact failed to do so.
Most everyone would understand and follow through in this hypothetical assuming the message was indeed perfect and in this case only people designed with pathologies towards Lying or being contradictory would ever reject or argue against because they wouldn't have the free choice to do otherwise.
In the real word no communication et all has happened and all people have to guess off of is badly written fanfiction. 🤷♂️
It looks like Matt is morphing into the great Daniel Dennett with that epic beard 👍🏻👍🏻
I was about to comment that its ironic he's morphing into the stereotypical image of god. XD
some time ago someone said James Randi ....
The older Charles Darwin, for my money.
@@fartingduck5316 I miss James.
New job! Santa.
My grandpa's and my name is Robert! We've had colds and have lived in cold places! Incredible!
So, uh, do I get a cut?
Legend has it that matt grew a beard by waiting for evidence of god.
😂
😂
And a damned fine beard it is.
It should be a lot longer than it is
The heavens declare the glory of God - what is visible testifies of the invisible.
God is infinite in the past and in the future but decided to communicate to his creation at a time when almost nobody could write or read using a language that needs interpretation and different translations, but he's perfect.
And to top it off only a select few of their creations in a very specific part of the massive universe that they created and in a very specific region on one small rock. Yup sounds reliable!
Thor revealed himself to me pretty thoroughly last week, went on for about 2 hours and i got soaked.
You're lucky, he on and on at me for nearly four hours and I both drowned and was struck by lightening. What's the worse bummer is that it turns out that Buddism is true and I've come back as a spider, albeit one that can write.
I live a few kilometers away from Thor.
He is on his Chariot, which is pulled by his Goats Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr.
He is also beating up some Jötnar (Jætter/Giants).
Don't believe me?
Look up: THOR’S BATTLE WITH THE GIANTS in Odense. (Odins Vi).
???
@@Huevo_Refutador_De_ateozOMG love at first sight
@@gabrielwilson8932 los ateoz no existen Ñ
Thankyou Matt! 👍💙💙💙🥰✌
Looking really good Matt!
My subconscious is telling me to not listen to theists as they will make me act and speak like a fool.
But how will ever be able to bless a potato?
No sir that’s how we identify and avoid them …that’s why freedom of speech is wonderful….the idiots identify themselves!
This is why I follow Kahless the Unforgettable. I want to go to Stovokor and not end up in Gre'thor.
I love 🔺theist debates 🗿
Sweet more Matt content.
Seriously, if a book is interpreted in hundreds of ways, then the author has done a very sloppy job.
I'd say author did a wonderful job, if their goal was to confuse readers, so they need to attend their weekly, paid for lessons about the correct interpretation. It's a very clever marketing scheme.
You presume that the author was trying to be clear and accurate....
Or he was just writing bad middle eastern poetry
No. God has never communicated. Because..... ;)
Great video.
Thanks Matt, your videos are extremely helpful and informative. 👍
A great video.
These need to be longer.
No, they need to be as long as they need to be. This point was made.
@@vermidian_ I'm saying that I personally want to be longer.
@@while_coyote I want more. :)
@@while_coyote did you check his older videos? He has a plump catalog. Some videos are decently long.
@@pansepot1490 I've already watched those too.
I hope you make it to DragonCon this year.
Yes, God can communicate clearly. In fact, he was very clear with me. Just yesterday told me you need extra mayo on that sandwich And throw a couple more tomatoes on there. It was as clear as if my wife was speaking to me in the same room.
Grate vid. Mostly commenting for the algorithm
There is a reason "perfect communication" is not argued for by theologians as one of the divine attributes.
yet they ignore the argument from evil?
been a while since ive been here
I like the new beard youre rockin
Matt ironically channeling James Randi
It still blows my mind that Matt actually was once a theist.
I'd love to see Matt and Dave Letterman in conversation. Matt would get all hard-nosed with sound logic and superb delivery, while Dave would say "phenomenally well-structured discourse ... I mean, but it's nuts, just nuts."
And I mean this in the good sense, I really do.
I enjoyed just seeing you in a casual discussion on The Kentucky Atheist!
I once knew a guy who published a book that God Himself had dictated to him, and then God Himself helped him edit it as well. (As a special public service I will not provide any more details.)
Epic beard!🧔
After just retiring from running a technical publications group for an aerospace company, I can say that even degreed engineers have difficulty with communication.
I agree with Matt 100%.
"Can God communicate clearly?. Sure doesn't seem so". Perfectly sums it up.
@@MilitantAntiAtheism None?
God's word: "The fool says in his heart, there's no god"
Also god's word: "We (the believers) are made fools for Christ"
Ever walk into a Bible bookstore? There are thousands upon thousands of explanations of the Bible. At the top are the so-called systematic theologies, which are essentially the Bible re-written in the author’s own words. What you have to ask yourself is, why can’t God write a book that people can understand?
Why do God’s own words spoken for the very purpose of explaining himself to people need to be explained by… people? The whole purpose of the so-called word-of-God was for God to explain himself to us common humans. But thousands of books written by humans have been proffered to explain what the Infinite Being apparently cannot explain on his own.
Exactly.
The existence of apologetics as a field is evidence against an omniscient God who wants to communicate with us.
If an omniscient God wants to communicate something, it would be done.
There would be ZERO room for interpretation.
Their message would be communicated perfectly.
And yet, here we are.
I use Nikes logo for my business and all hell breaks loose...but the "one true god" has thousands of imposters and does nothing!
It's impossible for God to take any legal action for copyright infringement, there's no lawyers in heaven.
Most Christians already accept that God doesn't communicate clearly (and tend to accept that he can), and there are various apologetics that try to make excuses for why he doesn't (none of which really hold up under any amount of scrutiny).
That's what apologetics are mostly about: trying to explain how actually God being all-loving, all-powerful and all-knowing makes sense, even though every sign points to such a being not existing, and those traits not being consistent with big parts of Christian theology.
This video could probably have benefited from addressing some of excuses people come up with to explain this away.
Why would the Apologists excuses for the communication shortcomings be of any use?
You either disbelieve or you don't, why the need for extra affirmation of your disbelief?
Got doubts?
@@SaintKimbo Lol, you're funny.
So I'm pointing out how people trying to rationalise away apparent contradictions in their beliefs.
Are you saying that literally the only reason you can conceive of for why someone would do that is to satisfy a "need for extra affirmation" for their own rejection of that set of beliefs?
Come on now, you don't actually think that's the only reason. I'm sure you can come up with a few more, using the brain you presumably think God gave you. If you do come up with more, the question would be why you chose to go with one of the least generous reasons.
Strawmanning people's motives doesn't achieve much more than "scoring some points" for your side and letting you rest easy knowing that you're "right". People certainly aren't going to change their mind if your argument consists of asserting that they have motives that just aren't factually there.
@@blueredingreen
You've got it all wrong.
I am an Organic Atheist, I've never been to a Church service and was brought up in a religious free family environment.
Religion is totally, and instinctively, irrational to me.
You suggest adding more info, Apologist excuses, why are so many Atheists constantly in need of this type of affirmation?
The reason I stated my bio, is that I am thinking that maybe people who were previously Christians and became Atheists are struggling to let go of the residual religious belief, or something, which is something that is foreign to me.
I have been watching Matt, on and off, for over a decade, and now after not watching for 5 or so years, it's still the same old thing, most of the comments boil down to reaffirmations, as if people can't quite 'let go'.
It's baffling to me.
@@SaintKimbo I asked you whether you could think of even one single other possible reason why people would talk about a thing that most of the population believes (in some form), and which influences who people vote for and which laws they support, and which has a direct impact on many lives. Can you conceive of any reason whatsoever, other than personal affirmation?
Rather than answer that question, you just completely ignored it and doubled down on the reason you already gave...
I suspect you already know about other reasons. It's really not that hard to figure out.
If you want to make a case for one reason above every other reason, that's a distinct discussion, but at the moment you've already presupposed your one reason to be true, without bothering to provide any sort of justification for why that is.
Are you going to answer the question, and explain why your reason is more reasonable than every other reason, or are you going to keep trying to worm your way out of responding to what I said?
@@blueredingreen
Well, I guess there maybe other reasons.
People might think they are part of some sort of crusade to convert Believers, or something like that.
Maybe people are reaching out to people that are looking for support when they are confused, or having doubts, about their religious beliefs.
But, having read the comments over the years, I'm pretty confident that most are just looking for affirmation or are just fascinated by the subject and want to add their 2 cents.
All religions have rules and advice that are specific enough for people to believe but vague enough for people to not be able to question speciifics.
The Catholic church stopped Latin-only services as recently as the 1970s...
Clarity has never been a priority for church leaders
Matt Dillahunty is slowly turning into James Randi. When's the magic show Matt?
These were unknown people and the details were extremely specific. I even had my own experience with a medium that I know. My brother had died the week prior she was telling me things that he wanted me to know. I tested her. I asked her what color my grandmother’s car was. It was a running joke in my family. She hesitated for a moment, and the. Told me the actual color which is not a common color at all. I was quite impressed.
Is it really worthwhile being in the spotlight for such a brief period just to end up in hell forever? Pray for this man.
Yes, pray for me. Beg your imaginary friend to finally show up and prove he exists... so his followers can stop threatening me with he'll because of their ignorance and fear
@@SansDeity Your fiery response kind of gives away the game, doesn't it? If someone told you Santa wasn't delivering presents because you've been naughty, you wouldn't bat an eyelid because, well, everyone knows Santa's a tall tale. But the fact that the mere mention of hell gets you all fired up suggests there's a tiny corner of your mind playing devil's advocate, so to speak. After all, if it's all just fairy tales, why get hot under the collar? Maybe deep down, you're keeping the fire extinguisher handy, just in case. 😉
People who don't believe in Hell don't fear Hell, genius.
@@labamba3011 If you are certain of your religious beliefs, why are you on this channel posting a provocative comment? Perhaps it is YOU who has doubts, doubts about your god and hell. After all, why care what atheists think if you truly believe they'll get what's coming to them in the end?
Maybe, deep down, you know that what Matt says is based on logic and reason, and that your own beliefs are based on non-evidentiary claims.
I mean, if God is maintaining the Bible through divine inspiration, then he absolutely *could* have instructed early followers to give rules that accounted for things they wouldn’t have understood. He could have just said, “look, this passage is for future generations. It’s vitally important that you preserve it as I present it to you. I know you don’t understand it: that’s okay. Just copy it and carry it forward.”
That is exactly what is said in Daniel. Daniel did not understand the meaning of what God showed him because the prophecies were/are for the end time, not Daniels time.
If he could, you and me, Matt wouldn't be atheists.
If "he" could....we'd all be believers! Thanks for all you fo Matt
Matt's rockin the James Randi look. RIP
I so wish I could hear you have this sort of conversation with callers... instead of always getting pissed off like an angry drunk, dropping f-bombs everywhere and hanging up in an emotional rage quit. I miss the old Matt from AXP.
Same Matt... but move along
I'm a scientist. If I became aware of someone incorrectly referencing my publications in their own research, I would correct that person so that the misunderstanding doesn't spread. If the misunderstanding was due to unclear wording or other similar issues on my part, then I would apologize for my poor writing after correcting the misunderstanding. I am a flawed mortal but can still do this. What about a perfect being?
Also notice how in scientific writing, you don't really see metaphors/parables/etc., and sentences are constructed very carefully, with tons of care going into choosing what terms to use. New terms have to be defined. Figures have to be properly labeled. This is because if you confuse the reviewers, your paper isn't getting through.
Just got another You tube prompt for this, even though I replied here 3 days ago!
Did you change the Title or edit the vid or remove something?
Clearly such a thing could change my perspective, I don't want to watch the vid again to find out a space was removed in the Title, as that would be misleading to the viewers.
I'm in Florida... haven't touched a thing here
@@SansDeity Ok, thanks for the response. Just RUclips saying (a few hours ago now) that your 'new' vid came out 30mins ago! Its just odd.
Since I knew Creators can change Titles things like that, then clearly that was my best guess. But now I see that was wrong.
Thanks.
A series of debate topics you're willing to take on?
Why are there so many people in this world who have not wondered and asked all these questions that you have asked? It boggles the mind!
They probably have as we all do and got slapped down as kids and it's easier to just go along with the charade.
Matt, are you still working on your book?
Matt, now you freaked me out! I have an uncle named Robert, (Bob) and he told me how to avoid getting colds! Oh thee exaulted Prophet!!! Letteth me kneel before thou, and sucketh upon thee!!!😅🤪🤣
Wow, Matt deffo looks better with the beard...
This was phenomenal, Matt.
You had to go wear a matching shirt with your beard. … I can’t even be mad about it. It works. 😇
That "God" necessarily would be willing to communicate with us: that would not necessarily be my expectation. Especially if it were evil.
i read a lot of novels and i especially like the litRPG genre where there is a system that give people a status page and the ability to level up, receive rewards and such. Often with blue panel popping in the air with information that we can read no matter our ability to read or language.
Why can't God do something like this?
If he wants us to improve and there is a big reward like heaven, why can't he establish a system that would help us understand when we do something wrong and when we do something right? Why can't he uses an interface between him and each of us? Or more accurately why would that interface need to be humans, priests and popes, rather than a communication tool to directly and clearly communicate with us.
Don't tell me that God wouldn't use panels to communicate, what are the ten commandments?
The question is rather, if he can do the ten commandment method to communicate, why can't he do this in an even better way?
That's the funny thing with those monotheism. They define their god as all powerful and capable of magic that ignore the laws of physic then entirely fail to look into the 'what is my god not doing that he could and would be smarter to do than what we know him to do?' and only focus on making sense of the scarce few things their god is known to them to be doing. Believer sometimes answer this by saying we can't understand god, he is on a completely different level of intelligence and information gathering than us. But the question is not 'Am i smarter than god?' but 'Why is god using flawed methods when even us, who are not so smart, can imagine better methods?'
"God is talking to your heart" they say instead of saying "God is talking to our hearts because he has yet to realize that talking to our ears would work better."
This is where faith-based beliefs are showing their inadequacy as a method to establish truth. Faith is to take something for granted then try to make sense of it with the experience we have of the reality we live in.
A belief based on a willingness to understand reality properly do not have a convenient shortcut like faith. Instead if we want to properly understand reality we need to hone that understanding painstakingly without regard if we like the leading conclusion or not. And, with knowledge being flawed to begin with since it is always grounded on arbitrary beliefs, we can never stop inquiring and questioning, we can never be 100% sure.
Faith is a tool to stop ourselves from the need and duty to keep inquiring. It's a tool to justify to start our thinking with the premise that God exists, period. And armed with that faith, it becomes the burden of the unfaithful to justify why they are not listening when God talk to them. Even if the existence of the god in question as not been established properly and that god fails to communicate flawlessly or simply communicate in a way that everyone could acknowledge at once.
Sure we could still imagine that this communication tool, with blue panels and quests and levels, is in fact an advanced alien civilization messing with us, their joke on a crazy scale without achieving anything worth the effort... But as long as god can make the hypothesis of his existence the leading hypothesis by far that would be way better than having faith-based believers tell that their god speak to our hearts or through an unreliable book.
Giving off big "Amazing Randi" vibes here
What do you make of this: an elderly woman I know well who is absolutely honest and does not make up tales told me this:
Her sister in a nursing home died the day before. She had been crippled with arthritis for 4-5 years, needed assistance to get in and out of her wheelchair and on and off toilet, into bed, etc.
One night She awoke to find her room flooded with light and a man who was the source of that light said to her, "Get up and walk!"
She got out of her bed, no pain, and for the next 3 months before her last two days in a coma and then she died, she required no assistance, was pain-free, walked, and enjoyed being arthritis and free.
Did she hear ftom God?
If God did that, he's a prick! It's a bit like that poisonous mushroom where you get seriously ill and suffer, then, just before you die, you start to feel better. What sort of evil bastard would make you suffer, heal you slightly, then kill you off anyway?
There is a lady that can tell you that your dead pet is trying to talk to you. Lots of people believe her too. Why? Because people want to hear from their dead pet.
A theist could just say "God knows what mistakes in interpretations his followers will have, that's part of his plan."
Will we ever get the final Haqiqatju debate review???
Hopefully not, he's a bellend, not worth it
Oh shit... the next messiah will be an AI. And it will talk clearly, having absorbed all the worlds' religions' writings. And it will spout evil bullshit. And some will fall for it.
Oh crap. I hadn't thought about this. 🫣
Clear or not people will read into it what they want to .
The Netflix series Kubra is similar to this. The AI is more subtle and pretends to be the voice of Allah giving instructions to a new 'prophet'.
I've never understood, even as a Christian, why it was, seemingly, easier and clearer to understand God's intentions and direction in the OT and, as a "new creation in Christ with a personal relationship with Jesus, God in the flesh" and a NT Christian, why it wasn't clear at all. Always dangling that carrot of "knowing God".
thank you
I understand what you are saying about psychic mediums, however, i have watched many of the top ones and I have seen them get very specific with names of those that have past, what they died of, what big events are happening in the live person’s life like moving, or a trip they are about to take, or another significant life event. I have seen them describe very personal things that would be impossible to know from either a large audience showing or a one on one internet reading. Who knows? It may be possible that our deceased love ones can actually communicate with us. There is so much that we currently cannot know or photon about the energies of the universe. I remain open.
How do you know it's impossible? They couldn't guess? They couldn't pick up on cues from cold reading or be informed of the details prior and perform a hot reading? These are all known techniques. Be more skeptical
You're watching a fraud who researched his audience and who had the audience FILL OUT CARDS describing who they wanted to hear from and questions or issues they have.
@@SansDeity So they are all frauds in your opinion. Every single one of them
@@susankievman642 yes, until any of them can actually show evidence that they can do what they say they can do in an appropriate, scientific setting with certain double blind procedures and controls then there is absolutely no reason to think that any of them are more than shitty humans who are preying on those who have lost loved ones and taking their money while defrauding them.
The first question I have when anybody heard a message is “was it in english?”
The easiest resolutions to this would be to drop omnipotence or omnibenevolence.
Not omnipotent: God can communicate clearly, but not all the time. Maybe it tires him out.
Not omnibenevolent: God can communicate clearly and consistently but isn't invested in making sure everyone knows what he has to say.
I expect a common Christian objection would be "this is somehow the best way for God to do things." Considering salvation is almost definitively the highest good for humans under Christianity's Heaven/Hell system, not taking actions that would result in more salvations should be wildly inconsistent with omnibenevolence, and clear + consistent revelations should result in more (and more peaceful) salvations than what we've had.
Forms of "but God wants us to experience X" should be subject to the previous paragraph's logic because salvation of more people should always outweigh giving Christians a certain experience in life in terms of benevolence.
And finally, the idea that clear and consistent communication by God would undermine free will is ridiculous. It undermines the concept of accepting on faith, but the choice on whether to accept God's offer or follow him, etc., can still be made in either direction even with God directly communicating. Unless you mean the unambiguous and confirmed threat of hell undermines free will through coercion, in which case it should also be true in our reality that the threat of hell undermines free will anyway, making no substantial difference.
Anyway, I do think arguments about God's lack of communication are great evidence against God's existence. Also sorry, I'm not familiar with Islam and can't meaningfully comment on its stances.
I was raised Catholic and one of my early problems with religion was why would an entity powerful enough to create the universe have so much difficulty making his wishes known resulting is thousands of incompatible belief systems, the faithful of each feeling they had latched onto truth and everyone else got it wrong.?
Keep in mind god is able to create humans anyway he wanted being an omnipotent being so why didn't he?
Catholic Preist Brian Matthews says it’s a record of man’s search for god.
@SansDeity This thing is deeper than a what we can think beyond the words which we are given. The intake and practice of unforgiveness is the death to the minds of humanity. Please forgive me Matt for my approach to this community should have been better in the past.
Can god communicate clearly. No god, so NO.
Matt: 3 questions:
1) did Jesus exist?
2) what did he claim?
3) was he who he claimed to be?
That’s it. It’s not more complicated than that.
@eaglewings1983
1) No one can confirm his existence, but I'll accept there's some person behind the stories
2) character in the Bible makes claims but there's no way to confirm any of them came from Jesus, but the story suggests he was divine
3) I have no good evidence that he or anyone or anything is divine
If that's it, you failed. Epically
@@SansDeity thanks for replying.
1) no person in human flesh can confirm it. I agree. That doesn’t mean that no one can confirm it, one; -and two, it doesn’t mean the records of his existence as described in the gospels aren’t true. I can’t confirm it because I was not there, but it is exactly the same with basically any historical writing since time travel is impossible
2) I believe the accounts of him as found in the 4 gospels are true and trustworthy. You can choose to believe them or not, but I think we somehow agree on the fact that he claimed to be divine. In fact, he claimed to be the Son of God and God himself
3) ok. This question is irrelevant if you don’t believe in point 1 and if we don’t agree on what he claimed to be, point 2. I know who he claimed to be based on what the gospels say he claimed to be! lol!
If we can’t agree on his existence based on the historical accounts found in the gospels, then the discussion shifts radically to another topic, and I think that’s a whole different talk
It always turns out that gods are on the same intellectual level as those who worship them.
The terrible hide an seek problem!!🙃🤣🤣🤪😵💫😳😛
Matty a great spokeman for seimel
Applying logic to omni attributes is like applying water to particle board. It all falls apart🤷🏻
To be fair, it was discovered in 2004 that there were actually 20 commandments. There were 10 more written on the back. Moses didn’t notice. Don’t blame God for that.
Source: Weekly World News
Matt isn’t convinced God exists. Yet he is convinced his boyfriend is straight. Romans 1:18-22
We get it, you hate trans people.
How Christ-like of you 🤣
I would suggest. Short answer - No. Long answer No, because there's never been any compelling evidence a god even exists. Nuff said.
God has always communicated clearly to me by not communicating with me.
Thomas Payne said it best: human language is not a reliable way of communicating God's word (paraphrased)
That seems like a failure of the god, not humanity.
God totally sucks at communication. He's never spoken to me. He's never telephoned me. He's never sent me a letter. He's never asked to "friend me" on facebook. Haven't found his email address anywhere. If God chooses to ignore me, then I'll ignore him.
Language is any form is flawed, subjective and limited. The claim that a god communicates this way shows how human made these claims are and how flawed it is.
God is Life and Life is communicating with the living, not the dead.
If he can't talk directly, then let him tweet/X us at least.
Matt looking alot like Moses Lately...I am a Democrat Liberal and I take offense to that...so can you please change your looks please to make me feel better...Thankyou...Thats all I ask
It's just so much easier to just believe. I guess I'm a Catholic (not necessarily Roman) simpleton.
If you don't care if your beliefs are true, that may seem easier.
I do care, but I can't know. And just so you know, I am very well educated (graduate degrees in physics and) mathematics) and have a moderately hig IQ (145).
Sam Shamoun would smoke your boots in a debate.
If there is a god, it doesn't matter which religion you belong to.
Obviously.
People 2500 years ago were just as smart as people are today. I’m pretty sure we could put together an 800,000 word book that does a whole lot better job of explaining how the world works, and the history of the universe than the bible. Include some basic math, biology, medicine, etc.; explain how the scientific method works, so they can test out stuff on their own, and figure out the things we couldn’t fit for themselves; add a couple of chapters on morality and ethics; maybe put in a couple of maps of world, and stuff like that.
Joseph Smith did that, to a degree with his Mormon caper.
In my opinion, it doesn't matter if he can. It matters if he does. And from what I've seen, if God is real, he doesn't.
Can any gods communicate clearly? Charitably, my answer is 'not yet'.
Everything wrong with Abrahamic religions is encapsulated in Genesis 17, and provides the strongest indication of why there is enmity between them to this day.
The other day I said to my husband, who is still a fundamentalist Christian, that all 3 religions, Judaism, Christianity and the Muslims all serve the God of Abraham, which in effect mean a Christian and a Muslim serve the same God. He was very pissed off about that statement, not happy at all. And he obviously disagree 100% with such a statement, and see it as pure blasphemy.
You opened up the bible to that particular page and verse because God is sending you a clear message Matt! Repent before it's too late. 😅