I am a member of the Church of God in Christ(C.O.G.I.C.) a Petecostal Holiness Church that welcomes everyone, but is a traditionally Black Church( I'm white). I'm trying to get my Minister's Credentials.
I grew up Baptist, but find most Baptist too laid back, and too Liberal.
People, you should really try to fully grasp Godel's Incompletenesss Theorem.
All Logical systems either A.} Contain Contradictions, and/or B.} Contain Unprovable Assertions' and/or C.} cannot be fully justified without bring in at least one axiom from outside the system--At which point you have a
new system to which these three Axioms invariably apply-- or at least one of them.
Do you remember the old Sophorific teaser: Can God create a stone that he can't lift?
Most Philosophers want to pooh-pooh the question--but let's restate it in the most general terms possible:
Can an Omnipotentant being create an unsolvable problem for himself? One which he would be completely impotent to resolve?
This is like Joshu's "Mu". Answer "Yes" or "No" and your "Omnipotent" being loses his Buddah nature.
But wait--have we proven that Omnipotence can't exist? No, we've simply proven that Omnipotence is beyond Human Logic or Comprehension...
Now people misuse the term
Atheist and
Agnostic.
A true Atheist is not only sure that God does not exist: He is convinced that God is a Logical impossibility in This;
or any other concievable Universe...Now that takes
faith.
The Agnostic doesn't trust his own, or anyone else's experience. Hypothetically, no matter how many times God revealed himself to the Agnostic--no matter how blatantly, the good Agnostic will always be uncertain if God is real--or if he's simply hallucinating.
Some Fundamentalists want to argue endlessly whether Evolution is "Good Science" or not. I don't care. There is no existensial reason to believe that "Good Science" is always true...
Any philosopher will tell you that you Can't use Science to prove Science--anymore than you can lift yourself by the bootstraps...
So I don't have to shout myself hoarse, proclaiming that Evolution is a stupid idea--actually, it is concievable, and rather cleaver. It just doesn't happen to be true...
Now I can't "Prove" my thesis either. However, once you realize that God would have to be far different than man--the idea that God created the whole Universe as a showcase for man; that he created mankind for some at least partially obscure aggenda; and that he constructed the human brain; mind; and soul to feel a certain inherent plausibility to certain inherent ideas and tendancies, is no longer anymore mind-boggling than any other idea...
..RVM45
By the way-in a human sense; although some things are inherently too hairy to predict the outcome; the only time that one can know an outcome with certainty, ahead of time; is if that event is somehow both fixed and preordained.
Omnescience, like Omnipotence doesn't have to share human limitations--so God is quite capable of knowing the result of our "Truly Random" and "Totally Freewill" actions; without having to hedge his bets by limiting us to one possible outcome...
But a God like the Musselmen believe in, where God carefully choreographs even the smallest detail before he even starts; raises some serious questions--like why bother? Why not just think about it--and not; and then say that he did?