I'm a Protestant and I'm also losing interest in organized religion much like Jesus preached. I would prefer to go into my closet to pray instead of praying on the street corner like the heathen do.
To: Avorne, I know I have a relationship with the Abrahamic God because I've tested my faith, decades ago and know the difference. I know what it's like to be "out of favor with God" and to be separated from the Holy Spirit.
When I read the Bible the scriptures make sense whereas before I was born again the Bible didn't make much sense at all and would leave me feeling angry and confused. Without the Holy Spirit the Bible was a tragic war novel without much hope in the Old Testament and the New Testament seemed like a story of a prophet, not The Messiah of the Hebrew people.
I know I have a relationship with the Abrahamic God because I've tested my faith, decades ago and know the difference. I know what it's like to be "out of favor with God" and to be separated from the Holy Spirit.
And what, exactly, does that mean? And how can you objectively determine that it is a 'relationship with the Abrahamic God' and not some other experience which your mind, based on your preconceptions, is attributing to said deity? Can we observe or test these things? And if not then how can you be sure, other than your own assumptions?
What does that mean? To know that I have a relationship with the Abrahamic God as it is defined in Wiki which is the same God who revealed himself to the patriarch Abraham. This is the same God that Judaism and Islam recognize as they accept the tradition of the Torah. What this means to me is much more personal and only possible to prove to someone who knew me before I was born again.
How can I objectively determine that it's a relationship with this God and not some other experience which my mind, based on conceptions and preconceptions is attributed to the Abrahamic God? I will assume you're looking for the definition of objectively as an adjective instead of an adverb? I will give you the short answer and say no, I can not objectively determine that mine is a relationship with the true Abrahamic God and not merely the concept of said God. I have no proof other than my personal experience so,
Can we observe or test these things? (continued from above)...no not until science can prove humans have a spirit. The same spirit that leaves the body at death.
How can I be sure without assumptions? My only proof is a total change of mind and heart. Science has proven that thoughts originate from the heart, not the mind. Epistemology, according to Wiki uses criteria of truth to judge the accuracy of philosophical statements and claims. It goes on to say that the rules of logic have no ability to distinguish truth on their own and the individual must determine what standards distinguish truth from falsehood. These primary truths cannot be validated with positive proof since they are inherent in every analysis. These 3 primary truths, according to Wiki are: the first fact, the first principle and the first condition. I can also argue that my experience corresponds with what the Bible says in the New Testament because I have "tested the spirits". This is a true statement but I would have to prove it by other methods that aren't subjective. So far my methods have all been subjective such as emotion, instinct, intuition and revelation.
I can not objectively determine that mine is a relationship with the true Abrahamic God and not merely the concept of said God. I have no proof other than my personal experience so,
Personalty experience isn't proof and can often be very unreliable. So claiming to definitively know something solely based on personal experience alone is foolish.
My only proof is a total change of mind and heart. Science has proven that thoughts originate from the heart, not the mind.
It's the other way around there. The heat is just an organ that pumps blood throughout the body. So Science has proven our thoughts originate from the brain not the heart. as for your proof this does not tell us anything as to whether you really experience God or just assumed, so that's not proof at all.
It goes on to say that the rules of logic have no ability to distinguish truth on their own and the individual must determine what standards distinguish truth from falsehood. These primary truths cannot be validated with positive proof since they are inherent in every analysis.
Sounds like a nice dodge to me. We can and we do objectively prove things, which is logical.
So far my methods have all been subjective such as emotion, instinct, intuition and revelation.
My doctor suggested biofeedback to address my arthritis and chronic pain and introduced Heart Math to me. The heart communicates with the brain and tells the brain when to and how to respond to different stresses. It's this process that I refer to as "thoughts" because when our car stalls on the rail road tracks and we hear the whistle blow the first thing that happens after the ears sense the noise is that the heart beats faster and tells the brain to either get the car started or bail! Not the other way around.
I'm just learning about Heart Math but the more I practice on slowing down and controlling my breathing and focusing my thoughts on the health of my heart the less arthritic pain I suffer. I haven't researched it yet but my Doctor said further studies are being made at Chapel Hill, (UNC-Chapel Hill, NC)
the romans had a very advanced sanitation, sadly they were heathens and any ideas they had must be destroyed according to the church.
Talking about dark age europe. Roman sanitation either did not reach most of europe or was unmaintained and collapsed after fall of western roman empire. But even if they did have the same sanitation the disease would still have been carried from ship to ship to all the ports of europe and spread out from there. Black Death unavoidable.
My doctor suggested biofeedback to address my arthritis and chronic pain and introduced Heart Math to me. The heart communicates with the brain and tells the brain when to and how to respond to different stresses. It's this process that I refer to as "thoughts" because when our car stalls on the rail road tracks and we hear the whistle blow the first thing that happens after the ears sense the noise is that the heart beats faster and tells the brain to either get the car started or bail! Not the other way around.
Your heart rate is controlled by the brain, so if your heart rate increases it would be from a signal being sent from the brain.
Yes clearly the people back then had the medical knowledge to study that plague. They did not even know about basic sanitation.
Not in the way we can of course, but they could try different remedies and see if there was any change for the better.
Your heart rate is controlled by the brain, so if your heart rate increases it would be from a signal being sent from the brain
no, it's not. your heart beat is controlled from the spinal cord, from 3 groups of neurons, that work seperatly from eachother. if one does'nt work anymore, the other two go on. if two connections are cut, you have one left.. (you may need a pacemaker thoug.) god did a great job on this one, don't you think?
it's proven that you can live without a brain: in hospital, sure. you only need your brainstem. true. but everything would stop if you destroy the brain stem.
Yeah, he also did a great job by not giving us functional anastomoses for the heart, thus afflicting us with heart attacks.
it's proven that you can live without a brain: in hospital, sure. you only need your brainstem. true. but everything would stop if you destroy the brain stem.
I wouldn't exactly call that living; the body's vital functions may still be executed, but it would be a vegetating body. But another interesting thing is walking; you surely heard a lot of chicken bodies going on running for a while after being beheaded. They also noticed something similar during an experiment with cats on a treadmill (they didn't behead them :P); I think an explanation was a sort of intermediate ganglion somewhere in the spinal chord, that regulates walking without needing constant impulse from the brain (no direct feedback). I think it was because the cats went on walking even though they were technically paraplegic or something like that, I sadly don't remember details nor where to find that
