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I consider prayer very much like meditation. I very rarely pray out loud, I just think it. I suppose the only difference is that, when I am praying, I think as if I was talking to someone else.


Same thing. What I really wanted was the pet right then, what I needed was to get a pet at a later time.


I doubt those who want God to absolutely prove Himself before they will believe, will believe if He does.


I am sure this man does what he wants and uses his dreams as an excuse. Dreams are ideas within your own subconcious. I know God is able to utilize dreams for His benefit, but the dreams would make no sense without the descernment of Christianity. If you actually read the dreams of Jacob, or Revelations for that matter, they really make absolutely no sense at all if you don't use the other principles present in the Bible. Maybe this guy is getting dreams from God, but doesn't know what they mean and just makes them mean whatever he wants.


If man was created by someone, that would imply a supernatural being, which would be "proof" for God. The result or creation of an inventor is the proof of the inventors existence, as with the compass. We know it exists, so it must have been created by someone even if we don't know who made it.

P.S. Are we done with the evolution topic? I haven't heard from you in a while.

Maybe, but I don't believe God can't give you what you want sometimes, just that He isn't obligated to.


A lot of people know about Christianity, but may not be able to understand all the symbolism and background knowledge. Again, if you look at the dreams of Joseph, they don't really make any sense, but when you read about the future of Joseph and understand the background of Joseph's family, it makes a lot more sense.


So who invented it? Further back, do you believe in the architech of the first pyramid? I am sure he is not well documented. Do you believe someone created, say, one of the old slave songs? I am sure someone had to create the songs, but there are no records of who first created it.


We're discussing that elsewhere, so I hope you don't mind if I just let it go here.

Huh?


Have you ever seen a compass create a lightbulb? What sense does it make that one invention turned into another invention on its own?

That would probably freak me out, and probably give the guy a heart attack. Remember, Jesus, angels, and all that stuff isn't what we expect it to be. Look at the Book of Revelations. It's description of heaven isn't exactly all nice and cozy. There are said to be monsters there and a lot of other wierd stuff going on. Anyway, if it were anything that easy, then it wouln't be limited to that one man, and then we get back to the whole free-will thing.


Very well, let me use a more believable example. A conveyor belt is programmed to create a certain invention, and without new information programmed into it, it can't produce anything other than what it has the knowledge and parts to create. True, there may be a few mistakes along that line, but that does not change what the belt is programmed to produce. The mistake does not change the way the overall reproduction process works. In the same way, mistakes in animal genes does not change the way they reproduce. (I know this is leading into evolution a bit, but believing in a creator as opposed to an accident is a big way to argue for God.)

So. If God took away the free-will of one man, that would still be taking away free-will. Then, there would be no reason not to take away the free-will of everybody, which produces a world of blind robots following God because they have no choice.

I understand that an inorganic invention can not create a new invention, but it was a metaphor. I did not "change" my metaphor because you caught me in a mistake. I still fully stand by my previous metaphor, but you wanted something more literal. Thus, to make the metaphor more literal I used an invention that can "reproduce." In regards to the birth of "mistakes," you seem to think that one mutation will always pass on to the next generation. Most of the "mutations" that caused evolution are not mistakes that would be transferred like that because they are physical changes. A person with six toes will probably not transfer a sixth toe to their child because there are two sets of genetics combining to create a new organism. Also, within mammels at least, the reproductive parts of a female are created in the womb and do not develope at all from the time they are created, so any mistakes that come later within the development of the fetus would have no effect on those reproductive organisms.


So, if someone convinces you that the world was created by an omniscient being, you are not going to believe in a god and won't be open to the idea of Jehova.

To the Jews, Moses and the prophets were their idols, the most valuable sources of truth they had. Think of your greatest idol, someone you trust completely, and that is how the Jews felt about Moses. I know you don't believe in everything your person believes; the Jews didn't either. Jesus merely says, if people who don't want to believe what their most trusted people say, why would they believe even the greatest miracle. You have already said that you look up to some great Chrsitians, but you don't believe in Christianity. If you don't believe them, what makes you think you will believe in a miracle.

Back to this guy, what makes you think he hasn't already had a dream that told him to become a Christian. He doesn't have to listen to his dream, even if he says he does.


Do you not want to listen to a metaphor because you can't argue it?


Don't make assumptions about things you don't know. Even the greatest evolutionists don't know the genes that caused the mutations. They only go on fossil records, not the genes themselves. You have no way of knowing whether or not the "mutations" were dominant genes. Many mutations are dormant genes.