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Originally Posted by Vampyr
Magicians do crazier things than these listed. Again, you jump to a supernatural solution far to quickly, and dismiss the more simple solution as impossible. Same with the creation of the universe. You're basically saying it must be supernatural and not scientific, because science doesn't explain yet...but that is not the most simple, logical solution. The most logical solution is that a scientifically explainable event occurred and we have yet to figure it out.
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See my response to Teuthida. These people were not strangers brought together in a crowd for a one night only act. These people knew each other, often from birth.
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Originally Posted by Vampyr
Saying that we haven't yet found a way for "something to come from nothing" isn't a valid argument. If that's your defense for justifying God creating the universe...then how do you explain where God came from?
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God is our explanation for the existence of the universe. God revealed himself to the Jewish people and the fullness of that revelation was revealed in Jesus.
What is your explanation? You have faith that science (a technique, not a belief system) will discover a cause for the sudden creation of a universe from nothing. Keep in mind that science relies on observation. I'm not sure how you plan on observing evidence of a time before observation was possible.
Sounds to me like a belief without any evidence.
I have stated that the evidence points to a supernatural cause. You have stated that it cannot be a supernatural cause because science. What evidence have you presented that the supernatural cause is unlikely?
How do I explain where God came from? God always was and always is. God did not come from anywhere. He has no beginning or end. Because He is supernatural (def. outside the natural world), He does not have a natural explanation. As I've demonstrated, the evidence that we have points to the existence of such a being since we know that there is no natural explanation for something to be created from nothing since science (!) teaches us through the law of conservation of mass that matter cannot be created or destroyed.
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Originally Posted by Vampyr
Also, even if we were to agree that a god created the universe...what logic are you using to derive that it must be the Christian god? How do you know some other creation myth is not the correct one?
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We haven't made it that far yet. I'm trying to get you to admit that
A god is the likely explanation for the existence of the universe. We will worry about which god later.
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Originally Posted by Vampyr
There is literally no compelling evidence for God. If you want to believe in him, you are going to have to do so on faith alone. I think most religious people would even agree with that. And I'm telling you I am unable to believe something on faith alone.
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You
are believing something on faith alone! You believe that science will eventually discover what created the universe despite there being no evidence for a natural cause! Present your evidence! You have repeatedly avoided doing so.
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Originally Posted by Vampyr
Also, what biblical passages are you using to signify homosexuality as a sin? You say that God "never changes," but how can you be so sure that just because a bible passage says you shouldn't do something, that it shouldn't be done because it's a sin or because of another reason? How often does the Bible say WHY you shouldn't do something?
The most common verse I've heard against homosexuality is in Leviticus, and the reason for it being in there (along with a ton of other seemingly crazy "sins" that are described in Leviticus) was to avoid disease or death and focus on procreating. Hence all the references to "unclean" behavior - because it was literally unclean, not because it was morally wrong. That stuff isn't even applicable today, and it may not have ever been a sin to begin with.
Like, Leviticus says you shouldn't eat an animal you find dead (as in, you didn't kill it.) Do you think that means it's a sin to eat a dead animal, or it was something they wrote down because they realized eating something you found dead could kill you?
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I covered this in an earlier post directed to Teuthida. The specific passages I quoted were:
From Jesus directly:
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’[a] 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’[b]? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”. Matthew 19:4
From Paul's letter to the Romans:
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.. Romans 1:26-27
If we are commanded not to do something by God, it is because He loves us and desires our true happiness. He shows us how to achieve true and lasting happiness through His revelation which is recorded in the bible and through the witness of the apostles. Everything the Catholic Church teaches descends from this revelation. Her authority was granted by Jesus Himself.
You are correct in your interpretation of most of the commandments in Leviticus. As I stated in another post directed to Teuthida, there are two types of law in the bible: ceremonial law and moral law. Ceremonial law (which is most of what is contained in Leviticus) was binding on the Jews before Jesus came. Jesus fulfilled the ceremonial law and it is therefore not binding on Christians except where it coincides with moral law. Moral law is binding on all. The condemnation of homosexual acts is part of the moral law.