Hypothesis 1A Supernatural claims are a result of a foundation of reasoning that is based on subjective attributes. Supernatural claims include – the existence of any god claimed to be the one and only true God at one time or another; Satan; demons; spirits; ghosts; etc. Defining Subjective: 1. based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. 2. relating to the way a person experiences things in his or her own mind, based on feelings or opinions rather than facts. Defining Attribute: 1. an inherent characteristic; 2. an object closely associated with or belonging to a specific thing Subjective attributes: belief, culture, worldview, doctrine, dogma, ego, apathy Example: The claim that the God of the Bible is the one and only true god and that he will judge those who do not accept his son as their lord and savior. That particular supernatural claim is based on the foundation of subjective attributes. Millions of Christians, the overwhelming majority come from a (culture) where Christianity is prevalent. This does not mean one cannot come from a different culture and accept Christianity. A person’s (worldview) can change over time due to numerous reasons, such as an emotional event, meeting people of other cultures, reading the beliefs held by different people from other cultures, etc. That Yahweh/Jesus provide a means for eternal life, and the fact that all species have a survival instinct, and that we humans have taken it to a supernatural level – survival even beyond our natural deaths – it is easy for one’s own (ego) to step in and claim the biblical god’s existence. Once accepting Christianity and the eternal salvation that comes with it, the majority of Christians will need to find a church, a denomination with a set of (doctrines) to abide by and uphold. Principles are laid out by the Authority (dogmas) which are deemed to be true. This of course leads to trust, faith, a (belief) that does not require facts or evidence that can be known by any person who cares to know. And finally, since there are numerous other beliefs in numerous other gods, all holding the same sincerity, beliefs, faith, etc., the Christian can claim still that only her God is the only true God and will judge all people of other faiths. This is a fervent display of (apathy), as they do not consider the feelings, emotions, beliefs of people of other faiths as they would consider their own, eventually dismissing their god with indifference. End of Part 1 Definitions: Culture 1. The beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time; a particular society that has its own beliefs, ways of life, art, etc. Worldview 1. The way someone thinks about the world 2. Additionally, it refers to the framework of ideas and beliefs forming a global description through which an individual, group or culture watches and interprets the world and interacts with it. Ego 1. The self, especially as distinct from the world and other selves 2. An exaggerated sense of self-importance; conceit. Doctrine 1. A belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group. 2. Creeds Dogma. A belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted 2. A belief or set of beliefs that is taught by a religious organization Belief 1. a feeling of being sure that someone or something exists or that something is true 2. an acceptance that a statement is true or that something exists. Apathy 1. Lack of feeling or emotion : impassiveness 2. Lack of interest or concern : indifference Hypothesis Part 1B The rejection of supernatural claims is a result of a foundation of reasoning that is based on objective attributes. Supernatural claims include – the existence of any god claimed to be the one and only true God at one time or another; Satan; demons; spirits; ghosts; etc. Defining Objective: 1. based on facts rather than feelings or opinions : not influenced by feelings 2. existing outside of the mind : existing in the real world Defining Attribute: 1. an inherent characteristic; 2. an object closely associated with or belonging to a specific thing Objective attributes: facts, knowledge, logic, common sense, rationality, humbleness, empathy Example: The claim that the God of the Bible is the one and only true god and that he will judge those who do not accept his son as their lord and savior. We as a species possess no (knowledge) of a God’s existence, yet throughout our history many gods have been claimed to be in existence, including the God of the Bible. Christians often confuse knowledge with belief, as they can only believe that the God of the Bible exists, but cannot know that he does. The (facts) simply cannot support their claim that the God of the Bible exists. Besides using the Bible as a source of evidence to prove the biblical god’s existence, which is circular reasoning and therefore renders the claim for rejection based on that aspect alone, Christians often site personal “God” experiences as factual events when in fact all they are no more than personal experiences of an unknown natural phenomena occurring within themselves. The fact that the Bible is chockfull of supernatural claims, such as a talking burning bush; a sun standing still; a lady turned into a pillar of salt, zombies rising from the dead, etc., of which there is no evidence to support such claims, (circular reasoning) and since there has not been any similar supernatural occurrences during modern times when such occurrences could be documented and verified, objective reasoning via the attributes of (rationality) and (common sense) render such biblical supernatural claims for rejection. The Bible’s supernatural claims can be rejected with (logic), as such claims cannot be verified nor demonstrated, and in fact are illogical as they defy the laws of physics. And because of that, the claim that the biblical God is the one and only god who will punish all non-believers is also logically rejected. And finally, humans who are both (humble) and (empathetic) must reject the biblical God as the one and only God who will punish non-believers, as they objectively reason that it would be arrogant to assume that the god claimed by the people of one faith renders all other gods as false. These humble humans could never assert that they have knowledge and facts to prove the existence of the Christian god over all others when both knowledge and facts don’t exist to support that claim. They are empathetic and understand that people of other faiths, who claim their god to be the one and only god, do so with all the same passion, conviction, and fervor, as those who believe in the biblical God, and that they too lack both facts and knowledge to support such a claim, nor is the claim based on common sense, rationality or logic. Closing Note: The humans who lived during the pre-biblical days and through the biblical times were mostly illiterate and uneducated. They lacked scientific knowledge, and were ignorant as to why various phenomena around them (earthquakes, lightning, eclipses, etc) occurred. They simply had no way of explaining things except to attribute these phenomena to a God of their own creation. End of Part Two Definitions Common Sense. 1. is a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge things which is shared by (common to) nearly all people, and can be reasonably expected of nearly all people without any need for debate.[ Rationality. 1. based on facts or reason and not on emotions or feelings 2. It is believed by some philosophers (notably A.C. Grayling) that a good rationale must be independent of emotions, personal feelings or any kind of instincts. Any process of evaluation or analysis, that may be called rational, is expected to be highly objective, logical and mechanical. If these minimum requirements are not satisfied i.e. if a person has been, even slightly, influenced by personal emotions, feelings, instincts or culturally specific, moral codes and norms, then the analysis may be termed irrational, due to the injection of subjective bias. Logic. 1. a science that deals with the principles and criteria of validity of inference and demonstration Humble 1. not proud or haughty : not arrogant or assertive Knowledge. 1. a body of facts learned by study or experience 2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation Empathy. 1. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another 2. the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; Based upon my hypothesis 1A and 1B, I come to hypothesis 1C. There is no doubt that we have evolved. The forerunner of modern humans were the Archaic Homo sapiens, who were living on this earth between 400,000 and 250,000 years ago. We can physically see the changes from then until now. Mentally, we have developed to become the only known species who can actually ask the question, How is it we are here? When did the first human ask that question, we dont know. But lets use 10,000 years ago as the start of the questioning age of humans. I could be wrong on that, but it is close enough. Our ancestors had no idea how to explain the phenomena around them. Anything from earthquakes, rainbows, the stars in the sky, the moon, the tide of the ocean, hail, drought, flooding, lightning, to how come people were dying of diseases and sicknesses that could not be explained. There was only one answer - God. As each civilization developed, new gods were created, thousands of them even. As humans began to learn how to travel and communicate more with humans of other civilizations, not only was any knowledge shared, but beliefs in gods were shared. This went on for thousands and thousands of years until the present day. Our ancestors believed in gods. This was a part of their mentality. It was strong back then, as there were no other answers to explain phenomena. They were Non-Free Thinkers in this aspect. There was no need not to believe in a god. Sure, they could change the god or gods believed in, but the Gods were considered real, at least each civilizations god(s). As time went by and philosophy was introduced, a change in thinking began to develop. Why was that? Humans began to think freely. Was thinking freely a change that was due to our mental evolution, just as we changed physically via evolution? And now here we are today, and science can now explain everything up unto what came before the Big Bang and abiogenesis - life evolving from non-living matter. My hypothesis contends that there are humans today that are non-free thinkers, similar to our ancestors, free thinkers - the more modernly mentally evolved human and those somewhere in between. It just may be so, because there are at least one billion theists from different faiths that totally believe in their god, no matter what evidence is presented to them to show them otherwise, yet they still believe. Are they lying to themselves or can they simply not think freely (objectively) when it comes to supernatural claims, for if they could think freely, they would have to reject any such supernatural claim. And one may wonder how we humans came from believing in 1000+ gods to now basically a few gods, one which is considered to be the same as for two of the most popular faiths today - Islam and Christianity. Through mental evolution. This is why we can argue and debate for hours on end, but certain people are never going to be persuaded to change their belief in the god of their choice.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 03:55:29 +0000
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