@nonoise and everyone.
It’s not really a matter of piousness per se, I’m supposing...or maybe it is, except of course that the piety is false...as it always is with these kinds of skeptics - regardless of the topic du-jour...cables, fuses, whatever.
I’m going for quite a different take here rather than confine my response to the narrowest of terms that the skeptics present...not their technical or scientific concerns - that at this point is not the problem.
The problem for me is that they are simply DEMANDING that they be helped. This for any number of reasons is quite childish behavior. I’m not concerned personally or offended by this development, nor am I in any way threatened by it, I’m just stating my overall reason for my own POV.
I happen to be a Christian by faith. That does not mean of course that fuses are my god, or that science is not real to me or any other such inane thought. As a Christian, I’m just as open to seeking the truth (the Relative truth...not the Absolute truth - which I am generally content to leave to God) as anyone else, be they atheist, agnostic or otherwise.
Arguments with the most steadfast of skeptics always bog down for the same reason.
As a Christian, and certainly among many non-Christians, the usual tendency is to try to help whenever someone asks for it...maybe especially if we feel we can see how that person can need help and/or we can see how it is that what we know may be of some use to that person. You can predict a certain amount of reciprocated good feelings when you initiate on that level.
But, when the skeptics bog down it’s because the underlying rules of engagement have changed. Again, they utterly DEMAND to understand something. They demand "proof" yet reject all proposals of it. I have simply decided to stop giving these people the time of day in such an argument.
I’ve learned by this stage in the game, that when someone crosses that line and makes the demand known, it’s always best to let them stew in their own lack of cooperation until they ultimately have no choice but to resume their own course. And when I say ’course’, I mean the larger philosophical course we are all on...that of someone actively engaged in the process of seeking answers...any answers in life, large or small. But, along that particular road, and it actually can be quite a spiritual road, if you ask me, you find two types of travelers: those are already well on their way and those who have been run into the ditch. These people in the ditch may look like they need help, but in fact they don’t. They don’t because the moment they DEMAND to be helped is the moment they take themselves off the road of being a seeker and, whether actively or inadvertently (it makes no difference which), they run Themselves into the ditch.
You will find they are more than content, adamant even, to stay there. In their minds they may think that it was somehow someone else’s fault they are in the ditch. To pass the time they may take to throwing stones at passers by, especially when they may resemble those whom they feel drove them into the ditch. But their ’Demand for help’ is, I say, actually their supreme dissatisfaction with God being acted out. Their own trek on the road of seekers has left them tired and impatient to have the universe open up to them and make enough things finally understood to them. But, they have decided in their rage and frustration to take things out on others as a deliberate protest to God himself - to hold anyone who may venture close enough to help as a kind of spiritual hostage. But, of course, God does not play this game. God is infinitely willing to allow us to stay in the ditch...for the rest of our lives if we so choose...or...for us to come to the realization, that maybe, just maybe, that judgment of God’s lack of virtue in our mind was...well, maybe just a little..uh...premature. Once the desire to be actively on the road again finally outweighs the rage, then and only then, will we be able to resume our own course, but note that it’s the return to the road of seekers itself that is the necessary act of humility before God. It is the one toll we all must pay. God does Not grant us the Right to travel on this road - He grants us the Privilege...and it’s up to each of us to remember the difference.
I have driven myself into the ditch many a time before. So have you. So has everyone else and there can be no exceptions to that. That’s just life. But, what I’m saying, as a Christian anyway, is that it is plainly not God’s intent to come to our aide when we are angry at Him (always epically wrong anyway) and that we should try to take our que from that. When people ask for help then we can help them. When they Demand it, we cannot. And besides, I have better things to do with my time. And we cannot be truly responsible for someone else’s conscience against their will, as we all each ultimately have our own judgment day to reckon with, as it should be.
Sorry for the obnoxiously long post....but there. I’ve ranted a bit.
It’s not really a matter of piousness per se, I’m supposing...or maybe it is, except of course that the piety is false...as it always is with these kinds of skeptics - regardless of the topic du-jour...cables, fuses, whatever.
I’m going for quite a different take here rather than confine my response to the narrowest of terms that the skeptics present...not their technical or scientific concerns - that at this point is not the problem.
The problem for me is that they are simply DEMANDING that they be helped. This for any number of reasons is quite childish behavior. I’m not concerned personally or offended by this development, nor am I in any way threatened by it, I’m just stating my overall reason for my own POV.
I happen to be a Christian by faith. That does not mean of course that fuses are my god, or that science is not real to me or any other such inane thought. As a Christian, I’m just as open to seeking the truth (the Relative truth...not the Absolute truth - which I am generally content to leave to God) as anyone else, be they atheist, agnostic or otherwise.
Arguments with the most steadfast of skeptics always bog down for the same reason.
As a Christian, and certainly among many non-Christians, the usual tendency is to try to help whenever someone asks for it...maybe especially if we feel we can see how that person can need help and/or we can see how it is that what we know may be of some use to that person. You can predict a certain amount of reciprocated good feelings when you initiate on that level.
But, when the skeptics bog down it’s because the underlying rules of engagement have changed. Again, they utterly DEMAND to understand something. They demand "proof" yet reject all proposals of it. I have simply decided to stop giving these people the time of day in such an argument.
I’ve learned by this stage in the game, that when someone crosses that line and makes the demand known, it’s always best to let them stew in their own lack of cooperation until they ultimately have no choice but to resume their own course. And when I say ’course’, I mean the larger philosophical course we are all on...that of someone actively engaged in the process of seeking answers...any answers in life, large or small. But, along that particular road, and it actually can be quite a spiritual road, if you ask me, you find two types of travelers: those are already well on their way and those who have been run into the ditch. These people in the ditch may look like they need help, but in fact they don’t. They don’t because the moment they DEMAND to be helped is the moment they take themselves off the road of being a seeker and, whether actively or inadvertently (it makes no difference which), they run Themselves into the ditch.
You will find they are more than content, adamant even, to stay there. In their minds they may think that it was somehow someone else’s fault they are in the ditch. To pass the time they may take to throwing stones at passers by, especially when they may resemble those whom they feel drove them into the ditch. But their ’Demand for help’ is, I say, actually their supreme dissatisfaction with God being acted out. Their own trek on the road of seekers has left them tired and impatient to have the universe open up to them and make enough things finally understood to them. But, they have decided in their rage and frustration to take things out on others as a deliberate protest to God himself - to hold anyone who may venture close enough to help as a kind of spiritual hostage. But, of course, God does not play this game. God is infinitely willing to allow us to stay in the ditch...for the rest of our lives if we so choose...or...for us to come to the realization, that maybe, just maybe, that judgment of God’s lack of virtue in our mind was...well, maybe just a little..uh...premature. Once the desire to be actively on the road again finally outweighs the rage, then and only then, will we be able to resume our own course, but note that it’s the return to the road of seekers itself that is the necessary act of humility before God. It is the one toll we all must pay. God does Not grant us the Right to travel on this road - He grants us the Privilege...and it’s up to each of us to remember the difference.
I have driven myself into the ditch many a time before. So have you. So has everyone else and there can be no exceptions to that. That’s just life. But, what I’m saying, as a Christian anyway, is that it is plainly not God’s intent to come to our aide when we are angry at Him (always epically wrong anyway) and that we should try to take our que from that. When people ask for help then we can help them. When they Demand it, we cannot. And besides, I have better things to do with my time. And we cannot be truly responsible for someone else’s conscience against their will, as we all each ultimately have our own judgment day to reckon with, as it should be.
Sorry for the obnoxiously long post....but there. I’ve ranted a bit.