[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Aquila

You’ve been to the edge of the known universe and proven that there isn’t a firmament?

Dude, don't eat the 'shrooms... you don't want to go to the "edge of the known universe!"

But seriously, yes. As I stated before, the existence of such a massive body as either the "firmament at the edge of the known universe" or the the "watery abyss beyond such a firmament" would exert tremendous gravitational pull and we'd be either aware of it, or we'd be bugs on its windshield.

Originally Posted by Aquila

I love how Jesus said that we had to have faith like children…not intellectuals.

So then, if a person is "smart" or an "intellectual" - what would they do? Why, they'd have faith like a small child... so what's the difference between the two?

Originally Posted by Aquila

Then it’s not “faith”. Faith is the substance of things we hope for, the evidence of things we can’t see or prove. If you want a sense of “certainty” I’d say stick with science and its theories. If you want to experience “faith”, trust the Bible. If certainty is what drives you you’ll never hang when it comes to the Bible.

No, I have "faith" in something that I have not seen - the risen and resurrected Jesus Christ! (John 20:29).

I have no faith in something for which there is overwhelming evidence throughout God's incredible creation that never happened (6,000 year old earth and a global flood 4,000 years ago).

What you're doing can be compared to the other disciples bringing the dead body of the man from Nazareth to Thomas and demanding that Thomas believe in something that the evidence doesn't support.You're bringing me a "dead body" and telling me it rose from the dead.

Instead, in my world of faith; I have found an empty tomb and I believe that Jesus is alive!

Originally Posted by Aquila

You might be able to say that there isn’t any “evidence” of something happening as described in the Bible…but unless you were present at the time of the event, you can’t say with certainty that it didn’t happen.

Did O.J. Simpson kill Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown-Simpson? You weren't there and neither was I, but I am convinced.

Did Ramses II (the Great) have red hair? Does a hydrogen atom have a single proton at its nucleus? Is there ever light on the "dark side of the moon?"

Q:How can we know anything?

A:Evidence.

Originally Posted by Aquila

Not true. I was a Medic and I’ve worked with the handicapped in a clinical medical environment. I have a healthy respect for science and medicine. However, I don’t let their theories jar my faith in the Bible.

Have you have so over compartmentalized your though processes that there appears to be little room for the Bible in the "real world" where you have practiced care giving?

When you just someone's vitals did you trust your instruments? Did you actually "believe" that there was a beating heart within the patient despite the fact that you couldn't see one?

Did you ever snap one of those gas meter things onto someone's finger tip to see if they we getting and processing oxygen? Did you react to your readings? Did you send them to rest, confident that they didn't need some sort of cardiac intervention if "their numbers" were good?

If so, then why can't you accept the findings of a spectral analysis of the uranium decay within a zircon crystal?

Originally Posted by Aquila

Again, that’s applied and presently observable science. Doesn’t compare to “theories” that exclude the God of the Bible.

You've got major ear wax build up if you think that I have "excluded the God of the Bible." And it does "compare." All of the science concerning the age of the earth is "present science" - visit a Natural History museum. Touch something, even if it says "Do Not Touch!" You're my friend, I'll vouch for you. The stuff is real, and it's really there.

Originally Posted by Aquila

Again, not a valid comparison.

Denial is more than a river in Egypt, my friend. Does uranium decay at predictable and observable rates? Yes or no?

Originally Posted by Aquila

I have a lot of faith in applied science…it’s theories I don’t trust my soul with.

Like the "Theory of Gravity?" Do you realize that we actually have less understanding of gravity than we do of nuclear decay rates that measure the earth's age?

You have demonstrated a poor understanding of what the word "theory" means in science. In the common vernacular it could mean "wild guess;" but a "Scientific Theory" is something that is so reasonably validated by the data that it would be foolish to deny it.

Since we know so little about the "Theory of Gravity" - why not just throwing that one one out the window? Literally.

But then, as they say, "It isn't gravity that kills you... it's the electromagnet bonds that hold the concrete in the sidewalk together below that kills you." But, I guess you do need the acceleration of gravity as well.

Do you also question the "Germ Theory of Disease" as well as the "Atomic Theory?"

Theories seek to explain phenomena. The phenomena are real. The earth is real and the universe in which you and I find ourselves is real. We exists "right now." The uranium in the zircon crystals found in the Acasta Gneisses in Canada are real, they exist right now and you can drive out there to see them, if you want (take me!). They really are over 4 billion years old.