Doubt generally inhibits your ability to act-react spontaneously. An instant of uncertainty, for example, causes an athlete to miss a chance to score or a performer to lose an opportunity to demonstrate great mastery.

But doubt need not be just a source of nervous anxiety. Rather, it can lead to a profound reflection that serves to elevate self-understanding. An experience that is instrumental in spiritual attainment is known in Zen as the Great Doubt, which examines in a thoroughgoing way all assumptions and presuppositions... The Great Doubt takes nothing for granted and questions every outlook, and when applied to personal development it helps you act-react fully within - rather than half a step behind - This present moment. In contrast, unproductive doubt is preoccupied with second-guessing and revels in uncertainty."

"When you reach the median between acceptance, or not resisting what cannot be changed, and nonacceptance, which continually presses for reform, you realize that, The greater the doubt, the greater the enlightenment" Source

You say that you believe in Darwinism, yet you posit a "strangeness" that is calculated and designed. Will you elaborate on how this works?

do you think that natural selection can only be accidental? the idea behind natural selection is briliant. So brilliant in fact that it almost smells designed.

think about how natural selection works, choosing species who are more compatible with their environment. if you remove the accident bit from your line of thought, it wouldn't be hard to imagine natural selection as a mechanism designed to be so. have aliens planted us here to grow just as we plant seeds and watch flowers bloom? who knows? not me.

Also, why is it difficult to believe that our existence is pure accident?

to me, the sheer complexities of quantum mechanics, chemistry, natural selection, the forces of nature, biology and the insane and vast universe we live in makes me think that believing it is all an accdent is almost stupid.

of course, there is the part of me that would place a bet on our universe being just a nothing, a mistake and a waste of time. That said, how could a mistake just happen?

And, by "strange" do you simply mean beyond our ability to understand?

more or less. probably more the fact that i always have had a feeling that there is something happening in the background. maybe we will wake up when we die and realise we were in a dream or video game/program or whatnot and life will just make perfect sense. that wouldn't suprise me at all.

I would suppose that the inability to grasp how the complexities of life fell together to be more of a failure of our own intelligence rather than evidence of some sort of higher power or divine creator.

that's just a lazy way out. we are intelligent enough to be self aware and question our existence so i don't think we are that stupid to understand that the complexities of life seem designed.

But that could just be me. I've never believed that we humans held any special place in the universe.

i don't think we do either. i believe that if there were a designer, she/he wouldn't even know if we were wiped out.

TTM

Do Agnostics put their faith in doubt? ---This is coming from an agnostic who doubts that man can live without faith in something.

. Thus in short, we can very fairly demonstrate that the better position to acknowledge as being more thinkable, at this point in the increment of empirically obtained knowledge over the course of human development, is that we do not know of any being as deity, as the common English usage of that word has defined it.

What might be the emotional intention enshrined in the word 'faith,' there? Might it be a lingering article of history once served its purpose, and now more pragmatically worthy of being set upon the shelf among the social-caused-culturally-developed medicinal systems?

I love how honest and vulnerable some of you members have been about the subject of God, creation, this topic of evangelism. Even those of you who doubt the existence of God, I commend you of your opinions and thoughts. I know that the existence of God is hard to fathom, but He does indeed exist. That is why I am so grateful for a tool such as evangelism. Those of us who question, there IS indeed a reason for everything, and so therefore, that is why we have the unique opportunity to explore who God is when we come across someone who is able to evangelize or teach us more about Him.

My question to those of you who doubt God or are just simply turned off to the thought of someone having a civil conversation about God with you, have you truly thought about if there really was a God? How can you say that there is no God when the
planet you live on as SO many amazing features and things in it that there HAS to be Someone out there greater than any human who made it all? Have you taken time to study or read the Bible, which tells the story of who God is?

Have you ever taken the time to think about nature? The seasons? The many bodies of water? The mass varieties of species we have on this planet? The stars and planets, and everything else we cannot even see out in our galaxy? What about where we came from? How did one man and woman come into existence to produce the human generation? I know there is huge controversy between Darwinists and Christians because essentially, the argument is that one party argues human came as descendants of apes and the other, from the creation of God. Now even as a Christian, I know that even until the day I die, I will never be able to comprehend everything in the Bible or understand everything that is preached in church. There will be many things that God will not have me experience even after life! But can you honestly tell me that even though you would have many questions to come to a conclusion as to whether you will believe and follow this God, that you would rather play it safe and "believe" we came from apes?

What kind of confidence is that in yourselves and of our human kind? How can we have possessed the brains and knowledge we have. The skills and critical thinking that we have, from apes? How could apes have had the power to create us all equal in the matter of us all being human and moral, and yet have given us each different abilities and such to make us all unique from one another? I would never put my trust and hope in such an idea. If apes were our "God," what a pity it would be to live a life revolving how to please, honor, and live my life fullest in being an example of my "God" who is an ape.

You are honestly not giving your own existence enough credit. Or even everything that is created on this earth or even among the planets and skies. God is powerful enough, SMART enough to know what He was doing. How He wanted the planets to align the way they do. The placement of every star you see or don't see in the sky. The weather and seasons to be the way they are. For the many creatures to be in existence when there are many that are just plain weird and wonder what their role in nature is. I firmly believe that my God, OUR God, gave me the gifts that He did for many reasons, some that I cannot define on my own. I know that when I pray, I am trusting in a faithful God who will do His part in showing me why things happen the way they do and in reminding me constantly, there is no such thing as a "trial-free life." I just have to roll with the punches, but be able to still have a joy in knowing that everything that happens, I, myself, have no full control over.

Sure, there may be some things that I can actually control. But that will be in the moment. In the long run, I know that there is no way I would enjoy living that kind of existence for very long. Being in control, and always being in constant worry when things are not going my way, would be a terrible way to live. So I'd rather give my life over to God, who created me, knows every fiber of my being, and every thought, speech, and move I have ever made and will make.

I love how honest and vulnerable some of you members have been about the subject of God, creation, this topic of evangelism. Even those of you who doubt the existence of God, I commend you of your opinions and thoughts. I know that the existence of God is hard to fathom, but He does indeed exist. That is why I am so grateful for a tool such as evangelism. Those of us who question, there IS indeed a reason for everything, and so therefore, that is why we have the unique opportunity to explore who God is when we come across someone who is able to evangelize or teach us more about Him.

My question to those of you who doubt God or are just simply turned off to the thought of someone having a civil conversation about God with you, have you truly thought about if there really was a God? How can you say that there is no God when the
planet you live on as SO many amazing features and things in it that there HAS to be Someone out there greater than any human who made it all? Have you taken time to study or read the Bible, which tells the story of who God is?

Have you ever taken the time to think about nature? The seasons? The many bodies of water? The mass varieties of species we have on this planet? The stars and planets, and everything else we cannot even see out in our galaxy? What about where we came from?

How did one man and woman come into existence to produce the human generation?

But can you honestly tell me that even though you would have many questions to come to a conclusion as to whether you will believe and follow this God, that you would rather play it safe and "believe" we came from apes?

What kind of confidence is that in yourselves and of our human kind? How can we have possessed the brains and knowledge we have. The skills and critical thinking that we have, from apes?

How could apes have had the power to create us all equal in the matter of us all being human and moral, and yet have given us each different abilities and such to make us all unique from one another? I would never put my trust and hope in such an idea. If apes were our "God," what a pity it would be to live a life revolving how to please, honor, and live my life fullest in being an example of my "God" who is an ape.

You are honestly not giving your own existence enough credit. Or even everything that is created on this earth or even among the planets and skies. God is powerful enough, SMART enough to know what He was doing. How He wanted the planets to align the way they do. The placement of every star you see or don't see in the sky. The weather and seasons to be the way they are. For the many creatures to be in existence when there are many that are just plain weird and wonder what their role in nature is. I firmly believe that my God, OUR God, gave me the gifts that He did for many reasons, some that I cannot define on my own. I know that when I pray, I am trusting in a faithful God who will do His part in showing me why things happen the way they do and in reminding me constantly, there is no such thing as a "trial-free life." I just have to roll with the punches, but be able to still have a joy in knowing that everything that happens, I, myself, have no full control over.

Sure, there may be some things that I can actually control. But that will be in the moment. In the long run, I know that there is no way I would enjoy living that kind of existence for very long. Being in control, and always being in constant worry when things are not going my way, would be a terrible way to live. So I'd rather give my life over to God, who created me, knows every fiber of my being, and every thought, speech, and move I have ever made and will make.

.Give your self to God, and some devil acting in the name of God will make you a victim... Faith is not just faith...Faith is an intelligence test...

The problem of God can only be solved if one tries and solve the problem of Mind.

The problem of God can only be solved if one tries and solve the problem of Mind.

I dont think we can solve either =)