Look, it is completely against logic, reason, common sense and even intelligence to believe that a donkey talked to some man, using human language because "God did it." It is rather unbelievable, actually, to someone who hasn't been programmed and brainwashed, like me.
I want you to be honest here. If there was a story about a bright pink monkey that had white glossy wings that spoke to some biblical prophet and told him that he would be a instrument of the Lord, YOU WOULD BELIEVE IT. The fact is, there is NO story in the Bible, no matter how bizarre, that you would not believe. There is no story in the Koran that a person of the Islam faith would not believe. You are bowing down to a book. Books like these belong on a shelf in a library under the title, "Fiction."
Show me one example of something supernatural happening in the world today that could not be explained by science. Tell me why prayer is completely ineffective. You know this world does not operate the way you want it to. There is no magic, no fairies, no elves, no gods, no demons, etc.
There is a good rule to follow. If it can be proven, you should believe it. If it can't be proven, you should suspend your belief in it. There is no reason to believe in anything without some sort of proof, scientific or otherwise. We all need to grow up sometime.
Quoting: Anonymous Coward 20657814 1. The Hebrew priests destroyed and rewrote much of their older history, so a lot of it isn't going to be realistic or accurate.
2. You are making a bold assumption to support your argument and poisoning the well.
3. You are asking an impossible question. Science studies the natural world, how can scientific studies be done on something beyond nature? There is also the problem with the word supernatural because it can be used when things are beyond current understanding. Something can be considered supernatural and be perfectly natural. Many of Jesus's miracles actually followed natural law, but transcended time (healing and making wine). Only thing I can think of being supernatural was the feeding of the 5,000. The walking on water bit was actually in Peter's dream, a fanciful vision.
When religion is divested of a personal God, its prayers translate to the levels of theology and philosophy. When the highest God concept of a religion is that of an impersonal Deity, such as in pantheistic idealism, although affording the basis for certain forms of mystic communion, it proves fatal to the potency of true prayer, which always stands for man’s communion with a personal and superior being. During the earlier times of racial evolution and even at the present time, in the day-by-day experience of the average mortal, prayer is very much a phenomenon of man’s intercourse with his own subconscious. But there is also a domain of prayer wherein the intellectually alert and spiritually progressing individual attains more or less contact with the superconscious levels of the human mind, the domain of the Indwelling Spirit. In addition, there is a definite spiritual phase of true prayer which concerns its reception and recognition by the spiritual forces of the universe, and which is entirely distinct from all human and intellectual association.
4. Just because you cannot fathom the idea of faith, it does not mean it is wrong. It seems like you are trying to impress your values onto others because you think you are superior.
