Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All - Part 8
(Part 8 is prompted by a comment made on one of the earlier parts.)

So at what point does it become necessary or at least important enough....(after all, 'necessary' is a pretty strong word.) to effect an effort on our behalf regarding some sort of verification? I suspect that the more 'important' it is, then perhaps the stronger the effect to affect effort. Example, cross over a 1000 ft deep gorge on a foot bridge that looks like it may or may not stay together if you crossed it. How about if the bridge is only 2 ft high off the ground? What about 5 feet off the ground? 10 ft? 20 ft? 45 ft? 200 ft? I’m sure the reason for going on the bridge would also play apart, but whatever the reason for crossing would not determine whether the bridge will hold or not.



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For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Once upon a time there were two guys.

Once upon a time there were two guys. Both these guys were farmers and lived in a place where there wasn’t a lot of water. One guy’s name was Bob and the other guy’s name was Sam. A lot of other people lived in this same area. About half of them thought that Bob was a cool guy and liked what he had to say about things. The other half of the people that lived in those parts thought Sam was wise and fair in the way he did things.

It came about that there was a great drought in the land. For 10 years everybody was having a very rough time of it because they all needed water to run their farms and even for them to be able to have some to drink. Three different times there had been studies done that showed how to fix the problem so that everyone would have enough water. All three studies agreed in what the problem was, how it came to be a problem, and what was needed to fix the problem. In short what all the people in the area needed to do was to work together.

Since Bob and Sam were the leaders in this part of the land they met together to see how things could be worked out. During their first meeting Bob and Sam didn’t get anything accomplished. Well, they did accomplish one thing; they got to call each other names. The 2nd time they got together, they didn’t call each other names, but they only participated in verbal jousting which became quite heated at times.

In the end Bob and Sam couldn’t work out their differences and almost everyone died. Those that survived moved away and today the place is a desolate waste land. This is too bad because all they had to do was to pool some of their resources, and some of their talents, to create a mutual, workable solution. What Bob and Sam fought about had nothing to do with what was needed to do with fixing the problem. What they fought over was something that Bob and Sam introduced from old squabbles that had gone on for years, mostly over their strongly held convictions on what happened to people when they die. During their meetings, no one on Bob’s side was convinced what Sam was saying was true, and likewise, no one on Sam’s side was convinced that Bob was saying was true.

Well that’s the story I had to tell today. And as far as Bob and Sam go, well at least they and all the people that followed them know the answer to, ‘What happens to you when you die.’

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All - Part 7

Why do we believe things in History happened? Some people say they won't believe something that can't be proven. As in, take it into the laboratory and test it over and over again to see if it behaves in the same manner every time. Well the stuff of history is not made from that kind of stuff. There may be evidence left behind, about something that 'reportedly' happened. i.e. if there was a car accident and both cars caught fire and burned, how would one prove that it happened? what if this accident happened two days ago? how about two months ago? two years ago? 20 years ago? 50 years ago?

Since cars have only been around for a little over a hundred years, if we said that two cars had an accident and caught fire and burned one thousand years ago, one might say that can't be true because there were no cars around a thousand years ago. Things that happened in history must be discovered by the evidence, lack of evidence, other explanations and how plausible these ideas are.

For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All - Part 6

Why do people believe in anything? Now, I'm not necessarily talking about 'good' reasons to believe in things, but “What are the different reasons?”

For instance earlier we'd, mentioned an example of belief: We reach in our fridge for a glass of milk. We believe that the milk will be 'good'. Partly because that's what our experience has been. Prior to this we'd reach into the fridge and the drink the milk and it would taste good, it had not 'turned' bad.

Another reason might be that other people have reached in the fridge and drank the milk.
What about the type of music we like. We may choose on the basis of what our friends listen to.
We chose to believe in what type of clothes we choose to wear, at least in the beginning, by what our parents want us to wear.

We may chose whether to play sports or not by what our friends do.

What other reasons, good or poor, do we have for believing in anything at all?



For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Pardon the interuption to the "Why Believe Anything . ." part of this blog...

War on Christmas?

I tried to post this at Facebook....... but they only allow short comments and won't let me post the rest so here it is.

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Someone wrote “Christmas is a Pagan Holiday, So Stop Whining About the War On Christmas. “ what follows are comments about this…
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Eli Dreamer wrote ….
Do mean it's origins had pagan elements? Did it have any elements that might point to Christ? Does evil only affect good things, can't good affect evil? why is there air? what happens inside the fridge when the door is closed?
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MM wrote ….
There's nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of Christ. But we can't baptize paganism and call it "Christian" by popular consensus. That's what the Romans tried to do.What happens when you add 1% strychnine to a glass of water?
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Eli Dreamer wrote…
I wasn't baptizing anything or anyone. Just because people used to think evergreen trees should used as a symbol a part of a non-Christian spiritual celebration, doesn't mean that the evergreen trees are now and forever a symbol of whatever evil non-Christian spiritual celebration they read it was associated with.

I read that Egyptians were part of a long line of cultures that treasured and worshipped evergreens. Well, they worshiped cats, but I don’t think I’ll keep cats out of my house or treat them in any way related to what the Egyptians did. I don’t think anyone will think I’m giving good press to Egyptian deities because of cats in my house, even if I celebrate the birthday of my cat

I read that Romans celebrated the winter solstice with a fest called Saturnalia in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture. They decorated their houses with greens and lights and exchanged gifts. They gave coins for prosperity, pastries for happiness, and lamps to light one's journey through life.

Christians often refer to the lamp as symbolic of that which lights my path through life. Pastries make a lot of people happy, but they usually have to eat at least one for the happiness thing to work. Coins are given as positive symbols for the future without any belief that there is any ‘spiritual’ stuff at work behind the scenes. Before they were symbols, these items were what they were; a lamp was a way to make it easier to see in the dark, gifts were things given and received for any number of reasons, pastries were pastries, and coins were money. Even today, the paper money we use is only a symbol of ‘legal tender for all debts, public and private.’ I can’t think of anybody who gives gifts, lamps, or money who are even aware of a fest called Saturnalia in honor of Saturnus, much less do so as some sort of celebration of Saturnus.

I also read how centuries ago in Great Britain, woods priests called Druids used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. The Druids used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits.

They didn’t tell say what the ‘mysterious’ rituals were, but even if they were detestable things that’s what Druids did the following is still true. Holly and mistletoe are plants (just like evergreens are trees) and before the Druids did things with them they were nice (and God created them). So are these items guilty by association? I’ve hung out with a serial killer, and other sinners, I suppose some people think I’m unfit to proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, but to quote Larry Norman, “Here I am, talking ‘bout Jesus just the same.”

I read about a band called Black Sabbath that played guitar, bass, and drums in what is referred to as a loud raucous type of music, and they sang and spoke of evil things. I don’t think I’ll ban guitars, bass, and drums from my house nor refuse to play them loudly (not that I’ll only play them loud). I think that Black Sabbath sometimes played Em and Am and several other chords, but the chords aren’t evil because they were used by Black Sabbath (or any other band or artist) If anything they take on the symbolism of the current user, but then meaning (like beauty) is in the eye of the beholder.

The Cross used to be a tree, later it was a despised implement of torture, later it became a symbol of Christ’s good news, sometimes it’s used to in various structures like sail boat, windows, bridges, chairs, etc…

People on all sides of the “Christmas” issue have their own agendas that are trying to push. My side is everyone should quit bitching about how someone else is doing it and learn how to love one another. (I know that sounds way to hippy like, but I digress).

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All - Part 5

In response to an earlier blog of mine called ‘Why Should Anyone Believe Anything part 4’, Tim Hamm said, “And that's the problem - we don't have any solid foundation where we know exactly what happens at death. Christian faith believes in Heaven, but I haven't found any living person I can talk to who has been there. It's sort of like a one way street where we can't see our destination, and the only source of information we have is a map that was given to us. Do we put faith in the map, or something else?
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Here’s my response.

Good question. How do we test other things? An example would be that a map of the world shows a place called, 'Windhoek, Namibia’. I have never been there, I've never spoken to anyone from there or has visited there. How would I test to see if it exist?

I’ve also heard, “About half of the population depends on agriculture (largely subsistence agriculture) for its livelihood. Namibia must import some of its food.” How do I find out if this information is accurate?

I suppose I could ask around and see if I could find someone from Windhoek, Namibia and ask them if about half of the population of Namibia depends on agriculture for it’s livelihood. But what if they’re lying to me? What if they deluded and only think they’re from Windhoek, Namibia? What if they are from Namibia, but don’t know whether about half the population depends on agriculture for it’s livelihood?

There are many WAYS we find out if information is accurate or not. These WAYS of discovering the dependability of the information are the same in most areas of knowledge. I’m hoping we can start spelling out basic steps that we could use to find accurate information.

There are many ways we use to decide if things are true. For instance, will it make any difference if I wear black tennis shoes or white tennis shoes? Or some other type of shoes or are no shoes better? Every day I wear, or don’t wear, something on my feet. How did I choose what to wear or not wear on my feet? How important is it?

How should I pay my bills? How should I determine my budget or whether to even have a budget? Should I care? Why or why not?

Who I should marry, or divorce, or live with, or not? Is it important?
Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Does it make any difference?



For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All - Part 4.1
Although we choose different paths, they all do come to the same end, we die. What then?

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All? - Part 4

Once upon a time there were 3 people sitting at a table just outside the restaurant. One of them believed that when you die, you die and that's the end of it. . . i.e. no after life. The next one believed that when she died she'd go to heaven. The next one believed that when he died, he would be reincarnated.

Just then they heard the roar of an engine, then squealing tires, then a car hit all three of them and they died. Right after that something happened to all three of them. A man who claimed to be an agnostic was injured in the mishap and died two hours later at the hospital.

If I’d been one of those people, something would have happened to me at death. Either I’ll be reincarnated, go to heaven, or cease to exist.

For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All? - Part 3

An example of belief:
We reach in our fridge for a glass of milk.
We believe the milk is fresh.
If the milk is NOT fresh, we realize our mistake once we begin to drink it.
We have acted on our beliefs and found we were mistaken.



For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All? - part 2
Believing is like breathing, it's something we do and yet don't think too much about until someone mentions it.


For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?

So this is a survey. It only has one question. . . . and that question is, "Why Should Anyone Believe Anything at All?"

Seems like in the past people have tended to dwell on "What" rather than the "Why" which is the survey. I'm sure you'll answer as you will, but I hope we can deal manly with the "Why".

Perhaps at a later date, we'll talk about "What" ... but for now it's "Why"



For futher information about this subject please refer to the book that I got my ideas from.

Book

Check out the book Why Should Anyone Believe Anything At All by James Sire

Terry Birkett, Jeff Roley, Ed Englerth

Another photo from back in the day . . . Mid-70's in EP Hart Auditorium, Spring Arbor College.

Aslan

Ed Englerth used to work with a band called Aslan while at Spring Arbor College (now University)

Members of Aslan (left to right) Jeff Roley, Martin Vipond, Ted Kallman, Linda (now Roley), Scott Roley, & Ed Englerth. Greg Buick (not in photo) also use to work with this band.

Restless Ghost

my restless ghost has been released ........ findout more at http://cdbaby.com/cd/englerthed