<<I've never had any direct experience with anyone who made those kinds of claims, so I have no reason to consider alien abductions as worthy of serious consideration as yet...>>
Well then how about new age psychics who talk to the dead. Surely you've had some experience with these people and their followers.
Do you think they're legit?
<<I've never had any direct experience with God, but I see continuous evidence on a daily basis what happens to peoples' lives when they ignore what may be God's advice, if this, in fact, is God's guidance, and this also needs to be explained here... now, there is nothing primitive about warning people not to commit murder, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to gossip harshly about others, and so on... this simple advice will clearly keep you out of criminal and civil trouble, as a result one's life is clean, centered, and safe...>>
And:
<<these lofty notions can come from either man or from God... but frankly, I don't think man has the sense and depth of vision to arrive at these incredible and lofty notions on his own... others might say these are merely primitive ideas and should be abandoned, but I don't think they're primitive and I don't think they should be ignored or abandoned, I think these are concepts and guidelines for good and healthy living and their application seems timeless, they lay the foundation for how we live today...>>
I don't really see how this all relates to a standard of proof. This is nothing like the evidence for black holes.
You have no direct experience with God, you've seen what happens to people who don't live by the advice that might've come from God.
Now obviously if these rules and advice don't come from God, they come from men. In your opinion man could not have come up with these rules and advice on his own.
Thomas Jefferson, for example, believed Christ was not at all divine, but that his words represented a superior moral code.
Einstein believed ethics were a purely human affair.
So men will have different opinions on the subject. And of course moral codes pre-date modern monotheism.
For example the Golden Rule had been discovered all over the world, long before Jesus' time:
"This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain done unto you."--Brahmanism, Mahabharata 5, 1517, 1000 BCE from _The_Encyclopedia_of_Religious_Quotations_ Edited and Compiled by Frank S. Mead ©1965
"Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him."-- Pittacus, 650 BCE
"Do unto another what you would have him do unto you, and do not do unto another what you would not have him do unto you. Thou needest this law alone. It is the foundation of all the rest." -- Confucius, 500 BCE
"What you do not like when done to yourself, do not do to others."-- also Confucious, 500 BCE
"Hurt not others in ways, that you yourself would find hurtful." -- Buddhism. Udana-Varga 5:18, 500 BCE, from _The_Encyclopedia_of_Religious_Quotations_ Edited and Compiled by Frank S. Mead ©1965
"Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing." -- Thales, 464 BCE
"What you wish your neighbors to be to you, such be also to them." -- Sextus, a Pythagorean, 406 BCE
"We should conduct ourselves toward others as we would have them act toward us." -- Aristotle, 385 BCE
"Cherish reciprocal benevolence, which will make you as anxious for another's welfare as your own." -- Aristippus of Cyrene, 365 BCE
"Act toward others as you desire them to act toward you." -- Isocrates, 338 BCE
"Do not do to others what you would not like others to do to you." -- Hillel, 50 BCE
Steve |
