May I suggest that this thread be closed? The gentleman read the Quran and it did nothing for him. He looks at the signs of God everywhere and doesn't see anything special in any of them. It's futile to continue to argue with him when these basics do not resonate with him. God's existence cannot be proven like you prove a math problem. If it could be there would be no need for faith. What God asks us in the Quran is to look and reflect, work our minds and our hearts, then have faith. That's what I've called educated faith, something TheSkeptic made fun of. He shelters his heart and stops everything at the conscious mind stage of perception. It's highly unlikely that he can arrive at the truth that way.
You can invent any number of new terminology for something and it still wouldn't make any sense if it never made any sense from the beginning. Your term "educated faith" is just matter of semantics. It's synonymous with any Metaphysical claim.
I don't reject the perception of things beyond the conscious mind. I only do so, when it comes to reality. Science is a form of deductive reasoning, and thats the only way of getting at the scientific truth.
For example, if we allow something that is an unjustifiable claim to go beyond the conscious rational mind and be taken seriously as being part of reality, then anything such as Astrology, Voodoo, the claim that Elvis is still alive, Scientology, and any form of other beliefs, would be equally valid and MUST be taken seriously. If that was the case, I don't suppose humans would be any advanced today than we were in the middle ages. A serious Astrologer takes the same mind blistering stance as you, and says "Look around at the stars! See how the patterns reflect our ways of life? It's not faith, it's EDUCATED FAITH I TELL YOU!! It has nothing to with just believing. Do you not see the signs of the stars and the moon and see how they make one either have a bad day or a pleasant one? IT'S EDUCATED FAITH I TELL YOU!!" Then, he goes on and on about how the intelligent the original Astrologers were, and ties that in into his argument of persuading naive minds into thinking Astrology is something to be taken seriously. Indeed such stance has worked for several years. Just turn to any newspaper and you'll find at least one page, if not two, dedicated to Astrology.
I may sound harsh on the above paragraph, but it really does boil my blood a bit to see individuals such as yourself who by no doubt is very smart, stoop to such low and attempts to morph false reality into a plausible one. It's not a personal attack on you, but instead your idea. I have nothing against you personally. You may be comfortable with what you make reality out to be, but I hate to see any younger audience take you as an example, grow up, and use the same techniques to make any number of false ideas and turn it into something that has no real meaning in our lives.
But I suppose anything I just said won't change anyone's mind. That's fine. As the saying goes, "To each his own." I just request that anyone who's been reading this thread, examine my message of believing based on evidence, that is clear cut observable evidence, rather than just mere signs which ultimately calls for faith nonetheless.
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I do agree with you at one thing however, let's close this thread. For those of you who I have not yet answered to, I'll return you a reply with a P.M. I promise.
Best Wishes
-TheSkeptic