TJ..the artists thing doesn't work for me. I personally believe we are all artists..some just choose to develop it. You could spout all that you know about art and I would likely not have the slightest clue. I have never been taught by a textbook or a school. So the art thing doesn't fit for me. Actually if it was technique you were talking..then that would be more of a learning experience for me because I never received any.
Wait a second, you just made my point for me and you didn't even know it.
You just admitted you did not know the technical terms I know because you were never formally trained and instead tought yourself. That is a perfect example of my point. You produce the art anyway even if you don't know some of the technical terms and yet I do know many of the technical terms but I cannot produce any art, not art worth viewing anyway.
The same is true in something like this story your posting, while an Atheist may know technical terms and words out of some religious literature, they don't have the spiritual connection needed to truly understand faith.
You say an atheist can't know because we don't live it...but you project your "knowledge" at people who "live" in the scenarios you dispute..everyday.
For example...you claim Canadian health care is brutal because you read some statistics..but I live here and like it. Why is it okay for you...but not for anyone else?
You can't compare the two emkay, that is just silly.
Faith is in the soul, in your heart, in your thoughts, there is nothing you can use to measure faith to allow a technical review of what Faith is, it is like my example to Wez, knowing the technical terms of child creation does not mean he will ever understand the unconditional love a parent feels for their children, well good parents anyway....
The Canadian healthcare is easily defined and compared to other medical care provided here in America. The recent story of the woman who had unexplained back pain for many years and a chance comment to a doctor qualified her for a MRI that detected her cancer only after it was too late for anything short of a mirical to save her life. It can take 15 months to get a MRI in Canada, that is a measurable result of treatment we can put on paper. In America I got a MRI two days after I saw my doctor and he ordered it. I saw my doctor the next day after calling for an appointment, so three days after I started with a complaint, I was having am MRI performed, not 15 months later.
Faith and the feelings I have in my faith cannot be measured, compared, or classified by anyone but those who share these same feelings Emkay, just like we could have a discussion about how we love our children but Wez would never truly understand.
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Wez, your an idiot, I should know better than to ever try to hold a reasonable conversation with you because your not interested in reasoned debate, all you want to do is start crap and bash religion.
I have never heard a single person in any church I have attended ever claim to possess all the knowledge of the world, where do you get this tripe?
I offered you a better example, love of a child from a parent, you can't measure that love or create a graph or write a book that ever does justice to the feelings I have as a parent. The day I held my oldest son in my hands and he was so tiny and helpless I was hit with a love I never even imagined was possible. With all your advanced medical knowledge of how children are created, you cannot ever understand the meaning of the love I describe, and the same is true for faith and religion. You can possess the knowledge of every religious book on the face of the planet but you will not even know 1% of what it means to have faith.
