You’re right let me rephrase that. My empirical evidence is not going to have the same gravity as yours to you because faith is personal and what stands out to one person may not stand out to another. Thank you for helping me to clarify myself.
Please define how you are using this particular term. What does “empirical evidence” mean?
Also … in another thread this was equated to trust.
So trust is personal. Having reason to trust something is not. There are good reasons and bad reasons. There are also methods to establish confidence or trust in something.
Are you basically saying “I can’t convince you with good evidence and don’t expect you to believe me?”
If so - until you provide demonstrable evidence I don’t believe you (claims of Josh’s ability being “supernatural”? Or “deity”). I do trust that this form of confirmation bias is the source of your god belief.
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Would a video be more helpful?
She has limited control of her left arm hand, and finds it difficult to perform certain tasks, but she can speak, read and write. Her condition is not as severe as some others.
Well faith is useless for determining the validity of any claim. I treat all claims with an unbiased open mind, but I withhold belief if they are unsupported by sufficient objective evidence. I see no justification for treating religious beliefs any differently to any other beliefs claims or ideas.
If claims are unfalsifiable I will remain an agnostic, but of course still withhold belief, as it would be absurd to believe anything I could know nothing about, and of course I’d have to believe all such claims which simply isn’t possible, or be biased in favour of one over the others.
Unilateral cerebral palsy tends to be less severe if the person doesn’t have seizures. When she is older, it will probably limit her less. Thanks for sharing that with me.
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Just an aside. If you make another video, you know, something you’d think I might learn from, make use of the automatic captions. I am deaf and I believe no miracle is ever going to restore my hearing. Thanks.
I am appreciating your posts. Please continue.
That’s a great idea!!! Thank you! That is precisely what I’m saying!!! No matter what you believe because I’m not attacking that or trying to… There is hope.
I was told my son would never do certain things. I was told he was physically incapable. I have the brain scans to prove what they were saying should have been true and it was up until this year.
All of a sudden Josh started being able to do…certain things like clap.
He started to talk more. And when he did he started saying things that I know for a fact he didn’t learn from me or anyone in my household.
My daughters are 6 and 8. They are homeschooled also and have always been.
We don’t watch TV.
I don’t need a peer-reviewed study to know that this is unusual.
There are certain things that Josh is always been able to do, such as know what is on the radio before you turn it on and recite it like an announcer or know people underlying emotions because of his chromoethesia that makes it easier for me to believe certain things. I’m in full awareness of that.
Again thank you for the idea. He’s just now wanted to be more open to sharing who he is. He’s never tried to do this his whole life until this year. I really appreciate everyone who is kind and patient.
Because people have so many questions he’s now interested in me being interested and y’all.
Again, I’m new with everything so please try to be patient. Captions are a great idea. I was thinking about if I made a YouTube video I might be able to make a live one where people can chat with him and ask questions. I am a poor middleman.
Fair enough, friend!
The assumption a miracle has occurred in my experience usually requires a number of common logical fallacies be invoked.
The most obvious is argumentum ad ignorantiam, where people assume that their perception of an event as wildly improbable, and having no explanation for it, means it is valid to ascribe supernatural cause. Of course this is by definition irrational, as the fallacy definition shows nothing is proved nor disproved because of a lack of contrary evidence, thus not knowing is all we can rationally say.
However, I would add that since we know natural phenomena occur all the time and as an objective fact, whereas no one has ever demonstrated any objective evidence for anything supernatural, it’s ironic to invoke probability here.
Then there are post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacies, often assigned to prayers, where simply because one event precedes another it is simply assumed to be the cause without any objective evidence at all.
You appear to be using the first fallacy, citing how unusual something is, and implying there is “no other explanation” which of course doesn’t rationally validate any claim.
With these discussions theists often make a slew of anecdotal claims, that must be taken at face value as well.
Can doctors ever be wrong? How are you ruling out something we can be fairly certain occurs all the time, in favour of something never objectively evidenced once?
So it wasn’t true, again the addition of unevidenced supernatural events is falling foul of Occam’s razor for me, and is quite obviously an irrational assumption. Is it possible the doctors and the scans were just plain wrong? It is isn’t it.
I find this claim a little dubious, unless you have an eidetic memory, and even then, what are the odds he’s learned them elsewhere, as compared to the odds something supernatural has occurred. However this misses the point, as again the most you can say is something has happened you can’t explain, it’s therefore irrational to make any claims.
I think you do, since otherwise you’re simply making assumptions about its probability. That aside, unusual things occur all the time, so what? How does this evidence anything?
Well that’s a falsifiable claim, so it could easily be tested.
Hi Sheldon! You sleep like I do and You are right. It remains to be seen. Like I said I will see if he will make a video today.
I can see why some people would be incredulous.
I have a video on faith that I made.
I posted about it elsewhere.
I’m slow to get started because I’m not very good at that sort of thing but someone asked me to make a video.
Please give me a moment to get started. and please do give me your feedback.
Everything I said was from the heart.
I know way want to belittle or insult anyone.
I prevented myself from a faith in God because of people that claim to be Christian and we’re actually very judgmental.
Jesus said I am the way the truth and the light. John 14:6
He also said judge not let’s see be judged. Matthew 7:1.
To be a true christian, you have to follow the teachings of Christ.
It can’t just be a name only.
There’s lots of people that will do that anyway though.
It’s like someone saying they eat healthy but actually they sneak around and go to McDonald’s.
I’m perfectly fine with Josh being regular. But to not pay attention to the things that make him peculiar is to ignore a part of him a big part of him. I don’t have some of the same limitations as other people because I see him everyday and interact with him.
he knows what’s on the radio before you turn it on and can recite it like an announcer.
I don’t know if it’s because he can pick up the waves or what.
There’s no study that I would care to put him in to find out. He has had nothing but negative experiences with hospitals and conventional medicine.
The reason he has seizures now is because he was prescribed triple the dosage of a heavy muscle relaxer. Neurology appointments are every 6 months. He had a seizure and we went straight to the hospital. We were snowed and the hospital had no supply of his medicine. On top of overdosing he went into withdrawals in the hospital and had to be given medicine for the withdrawals.
Right now I am just trying to let him experience the world the way he wants to. With covid his already small world got smaller.
I’m here actually because the only person that has really understood all the things that Josh is having me look at without bias has been an atheist friend of mine.
I thought and perhaps still do think that I could meet people that would help me understand in a well-rounded way the truth.
I believe the truth lies somewhere in between doubt and the understood reality.
That may sound kind of new age and that’s okay.
I’ve realized much like a lot of you guys that what I was taught about the world is not actually the case.
A lot of concepts need to be updated.
I’ll give you an example.
When the human genome project was conducted, world history needed to be reviewed and corrected.
We need to start reviewing what we know against what we’ve previously thought and find the truth there.
That’s my belief anyway.
We shouldn’t be held back by stereotypes and misunderstandings.
Do you know how many books were in the library of Alexandria? 500,000!
There are over 1 million printed books not including periodicals, ebooks, magazines, newspapers that exist today! When I realized that it blew my mind! We are living in a most remarkable time.
We have the ability to understand concepts that we never were before. We can understand why an unknown Force might have been given a personification.
Feminine masculine, negative positive, it’s science and allegory.
I don’t have to believe in an old man in the clouds to believe there is a force beyond me that affects me.
The moon, affects the waves. Affects my physical body. There are lots of studies for that.
The wind moves the trees.
Breath fills my lungs.
I’m not saying that the concept of a Creator is supernatural. I feel like the concept of a Creator is natural.
When my youngest daughter was born, I had to leave to go across town. I had not really left her alone with anyone before, but I didn’t want to trek her all around.
All of a sudden I started to lactate. And I had this feeling that my daughter needed me. I called my husband and sure enough my daughter was crying hysterically.
He had fed her but she was still hungry. I was able to tell him and he was able to fulfill the need.
I stopped lactating. (Sorry to use the word twice if you’re sensitive)
Technically, that would be considered supernatural. But it is completely natural. I’ve since had lots of mothers talk to me about similar experiences with very small children.
As a child grows and becomes less dependent on you for survival the feeling changes. Except with Josh. With Josh I still have that feeling.
I’ve decided to not let the perceptions of a different person define how I’m going to believe.
Does that make sense?
Lol! Well - you’re a woman. Trust me, lactating is a word that shouldn’t offend anyone. Use it, defend it.
I’ve got three boys. I understand the almost “unexplainable” link felt.
Once, they were outside (around 5,6 and 9). Rural country. I got an overwhelming “bad feeling” - something was wrong. Got in my vehicle and just drove to them. They were on a back road about a mile away - the youngest had fallen and twisted up his ankle. They were incredibly thankful when I arrived with the car.
Thanks, I really appreciate that. As I said, we need to progress. The world isn’t there yet but I have hope. Voiced perspectives like that help give me that hope.
So … my story could be chalked up to just a “link or tuned in”. At the time, I didn’t even know “how I knew”.
BUT…perhaps not hearing them in the yard for awhile (they were allowed in the bush around the house where they had a fort). Perhaps knowing that on the other side of our property runs old roads. Perhaps knowing which road lays on the other side of the “fort area”.
So I “knew” - but it was my brain 
sending me my “mommy protective signals” for her offspring.
I want to add that many a time my mommy alarm went off and I’d check on the boys and they were fine.
As for your son, Josh, I do not have the experience of caring for someone with his condition. Nor do I have the responsibility of knowing that one of my boys would need a lifetime of full-time care.
From what I observed on the video, he appears happy, clean, fed and loved. You (and hopefully you have supports) are responsible for this.
Of course you don’t. BUT so far you have not provided evidence which demonstrates ‘god did’ it.
This is a common problem believers have. In my opinion it’s because religious belief is based is based on faith, which is defined as ‘belief in things not seen’ . Reason and facts are antithetical to religious faith. Jesus himself is recorded as saying"–blessed are those who have not seen yet believe. (John 20:29)
Most religions claim to be accepting of science. However, that’s a very disingenuous claim. Religions accept science until it contradicts dogma, then the science is simply rejected as wrong . The most glaring example I can think of is the fundamentalist attitude to evolution. Further, when such people to argue the point, they invariably show they have no understanding of the science or reasoned discussion. EG those poster boys for fundamentalism Ray Comfort, Ken Ham and little Kirky Cameron
It’s truly wonderful that your son has progressed so much. I am sincerely pleased for you. That god
almost certainly did not do it makes it no less wonderful for the effects on both of your lives.
There must constantly be millions of people praying for god to help them .As a far as I’m aware only a tiny fraction of those people’s prayers seem to be answered. I truly do not mean to be unkind: What makes you so worthy and all those millions of people unworthy?
“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?”
― Epicurus
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