>>But that is your problem not mine because there is ample evidence to believe the Scriptures are divine in origin.That is why we can say these are eternal, unchanging truths....<<
Ofcourse, what one person sees as "proof of God" someone else sees as "proof of evolution". The main problem is to prove the existence of God for someone who doesn't believe that the bible is the Word of God.
In essence, ALL "proofs" of the existence of God depend on believing that the bible is the Word of God. So, all arguements for God are circular arguements. There is no proof that does NOT depend on belief in God. After all, if there was proof all people (including those of other faiths) would already be Christians. The fact that they are NOT means that Christians cannot prove that God exists.
>>Love, goodness, and Jesus are all three examples of "eternal, unchanging truths" that you are looking for.
*Since God is love therefore love is eternal for God is eternal.
*God is good therefore goodness is eternal since God is eternal (His attributes never change).
*Jesus is the truth and we know Jesus is God so Jesus is eternal.<<
Ocourse, believing that these are eternal truths depends on belief in God. If you don't believe in God, then you don't believe these are eternal truths.
Belief is a way of coping with all the data pouring into the brain every second. Belief shapes the interpretation of those signals, and the signals shape your belief. Thus, it is a feedback-loop, much like all other signal processing-modelling activities. Ofcourse, some beliefs shape the interpretation more than others, and some beliefs shape the interpretation so strongly that contradictory information is "weeded" out of the signals such that only belief-confirming data remains. Thus, belief shapes (or rather: distords) your view of reality.
And this goes for all beliefs, even belief in Santa or the Tooth Faery. Some are just stronger than others, and some have so much "fail safe devices" that every contradictory signal can be explained in such a way that it seems to confirm that belief (ie: The Devil did it!) rather than contradict it.
However, to eliminate unwanted beliefs from shaping the interpretation, science has devised ways to do away with beliefs and biases which might distord data interpretation. This has been a very powerfull way to detect the working mechanisms of reality, although no matter what belief is still powerfull and cannot be dismissed that easily. Nevertheless, peer-review, double-blind experiments, discussion conferences and other mechanisms do well in exposing/eliminating beliefs/biases from data interpretation.
This is why religion fears science so much, since science is a way to interpret data without the influence of belief. And ALL religions rely on belief to shape the interpretation and safe-guard that belief from being destroyed by contradictory data. When you take away all those safe-guards, all those "collored glasses" and those "blindfolds", what is left is ususally less than nothing.
Ofcourse, some religions are far better at avoiding taking off those "blindfolds". These religions are the ones who survive longest because followers are very hard to convert from their chosen religion. Nevertheless, atheists and other non-religious groups are gaining numbers FAST. I just hope that those religious groups are NOT going to start a fight about it, because the LAST thing this world needs is another Holy War, resulting in the banning of science by those religions. We NEED science, because our world can no longer survive without it.
Face it, most of this world would be better off without religious influences determining peoples choises.
