The devil

Smileless2012

Intelligence has no bearing on this. Where there's a belief in God there is also the acceptance of the existence of the devil, belief comes from faith and not a lack of one's intellectual ability.

That is not actually true, Smileless2012. Ie plenty who believe in some kind of god or a spiritual life but not the devil. In this context, we are given choices as it were towards reaching for compassion or reaching for its opposite, but God has no direct effect on what individuals choose.

You see, if children are taught to question what they are told they can ask "What do you mean by 'God'?"

Or they may ask "Do you mean 'devil' like some big dangerous supernatural person, or do you mean a fanciful name for wickedness and cruelty?

Smileless I totally agree.

What about people who read and believe their horoscopes every day?

Intelligence has no bearing on this. Where there's a belief in God there is also the acceptance of the existence of the devil, belief comes from faith and not a lack of one's intellectual ability.

The older generation is on the whole not as well educated as younger people, although there are exceptions. For one thing, the younger people spend longer in full time education.

Whether we have a god or a sense of the spiritual or not it is a human choice to choose good or evil.

Is hard to discern what's right in many personal decisions however.

I’m sure a psychologist would have a smarter way of describing this, but I’ve come to believe that if you try and do no harm, whether by word, deed or by accident, then you stay on the lighter side of life. If you do harm, in whatever way, then you enter the dark side.
What is the light side? It’s largely free of questioning your conscience, of a feeling of freedom from guilt, it’s being able to sleep soundly. The dark side? A sense of turmoil, of haunting feelings, of constant justification for your actions.
Life isn’t as simple, I do know that, but I find life easier living in the light as best I can.
There’s no science in this answer, it being only a relation of my experience.

I'm always surprised that quite so many adults believe in god and the devil. To me, it's just the same as believing in the tooth fairy or father christmas - so childlike. What is the difference, do tell?

Don't refer to the popular, worldwide belief in these entities, though, as some explanation. It's easily accounted for, by psychologists, as simply the way we humans think, that's all.

ExperiencedNotOld
Sorry, Your comments were well meant and appreciated.
The remark about not needing a lesson was for Elegran. I felt I was being talked to as if I was at school.
I may not be a scientist like volver but it doesn't mean I know nothing!. I've had many discussions on evolution/existence of God.

volver

ExperiencedNotOld

Yes, I think denial is a valid position to take. It’s only brought into question when someone queries the denier’s belief. That makes two separate beliefs, right or wrong either way.
Have patience. Try to discuss not shout down. Someone you may think a fool may think the same of you.

Do stop trying to tell us how to behave ExperiencedNotOld.

I’m attempting to stimulate discussion or trying to. And to consider other viewpoints, even if they differ. If you take it as telling you what to do, so be it. Seems to make sense in my reasonable opinion.

ExperiencedNotOld

Yes, I think denial is a valid position to take. It’s only brought into question when someone queries the denier’s belief. That makes two separate beliefs, right or wrong either way.
Have patience. Try to discuss not shout down. Someone you may think a fool may think the same of you.

Do stop trying to tell us how to behave ExperiencedNotOld.

nadateturbe

Experienced I get your point about reasonableness but I have already said I understand theory. I don't need a lesson.

I didn’t question that for one moment.

Yes, I think denial is a valid position to take. It’s only brought into question when someone queries the denier’s belief. That makes two separate beliefs, right or wrong either way.
Have patience. Try to discuss not shout down. Someone you may think a fool may think the same of you.

At one time,years and years ago , the devil was popularly supposed to be a person that occupied space like other persons do.

People used to be superstitious and believed real ghosts , the Devil, and stuff like that.

The devil brought me back... 😜

Elegran says that A scientist's "theory" has been subjected to a lot of research and observation, and has stood up to being tested, the logic and mathematics involved have been repeatedly done by different people, and the experiments have been repeated again and again, with the same results.

But someone thinks that saying "but I just don't believe it, it can't possibly be true" is just as valid a position to take.

Ho hum.

Yes, I believe you! However, that wasn't posted for its own sake, but as one example among many of how a scientific theory is not just a blind guess by someone with imagination, it is the result of a lot of research and repeated testing.

Experienced I get your point about reasonableness but I have already said I understand theory. I don't need a lesson.

So much for a break! Elegran thank you for educating me about things you assume I don't know.
And would you believe I got the geometry prize at school.

Personification means "giving human qualities to an abstract idea," as in a movie villain who is the personification of evil.

Thank you Elegran, a post offering evidence for consideration, not an argument where son rove is shouted down.
I seem to have a one woman crusade for reasonableness here, but all welcome to join in!

nadateturbe

Still, a theory is not a fact.

A layman's "theory" is not a fact. It is an unproved possibility.
A scientists theory has been subjected to innumerable people trying to unprove it by exposing it to every test that can be applied to it, and duplicating the results of those tests on many other occasions.

A scientist's "theory" has been subjected to a lot of research and observation, and has stood up to being tested, the logic and mathematics involved have been repeatedly done by different people, and the experiments have been repeated again and again, with the same results.

Most people have heard of Pythagoras. He noticed that triangles with one 90-degree right-angle seemed to have a certain relationship in the lengths of the three sides. So he researched it for years, drawing right-angled triangles, measuring the sides, and analysing the relationships of their lengths. What he came up with was "Pythagoras' Theorem"

He proved what has been drummed into schoolchildren ever since - that if you multiple the length of the long side (opposite the right-angle) by itself, the result is the same as multiplying the length of each of the other sides by itself and adding those two numbers together. That is "The square on the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides This has been proved every time it was done.

At one time (up to recently, anyway!) I could have taken you through every step of the proof. To follow that proof, you would have had to already know some other facts to do with geometry and/or algebra, but I can assure you that it works.

There are more than 30 different ways to prove it, Some are here - brilliant.org/wiki/proofs-of-the-pythagorean-theorem/

I'm not taking part any more.

I guess I could just excuse myself by saying the devil made me do it.

Volver you asked me questions which you know I won't have the energy to answer, as I've explained to you.
Having a break now. Save my energy for Octordle. 🙂

ExperiencedNotOld

I wonder when what could be seen as robust challenge becomes plain rudeness? Or is it just rude?
Example: As I said, you don't know what a theory is.

Just what I thought. Some folk think it's OK to be rude or insulting.

Which is why my name on GN is Nadeteturbe.

As I said, you don't know what a theory is.

I do.