Kosh

As with the infamous "Trilemna" problam (C.S. Lewis, and later Josh McDowell), there are a few more options conveniently overlooked. Such as:

3. He could have been crazy
4. He could have been coning them
5. The story is a mythical fabrication and there were no "neighbors"

I'm sure there are others. But the main point that Xians need to start understanding is that things are rarely a simple dichotomy.

Doug Shaver

OK, I can work with that.

So, I'm Noah's neighbor. I see him building a humongous boat, and I ask him, "Noah, why are you building that thing?" And he says to me, "God told me that he is going to flood the world and kill everything in it."

Next question: Why should I not have believed that he was out of his mind? What evidence could he have shown me that God had actually told him such a thing?

Kosh

I think I like Bill Cosby's version better:

Neighbor: Hey Noah, what's with the big boat?

Noah: <woogah, woogah (sawing sound)> Can't tell ya!

Neighbor: How 'bout a hint?

Noah: Ok,..... how long can you tread water?

Doug Shaver

If you're going to try winning a debate by accusing your opponent of lying, the least you could do is offer some proof.

Amaleq13

It would have been impossible for you to believe him because that would have lead to your survival and that would have thwarted the Will Of God.

pharoah

I strongly believe that Falwell, Robertson, Reed, Bush, Dobson and other leaders of the Religious Right are cynical manipulators of the gullible and are about as far from "righteous" as you can get. I'm sure that you think otherwise for at least some of them. Furthermore, I think that the self-righteous holier-than-thou attitudes of the Religious Right strongly parallels the very thing that Jesus condemned with the Pharisees. Again, I doubt that you'll agree with me.

Is that proof that everyone doesn't see eye-to-eye on righteousness? :devil3:

Tigers!

We can simplify your options - I was assuming that
your 3. goes into my 1.
your 4. goes into my 2.
We are assuming for the purposes of arguing that the story is based on actual happenings.

Tigers!

Why believe that he is out of his mind? Why the automatic rejection of anything new or unusual? If you believe that people are the font of all knowledge then such a knee-jerk reaction is perhaps ineventible.
It points out once again that as people we don't like to be confronted with anything that shakes our prejudices or preconceptions. We want the world to continue as it always has. Nice sentiment but rarely achievable.

NZSkep

Ok lets assume your neighbour starts building a huge boat and says god told him a flood was gonna happen and he was the chosen man to continue the human race. You never met him before (you just moved in) so you have no way of knowing whether he is 'righteous' (whatever that means). Would you believe him? I sure wouldn't. I'd think he was totally crazy. Why would this not apply back when this supposedly really did happen?

aChristian

I already explained this to you in my earlier post. Everyone knows right from wrong naturally from the conscience that God has given them. Some have seared their conscience more than others, but I'll bet even most people on this forum have not perverted themselves so much that they can't see that getting drunk and lying naked is not as righteous as remaining sober and clothed.