Do you believe in God?

[Hun200kmh]

Either God is Omniscient or we have free-will, but for the two to be true is contradictory.

@Scaff I don't think there's any contradiction there. The fact that God knows what my choice will be doesn't take from the fact that I had that choice. Knowledge of something doesn't make it mine. Many times I do this with my kids, I know what they will do but I want them to do it by their own action/choice and not because I told them to do it or because I told them I knew that would be the outcome.

Still, there's a debate within catholicism (possibly within christianity) on this and I have my own doubts on the entire "predestination/omniscience/free will" concepts. I consider myself a bit of a free thinker on this (and other) subjects, but in any case that doesn't affect my belief in the existence of God.

The analogy I've used previously is it's like we're following a script -- what we say and do is known (by God) in advance. The fact that we don't know we're following a script doesn't change the fact that we are. Not a perfect analogy, but it gets the point across I think.

@BobK not sure if that's a good analogy. Does the fact that you know what happened before make history a "script"? According to the traditional concepts on Omniscience God knows the future exactly in the same way as he knows the past. But future and past aren't a script, only because someone knows them, unless the people in those events didn't have a choice to do differently.

 

[Scaff]

@Scaff I don't think there's any contradiction there. The fact that God knows what my choice will be doesn't take from the fact that I had that choice. Knowledge of something doesn't make it mine. Many times I do this with my kids, I know what they will do but I want them to do it by their own action/choice and not because I told them to do it or because I told them I knew that would be the outcome.

If God know what choice you will make then the outcome of that choice is already determined, as such its not a choice, simply the illusion of one, as you were never going to take the other option (or God would have known that).

Still, there's a debate within catholicism (possibly within christianity) on this and I have my own doubts on the entire "predestination/omniscience/free will" concepts. I consider myself a bit of a free thinker on this (and other) subjects, but in any case that doesn't affect my belief in the existence of God.

No issue with that at all.

 

[huskeR32]

The fact that God knows what my choice will be doesn't take from the fact that I had that choice.

Yes it does.

If God is omniscient, then, at best, humans only have the illusion of free will.

 

[RacerTed]

@RacerTed let me ask you; are you afraid to not believe in God (or doubt Him)? Or do you genuinely and wholeheartedly believe in His existence?

A thousand years ago, the plausibility of God was much more realistic given humans' total lack of understanding (as a whole, there were of course many exceptions - philosophers, thinkers, scientists, astronomers and so on). But as time goes by we are learning more and more about the Universe, Earth, our own species, evolution, physics and so on.

The more we learn, the less plausible God is becoming. Christianity is being painted into a corner of borderline nonsense. Believers in the Bible are more and more claiming that the verses within are "metaphors" rather than literal instruction, because as we advance as a species we realise that things like slavery, marrying your rape victim, infanticide, subjugation of women, mass genocide (of which God is guilty) etc - I could go on - are utterly absurd.
Christians pick and choose which verses to take literally in order to align with modern law and thinking, and those verses are being slowly but surely ruled out. The Bible is so primitive in its entirety that eventually the whole thing will be known as a work of total fiction.

Then what?

I'm 99.99% sure of what I believe, but yes I will admit to a .01% of doubt on occasion. But the conclusions I come to after looking at the complexity of all this is that it just couldn't have happened by chance.

Regarding your list of atrocities there:

Slavery-I've heard a black pastor (Tony Evans) on the radio say that the slavery in the Bible is more like indentured servitude.
Marrying your rape victim-Doesn't exist, sorry. There is a verse that says that if a man entices a woman to lay with him he is to marry her. Rape is a capital offense in the OT.
Infanticide-I know this is splitting hairs, but on the rare occasion that God commanded that it was in judgement to wipe out a people group-that was committing child sacrifice-some things I do scratch my head at and this is one of them. I know this would also be splitting hairs, but you do have to differentiate between what would be a commandment and what would be a historical account, one of the things (I forget who on here) likes to bring up about the killing of everyone except the young women, which was said by Moses. The reason Moses gave (and he learned this in Egypt) was so that the young men wouldn't grow up to take revenge on them.
Subjugation of Women-The Bible doesn't teach this. The Bible does teach that we have roles to play on our family 'team' if you will, and every team has a captain. Have you not heard of Ephesians 5:25 that says 'husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it'?

I'm sure you're wondering why I still believe even with all that (what we in the faith would call) judgement going on.

Old Testament prophecy-Ezekiel told years before of how the city of Tyre would be besieged by country after country, starting with Babylon, and two centuries later continuing with Alexander the Great (who was spoken of at length in the book of Daniel, two centuries prior also).
Speaking of Alexander, the book of Daniel gives great detail of his conquest all the way up to how his kingdom is divided into four parts at his death.

The book of Daniel also accurately describes characteristics of (and two of them Daniel lived to see, so if you roll your eyes I'll understand) of the four major empires that ruled back then: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Roman.

Toward the end of Daniel there is a verse-Dan 12:4 'But thou O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED.

I know there are those that say that the book of Daniel was written after some if not all of what we know of history, but you're not getting it written past that last verse.
For all of recorded history, man traveled and communicated by animal, wind and foot. Until the power of steam, just a little over two hundred years ago. And that was only a water pump. In the last 200+ years, we've gone from the way it was done for millennia, to all the wonderful tech we see to day. Roughly 60 years after the Wright Brothers fly, men are on the moon, roughly 80 years after the first motor car is patented, we have the height of automotive engineering, the Ford GT.

As for all of the scientific discovery that is ongoing, you won't ever get past how it all got here to begin with for one.
Two, an honest person of faith finds no trouble with science. I'm with Keppler who said he was 'thinking God's thoughts after him'. In other words, all you are doing is finding out how God did it.

Or geneticist and former atheist Dr. Francis Collins, who said (among many other things) The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshipped in the cathedral or in the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, intricate and beautiful.

Or this, 'God is most certainly not threatened by science; he made it all possible'.

He's said many other things on faith, but I'm not gonna type them all out.

What happens when you end up on your knees before Jesus Christ, look over his shoulder and see a jar on the shelf just past his chemistry set with your name on it?

Then what?

 

[Scaff]

I'm 99.99% sure of what I believe, but yes I will admit to a .01% of doubt on occasion. But the conclusions I come to after looking at the complexity of all this is that it just couldn't have happened by chance.

Regarding your list of atrocities there:

Slavery-I've heard a black pastor (Tony Evans) on the radio say that the slavery in the Bible is more like indentured servitude.

Citation required (because its not at all) and does that make servitude OK in your book?

Marrying your rape victim-Doesn't exist, sorry. There is a verse that says that if a man entices a woman to lay with him he is to marry her. Rape is a capital offense in the OT.

Nope, nope and nope.

http://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/22-28.htm

Pick your version of the Bible, its rape.

Infanticide-I know this is splitting hairs, but on the rare occasion that God commanded that it was in judgement to wipe out a people group-that was committing child sacrifice-some things I do scratch my head at and this is one of them. I know this would also be splitting hairs, but you do have to differentiate between what would be a commandment and what would be a historical account, one of the things (I forget who on here) likes to bring up about the killing of everyone except the young women, which was said by Moses. The reason Moses gave (and he learned this in Egypt) was so that the young men wouldn't grow up to take revenge on them.

Infanticide is infanticide, its murder of the innocent, but its quite telling that you attempt to justify it.

Personally I'm of the opinion that the murder of children is not justified in any circumstance at all.

Subjugation of Women-The Bible doesn't teach this. The Bible does teach that we have roles to play on our family 'team' if you will, and every team has a captain. Have you not heard of Ephesians 5:25 that says 'husbands love your wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself for it'?

Given that the Bible does state that women can be forced to marry a rapist then yes it does teach this. The OT also bars women from the priesthood, bans them from entering temple during there period and Jesus didn't exactly come close to gender equality in his group of companions.

I'm sure you're wondering why I still believe even with all that (what we in the faith would call) judgement going on.

Valid questions not judgement.

Old Testament prophecy-Ezekiel told years before of how the city of Tyre would be besieged by country after country, starting with Babylon, and two centuries later continuing with Alexander the Great (who was spoken of at length in the book of Daniel, two centuries prior also).
Speaking of Alexander, the book of Daniel gives great detail of his conquest all the way up to how his kingdom is divided into four parts at his death.

The book of Daniel also accurately describes characteristics of (and two of them Daniel lived to see, so if you roll your eyes I'll understand) of the four major empires that ruled back then: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Roman.

Toward the end of Daniel there is a verse-Dan 12:4 'But thou O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED.

Nope again, well unless you indulge in some rather creative trains of reasoning.

http://www.exchristovoiceofreason.com/2014/07/the-destruction-of-tyre-what-ezekiel.html

I know there are those that say that the book of Daniel was written after some if not all of what we know of history, but you're not getting it written past that last verse.
For all of recorded history, man traveled and communicated by animal, wind and foot. Until the power of steam, just a little over two hundred years ago. And that was only a water pump. In the last 200+ years, we've gone from the way it was done for millennia, to all the wonderful tech we see to day. Roughly 60 years after the Wright Brothers fly, men are on the moon, roughly 80 years after the first motor car is patented, we have the height of automotive engineering, the Ford GT.

As for all of the scientific discovery that is ongoing, you won't ever get past how it all got here to begin with for one.
Two, an honest person of faith finds no trouble with science. I'm with Keppler who said he was 'thinking God's thoughts after him'. In other words, all you are doing is finding out how God did it.

Or geneticist and former atheist Dr. Francis Collins, who said (among many other things) The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshipped in the cathedral or in the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, intricate and beautiful.

Or this, 'God is most certainly not threatened by science; he made it all possible'.

He's said many other things on faith, but I'm not gonna type them all out.

What happens when you end up on your knees before Jesus Christ, look over his shoulder and see a jar on the shelf just past his chemistry set with your name on it?

Then what?

Now aside from some evidence needed to show that God is not threatened by science; he made it all possible (and he sure got a bit wrong in that regard in the Bible) you are mis-representing Dr. Francis Collins.

He described himself as a casual agnostic, not an atheist; and the two are very different.

"In an interview with National Geographic in February 2007, writer John Horgan criticized Collins' description of agnosticism as "a cop-out". In response, Collins clarified his position on agnosticism so as to exclude earnest agnostics who have considered the evidence and still don't find an answer. I was reacting to the agnosticism I see in the scientific community, which has not been arrived at by a careful examination of the evidence. I went through a phase when I was a casual agnostic, and I am perhaps too quick to assume that others have no more depth than I did."

You also fail to mention that he had far more time for rational thinkers regardless of belief (or lack of it) that those who accept blindly and twist and contort to force a truth. Which is why he was close friends with Christopher Hitchens (yes that one) and highly critical of ID and Creationism ("science class ought to be about science, and opening the door to religious perspectives in that setting is a big mistake.").
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Collins#Opinions
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0702/voices.html


In the space of a single post you have attempted to justify rape, slavery and murder; while miss-representing a fellow Christian.

All to defend a book of un-proven providence (much of it borrowed and/or inaccurate).

Yet atheists get accused of being the ones who have no source of moral guidance!

 

[RikkiGT-R]

Alright, I'll give you credit for a very well written reply. And you're right I'm probably misquoting or misunderstanding many things in the Bible. It does depend on which version you read of course, and I'm certainly no scholar.

The problem for me is - not only is the Bible absurd in it's entirety, but there are so many contradictions and insane stories that it's impossible to take any of it seriously.

GEN 22. God commanding Abraham to kill his only son to "prove" he loves him. In modern times Abraham would have been put in an asylum. Never mind the fact God waited until the last minute and was basically like "WAIT!! I'm kidding. Don't kill him, I see you do love you..." (what a lunatic).

GEN 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.
JAS 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

EXO 15:3 The Lord is a man of WAR.
ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all.

JOH 10:30 I [Jesus] and my father are one.
JOH 14:28 My father is greater than I.

ISA 14:21 The children shall be put to death for the sins of their fathers.
DEU 24:16 The children shall not be put to death for their fathers. All men shall be put to death for his own sins.

JER 13:14 I (God) will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy. Smite Amalek. Slay all men, women, children and babies.
JAS 5:11 The LORD is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
1CH 16:34 For his mercy endureth forever.
PSA 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
1JO 4:16 God is Love.

I could go on but you get the idea. The Bible is utterly FILLED with complete contradictions. And then you come to the biggest pile of nonsense of them all: Noah's Ark. For any sane person to believe that a man and his moderately sized family built a vessel capable of carrying approx 13 million animals is absolutely crazy (approx 6.5 million species of land animals currently on Earth, one of each sex). If you believe in the Bible, you have to accept the whole thing as fact, otherwise it falls apart. It's supposed to be "Gospel" and thus infallible. But it's garbage, pure and simple.

 

[Imari]

Many times I do this with my kids, I know what they will do but I want them to do it by their own action/choice and not because I told them to do it or because I told them I knew that would be the outcome.

But you don't know. You have a really good chance of predicting what your kids will do because you know them well and you've trained them. But you can never be absolutely sure that you know exactly what they will do.

Be honest, there's been at least one occasion where your kids did something that you didn't expect.

 

[unit-one]

This one's interesting.

 

[Lain]

Either God is Omniscient or we have free-will, but for the two to be true is contradictory

...or neither.

Our brains are computers. There might be some degree of chance involved in its decision making process due to quantum mechanical effects, but probably not much... and even if our brains had some kind of quantum mechanical "free will" engine that ensured that all possible choices we might be likely to consider in a situation had exactly equal probabilities of being chosen, I personally wouldn't consider that to be true free will in the classical sense. It would just be random... or maybe we'd just be perfectly indecisive.

But of course, there's certainly all kinds of holes in the idea of an omniscient god besides just the free will argument... then again, there's also all kinds of holes in the idea of god in general, omniscient or otherwise.

 

[Scaff]

...or neither.

Our brains are computers. There might be some degree of chance involved in its decision making process due to quantum mechanical effects, but probably not much... and even if our brains had some kind of quantum mechanical "free will" engine that ensured that all possible choices we might be likely to consider in a situation had exactly equal probabilities of being chosen, I personally wouldn't consider that to be true free will in the classical sense. It would just be random... or maybe we'd just be perfectly indecisive.

But of course, there's certainly all kinds of holes in the idea of an omniscient god besides just the free will argument... then again, there's also all kinds of holes in the idea of god in general, omniscient or otherwise.

Quite true, but I was speaking in regard to 'A God's in this cobtext, however it does then lead to the are we in a simulation discussion.

 

[Pillo-san]

Is this thread still alive? holy moly..

This must have been discussed here before but recently I stumbled on something interesting on Youtube.
Ask a Christian/Jew/Muslim if they believe if the world is flat or round. If they say, round, then you can flat out call them heathens You can not pick and chose stuff from the Bible or what ever your holy scriptures are that suit you for the moment.
I do not have a TV so my entertainment is Youtube and science sites. As you know there is plethora of interesting stuff on Youtube. Everything from stupid alien/time travel/crap conspiracies to Quantum mechanic to astro psychics/cosmos to orthodox views on religion and spirituality to alternative views like gnosticism.

But If you read about the Abrahamic religions and their view about the world it is clearly flat. The Ancient Alien thing that was so exiting that Zecharia Sitchin claimed seems as pure crap when you investigate for a couple of hours, to bad. So early man believed in flat earth and if you are a faithful believer in the Abrahamic God you should believe in flat earth.

You, who believes in God, what say you on the matter? And no, I am an agnostic to be honest and I am not a flat earther even though I find it very refreshing and interesting to watch, right now my nr1 conspiracy subject to watch on youtube, well right now I watch all that crap about the American Presidential election so that is my nr1 entertainment right now

Alright, I'll give you credit for a very well written reply. And you're right I'm probably misquoting or misunderstanding many things in the Bible. It does depend on which version you read of course, and I'm certainly no scholar.

The problem for me is - not only is the Bible absurd in it's entirety, but there are so many contradictions and insane stories that it's impossible to take any of it seriously.

GEN 22. God commanding Abraham to kill his only son to "prove" he loves him. In modern times Abraham would have been put in an asylum. Never mind the fact God waited until the last minute and was basically like "WAIT!! I'm kidding. Don't kill him, I see you do love you..." (what a lunatic).

GEN 22:1 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham.
JAS 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man.

EXO 15:3 The Lord is a man of WAR.
ROM 15:33 Now the God of peace be with you all.

JOH 10:30 I [Jesus] and my father are one.
JOH 14:28 My father is greater than I.

ISA 14:21 The children shall be put to death for the sins of their fathers.
DEU 24:16 The children shall not be put to death for their fathers. All men shall be put to death for his own sins.

JER 13:14 I (God) will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy. Smite Amalek. Slay all men, women, children and babies.
JAS 5:11 The LORD is very pitiful and of tender mercy.
1CH 16:34 For his mercy endureth forever.
PSA 145:9 The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works.
1JO 4:16 God is Love.

I could go on but you get the idea. The Bible is utterly FILLED with complete contradictions. And then you come to the biggest pile of nonsense of them all: Noah's Ark. For any sane person to believe that a man and his moderately sized family built a vessel capable of carrying approx 13 million animals is absolutely crazy (approx 6.5 million species of land animals currently on Earth, one of each sex). If you believe in the Bible, you have to accept the whole thing as fact, otherwise it falls apart. It's supposed to be "Gospel" and thus infallible. But it's garbage, pure and simple.

about the contradictions, it is quite simple actually.

Either OT is a collection of stories of different Gods edited into one narrative of one diety/God because of how erratic the behaviour of the God/the deity in the OT.

or
It is like the Gnostics believed in, ie God in this case is called Demiurge(Yehova) an imperfect architect of our solid universe that came to be by a mistake of his mother Sophia that wanted to create life with out her fathers the true Gods permission that lives in the Pleroma.

or
It can be as follows, there is two bloodlines on earth. One is that of the Satan/fallen angles and the other is of the woman's seed ie Adams blood line(Gods People). OT is a turf war, Gods chosen people against those that should not be/exist. The giants/demigods/nephilim, half human-half angles that become demons/disembodied spirits when they die. In old testament all flesh got so corrupted by the fallen angles that there where to many hybrids/nephilim that only did evil things so that is why the flood wiped everything out. Except for Noah that was "perfect in his generation" and his family. Even after the flood the "evil" blood line survived and multiplied and was those that got genocided by the Hebrews. And yet it is that bloodline that is in control to this day ie kings and people in power positions.

I just gave you three explanations about the contradictions in the bible. I too found them a bit contradicting at first hehe but they have simple explanations if you look for them for a hour or so.

 

[BobK]

The perfect Word of a perfect God shouldn't have any contradictions that need explaining in the first place.

 

[Dotini]

The perfect Word of a perfect God shouldn't have any contradictions that need explaining in the first place.

Is there ANYTHING, anything at all, that is believed without contradiction, by virtually all? Certain portions of Leviticus(i.e., hygiene)??

 

[Dotini]

Belief in God is, or can be, a complex thing. It depends a lot upon assumptions. Especially about how you define or experience reality. It may be done in more than one way.



Belief and obedience to certain common ideas, laws or goals is necessary and useful to human civilization. As civilization develops here and there over time, of course the requirements to believe or behave in particular ways will change and evolve.

The questions is, is there - or could there be - one or more external intelligence(s) at work or play within any or all of these realities?

I would answer in a cautious affirmative. Purely for the sake of argument.

 

[Liquid]

Is there ANYTHING, anything at all, that is believed without contradiction, by virtually all?

That god is, in at least some way, superior to humanity.

Assuming you mean "all" as meaning "all people who are religious" and not just all people.

 

[Dotini]

That god is, in at least some way, superior to humanity.

Assuming you mean "all" as meaning "all people who are religious" and not just all people.

Perhaps it could mean either. Non-religious people may share beliefs and practices rooted in common with the religious. I think they do, and I'm looking for such without much contradictions. But I suggest not even all the religious would agree the God is entirely superior to humanity; some would see an evil or trickster face of God, or say God is more than one entity, but a plurality with many aspects. So contradictions exist in "superior to humanity". I would amend that to "external to humanity", and then be closer to agreement.

 

[Dotini]

An unexplained manifestation of something slightly external to our current understanding of reality.

 

[BobK]

An unexplained manifestation of something slightly external to our current understanding of reality.

And this is related to belief in God in some way?

 

[Dotini]

And this is related to belief in God in some way?

Indeed it does have religious implications. Or philosophical or scientific, depending on how you wish to examine it. If you do examine it, the Hessdalen phenomena, you find hints of an external intelligence at work (or play) which raises deep questions about our reality and who or what is sharing it. The mere fact of its existence should arouse the interest of the enquiring mind.

 

[huskeR32]

Indeed it does have religious implications.

Can you elucidate that a little bit?

 

[Dotini]

Can you elucidate that a little bit?

There are two basic belief systems on Earth, secular(/scientific) and religious. If there are other, unexplained intelligences interacting with and affecting humanity, then that affects our belief systems. Or should.

 

[huskeR32]

There are two basic belief systems on Earth, secular(/scientific) and religious. If there are other, unexplained intelligences interacting with and affecting humanity, then that affects our belief systems. Or should.

I'm asking what specific implication(s) this context-less video has for our thread here.

 

[Dotini]

I'm asking what specific implication(s) this context-less video has for our thread here.

Implications for the thread? Not sure what you mean. It adds some information and some questions that have not previously been discussed. It implies there may be more to reality than we currently know. It does not fit easily with our current belief systems. It could be disturbing. Perhaps I should have given a trigger warning?

 

[huskeR32]

Implications for the thread? Not sure what you mean.

What does it have to do with god(s)? If you think it refutes and/or supports something about religion, say it explicitly so that we can all have something to discuss.

It does not fit easily with our current belief systems.

Now you're getting closer. It would appear that you're hinting that these lights, if they are indeed some manifestation of intelligent extraterrestrials, pose a philosophical threat to some (all?) forms of theism.

Of course, you still haven't specified which beliefs are being challenged. And we definitely don't have any actual evidence of anything, which is going to make it really hard to get anywhere in a thread that already struggles with unfounded claims.

Perhaps I should have given a trigger warning?

I'm not even sure what this means.

Do nutty non-sequuntur "trigger" (god, what a stupid word that is) me into asking why I should care about them? I suppose they do.

 

[Dotini]

It would appear that you're hinting that these lights, if they are indeed some manifestation of intelligent extraterrestrials, pose a philosophical threat to some (all?) forms of theism.

Of course, you still haven't specified which beliefs are being challenged. And we definitely don't have any actual evidence of anything, which is going to make it really hard to get anywhere in a thread that already struggles with unfounded claims.

The lights are clearly not extraterrestrial. They are indigenous to a particular fjord and valley in Norway. But strongly resemble UFO sightings worldwide.You have clear scientific evidence that they exist, investigated for many years by university scientists and students from several Euro countries with an array of permanently installed instruments. Sometimes the lights take the shape of metallic craft. Physical traces exist in the form of sizeable sections of the ground being excavated in geometrical pattern . The speed at which the lights (identified as plasma) can move and maneuver make most explanations a little uncomfortable. The bible makes reference to similar lights/flames in several OT texts, but most elaborately in Enoch. The Koran describes Djinn (genies) in several places as beings of smokeless fire (plasma). The Djinn are described as having their own will and agenda. They are not considered to be angels.

Edit:
Please see Surah Ar-Rahman 55:15, Surah Al-Hijr 15:26-42

 

[PeterJB]

Are there any recorded sightings of these lights in the Middle East then?

 

[Dotini]

Are there any recorded sightings of these lights in the Middle East then?

I take it you mean the indigenous lights, the type that is seen sporadically in one particular geographic area and reappears for years, decades or longer?

 

[PeterJB]

I take it you mean the indigenous lights, the type that is seen sporadically in one particular geographic area and reappears for years, decades or longer?

In your last post you were inferring that these are the kind of lights being interpreted in the Bible and the Quran, so are there any recorded sightings of them in that area?

 

[BobK]

Implications for the thread? Not sure what you mean. It adds some information and some questions that have not previously been discussed. It implies there may be more to reality than we currently know. It does not fit easily with our current belief systems. It could be disturbing. Perhaps I should have given a trigger warning?

So it belongs in here because maybe God did it? Is that what you're trying to say? In which case, shouldn't we be discussing earthquakes, volcanoes and nasty weather in this thread as well?

 

[Dotini]

In your last post you were inferring that these are the kind of lights being interpreted in the Bible and the Quran, so are there any recorded sightings of them in that area?

"Sightings" of all kinds are recorded in the Bible and Koran but obviously date from long ago, so are merely stories. An example, a recurring light in Exodus (pillar of fire by night, cloud by day) guided the Israelites. Other examples, some with better evidence:
1-1460 BC, Lebanon, a star positioned itself above the Nubians, illuminated their faces with fire and they fled from the battlefield, Stele of Thutmsis, lines 33-36
2- 1347 BC, El-Amarna, Nile Valley, Akhenaton's flying disk, recorded on the "Frontier Stelae".
3- c850 BC, abduction of Ezekiel by a chariot of fire, 2 Kings.

All that is subject to interpretation. But the Hessdalen lights are there today to study. Indigenous lights and other light phenomena such as those that may precede earthquakes may be studied. Recurring lights have been studied at the Yakima Reservation in Washington State.

Examples today in the middle east are hard to find. There were recurring lights recorded at Zeitoun, Egypt in the 60's and 70's, said to be apparitions of Mary. But generally, strongly held religious beliefs, repressive governments, censorship, the language and cultural barriers tend to filter out such reports today.