Hypothesis is an educated guess at how something should work when examined within specific guidelines.
Theory is a hypothesis that has been tested so many damn times by so many damn people, with results that all match one another. But most importantly, there is no evidence (yet) that disproves the theory.
(Extra One) Law is a theory that has been found to have a situation that negates itself. A point at which the theory does not hold up; a boundary for the theory.
That last little bit about a theory is the key point. Now, I know I'm not quoting Britton here, merely paraphrasing but, the point remains: A theory is the most powerful and imposing of the steps that science uses to classify its methods. A theory is irrefutable–if only for a short time–and thus is difficult to refuse.
Angelique wrote:On with the discussion. I know more about what God isn't than what God is. Yes, I've read the Bible, and I've engaged in an admittedly basic study of religious philosophy. From St. Anselm's ontological proof, I got that God, being supremely perfect, omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and especially omnipresent, is reality. From the Bible (and a bit from Aquainas and Paley), I got that this omnibenevolent being is responsible for all other existence, is not bound by our rules, and whether God is merciful, a disciplinarian, or just plain all-out angry, God's got a perfectly good reason and, furthermore, has the right as well as the power to give life- and to take it as well.
Angelique wrote:That's also where free will comes in. Would an omnibenevolent God create a race of automatons who are powerless to choose to do bad, are only programmed to do good and cannot ever act against that programming, and are therefore incapable of real love, which involves freely making choices?
Angelique wrote:
Asking why God would need to create people with free agency is like asking why a parent would need to have a child who can think for him- or herself. Barring the biological imperative to propogate the species, nobody needs to parent a child. People generally choose to have children out of love rather than need.
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