One Theist's Agenda
Hi, everyone.
Over the next several days or so, I should begin posting a variety of arguments for the existence of God. The purpose of this thread is to give context to those arguments so that people have a bird's eye view of them when they are presented and evaluated.
I don't care if you become a Christian or not, nor do I care if you end up becoming any other kind of theist. Rather, my goal on this forum is to persuade you of the following proposition.
"It is not unreasonable to be a Christian theist."
Obviously, this core proposition should be distinguished from the proposition that Christian theism is unreasonable - i.e., crazy, stupid, insane, dishonest, and so on.
My core proposition should also be distinguished from the proposition that Christian theism is true, because something can be false yet reasonable for people to believe. This seems to happen a lot in science. For example, for a long time there could be reasonable disagreement between cosmologists regarding whether the Big Bang theory or the Steady State theory was true. I think atheism and theism are like that: There are a lot of arguments that go both ways, and someone can arrive at either conclusion without broaching rationality (of course, it is also possible to arrive at either conclusion irrationally).
Having said all of that, I'd like to ask whether anyone will agree to my core proposition without argument. I know that some atheists believe that Christianity can be reasonable, so the question is just how many such atheists post on this site.
Regards,
Occam
P.S. If you're interested, you can learn more about my past here, and you can see a sketch of the arguments I'll be using here.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
As anyone here who knows me will cheerfully attest, far be it for me to be argumentative, but in the event not everyone possesses my degree of self control, and finds themselves in an argument, or in a discussion holding differing points of view, with a theist such as Mr. Occam here, be aware that there are a few fallacies that - doubtless present company excepted - some theists tend to use:
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Permalink Reply by William Occam on -
Nice video. Thanks.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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I tried to edit my post to say that while Mr. Occam is a self-confessed Theist, he may not necessarily be a Creationist, but for reasons not clear, once my alterations had been "saved," the little wheel just turned interminably - three times this happened (I'm thinking, GodDidIt), then my 15-minute editing time had elapsed - in any case, the fallacies should still apply to any argument, and certainly one involving religion.
pax vobiscum,
archaeopteryx
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Permalink Reply by William Occam on
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Correct. I am not a creationist nor an advocate of Intelligent Design, but a theistic evolutionist.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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As I mentioned, I tried to edit my above post to recognize that possibility, as I am extremely hesitant to make assumptions.
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Permalink Reply by Lewal on -
Take the word "theist" off the end of that proposition and we can talk. Otherwise how can you expect anyone to see you as any more credible than the Bronze Age tribals with whom you would share your beliefs?
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Permalink Reply by Lewal on
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Of course most would say Christianity entails theism. I don't think it has to. For example, I'd say Jefferson was a reasonable Christian, but I'd be more hesitant to say he was a theist.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on
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Actually, C., Tom created his own Bible by cutting everything out of the KJV that smacked of anything miraculous, so if in your mind, the "god" of the Bible had any capability of accomplishing miracles, then Tom was not a theist, or even a Deist.
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Permalink Reply by Lewal on
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Precisely, these in my mind would b the only reasonable Christians-- those that follow the teachings of Christ omitting any mythological aspects (divine lineage, supernatural feats etc). "Jeffersonian Christians" if you will.
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Permalink Reply by Ed on -
Perhaps your approach should first come from the deistic perspective. As we are no respecter of a particular specific god(s) then it would make more sense to offer argument for the existence of a generic god. That is a huge hurdle in and of itself. If successful you could then offer further argument as to the specifics of your particular god - Yaweh, Jehovah, etc. You will need to be creative though as most of us are weary of the common theistic arguments that remain grounded in logical fallacies.
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Permalink Reply by Unseen on -
I think once a lot of us tell him "Been there, done that" he will be forced to be creative.
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Permalink Reply by Meg Fields on -
My mind is jumbled on this post. OP is christian or what? Either way, I come here to talk about why theistic belief in God is silly, not to hear reasons why he might exist. The rest of the world can give me those reasons as they've been doing since I was little and I'll keep ignoring them, as I've been doing since I was little. There is no such thing as reasonable Christianity in my mind- they believe a dude came down from the sky, said some things, got killed and turned into a zombie (short version). That's just not reasonable to me. Btw when I say zombie I mean in the living-dead sense, not the eat-your-brains sense.
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