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 Reg The Fronkey Farmer on -
I assumed that William did not mean he was born Atheist but that he had a religion he grew up with and like most born again or renewed in the faith types had labelled the time before he found Jesus as his spell with Atheism. Most Theists I know who claim to have been Atheists never make the claim until they find Jesus. This leads to them misunderstanding what Atheism is. For many Theists the definition of Atheists are those people who do not accept Jesus or Allah into to their hearts rather than people who do not believe a word of it. He found Jesus and like many others is trying to get the arguments for his belief validated. How better than to challenge Atheists for if we cannot handle the arguments they must act to confirm his presupposed belief that a god does probably exist. However if he is still at the gambling stage (Pascal's Wager) he must have doubts about it all.
William – apologises for talking as if you are not in the room or making assumptions about your journey. Feel free to correct me. I am talking in general rather than specifically about you.
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Permalink Reply by archaeopteryx on -
Actually Reg, as he was not exactly encouraged to stay, there's a good possibility he has left the board. Frankly, I hope not, as he seemed like a nice guy.
If I recall some of his original statements from the other thread, he was raised in a relatively secular home, and only went to church for the first time because of a girl he was dating, which would certainly imply a rather indoctrination-free youth. From there, he chose to accept religion.
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Permalink Reply by Cara Coleen on -
I think there has been plenty of encouragement for William to stay since practically everyone who has engaged has been asking questions and for clarification. I feel like we've already handled him with kid-gloves. He does seem like a nice guy, but his skin can't possibly be so thin that he can't handle being challenged. I hope he will stay. What I must assume, right now, is that he has a life and can't answer everyone's questions as often as they're asked.
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Permalink Reply by Giakorina Mejia on -
I have no problems with religious people. And I'm sure there are a lot of good points for them believing but i just dont believe. it just doesnt make sense to me and I do think politcally, the world would be a better place without it. Just my thoughts.
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