When Atheists Can't Think Episode 1: No Evidence for God?

[Redbeard The Pink]

I mean...knowledge and belief are only different insomuch as cars and Porsches are different. All Porsches are cars, but not all cars are Porsches.


Likewise, all knowledge is belief, but not all belief is knowledge.


To believe something, you must simply be convinced of it. This might be done through evidence, or it might be done through trickery of the mind (intentional or otherwise, from the self and/or from elsewhere).


To be able to claim that you know something, you must be able to somehow show that your belief is true. Knowledge can be demonstrated by evidence of some kind, whereas mere belief might fail such a test. To put it simply, if you can't show it, you don't know it.


This brings us to the question of the gods. You can insist that whichever one you like is real, and that you have a real relationship with it, and that if we just take the time to hypnotize ourselves into suspending disbelief like you did, we'll become convinced the same way you were.


The problem with that is that I used to do that exact thing. I spent hours and hours praying, singing, reading, ministering, and sincerely believing in Jehovah for over 20 years. I have since realized that there are scientific explanations for my religious experiences that are more likely and more evidence-supported than the conclusions I previously reached from them.


I've also realized that the things I used to accept as evidence (personal experience, confirmation bias, apologetics arguments, etc.) are not actually good evidence that a rational mind should be convinced by. Being an otherwise rational, scientifically-minded person, I could no longer justify the double standard in critical thinking between my rational beliefs and my beliefs concerning the supernatural.