Better reasons to quit Christianity

[spockrates]

Well, I would not care what happens if I knew I'd have no soul to which something would happen! Do you have a reason why I should believe no soul will survive me?

All we have is that there's no good reason to think you do. Which puts the idea of soul survival on the same footing as the notion that when you die your life is transcribed onto a positronic brain at the galactic core and the resulting robot is used for forced labor by a cabal of alien cultists who worship the black hole at the center of the galaxy.

Is it possible you are making an inference from ignorance (not calling you ignorant, of course! it's a term given for an informal fallacy). That is, you are saying you can think of no good reason one has a soul that survives death, so that means there must be no good reason there is a soul that survives death. You have not proved there is no good reason; you've only demonstrated that if there is one, you are currently unaware of it. Now, Jupitor has posted in this discussion thread that he has a good reason for believing the soul survives death, for he has spoken to souls who have so survived. It could be he is deceived, but he is making an inference from experience, rather than from ignorance. Again, I'm not saying you are ignorant. Just saying you have not given a reason why a person has no soul.

I'm not claiming; I'm asking. The purpose of the discussion thread is to answer the question: What are some good reasons I should consider when trying to make up my mind whether I should become an atheist? (BTW, love the superhero costume!)

Thanks for the compliment, I aim to please. I think I gave you a fairly lengthy and detailed answer, but you're focusing on points of disagreement rather than how what I said fails to answer your question. It's going to be hard to answer your question in a way that relates to you if you won't tell us what it is that you believe. Do you really expect us to guess, given the thousands of denominations of Christianity run through every individual's filter? Tell us why you believe and if your reason has a flaw, we'll tell you what it is. If knowing that your reason is flawed won't make a difference to you, there's really no point in anyone making any further effort regarding this matter.

OK. I used to be Evangelical, have considered becoming Catholic, but am investigating atheism before I make up my mind. Does that help?

But isn't my finding out why others decided not to become, or remain Christian doing the work myself?

It depends on whether you're really thinking about our answers or just yanking our chains.

How have I not sincerely considered any of your answers?

The difference of opinion you and I seem to have is over what the best method to figuring out the truth is. I think having discussions with those who think differently than I do is the best method.

What people who think differently than you do have to say seems to slide right off you, though you're polite enough about it. It's only a good way to figure out what the truth is if you do the work of thinking through what you're hearing and figure out how to separate the wheat from the chaff.

How have I not worked through what you are saying and figured out how to weed out any factual errors and logical errors from your opinions?

You mean, most here are agnostics, not atheists?

Most here are agnostics AND atheists. 'I'm an agnostic' is a good answer to a question like 'Do you think it's possible to know for sure if a God or gods really exist?' 'I'm an atheist' is a good answer to a question like 'Do you believe a God or gods really exist?'. Those are not good answers if you switch the questions though. 'Agnosticism' is about what you don't know, 'atheism' is about what you don't believe. Lots of people (maybe most) are agnostic theists, who admit they can't know but believe anyway. I was one for over a decade.

I thought an agnostic is one who admits she does not know, but an atheist is certain she knows there is no God. The agnostic position seems less dogmatic to me, personally.

I think you are misunderstanding. I did not start this discussion thread to prove something I believe; I started the discussion to ask why others don't believe. Can you appreciate the significant difference?

Can you appreciate why the conversation will be much more productive if you tell us why you DO believe? We have no way of knowing if our answers are relatable to you without knowing that. As I said, I gave a fairly detailed account of how I came not to believe and you gave no sign of comprehending that I had danced to your tune. I'm working like a horse here, and bupkis.

There are a lot of things I believe with varying degrees of certainty, or uncertainty. Please be more specific. Do you want to know why I believe a soul might survive the body that dies? or why some being could exist who is the source of all wisdom? or why the Bible is is possibly divine rather than human in origin? or why Christianity is not necessarily illogical? or why love is likely impossible without the freedom to hate? or why it is not irrational to believe that God is Triune? I've expressed my views on all of these, but don't mind doing so, again. Please ask away!

I say, truth trumps security! As Socrates said, we have nothing to lose by seeking the truth except our ignorance.

Excellent!