RE: A practical definition for "God"
September 17, 2015 at 5:26 am
(This post was last modified: September 17, 2015 at 6:13 am by robvalue.)
Exactly right. Why would you assume these stories are any different from other stories? What makes these special and somehow true? Especially since they aren't even eye witness accounts. It is entirely special pleading. A bit of crappy references to what people believed back then from Josephus is about as strong evidence as Harry Potter book 2 referencing Harry Potter book 1. Worse, since it's plagued with forgery.
Sure, reasons people have to believe things are good reasons to them. That doesn't mean they are objectively good reasons. If they were, then we would be able to understand them at least to some degree.
To demonstrate this, I guarantee to find at least one logical fallacy in any non-trivial religious argument. I have a thread exactly for this purpose here.
The reasons, when it comes down to it, tend to amount to either simple special pleading/indoctrination, or else a "personal experience". People generally don't even want to discuss their personal experiences here. I don't know why not, if they thought these really did represent good reasons. You have two scenarios:
(1) The ultimate creator of the entire universe came specifically to this galaxy, this solar system, this planet and personally to you, to give you a bizarre one-off experience but leaving you no evidence at all to show anyone it happened. He made sure that describing this experience to other people would sound indistinguishable from misinterpreting events, or a mind glitch.
(2) You misinterpreted events / your mind glitched.
Which is objectively most likely? Consider the fact that what these experiences "prove" from one person to the next contradict each other, and almost always just happens to involve the mythology they have been soaked in since birth. Anything that proves all religions proves nothing.
Sure, reasons people have to believe things are good reasons to them. That doesn't mean they are objectively good reasons. If they were, then we would be able to understand them at least to some degree.
To demonstrate this, I guarantee to find at least one logical fallacy in any non-trivial religious argument. I have a thread exactly for this purpose here.
The reasons, when it comes down to it, tend to amount to either simple special pleading/indoctrination, or else a "personal experience". People generally don't even want to discuss their personal experiences here. I don't know why not, if they thought these really did represent good reasons. You have two scenarios:
(1) The ultimate creator of the entire universe came specifically to this galaxy, this solar system, this planet and personally to you, to give you a bizarre one-off experience but leaving you no evidence at all to show anyone it happened. He made sure that describing this experience to other people would sound indistinguishable from misinterpreting events, or a mind glitch.
(2) You misinterpreted events / your mind glitched.
Which is objectively most likely? Consider the fact that what these experiences "prove" from one person to the next contradict each other, and almost always just happens to involve the mythology they have been soaked in since birth. Anything that proves all religions proves nothing.
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Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Index of useful threads and discussions
Index of my best videos
Quickstart guide to the forum