(March 6, 2016 at 4:31 pm)Catholic_Lady Wrote:(March 6, 2016 at 4:02 pm)Simon Moon Wrote: Not at all.
As I pointed out in my reply to you back in post #55, having honest back and forth discussions on theist forums as an atheist is next to impossible, since banning is almost inevitable for doing nothing more than pointing out flaws in theist's arguments.
Since theists get banned a lot less on atheist forums, discussing theism with theists on an atheist forum seems to be the best option.
Fair enough. Nonetheless, forums aren't the only place to look for answers to something you want to gather info on. If you have a questions to theists about theism, an atheist forum still seems like a counter productive place to look for those answers, imho. You can take out books, do research online, call a church and ask if the pastor is open to meeting with you and answering questions, etc. Any of those seem like better options than an atheist forum. If you disagree with that, then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
I have done extensive research on the subject. My knowledge of various flavors of god beliefs is better than most theists.
I do not need answers to questions by pastors. I have heard pretty much every form of apologetics there are. I have instant access to any question I can think of.
What I do want, and the primary reasons why I engage with theists, is to discern if there are justifiable reasons to believe that a god exists.
One of my main motivations is to have as many true beliefs as possible, and as few false beliefs. I want my internal model of the universe to map as closely as possible to the actual universe. If a god actually exists, I want to know about it.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
