Theists - I want to know what you think

[John V]

1. Do you think lacking a belief in god is rational?  Why, or why not?

2. Do you believe atheists who say they don’t believe because of lack of evidence?  If so, do you think that is a rational reason to not believe in god?

That position can be rational. But, it's incomplete, as it leaves origins questions unanswered.

When an atheist takes a stronger stance and asserts a positive belief that there is no god, that's not rational in my experience. There's no evidence that a universe can come from nothing (or however they want to phrase it), or that life can come from inanimate matter. But, those things must be explained in order to have a complete world view. The same person will disparagingly refer to creation as "magic," but has no problem believing that the all the matter and energy of the universe were compacted to a single infinitely dense point, and then expanded for no known reason, etc. Point being that if you're withholding belief in absence of conclusive evidence, and doing so honestly and consistently, you'd be agnostic, not atheist.

3. Do you think rational skepticism is the correct perspective to be coming from when considering god-belief?

First, define rational skepticism. Frequently an atheist dresses up an a priori materialist philosophy as rational skepticism or some such. In that case, no, it's not a correct perspective, as god has been defined as an an impossibility.

If properly defined, then rational skepticism is a valid component of considering the god proposition. I wouldn't call it the correct perspective on its own. Atheists tend to vastly overrate the role of reason in the human experience. We're more emotional and intuitive than rational. Reason has allowed us to build some cool stuff, but when it comes to earthly life's most important decisions, we frequently ignore it and just go with our gut. I see no reason why religious belief should be any different.

4. Do you think an atheist and/or rational skeptic can reason their way to belief in god?  

Yes, since the mainstream scientific view (which most atheists adopt) is that the universe had a beginning, the Kalam cosmological argument reasonably gets you to at least a deist god. An oscillating universe was proposed to overcome this, but the rate of expansion of the universe was later found to be inconsistent with that model. The nature of the universe itself points to a creator.

5. Do you think an atheist and/or rational skeptic could be convinced by reasons, or do you think God would have to intervene in some way?

An avowed atheist would generally need divine intervention to believe. As already explained, a rational skeptic is able to reason his way to a creator god of some sort.

6. Why do you think so many atheists were once theists?

Because most people are nomimally theists and bring their children up to be the same.

Is it realistic to think a person could re-believe in god after deciding they could no longer believe due to lack of evidence?  Why or why not?

Could? Sure. Evidence is abundant or lacking depending on the standards of evidence used.

Would? Generally not. Lack of evidence usually isn't the real issue. The real issue is that people don't like being judged. Surely you've seen people here say that even if god were proven to exist, they wouldn't worship. It's much more comfortable to not believe, than to believe but be in open rebellion.

People convert, but usually it's based on emotion or intuition rather than evidence.

7.  Some of you had mentioned ‘sowing the seed’ as a reason to be here at AF.  If you were going to explain to an atheist what the best reason is to believe in god, what would it be?  I’m not trying to set up a ‘burden of proof’ trap.  I just want to know what you think would be, or should be the most convincing to an atheist and/or rational skeptic.

As noted, Kalam gets you to a creator god.