Do you wish there's a god?

[Mister Agenda]

Would you point out somewhere here, please, who would agree that they claim not to have any beliefs at all?

If we use "belief" to mean "something I hold to be true," then I think everyone here acknowledges that they have beliefs.

What I've been talking about is that some people say their atheism is not based on any belief. That is, they have no standard for evaluating God-claims, they just reject them for no reason.

So far both Bucky Ball and Gae have made this claim.

Bucky seems to be gone now, and I've given up on Gae. If one or both of them has adjusted his claim recently that would be fine, but I'm bored with talking about the whole thing.

I don't want to misinterpret Gae, but my impression is that he never believed in God, not even from a very young age, before he would have developed reasoning about why he couldn't accept the idea as true. Maybe he was just naturally skeptical. I suspect he's accumulated some reasoning since then. If a small child can accept God without rationally evaluating the concept, I dont' see why a small child can't reject God without rationally evaluating the concept. Gae is just being honest, I think. Some of us had to reason our way out of beliefs we already held when it comes to God/gods; Gae didn't.

Gae, please set me straight if I'm still not understanding you.

Right Wing Christian Fundamentalists aren't just low-hanging fruit. They're a threat to civil society and democratic governance, because they believe in a God that gives them marching orders.

Then by all means fight those people. But making overly general claims about Christianity doesn't help to fight them.

Neither does constantly saying 'not all Christians' before you say anything about any of them. When someone complains about white guys, I don't think they're talking about me unless I fit the description they're complaining about. I'm more likely to nod ruefully, because I wish that there were so few white guys like that, that such a broad brush would be puzzling, but I know that almost any complaint made about white guys is true of far too many of us. The 'not all white guys' guy is not participating in the conversation, he's interrupting it.

And what, am I going to piss off the 'ground of all being' folks so much they unite to delete the 1st Amendment from the US Constitution? When it comes to politics, I can ignore finely nuanced and reasoned-out theistic positions because they don't form a basis for a political position; their support or opposition is gained or lost on other grounds.

So I don't think your no doubt kindly meant advice about how to spare the feelings of the 'good ones' is much use. The actual good ones don't think I'm talking about them.