(November 19, 2019 at 11:24 am)Gae Bolga Wrote: I think you misunderstand the question. OFC most, if not all atheists have something to say..and partly because, as social artifact, it's seen to be a requirement of some sort or another.
-is the thing they have to say, in reality, the explanation or justification for the fact that they don't believe - or a convenient ad hoc proposition filling a gap that their cognitive apparatus saw no need to address, or..perhaps..lacked the fundamental ability to address?
Let's take the case of ex believers, as the most fertile field for people who might have or need some justification. In the moment that you realized "fuck, I don't believe this shit anymore" had some sentence in the magic book changed? Was a flying horse or a risen demi-god more or less rational or believable the moment before than it was the moment after? OFC not, the change was internal.
-but what was it? Do you know, how could you know? How expansive and accurate a picture of your subconscious do you possess?
Isn't it at least possible...and couldn't I mine the converts corner..for stories where a person first ceased to believe..and then began to look for justifications to buttress that new state of being?
(fwiw, I fully expect to find that some people did methodically deconstuct their beliefs...but I also expect that group to be smaller than the one that didn't, or never had any need to)
You (rhetorical) may not be able to pinpoint why you became an atheist in the first place, but this doesn't mean you can't provide justification for why you still to this point do not believe. I have a good idea why I still lack belief to this day (not in some full infallible sense, but enough to provide some explanation).
