RE: Do your beliefs imply a Necessary being exists?
August 9, 2012 at 8:38 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2012 at 8:48 pm by Cyberman.)
The bias to which I was referring concerned the connection between Rasmussen's 'survey' and his published article - in fact, he couldn't have been more obvious if he'd put up a sign saying "Today a Necessary Being; Tomorrow a God!!!" - but since you want me to hold your hand:
You open by asking (generally though obviously not exclusively) atheists "Do your beliefs imply a Necessary Being exists?" Rasmussen's article clearly delineates the direction the phrase Necessary Being is intended to flow. Atheists by definition have no belief in the existence of god or gods and certainly not God. Thus your question can be amended to "Do your beliefs imply that an entity that can be defined in such a way as to open the door for God to be defined into existence, as per Rasmussen's article?" Knowingly or not, intentionally or not, you are engaging in definitional sleight of hand. I don't play those games.
You open by asking (generally though obviously not exclusively) atheists "Do your beliefs imply a Necessary Being exists?" Rasmussen's article clearly delineates the direction the phrase Necessary Being is intended to flow. Atheists by definition have no belief in the existence of god or gods and certainly not God. Thus your question can be amended to "Do your beliefs imply that an entity that can be defined in such a way as to open the door for God to be defined into existence, as per Rasmussen's article?" Knowingly or not, intentionally or not, you are engaging in definitional sleight of hand. I don't play those games.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
