RE: Why Yahweh? (Or Allah, or Zeus, etc.)
October 23, 2012 at 7:19 pm
(This post was last modified: October 23, 2012 at 7:20 pm by Simon Moon.)
(October 23, 2012 at 7:04 pm)John V Wrote: The first factor I'll note in differentiating religions is the "other than" noted above. If someone isn't making a serious claim, I don't give it consideration. I would think this would be obvious - you apparently do too, as noted above re: FSM - but lately atheists have been making arguments like, If you believe in God based on the Bible, you should believe in hobbits based on The Lord of the Rings. Tolkein (a Christian BTW) published LOTR as fiction.
How do you know that the 'parody' of the FSM was not inspired by the FSM himself in order to test the faithful by disguising it as a parody?
But if you have a problem with the FSM, or the LotR (being published as fiction), how about all the other religious texts?
If the Bible is evidence of Yahweh, why are the Vedas not evidence of Shiva? Or the Avesta not evidence of Ahura Mazda?
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.
