(August 10, 2013 at 6:46 am)Esquilax Wrote:(August 10, 2013 at 6:26 am)Theo Zacharias Wrote: I never said I'm being pushed to be a theist. In fact I said that being a theist brings an overall positive effect to me. It means that I'm happy being a theist and that give me a reason to (stay to) be a theist.
I also have mentioned before that to change my position to atheist will most likely bring a negative effect to me under my circumstance. That's a reason *for me* not to change my position to atheist.
No, that's a reason not to express your atheist beliefs until a time when your circumstances change.
If there is an evidence that God does not exist, i.e. if the truth is God does not exist, then yes, that might be a reason to hide the truth. But if there is no evidence that God does not exist then we don't know what the truth is. Why should I change my position to atheist? What's the reason?
(August 10, 2013 at 6:46 am)Esquilax Wrote: You can't will yourself into theistic belief any more than you can make yourself believe that unicorns exist; you don't choose your beliefs at all. Your beliefs are an evolving set of acceptances that change based on additional knowledge and rationalizations, but you're not able to consciously force something to be believable for you. Want a test? Here's a claim: I'm a fire elemental, typing this on a lead lined, fireproof keyboard. Now, make yourself believe that that's true.
You can choose to *try* to believe in something. It's a process that take time. I never said that if you choose to believe in something then at the very moment you do believe in it right away. Again, it takes time and effort. Your effort can be successful (you can finally after weeks, months, or years later truly believe) or it can also fail.
In my case, I choose to *stay to* believe in God. I have believed in God in years so it's not a difficult thing to do for me.
(August 10, 2013 at 6:46 am)Esquilax Wrote: Now, whatever it is you actually believe- and I'm not going to speculate on what that is- is not connected to the pragmatic reasoning you've given here; if your circumstances are the only things keeping you theistic, then you must not believe very fervently in them. And if you believe because it makes you happy then... well, I hope you're okay with believing in things that may be untrue.
I never said that that's the only reason, and you shouldn't assume that I'm not believe very fervently in whatever I believe. It's certainly irrational to make this assumption without more information.
Yes, I'm very ok believing in things that may be untrue.
How about you? Do you only believe things that *absolutely* true? Do you honestly said that you don't believe anything that may be untrue?
