Dyre...this challenge isn't really a good one, and it's even bordering on an unfair "gotcha" against theists. You can't simply "turn off" your beliefs or "choose" to believe something else. Beliefs aren't simple choices, one arrives at a belief in something at the point of being convinced and conversely arrives at a state of disbelief when one becomes or remains unconvinced. One could say they believe or don't believe something, but the actual stance of holding a belief in something isn't something as simple as "Today I choose to believe in God" and "today I choose not to believe in God".
Asking a theist to just "try a day without theism" would be the same as one asking you to "try a day as an evangelical Baptist". You could outwardly express that you hold certain beliefs, but could you really, honestly believe in your mind that God exists, homosexuality is a sin, the world is 6000 years old, evolution is false, and America is God's favorite nation, just by deciding that day you suddenly believe it? I think it's a bit of an unfair challenge.
Beliefs are changed by discussion and arguments and evidence and by becoming convinced or unconvinced, not by "choice".
Asking a theist to just "try a day without theism" would be the same as one asking you to "try a day as an evangelical Baptist". You could outwardly express that you hold certain beliefs, but could you really, honestly believe in your mind that God exists, homosexuality is a sin, the world is 6000 years old, evolution is false, and America is God's favorite nation, just by deciding that day you suddenly believe it? I think it's a bit of an unfair challenge.
Beliefs are changed by discussion and arguments and evidence and by becoming convinced or unconvinced, not by "choice".
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
