(January 16, 2015 at 12:59 pm)VAN BELLE Jean Marc Wrote: So i prefer people asking them to try the 'and' attitude: Instead of rejecting one or another (theism, atheism), try them both and tell my if that changes first your FEELINGS, and than if changes your thoughts/behaviour later on.
I don't really think of it that way, as being and/or. When I say I am an atheist I'm just responding to the question of whether or not I believe a god exists. That isn't something I believe. It isn't that I have the belief that no god does or could exist. I don't know exactly what a god is but I'm quite sure that I don't harbor any belief in anything I recognize as a god.
(January 16, 2015 at 12:59 pm)VAN BELLE Jean Marc Wrote: But you're right: i do NOT have any right to force another to change from 'or' to 'and'. Sometimes i get nerveous when they want me to do some in other cases.
Actually I don't have any preference for what you believe. That's your business. But I don't really understand what it means to you to both believe and not believe in a god.
(January 16, 2015 at 12:59 pm)VAN BELLE Jean Marc Wrote: So truly: i do not really know why i want you to become an 'and' person instead of an 'or' person. Perhaps i see this matter wrong and you are more 'and' than i am, and i was at this point more fundamentalistic than you, guys?
Well I guess I'm an "and" person in so much as I'm willing to share the planet and society with theists. I prefer to treat others as peers and entitled to their opinions. But for me, no gods thank you.