(February 27, 2015 at 9:37 am)ChadWooters Wrote: And thank you, Irrational. I was a sincere atheist for about 15 years. I became an atheist because I was swayed by the philosophical objections in that direction. As I continued to my study I was swayed by the arguments in favor of a general theism. My specifically Christian beliefs are mostly cultural and were prompted by two ineffable experiences.
Given the way you've talked about your past, it appears that the temptation to have a cure to your perceived existential crisis was at least equally responsible for your conversion, because you can't have it both ways. You can't claim that atheism leads to a descent into maddening, pure nihilism and then claim that you were swayed only by the philosophical arguments themselves. Clearly, there would have been much emotional baggage involved, and the theistic arguments gave you a way to relieve yourself of that.
As convincing as you may have found any argument, I don't think you can deny there were heavy emotional factors at play, can you?
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
