(May 9, 2015 at 3:15 am)Cephus Wrote:(May 8, 2015 at 7:43 pm)wallym Wrote: There are definitely rational reasons to believe in God. The key is the belief in a number of false premises. Premises that we are often inclined to assume to be true due to sociological and biological influences. But that IS another story.
And thanking Jesus is akin to being thankful you had good luck. Hell, I still say thank god when I find my keys. Not because I believe in some deity, but because the meaning is "I'm relieved things worked out." The only difference is that theists believe that 'chance' has varying degrees of order, while most Atheists just think it is pure chance.
No, there are no rational reasons to believe in any gods because there is no evidence at all that said gods actually exist in reality. If they believe in false premises then their conclusions are likely faulty.
And "thank god" is often a social construct that is a hold-over from religion, but not religious necessarily in and of itself. It's the people who really mean it in a religious context that have a problem.
If you think the world is flat, it is not irrational to believe you might fall off the edge if you sail far enough in one direction. There is a difference between incorrect and irrational. What happens is people have a view of the world, and they look for a way to explain that view. God is an a very good answer for their false impression of reality.
But if you take away the premises, say the world is round or humans do not have intrinsic value, then there is no longer a reason to believe you'll fall off the edge, or God exists. It's an important distinction.
