I don't start with the premise "there is no god". I start with the observation that the arguments believers use to support their claim that there is a god aren't worth a damn, and so I am an atheist. There could be a god. I don't know; hence, I'm an agnostic atheist. If I learned there is a god, I'd be shocked if it actually turned out to be the peculiar character described in the Bible. When I try to imagine what a god capable of creating this magnificence we are a part of might be like, I imagine a far loftier and more majestic being than the one dreamed up in your favorite barbarous backwater shithole in southwest Asia a few thousand years ago.
And nice try on the appeal to popularity, but no. Can 2+ billion people be wrong? Of course they can. You will never convince anyone, not even yourself, that these 2+ billion Christian believers are all on board because the evidence is so damned compelling. People arrive at all kinds of ludicrous beliefs for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with good evidence or sound arguments. You know it's true, and I suspect you would have no problem reaching that conclusion about any number (even billions!) of people who belong to non-Christian religious traditions. You just want to carve out a special space where Christian claims are treated differently.
In my home, your holy book occupies the same shelf as Homer, books on ancient mythology, the Koran, the Gita, etc.
And nice try on the appeal to popularity, but no. Can 2+ billion people be wrong? Of course they can. You will never convince anyone, not even yourself, that these 2+ billion Christian believers are all on board because the evidence is so damned compelling. People arrive at all kinds of ludicrous beliefs for all kinds of reasons that have nothing to do with good evidence or sound arguments. You know it's true, and I suspect you would have no problem reaching that conclusion about any number (even billions!) of people who belong to non-Christian religious traditions. You just want to carve out a special space where Christian claims are treated differently.
In my home, your holy book occupies the same shelf as Homer, books on ancient mythology, the Koran, the Gita, etc.
