Quote:Could you clarify what you mean in saying that our 'experiences and observations cannot be trusted, with regards to religion - whilst our experience of religion -can- be trusted?'-as only one possible route to demolishing my opinion of the matter, by no means the only or the most conclusive, I'll elaborate.
When considering apologetics, I'm often being asked to trust the experience of the apologist. In this case, anyone who want's to give me a good bit of hellfire and brimstone and vicarious redemption. If not direct experience, I'm being asked to trust the experience of some other. I am given no common ground or objective point from which to reason other than one of these two choices. The discussion can't even begin until I assume their experiences (or the experiences they refer to) to be in some measure, accurate, authoritative, or informative.
I couldn't tell you if this problem arises out of the fundamental nature of a "god argument" or simply because of the lack of imagination in those who might propose one - but there it is (and I suspect the latter). Demanded by that assumption, and implied within it - is that our experiences are unreliable (mine, specifically). In a rather mystifying way...that same axe doesn't seem to have fallen on the experiences of others (themselves, specifically) -as expounded upon above..
Sure, they may offer plenty of examples as to why they assume their experience to be valid whilst mine is not - but I doubt I'd have to go through with you line by line for you to imagine my opinion of that list of excuses. The effect, from my POV - is that nothing is being offered beyond
"Hey atheist, don't trust your experience - trust mine"
Clearly, I have a fundamental bone to pick with that one.
Quote:Please define what you mean by solipsim.Sure.
Quote: -is the philosophical idea that only one's own mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known, and might not exist outside the mind.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solipsism
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