RE: If you were ever a theist...
December 30, 2015 at 5:27 pm
(This post was last modified: December 30, 2015 at 5:28 pm by *Deidre*.)
(December 30, 2015 at 5:12 pm)Simon Moon Wrote:Those are good points, but I happen to think people who claim some of those examples above, are of the opinion they witnessed those events, and not taking it by faith. I mean, yea...could it have been a bear, but they claim it's big foot? Yes, and that can go on and on...but they claim to have witnessed something. So, there's that. (but I have the option to not believe their claims, and I don't...but, I bring that up because belief in those types of things isn't based on faith. No belief systems are surrounding those things, you know?)(December 30, 2015 at 4:54 pm)Deidre32 Wrote: I'm not claiming anything, just what happened in my own life. And this thread isn't to spar over it, to be honest...it's just an interest I've had to hear why people left their respective faith beliefs and now identify as atheists.
Why do you feel it's intellectually dishonest to hold beliefs that can't be defined by a scientific process, or that level of scrutiny?
Because I have an overriding passion to have as many true beliefs as possible, and as few false beliefs as possible. I want my internal model of the universe to map as closely as possible to the actual universe. I think that making decisions with the most accurate map of reality as possible, is more likely to achieve better results.
Besides your god beliefs, how many other beliefs do you hold based on faith? I'll bet when when you hear about: alien abductions, speaking with the dead, dowsing, bigfoot, telekinesis, astral projection and other supernatural claims, you don't believe them on faith. You, like most theists, are skeptical of at least some of these claims, if not all of them.
Quote:Unless those beliefs harm others, then that's a different story. But, to me, spirituality, faith, whatever one calls it...is a private thing, and if it edifies my life, why would that be 'intellectually dishonest?'
Because I don't believe it is possible to keep one's beliefs entirely to themselves. Your beliefs don't live in a vacuum, they inform your actions.
I believe I had an experience of faith, otherwise I wouldn't have returned to Christianity. I hadn't been 're' assessing my beliefs whatsoever, I truly felt 'done' with it all. A while ago. But, my wavering atheism started last year, when my grandmother fell ill. Christianity was not on the horizon however, but more of a general malaise that I felt towards atheism at the time. We all have walked a different walk, so...hard to explain entirely if you have decided to consider such things to be trivial, etc. You know what I'm saying?
