Typist wrote:And could you, just once, instead of telling me what you find faulty, simply answer one of my questions? Or is that not something you do?
Isn't this sort of ironic coming from an atheist, seller of a philosophy defined by a critique of theism?
Atheism. A philosophy that doesn't even have it's own name, because it has nothing to offer beyond telling others why they're wrong.
Ah, you type but you don't read. Examine my handle closely. "EvangelicalHumanist." Atheism is not my philosophy -- humanism is my philosophy, and as it happens, I don't define my humanism in terms of religion. My own forum has religious humanists as participants, and I welcome them.
It is true that I am an atheist, but that is not a philosophical position, it is merely the absence of any sort of belief in a deity. My philosophy is shaped by those things to which I must, in some way, respond. I don't need to respond to a non-existent deity, and therefore such a creature has no place in my philosophy. I do, however, need to respond to those whose beliefs drive them to behave in ways inimical to my comfort. And it takes just a quick scan of the newspapers (or TV for those who like that sort of thing) to find any number of reasons to be skeptical of where theistic beliefs can lead.
I'm doing the very same thing you are doing. Examining other people's philosophies, and finding them wanting. No difference at all.
No, there is one little difference. When I find other philosophies wanting, I try to explain what it is that doesn't reach me -- and then I ask questions so that I can get a better handle on that philosophy. It's exactly the same thing on the God question. What is God? Do you have any idea how many different conceptions of that wandering around out there? Now, it is a fact that I don't believe in any of them, but when I say I don't believe in God, every person reads that statement in their own context -- that EH doesn't believe in MY God, the God of MY conception. Well, I daresay that's likely true, but since I have no idea what your God conception is, unless you'd care to tell me, then I guess we'll never know and can't have that particular philosophical discussion.
PS: I have 1200 posts on all kinds of topics which you are welcome to challenge.
Very nice. Between here, my own forum, Interfaith Forums, Sam Harris forum and Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance forum, I have 9,000 or so posts. I hope this isn't a contest.
I wish, frankly, we weren't off to such a bad start. I really do struggle trying to understand what people mean when they speak of their particular deity. The fact that they don't, however, makes my job in a conversation between us much more difficult -- I am trying to discuss that which remains stubbornly undefined. Frankly, I've come to think of that as a kind of protective measure. People won't reveal because they sense that when they get to any sort of specific, that's when rational thinking can work its magic, and that's a danger to them.
But let's suppose that God really is completely, absolutely and utterly undefinable. Fine, then that must include the attribute of "existence," mustn't it? In which case, I must assume that there is, to have a belief in the existence of God, some sort of a idea as to what that existing being is like, however nebulous.
But more to the point, the real question, and it is the one that interests me much more, is "what does this God desire/demand of us?" And if the answer, again, is "it is impossible to know," then frankly, the whole thing doesn't matter, does it? If you can't know what God wants, you can't (except by accident) accomplish it. And if you do claim to know what God wants, and if you think that it applies to me as well, then I think you have some obligation to show me how you come by that knowledge. (And by the way, as a gay man of too many years, I can assure you that there are at least some things I'm reliable told that God despises, but tragically, I have only the evidence of some books written by frightened people, and the existence of a real world in which things like homosexuality occur naturally and with monotonous regularity. If I must believe one of those, I'll take what I see in the world over the musings of people some thousands of years ago.)
