Ain't gonna change?

[Furrowed Brow]

From Evidence in Favor of Christianity

I ain't gonna change what I believe

As an atheist I too am as certain as anything I can be certain of that I ain’t gonna change what I believe. Maybe I’ll posts some reasons later. So question:

• 1/ what beliefs do you hold regarding any god that are if you were honest not up for modification?
  2/ why ain’t you gonna change what you believe?

[Furrowed Brow]

You are perfectly free to say that I am too deluded or mistaken or dumb or unreflective or unanalytical to understand how my own mind works,

Over 1500 posts and I don't think there is any evidence I say stuff like that.

OK cnorman may be time to let it rest. But when you are dwelling on stuff while doing the washing up....my basic point is pretty simple.....language and the meanings conveyed in language are only social....and that is it.

From that observation we can then begin to see that we cannot turn language to invoke an internal realm cut off and separate from the social. When think we are doing this we make a mistake. This may leave the picture confusing, and it may seem unsatisfactory but better dissatisfied than invoke into existence something that is a conceptual mistake.

[Righteous Indignation]

Regarding the original questions:

• 1/ what beliefs do you hold regarding any god that are if you were honest not up for modification?
  2/ why ain’t you gonna change what you believe?

We are all fallible and prone to error. Everything we have learned about this world was gathered through our senses and they are faulty. Our brain attempts to understand what the senses tell it but it too makes mistakes. There is absolutely nothing about our reality that we can be sure of. To believe anything beyond a doubt is just foolhardy.

We live in a fog of probabilities. We construct maps of reality based on what seems most probable to us. Some give the God concept a high probability others see it as probably not true. I am the later but given cause I will upgrade the possibility that God exists.

On a side note: Why do some perceive certainty as a strength? To me it seems that many of the greatest mistakes of humanity could have been avoided if there was just a little more doubt in this world. What if, the current administration had had a few more doubts about going to war with Iraq or deregulating the banks? What if, the terrorists of 911 had had a few more doubts about what they were doing or whether there were really 40 virgins? What if the Nazis had had a few more doubts about being the superior race? It doesn’t seem to matter if you are a Believer or an Atheist, there are those who will use reason to justify their inhumanity against other humans. Doubt my friends is a virtue and I see those who lack it as far more dangerous than those with a little humility.