I am criticizing a fictional, human made character. As a result of being human made, there is no such infinite wisdom.
Imagine for once that you are completely wrong about this belief of yours. Yes, it’s the height of hubris. If we know nothing else, we know at very least that our Creator lives.
How have you determined that you aren’t worshiping an evil god if you haven’t questioned god? How do you know that it isn’t the case that both god and satan are evil?
For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
To choose just one of many possible answers.
Nobody is whispering anything in my ears, metephorically or literally, whichever way you mean. And I question everything before I believe it.
I mean literally. You may look at your shoulder, expecting to see no demon, while maybe picturing the cutesy BSD mascot, and sure enough you don’t see one sitting on your shoulder. “See?” you reassure yourself, “no demon.” You then recall that you’ve never seen the BSD mascot running around anywhere IRL, and conclude that demons must not exist.
How sure are you that you do a good job questioning everything before you believe it? Is it possible that you’ve made an error?
Demons do not look like cutesy cartoon characters, and indeed they’re not visible to the human eye (at least not to mine). As with all extant spiritual entities, we can know they exist despite our inability to see them.
Are you just as quick to deny that dark matter exists?
That’s not true. [Re: “it’s self-evidently true, as anyone who denies God cannot be said to be very intelligent.”]
You said you were willing to question your beliefs, so I urge you to question this. I think it underlies the rift between us.
You want to see yourself as a reasonably intelligent person, and you want to cling to a state of mind which you believe to be shared by other intelligent people.
But I ask you, are you so sure that it’s intelligent to reject God? Consider the following:
According to Pew, actively religious people tend to be far happier. Is it intelligent to want to be happy? Could this effect possibly be a quantitative measurement of God’s blessings? And is it intelligent to want to be happy?
Again, I ask you: is it intelligent to want to be happy?
To choose just one of many possible answers.
So you just don’t question whether or not god is good or evil, have I understood correctly? If so, then you have no method of determining if you are worshiping an evil being. That should immediately alarm you if you have any goodness in you.
I mean literally.
Like I said earlier, whichever way you mean, nobody is whispering anything in my ears.
How sure are you that you do a good job questioning everything before you believe it?
It highly depends on the matter at hand. The ridiculousness of a claim is tied to how much I look into something before believing it. If my friend tells me they got a new dog, I’ll probably believe them simply because my trust in them is sufficient for an ubiquitous claim such as that. If they tell me they bought a ferrari, I’d be a little more inquisitive and ask for pictures. If they tell me they bought a dragon, nothing short of seeing it in person will convince me because my understanding of the world is such that dragons do not exist. For a claim as ridiculous as that I would need very strong evidence.
Holding belief until you have sufficient evidence is what you do to avoid errors. I’m not perfect, there are certainly things I am wrong about. But to the best of my ability to understand, this is not something I am wrong about.
Are you just as quick to deny that dark matter exists?
We have pretty strong evidence to suggest that dark matter exists.
Again, I ask you: is it intelligent to want to be happy?
Sure, but lying to yourself will never make you happy. You’re asking me to lie to myself.
So you just don’t question whether or not god is good or evil, have I understood correctly?
Nobody has the rightful authority to question the word of God. I quoted a verse from the Bible to you. We accept God’s word without question because we are His humble servants. It would be arrogant to suppose we have permission to question His word, and it would be evil for us to desire to question His word. When you are presented with a Bible quote, you accept it as true and holy. When a demon tells you to question it, or claims that it’s false, you repent and ask Jesus to shield you from this demonic temptation. In the end, we must always conclude that the word of God is correct.
Like I said earlier, whichever way you mean, nobody is whispering anything in my ears.
And yet you continue to demonstrate clear evidence to the contrary. If you’re not plagued by demons then show me your embrace of God.
But to the best of my ability to understand, this is not something I am wrong about.
You put understanding before faith. That’s backwards. I assure you, this is something you are wrong about.
We have pretty strong evidence to suggest that dark matter exists.
True, but we have a thousand times more evidence to confirm that God exists. Evidence to which you are blind.
[Re: “Is it intelligent to want to be happy?”] Sure, but lying to yourself will never make you happy. You’re asking me to lie to myself.
If (A) I was asking you to lie to yourself, and (B) lying to yourself will never make you happy, then © actively religious people cannot be happier than irreligious people.
This is basic logic: A ∧ B ∴ C
And yet © is demonstrably false, an assertion which I substantiated with hard data. And that was just one survey. Survey after survey repeatedly demonstrates that actively religious people are far happier.
I’ll reply to some of the various other things you wrote, but this is the heart of our discussion. The crux, if you will. Your perspective is that you’re too smart to believe in God, and you refuse to acknowledge that God blesses His faithful believers with happiness. You believe that intelligent people choose unhappiness despite the obvious fact that it would be rather unwise to intentionally choose unhappiness, by virtue of the very definition of happiness. The only possible explanation for your insistent rejection of God is your unknowing loyalty to Satan, who has successfully convinced you that not even he exists.
We accept God’s word without question because we are His humble servants.
Then like I said earlier, you have no method to determine what you worship is a good being. That should terrify you if you are a good person and immediately make you second guess everything.
And yet you continue to demonstrate clear evidence to the contrary. If you’re not plagued by demons then show me your embrace of God.
This is a false dichotomy.
You put understanding before faith. That’s backwards. I assure you, this is something you are wrong about.
Nope, it’s the correct way around.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_proof_(philosophy)
True, but we have a thousand times more evidence to confirm that God exists.
If you think you have evidence that I haven’t seen before I am all ears.
If (A) I was asking you to lie to yourself, and (B) lying to yourself will never make you happy, then © actively religious people cannot be happier than irreligious people.
This argument is based on the false premise that religious people would see their religion as a lie. I’m an atheist, so if I were to embrace christianity I would see it as a lie.
Your perspective is that you’re too smart to believe in God
Nope. I have no evidence for it, so I do not believe it. It has nothing to do with my intelligence.
You believe that intelligent people choose unhappiness despite the obvious fact that it would be rather unwise to intentionally choose unhappiness
Once again, belief is not a choice.
And correlation does not imply causation, therefore you cannot rationally say that being religious makes you more happy.
The only possible explanation for your insistent rejection of God is your unknowing loyalty to Satan
No, the actual explanation is my responses above. And this is also a fallacy:
