Ask an atheist

[ciphergoth]

In a discussion about religion in wildeabandon's journal, meihua writes: "this seems to have turned into me interrogating you. [...] Is there anything you'd like to challenge me on, instead?"

I think it's only fair enough to open up my own beliefs to the challenges of others, since I'm always keen to respond when theists invite me to give my perspective on some aspect of their beliefs as wildeabandon has in a series of recent posts. So, is there anything you'd like me to respond to?

Rules:

• You don't have to read this thread. This post is an invitation, not a challenge; if you don't like to read me talking about this then feel free to skip this.
• Be honest. Please don't advance arguments you don't personally buy, unless you're also an atheist and you want to discuss how best to counter it.
• If you come to change your mind about the validity of an argument, think about how you can generalise the lesson learned so as not to misassess similar arguments in future.
• Don't just match the politeness of what you reply to, but try to exceed it - see Postel's Law. Otherwise it is very easy to end up with a thread where each contributor thinks they are merely matching the snark level of the other, and yet the thread starts with the very slightest suggestion of rudeness and finishes with "please choke on a bucket of cocks".

Comments

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Do you consider "being incorrect" to be a failing, because finding an atheist who doesn't think that being a theist is incorrect is gonna be hard.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

No, but do you consider "being incorrect" to be a failing? Many atheists appear to, and if someone holds that view it's very difficult for them to communicate with people they think are incorrect.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

No, but do you consider "being incorrect" to be a failing?
I think it's always better to be correct than to be incorrect, so in a sense, yes. On that basis I much prefer it when people challenge my views so that if I am wrong I can move to being right, and if I'm right then I can be more confident in it because I'll have done more examination of the evidence.

Many atheists appear to, and if someone holds that view it's very difficult for them to communicate with people they think are incorrect.
I'm not an atheist, but I find it much easier to communicate with people who think I'm incorrect than with people who try to do the doublethink of disagreeing with me whilst refusing to say that I'm wrong.