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

[some-fox.livejournal.com]

Before people leap on me I'm not saying all people are religious for these reasons or that all religions are about escaping these givens. Many branches of Buddhism, for example, are based on looking these right in the face. It is just a very good answer to the question of why sensible people might choose to be religious if you're looking for.

And personally I believe that very few people go through life without a few unjustifiable beliefs that help them not to look at this stuff too closely.

[jhg.livejournal.com]

Good heavens yes. As an amateur, I suspect that (oh all right, one of my lecturers said it and I was impressed. He was funny!) it's psychologically necessary to not confront your 4 bullet points all the time - i.e., you need to spend most of your time getting on with living your life, not sobbing into an armchair and going insane.

[some-fox.livejournal.com]

*grin* yep they are the big scaries I reckon.

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

Ack. I just realised my response to your previous comment is pre-empted by this one. Sorry. Not intending to teach you to suck eggs.