If you convinced me that I would get more utility with different
behavior then I assume my behavior would change. I’ve read a whole
lot of atheist literature, though, if that’s what you mean.
Your utility response matched my intent. Although I do have a question
related to your second response. Based on your comments you seem to
hold onto beliefs about the reality of the divine, despite your
exposure to atheist literature. Is there a core sense to your beliefs
that the arguments against God have not addressed?
To provide context for my questions, I had a Christian upbringing and
a strong belief in God and the spiritual. I eventually evaluated these
beliefs and found them to be baseless. Then I found that they were
almost certainly wrong, and that they resulted in negative value for
me. Now I am interested in arguments against my atheist beliefs, and
in understanding how other people evaluate their beliefs.
I’d like to answer, if I can find time, but it would probably end up as a fairly long discussion and perhaps you would ultimately find it disappointing. I don’t have any well developed argument thread which starts with premises everyone will accept and ends with “therefore, the divine is real. QED.”. I mostly have a lot of meta-arguments and some criticism of the ways the relevant problems are typically approached.
During the last couple of days I have become progressively more convinced that my daughter is autistic (she is 17 months old and is showing regression in language and imitation skills), a situation that calls for immediate and sustained attention. This will sharply limit the time and energy I spend on philosophical speculation, in particular LessWrong.
I regret that I likely won’t have the resources to engage in what would probably have been an interesting discussion.
Edit six weeks later: Though there is still some cause for concern, the situation is looking a lot better now. I suppose no-one is watching this thread anymore but maybe some other time.
Your utility response matched my intent. Although I do have a question related to your second response. Based on your comments you seem to hold onto beliefs about the reality of the divine, despite your exposure to atheist literature. Is there a core sense to your beliefs that the arguments against God have not addressed?
To provide context for my questions, I had a Christian upbringing and a strong belief in God and the spiritual. I eventually evaluated these beliefs and found them to be baseless. Then I found that they were almost certainly wrong, and that they resulted in negative value for me. Now I am interested in arguments against my atheist beliefs, and in understanding how other people evaluate their beliefs.
I’d like to answer, if I can find time, but it would probably end up as a fairly long discussion and perhaps you would ultimately find it disappointing. I don’t have any well developed argument thread which starts with premises everyone will accept and ends with “therefore, the divine is real. QED.”. I mostly have a lot of meta-arguments and some criticism of the ways the relevant problems are typically approached.
I would be interested in these if you find the time.
I appreciate your interest.
During the last couple of days I have become progressively more convinced that my daughter is autistic (she is 17 months old and is showing regression in language and imitation skills), a situation that calls for immediate and sustained attention. This will sharply limit the time and energy I spend on philosophical speculation, in particular LessWrong.
I regret that I likely won’t have the resources to engage in what would probably have been an interesting discussion.
Edit six weeks later: Though there is still some cause for concern, the situation is looking a lot better now. I suppose no-one is watching this thread anymore but maybe some other time.