But despite the prevalence of the judeo-christian-islamo white haired god with a personality who demands worship and picks winners and losers,
Despite those 3.8 billion people? I think my definition applies to the vast majority of theists in the world.
There are many people who believe in god who are not primarily interested in being an adoring slave. You can argue with me that they are irrational or aren’t understanding the implications of their professed faith, but the point of a good definition is not to enable one side or the other to score rhetorical points without doing heavy lifting, the point is to actually mean the same thing to broad swaths of people on various sides of the debate.
Keep in mind that the theists were busy lumping deists like Thomas Paine in with atheists. My definition is based on what I consider not just the common feature, but the distinguishing feature of theists. Deists don’t really have it.
It is common in arguments that the one side excuses its own poor choices and irrationalities by citing the similar poor choices and irrationalities of the other side. I don’t think this is the best we can do, as rationalists.
p.s. I don’t know why people had to downvote you. Your thoughtful reply was appreciated by me.
Well thank you! Of course, for me, a net downvote of 1 (my current status) is doing pretty well, but I definitely appreciate a kind word.
There are many people who believe in god who are not primarily interested in being an adoring slave. You can argue with me that they are irrational or aren’t understanding the implications of their professed faith, but the point of a good definition is not to enable one side or the other to score rhetorical points without doing heavy lifting, the point is to actually mean the same thing to broad swaths of people on various sides of the debate.
It is common in arguments that the one side excuses its own poor choices and irrationalities by citing the similar poor choices and irrationalities of the other side. I don’t think this is the best we can do, as rationalists.
Well thank you! Of course, for me, a net downvote of 1 (my current status) is doing pretty well, but I definitely appreciate a kind word.
Cheers, Mike