But what about now? Now I am criticized for stepping outside of the bubble and suspending belief. I’m told that I should have had faith seeking understanding in order to come to the truth. For some reason, one can only reach “the truth” if approached from one of two starting positions: assuming that god exists and that Christianity is true.
Perhaps you’ve already tried this, but I think I would point out that people who who have “faith seeking understanding” tend to end up with the same beliefs they started with in other religions as well, and indeed, with any sort of belief, it has a marked tendency not to change one’s mind. You can tell them you don’t think a benevolent god who wanted people to believe would provide so little evidence that people can’t come to the right conclusion without using methods that aren’t generally useful for finding out what’s true.
Absolutely. I should have added that, ever since I heard it, I have come to see “faith seeking understanding” as roughly equivalent to “believe that you may believe more.”
You can tell them you don’t think a benevolent god who wanted people to believe would provide so little evidence that people can’t come to the right conclusion without using methods that aren’t generally useful for finding out what’s true.
Indeed, and I think this is one of the easiest, simplest ways to offer a reason for non-belief. Theists also don’t go down so easy and would suggest that it’s possible, given the weight of the consequences, one should never give up and spend their whole lives seeking after a way to believe.
This is pretty much a prettied up version of Pascal’s Wager.
My wife was on retreat this weekend and talked glowingly of a talk in which a guest speaker said that he struggled with non-belief but concluded that since heaven is possible, he is going to dedicate his entire life to study and religious living so that if it exists, he will go. She thought that this was about the most admirable thing ever.
And hence, even if you don’t believe now, surely god has a plan and you need to keep your head in Swinburne and Kreeft until your death bed. There seems to be no way out that a theist will accept is honorable and justified, which is quite unfortunate. I dialogued with the author of Daylight Atheism, who made the great point that to join a religion, you just need to say a few words, but to leave you need to conclusively refute every theologian who’s ever lived...
Perhaps you’ve already tried this, but I think I would point out that people who who have “faith seeking understanding” tend to end up with the same beliefs they started with in other religions as well, and indeed, with any sort of belief, it has a marked tendency not to change one’s mind. You can tell them you don’t think a benevolent god who wanted people to believe would provide so little evidence that people can’t come to the right conclusion without using methods that aren’t generally useful for finding out what’s true.
Absolutely. I should have added that, ever since I heard it, I have come to see “faith seeking understanding” as roughly equivalent to “believe that you may believe more.”
Indeed, and I think this is one of the easiest, simplest ways to offer a reason for non-belief. Theists also don’t go down so easy and would suggest that it’s possible, given the weight of the consequences, one should never give up and spend their whole lives seeking after a way to believe.
This is pretty much a prettied up version of Pascal’s Wager.
My wife was on retreat this weekend and talked glowingly of a talk in which a guest speaker said that he struggled with non-belief but concluded that since heaven is possible, he is going to dedicate his entire life to study and religious living so that if it exists, he will go. She thought that this was about the most admirable thing ever.
And hence, even if you don’t believe now, surely god has a plan and you need to keep your head in Swinburne and Kreeft until your death bed. There seems to be no way out that a theist will accept is honorable and justified, which is quite unfortunate. I dialogued with the author of Daylight Atheism, who made the great point that to join a religion, you just need to say a few words, but to leave you need to conclusively refute every theologian who’s ever lived...