But I don’t have any “evidence” to share with you, especially if you are committed to explaining it away as you may not be but many people here are.
So this is a problem. In general, there are types of claims that don’t easily have shared evidence (e.g. last night I had a dream that was really cool, but I forgot it almost as soon as I woke up, I love my girlfriend, when I was about 6 years old I got the idea of aliens who could only see invisible things but not visible things, etc.) But most claims, especially claims about what we expect of reality around us should depend on evidence that can be shared.
I’m young, and I myself am trying to find good, rational arguments in favor of God.
So this is already a serious mistake. One shouldn’t try to find rational arguments in favor of one thing or another. One should find the best evidence for and against a claim, and then judge the claim based on that.
have never been presented with solid arguments in favor of religion. Maybe I’ll manage to find some or write them myself, and maybe I’ll decide that the population of Less Wrong is as closed-minded as I feared.
You may want to seriously consider that the arguments you are looking for don’t exist. In the meantime, may I recommend reddit’s Debate Religion forum. They are dedicated to discussing a lot of these issues and may be a better forum for some of the things you are interested. Of course, the vast majority of things related to rationality has very little to do with whether or not there are any deities, and so you are more than welcome to stick around here. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on here.
Note that my expressed intention in this post was not to start a religious debate, though I have enjoyed that too. I have considered that the arguments I’m looking for don’t exist; what I’ve found is that at least you guys don’t have any, which means that from your position this case is entirely one-sided. So generally, your belief that religion is inherently ridiculous from a rationalist standpoint has never actually been challenged at all.
If you really want rationalist (more properly, post-rationalist) arguments in favor of God, I recommend looking through Will Newsome’s comments from a few years ago; also through his twitter accounts @willnewsome and @willdoingthings.
If you follow my advice, though, may God have mercy on your soul; because Will Newsome will have none on your psychological health.
So this is a problem. In general, there are types of claims that don’t easily have shared evidence (e.g. last night I had a dream that was really cool, but I forgot it almost as soon as I woke up, I love my girlfriend, when I was about 6 years old I got the idea of aliens who could only see invisible things but not visible things, etc.) But most claims, especially claims about what we expect of reality around us should depend on evidence that can be shared.
So this is already a serious mistake. One shouldn’t try to find rational arguments in favor of one thing or another. One should find the best evidence for and against a claim, and then judge the claim based on that.
You may want to seriously consider that the arguments you are looking for don’t exist. In the meantime, may I recommend reddit’s Debate Religion forum. They are dedicated to discussing a lot of these issues and may be a better forum for some of the things you are interested. Of course, the vast majority of things related to rationality has very little to do with whether or not there are any deities, and so you are more than welcome to stick around here. There’s a lot of interesting stuff going on here.
Yea!
Note that my expressed intention in this post was not to start a religious debate, though I have enjoyed that too. I have considered that the arguments I’m looking for don’t exist; what I’ve found is that at least you guys don’t have any, which means that from your position this case is entirely one-sided. So generally, your belief that religion is inherently ridiculous from a rationalist standpoint has never actually been challenged at all.
Definitely it’s been interesting. Thanks.
If you really want rationalist (more properly, post-rationalist) arguments in favor of God, I recommend looking through Will Newsome’s comments from a few years ago; also through his twitter accounts @willnewsome and @willdoingthings.
If you follow my advice, though, may God have mercy on your soul; because Will Newsome will have none on your psychological health.
Thanks for the reference; someone else mentioned him and I’ve enjoyed the blog it led me to, but I didn’t think to look through his comments.