Re: logic makes a comeback

Russell Stewart (diamond@rt66.com)
Tue, 17 Jun 1997 08:33:33 -0600

At 07:10 AM 6/17/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Jim Bell:
>If you want to be a true atheist, then tell us why it is more reasonable
>to
>accept the non-existence of God than His existence.
>
>Russell: Simple: because there is no evidence for His existence. Why is
>it
>reasonable to believe in something for which there is no evidence?
>
>Russell, on what grounds are you justified in asserting such an
>objective universal negative on the basis of your limited personal (and
>thus subjective) experience? At the risk of beating a dead horse,
>you've admitted that you don't know what such evidence would look like
>so how can you say that it doesn't exist anywhere? Wouldn't it be more
>accurate to say that YOU have not seen any evidence that YOU find
>convincing than to say that there is no evidence whatsoever?

Well, OK, but this is exactly why this whole issue is pretty much impossible
to debate. What you consider overwhelming evidence may not be at all convincing
to me or someone else, so it basically comes down to a matter of personal
belief.
This is why I will not be tricked into trying to argue about the existence of
God. Quite frankly, I don't CARE whether God exists. Furthermore, Jim made a
huge error above that I didn't even catch before. Take the sentence above:
"If you want to be a true atheist, then tell us why it is more reasonable to
accept the non-existence of God than His existence."

If Jim were to apply the same standard to himself (not that he ever would),
then he himself is not "a true Christian", since he hasn't told me or anyone
else why it is more reasonable to accept the existence of God than His non-
existence.

_____________________________________________________________
| Russell Stewart |
| http://www.rt66.com/diamond/ |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Albuquerque, New Mexico | diamond@rt66.com |
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2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.