Re: Pascal's wager (was ID *does* require a designer! (but it does not need to identify who ...)

From: bill r wald (billwald@juno.com)
Date: Sun Dec 10 2000 - 23:04:55 EST

  • Next message: Chris Cogan: "Re: Religious Beliefs that *Require* the Falsehood of Scientific Theories (wa..."

    Dear Steve

    >>>>>
    I was reading the Koran the other day and it threatens me with eternal
    punishment unless I become a Moslem. But I don't bother attacking
    Moslems because I believe in my heart that there is *no* chance that
    Islam is true and so Mohammed's God is no more a threat to me than
    the Tooth Fairy.

    That Chris gets angry at the Christian God and Christians tells me that
    despite all his philosophising, Chris still believes in his heart that
    the
    Christian God is real enough to be a threat. If He is real enough to
    Chris to be a threat to him, then to Chris His probability cannot be 0.
    <<<<<

    (not a mind reader but) Chris probably gets annoyed at Christians in the
    same way that Christians get annoyed at Mormons and JWs who come to the
    door. No one gets annoyed at Unitarians because they mind their own
    business.

    Would you be satified if Chris read the Q'ran and became a Moslem? Then
    the Christian God wouldn't be a threat to him.

    I've been a Christian as long as I can remember but the philosophical
    arguments for Christianity no longer compute and I don't have an adequite
    response to Chris'es arguments. I have concluded that the
    evidentialist/philosophical arguments are all a bunch of hooey. As Chris
    notes, the standard evangelistic approach - "all you gots to do is
    believe" - is assinine. You would laugh if I said, "All you gots to do is
    believe that the moon is made out of green cheese," but it amounts to the
    same thing.

    I can only think of three sources of belief. Cultural - you believe in
    (Christianity, Islam, ) because you you were raised and trained to
    believe. Second, you believe as a result of data analysis and/or personal
    experience - I prefer to call this "knowing," not "believing." Third, we
    believe because of an existential/metaphysical experience. In some way,
    the Holy Spirit (in the case of Christianity) testifies to our spirit. I
    am convinced that true Christianity only comes through an existential
    encounter. (So we be sneaky and pray for Chris in secret <G>)

    billwald@juno.com
     

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