DamienVryce

Since many of us atheists (myself included) had faith previously, how exactly are you paralleling it to a "birth defect"? Are you also asserting "Faith, if you ever have it, you'll always have it"?

To approach common ground, it has been my experience that those who believe in God approach their belief in God totally differently than their belief in anything else. In my experience, most believers simply put God in a different catagory, and hence "faith". When I began using the same method of study on God as anything else, I lost my faith. Hence, in my experience, faith = "I want to believe in God, so I'll just do so." Note, I'm not saying that is bad, but please don't insinuate that we have some sort of birth defect.

Godless Wonder

I've seen it described elsewhere as "neural sabotage," which struck me as being apt.

King Rat

Hmmm, I like it. Less confrontational, more accurate, tastes great, less filling.

Queen of Swords

Yes, they use (unjustified) faith instead.

Naked Ape

Reason without faith is reason, reason with faith is not reason, it is only faith.

Given that by way of definitions we have: reason - The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought; intelligence. and faith - Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.

What could "The capacity for logical, rational, and analytic thought" possibly have to do with "Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence"?

Cheers,

Naked Ape

NearNihil Experience

Maybe you shouldn't call us defective from birth because we have differing critical and skeptical standards for our personal realizations...

Common ground starts where two have an equal relationship...not when the other is thinking, "I wonder what is wrong with these people that they are not like me?"

I don't think there is anything wrong with you(other than arrogant presumptiousness), so why do you think we're defective?


Go help yourself figure this out, dig for ammo elsewhere.




Explaining humility to people is like trying to explain Faith to people who already have it.

DBT

If thats the case,I wonder what brought you to christianity and not to something else? Buddhism?
Are you saying that your choice was purely evidence based?

Magus55

No, what intially brought me to Christianity was a personal experience that makes it near impossible for me to deny God. What kept me Christian was studying the evidence and the Bible, and finding it convincing.

Howard

"Faith: If you don't got it, you won't get it!"

Sounds like herpes.

Magus55

You can get herpes if you don't already have herpes.