John Popelish wrote in message <403D967E.5F3012AC@rica.net>...
How do you explain that you do not believe in things that many other
people believe without an obvious good reason?
Wait - are you asking me "how" to do it?
I admit that I am making an assumption that there are things that
other people believe with great certainty that you do not believe,
even though you have heard about them and their beliefs. If this
assumption is correct, how do you explain you lack of those beliefs?
Oh - like with anything? I'll try to think of one.... Ok, I have a hard time
believing... people can levitate! I have a hard time believing that because
of physics, and I've never personally seen a human levitate.
Does admitting that
other people believe them give them some inherent existence that you
are denying?
Can you rephrase that please? Who is "other people," "them," "you" etc.?
Okay, lets take a specific example. I assume that you have heard of
Hindus and some of the many gods they believe to be real. I'll pick
Shiva as an example. If you do not believe in the reality of the god,
Shiva, does the fact that other people believe in its reality give it
any substance that requires you to deny its existence even though it
is real, or do you just dismiss Shiva as someone else's superstitious
belief? In other words, are you atheist with respect to Shiva?
Let's go back to the levitators. If many people do believe in levitators,
then I, as Curious George, have a responsiblity to find this answer myself.
But I have not done any research or actively gone out of my way to levitate,
or find a levitator. So I leave the levitation as a "possibility" until I
get off my butt and do some work.
Your earlier statement about atheists seemed to be saying that
atheists are denying God, and therefore are admitting that it exists,
in order to deny it.
No, not TO deny it. They just deny it. I want to know why since they know it
exists. That makes no sense. That's like denying Janet's boob.
I am just trying to get you to answer the same question about Shiva,
for example (assuming you do not believe shiva is anything but
imaginary) to help you get inside the mindset of atheists.
Sorry for making assumptions, but I thought it might move the
conversation along a bit faster.
That's ok.
--
John Popelish
.
