god is a genesis of stupidity

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

Comments

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Josh the Vegan also argued for such burden placement, but a theist doesn't have to accept that. What kind of God is it that can be caught and pinned under a microscope? No, if our theist cannot have everyone be theists, he will stick to the conventional wisdom - we just cannot know to the satisfaction of the other. He'll take the stalemate rather than be silenced like a child.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

I can usually explain this better than what I'm doing here…

The atheist gives room to argue, I don't. I'm not saying that the theist is wrong (and hence giving them something to argue), I'm saying that I don't accept the premise of the question. If they want to believe in god, then that's all fine and good, I'm not going to tell them they're wrong, but the question doesn't cohere with my internal epistemological framework therefore I'm unable to accept any arguing-from-theism position. It's the "it's not you it's me" of atheism. In the real world with soft theists (i.e. not the super rabid fundamentalists) then it's been a great way to shuffle the conversation onto another topic. For example, it's quite easy to get from there into a conversation about the nature of knowledge or reality, which if people want to have a chat about god (i.e. they want a philosophical chat) they seem to be able to move that easily, which is an area that is much less fraught with the danger of offending someone. It allows me the space to be able to say "I'm not saying you're wrong, but I am saying you need to come up with another argument to convince me".

ETA: It also gives you the space to start dissing Dawkin's, which everyone can get into, cos seriously, fuck that guy.

[hardblue.livejournal.com]

Oh, I get you have a more sophisticated approach, but I think from the theist's perspective, it still ends up in the same place - you don't want to argue, but you still won't believe and you still insist on proof for your belief. As for Dawkins, even other atheists can dump on the guy: one can be a militant atheist as much as one can be a militant fundamentalist.