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Paul's avatar

Interesting to read your reasoning but I’m not convinced by the conclusion. Individual probabilistic guesses and philosophical reasoning can lead to belief, but they don’t constitute proof. The gap between ‘there are good theistic arguments’ and ‘a being of unlimited, transcendent goodness will spend eternity in paradise with us’ is too yawning to be persuasive. It seems you’re just leaning into a very vague notion of ‘god’ as an explanatory filler for a lot of things for which we just don’t yet have good explanations, then shoehorning in traditional theism. I’m more confident that non-god explanations are waiting for future minds to uncover and am not so impatient that I would fill in the gaps in our knowledge with an omnipotent, omniscient creator. It also seems like you’re reacting to a strident type of antitheism, not the atheism simply recognizes that theism raises more questions that it answers. Anyway, some good stuff to chew on and worth reading again, so thanks for posting.

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Nadja's avatar

This was a wonderful read :) I am a agnostic who wants to believe but can't quite convince herself, so I really appreciate your account of how you came to believe in God. One hang-up I have (which maybe comes from my childhood religious exposure) is that one essential property of God is worshipfulness, and this requires that God be responsive to my actions and potentially being a person. Neither of these follow from perfection, but if they are not essential to God, then I'm not sure I disagree with the argument.

Also, I'm really excited for your article on psychophysical harmony—I've brought the problem up to theists and atheists in the past and I haven't been able to get them puzzled, although I am very puzzled by it! I can't wait to read!

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