Reply to Why don't you believe in God?

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[quote=Anonymous]You end with a great story.  It is very comforting and I can understand why you feel sorry for your in-laws who don't have it.

But you still fundamentally miss something.  You put theism and atheism on a par by saying everyone engages in "wishful thinking".  That's absolutely false, and I am saying this as a Christian.  Atheism, skepticism, scientists, etc. are all at their core skeptics.  They believe what the evidence says, and they do not believe the rest.

By trying to label everyone a "wishful thinker", you make it so easy to say "as long as I have to make a wish, I'll choose the wish that involves an infinite, loving creator and eternal life."  Well, that's just not fair to the other side.  Their skepticism causes them to face some serious consequences:  there may be no plan for them, they were not created for a purpose, if they are alone in this world then they are just flat out alone, and that when they die there is nothing.  What kind of wishful thinker chooses that?

As Christians, we have faith.  We most often call faith a "gift".  It is beyond our control, and contrary to many posters it is not the product of reason and will, unless the will part is a choice to believe things without evidence, in which case we might as well drop the "reason" part.

I don't think it is proper to chastise or pity people who do not have it.  I think it is also good to test that faith with reason, and I think that this thread is helpful in that.  Because a weak faith is no faith at all.

But there is no point in wrapping this up with the conclusion that faith is beautiful.  Because to the skeptic who applies reason to all the evidence he can find, it is just a beautiful dream.[/quote]

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