promethean75 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 22, 2022 7:48 pm
The religious man who is unable to not believe in all honesty in the existence of god,
It doesn't actually work that way, P.
The poet Robert Browning put it better: what we are faced with, in the choice between belief and disbelief, is that the world has enough possibility of being interpreted both ways to allow us both options. And everybody has both. Only a person who closes his or her eyes to the data completely has no possibility of faith or doubt. And either religionists or Atheists can be guilty of that.
...the honest atheist.
I hope one day to meet such. I never have.
For Atheism is not something one can hold on data. It has one primary supposition: that there is, and can be, no such thing as a God or gods. If it violates that, then it's not Atheism, by definition.
But that supposition, so fundamental to Atheism -- what is it premised upon? What data would be sufficient to warrant it? Clearly, there's no such thing. For to know, of a certainty, that there is and can be no such thing as a God or gods, one would literally have to have all knowledge. One would have to go everywhere in the universe...to make sure that the god of the Deists did not exist. One would have to time-travel, just to make sure that if a god didn't exist now, none ever had, and that none ever would in the future.
And when one had done all that, then one could finally say, "I know for certain that no God or gods exist. And I know it on evidence and investigation, not mere wishing."
The irony is, though, that no sooner than one had achieved the necessary expansiveness of knowledge, one would be wrong -- there WOULD be a God, and it would be YOU.
For to be possessed of all knowledge and not be time-bound are part of the definition of Supreme Being.
So can Atheism be held rationally? No. It can be held as a wish, a hope, a hypothesis, a belief...but never on sufficient evidence. So where is the "honest" Atheist? Because by declaring himself an Atheist, he's being dishonest about what he knows or can know.
If I find no reason to believe in a god,
Then you can admit that you have no knowledge of the matter. And that's fair, if true. One can be agnostic and honest.
However, it's not true in your case. You've been offered some knowledge about God, if only in the last several messages from me. Apparently, you just don't like that. But you don't answer to me. In fact, one day, you'll explain yourself to God, as will we all.
For it is written:
As I live, says the Lord, to Me every knee will bow,
And every tongue will give praise to God.
So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God. (Romans 14:11-12)
Prepare your answer, would be my advice.