Back when I was religious, I would go online and argue with other religious people, saying that atheism was correct. At the same time, I would argue online with atheists that religion was correct. Much to my surprise, I found my arguments against religion much more convincing.
How often do you put yourself in your ideological opponent's shoes?
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JA,
"How often do you put yourself in your ideological opponent's shoes?"
Regularly. I used to do the same thing you did. Still do somewhat.
Doesn't surprise me one bit, orthoprax. :)
It's called changing you mind when you are sure you have the right answer. To quote Billy Joel:
I believe I've passed the age
Of cousciousness and righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight
I once believed in causes too,
And had my pointless point of view
But life went on no matter who was wrong or right
Didn't think he was so deep, huh?
Next time I'll quote Bob Dylan...
Oh but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now
Mark Twain had a quote like that too. It was something like, "when I was 15 I was certain my father knew nothing. When I was 21 I couldn't believe how much the old man had learned in so short a time."
It means your ideas are alive. And that you are always thinking.
That's kind of how I got to where I am now also
except I never really debated other people, I just would have conversations with myself.
JA,
I don't agree with all of your positions but I respect you for having the strength to search for the truth by looking at all sides.
No Atheist or Agnostic starts off as a non-believer. We are capable of taking a step back and looking at the evidence, and we were obviously completely dissatisfied with the answers we got when we asked questions about our faith in God and religion.
Atheists and Agnostics do not have to resort to deception or lies to make sense of the world.
BEAJ said: No Atheist or Agnostic starts off as a non-believer.
I certainly have no memory of ever believing in God etc.. Though maybe as a child I 'believed' in the same way as I believed in Santa... But I doubt it. There was certainly no moment of crisis of faith or anything. I think as I got older I just went from passively not believing (or not even thinking about it).. to actively not believing.
The stories we were told about God & Jesus etc.. were, as far as I was concerned, just that - stories. Maybe it was all just baddly explained (grin).
No Atheist or Agnostic starts off as a non-believer.
I'm not sure whether this is true or not. I used to think that everybody starts off a non-believer. After all, if you've never heard of God, how could you believe in him? But then I read the article I discussed here. Now I think that we may be wired to come up with supernatural explanations for natural phenomena. Obviously, nobody is born a Christian or a Jew, but we may be born with theistic/superstitious tendencies.
I didn't mean that we believe when we are born. However, we live in a society where 87% either believe or don't discount the idea of God. I don't think I realized I was an actual non believer until I was in my late teens. I had a very secular upbringing though. Had a crash course Bar Mitvah.
Anyways, here is an interesting theory on being prewired to believe in God:
http://tinyurl.com/8bdtg
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