by EdenOne 233 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I understand the need that rationalists have to jump at anything that resembles theism
Once again... STOP PRETENDING YOU KNOW HOW OTHER PEOPLE THINK.
But if reason is but a flag, used merely to win debates and an excuse to be insulting to others, you're a disgrace to your own cause.
And now, having been thoroughly debunked and, indeed, unwittingly having had a hand in your own debunking, you fall back to attempting to insult people.
What is Belief?
From a religious perspective to believe in something or someone is to know they, or it, exist. How does one know? Because they "see" with their mind's eye. Yes, I know to many it sounds childish but so be it.
Because they "see" with their mind's eye. Yes, I know to many it sounds childish but so be it.
Perhaps you can understand why that is never going to count as objective evidence?
It is just another way of saying "I believe because I really want it to be true"
I would define belief as the involuntary judgment of an idea as being true based on certain thoughts or evidence that seem to point to it being true but without constituting absolute proof of its truthfulness. For when there is absolute proof it is no longer a belief but knowledge.
Belief is basically like gambling. Take professional horse-racing gamblers as an example. They judge the odds of a particular horse winning based its track record, the jockey, it's age, past injuries, etc. None of these factors (when in the favor of the horse) allow them to have absolute knowledge that the horse will win. But it does serve to sway the mind to think that the horse most probably will win and so they bet on the horse. Well it's similar with belief. How easily the mind of the believer is convinced differs from person to person depending on their critical thinking skills and gullibility.
Doubt or lack of certainty is an essential aspect of belief. The difference between belief and knowledge is lack of certainty. If there is no uncertainty then it is not belief but knowledge. If the lack of uncertainty is not due to sound absolute proof then its not knowledge but delusion.
Anyone who says they know God exists is someone I see as being either dishonest or delusional. Even the bible does not require worshipers to know that God exists. Hebrews 11:6 says that a person has to believe that God exists to be favorably heard by him.
Belief is holding to an expressed conceptual idea without testable evidence.
Simple really
Cofty, actually no. When a young man finds the love of his life he believes because his heart and mind tell him this is the one. Someone else might disagree with his choice but he knows that for him this woman is the one, the only one.
For me and many other Christians, Jesus is the "one, the only one". Others may not agree but that's okay. Each one must go the way his heart leads. I respect that.
One doesn't necessarily have to believe in a god or spirit to know what a god supposedly said is good redeeming social behavior for humans to follow.
Fink: Belief is holding to an expressed conceptual idea without testable evidence.
You go to far when you add, "without testable evidence."
eden, going back to your OP, if you can get hold of Daniel Dennett's short PDF article, Atheism and Evolution, you will find that he would define belief in atheism as the last of your definitions of belief which is "to ask if you believe a certain information questions if you hold it as credible truth or fact" and he honestly admits that evolution does not deny the existence of God per se but that it yields good enough or credible explanatory frameworks for all that is attributed to God.
So he does not think that we can make the assertion that there is evidence that God does not exist and then provide evidence to back it up but that we can say that there is sufficient explanatory material to enable a person to make an intelligent choice between explanations. Indeed he freely admits that the question of God's actual existence is outside of what science does and that science and evolution do not offer evidence either way as such but that it is possible to find satisfactory explanations via science .
When a young man finds the love of his life he believes because his heart and mind tell him this is the one. Someone else might disagree with his choice but he knows that for him this woman is the one, the only one. - HM-TM
Christians have two challenges of belief.
The first is to show that god exists and the second is to show that he is trustworthy.
Both involve belief in a different sense of the word.
I was talking about the first challenge but you skipped to the second.
