Originally posted by lucifershammerIn practice, that is more often the case than not.
Oh, I see. So it is necessarily some sort of disillusionment process and/or unfavorable 'conditioning' that leads to disbelief. It couldn't simply be that the theist has failed miserably in making his case.
In practice, that is more often the case than not. Look at the way many atheists respond to religion (especially Christianity) on this site - ...[text shortened]... extremely vituperating and betrays some underlying emotional issue, not a philosophical one.
With in practice acting as something of a qualifier, I may agree with you. I did not find your initial post to be condescending; rather, I found it to be a humorous use of the word "ignorance". Ignorance as an epistemic term denotes a lack of knowledge. And I just find it extremely doubtful that there is any knowledge to be lacked in the first place on such matters (regardless of the truth of the propositions). Epistemically, I think my discourse on the elvish should be taken every bit as seriously as any discourse on any other supernatural matter, such as God. I'm dead serious on that.
But like I said, tolerance is a step in the right direction. On these matters, I think it is essential.
OK: I admit that the comments I made concerning the Problem of Evil were "incendiary".
Originally posted by vistesdMy plea here is simply to not assume that our “truth” is so clear that we dismiss the others’ as automatically being self-deceptive and self-protective
As I have said before, religion and philosophy have to do with questions about how we, as individuals, live and grapple with the issues of life (except for those who are simply academic explorers). Some emotional responses ought to be expected.
The dis-illusionment process can be painful. There are people on here who, from a sincere and self-crit ...[text shortened]... ot to say that we necessarily ought to let go too easily, without the testing-fire of argument…
Well said.
