Reason Prostituted

"I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." Stephen Roberts The presupposition behind these phrase seems to be that any concept of God is equally arbitrary, and any believer of whatever religion base her beliefs on pure whim or blindly follows any religious tradition she received in her upbringing. If this believer rejects other religious traditions for being incompatible with her own, she rejects these traditions because she thinks they are human-based, or devil-based: they don't originate from her god. In order to become a full atheist she only has to realize that her beliefs are equally arbitrary to the ones she criticizes. But these presuppositions are wrong. Not every religion sees other religious traditions as purely arbitrary. See Catholicism for example: it currently teaches that there is value in other religious traditions.

Santa is an intentional fiction. God is seriously believed to exist. Santa's existence is irrelevant for the universe's existence, but if God exists she is the foundation of all existence. Santa is a contingent being, he could or not exist. If God exists, she is necessary, she could not not exist. Santa's existence is falsifiable. God's existence is not. God's existence is an issue of serious reflection for unbelievers. Santa's is not. Many famous people of high intellectual caliber believe in God. There's no serious intellectual known for her belief in Santa. There are different kind of arguments that seriously pretend to support the case for God's existence. No such arguments exist for Santa. God's invisible and inmaterial. Santa is not. Belief in God is a basic tenet of many religious organizations. There is no organization known to defend belief in Santa. There is no philosophical basis for belief in Santa, but there is for God. See also: The inv

The essence of theism consists in trusting that there is an ultimate cosmic purpose in which everyone of us takes part. In the end, everything will work for good, somehow. Theism is an attitude of wholesome confidence towards life.

This is good news. The book "The Irrational Atheist" is now available online for free. Check this link: The Irrational Atheist “In The Irrational Atheist, Vox Day plays the card that the atheists consider their trump—reason—against them in a devastating and highly entertaining manner. With clarity and wit, he presents a wealth of evidence to demolish the arguments put forward by the leading ‘brights’ of the day.” —Chad Elder, Fraters Libertas

One of the connotations of the analogy of God with Santa Claus and other fictional characters is that God is irrelevant, her existence easily dismissible, and were it not for a bunch of lunatics we call theists, this would be a non issue. In fact, it is a non issue, theists’s insistence notwithstanding. But the curious thing is that there are those who insist that belief in God is in the same category with belief in Santa, and at the same time can’t stop thinking, talking and writing about God related issues. That behavior seems contradictory to me. Even though atheists may deny it with words, with their behavior they are admitting that they care about God’s existence, and possibly even more than those theists that take God’s existence for granted. This atheist behavior cries for an explanation.

These days I've been wondering what to do with the proposition that God exists, or, conversely, with opposite one: that God does not exist. What I believe? I've been playing an agnostic position, but now I doubt an agnostic position is psychologically feasible. I now tend to think it's not. If I am honest with myself, I have to admit that the affirmation that God does not exist doesn't ring true to me. In other words: the existence of God is not so easily dismissible for me as the existence of Santa Claus. So the assertion that God exists seems more believable to me than its opposite. Am I a theist? I think so. Am I a Christian? No. But more than believing, I feel. I feel the wonder of being alive in this world and I connect this feeling with God. And no amount of naturalistic explanation has been able to eliminate this wonder. These days I've reading critiques of naturalistic ideology in official science. I now doubt neo-Darwinism and anti-miracle skepticism. I adm