Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Arguing With Atheists

I've come to believe that arguing over the existence of a deity is fairly fruitless.  Many atheists have a bitterness against religion that even losing an argument would never let them overcome their doubts.  Agnostics are often more interesting to debate with, partially because I agree with some of what they have to say (I was an agnostic for a short while) and because their argument is often logical and not so categorical.

I think an intelligent person could make a good argument on either side of the existence of God discussion.  Minds are rarely ever changed, because I don't think God can be contained or understood to an argument.  The very nature of such a deity makes their existence a complex concept to comprehend.  All issues surrounding epistemology and metaphysics are difficult and nearly (if not definitely) impossible to prove.  It often boils down not to who has the better argument, but who is smarter or the more skillful debater.

I don't think we can look to logic to find God.  Not that a belief in Him (or Her) is illogical.  But as I stated, the attributes of God make Him/Her impossible to totally understand.  He could never be understood through an argument.  I believe to understand God and to believe in the existence of God, you must experience God.  You can argue with someone, but you can't make anyone have this experience.  They must discover it themself.  

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Here's the way I see it: the supernatural is (almost by definition) not something that can be directly evidenced. Instead, it is an abstract framework/paradigm that can be used to interpret sense-data. The argument thus comes down to competing paradigms and how well they explain the evidence, a much more contentious debate.

Anonymous said...

You should read that "Blue Like Jazz" book. He has an interesting take on this subject.

Ethelwine said...

Well, that's my point, I don't believe anybody can really debate the subject matter. It isn't a winnable debate on either side. It is largely philosophic and most of the "evidence" cannot be proven.