fpb

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redcoast June 16 2008, 18:41:33 UTC
I am tempted to say that it is much smaller than the number of dedicated enemies, but that does not change the facts. I am one of those people whom people just naturally notice. They know when I am in a room, even if I sit in a back row and do nothing. That is not something I can change, although I have often wished I could.

You should say it is because you are so sexy, the women cannot resist you!

I have to remind myself that there is no INTELLECTUAL obstacle to belief, because the emotional and instinctive ones are so strong.

That's interesting. What is an instinctive obstacle to belief? I don't think I ever experienced that.

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fpb June 16 2008, 18:53:07 UTC
"However much evidence there may be for miracles, miracles just do not happen." That is not an intellectual position, it is an instinctive one.

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redcoast June 16 2008, 18:54:48 UTC
Don't most people think the opposite?

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redcoast June 17 2008, 00:26:05 UTC
I think you misunderstand my question. FPB says it is instinctive to him, which interests me because in my experience the opposite position is the instinctive one.

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fpb June 18 2008, 08:31:30 UTC
I would not say so. I think, actually, that the idea that people have an instinctive need to believe something beyond the reality of this life is a claim that cannot be proved, and that in fact tends to serve as a justification for the failure of atheism to sweep the world. When atheists are discouraged that so many people are resistant to their apparently cast-iron arguments, they reach the conclusion that there is this irrational preference for supernatural views. That is at least a dubious claim and at worst a refusal to engage with the rationality of their opponents.

This is a thought I only just conceptualized, and needs some more elaboration. I may post about it later.

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