this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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If I believed in unicorns I would probably just say they're magical so they can avoid detection. Problem solved. There's no way to collect evidence for them, but they can't be disproven.
These do not really skew the probability for any god in particular. Every god has the same claims, and there are thousands, if not far more, of them, and they're usually mutually exclusive. Using probability, if they're all equally probably, the probability you were born to parents who believe the correct one is effectively zero.
Now there's Pascal's Wager to deal with, that is you're better off believing because the finite things you give up in this life weighed against the infinite reward if he's real. However, again, every god has equal claim to this wager, and they're mutually exclusive. You will give up something measurable and there are effectively infinite petitioners, so the wager is hardly even worth discussing. It's just apologetics.
Then you are changing the nature of unicorns. Usually in books they are made of physical stuff and interact with physical stuff. But if they can't do that then they would be made of the same stuff that souls and angels are made. And then you are changing question from "Does this weird animal exist?" to "Does higher mode of existence that we can't detect exist"
I think you are confusing gods with religions. There are 20 major religions. There are of course monotheistic and polytheistic religions. We could split my claim to two basic components. One 'humans have a undetectable soul or spiritual element to them'. And two 'The Christianity is correct religion'
The prevalent existence of spirituality in Ethnic Tribes is an argument for spiritual element in humans. I will assume that we are in agreement on that point. If you want You can come up with an argument against this.
I don't think that Christianity is definitely correct. I didn't put the work to have that strong of an opinion on the topic. It definitely helped that I was born in the culture that already had Christianity ingrained in it's roots. It also gave me personally some benefit to my mental well being. I think that it is neat that in some christian circles it is encouraged to question your own beliefs and trying to get to the truth.
Pascal's wager was nice at that time for its simplicity, but when counterarguments come up, it became messy and complicated. It is still worth a mention as a historical milestone in philosophy.
Sure, as is my right. This is what happens with religion constantly. For example, Pope Benedict XVI believes in evolution and the big bang. These remove the domain of God from creating all creatures, the earth, etc. Sure, it still leaves room for God to start it all off, but it is changing a fundamental aspect of creation. It's the god of the gaps.
There are currently 20 major religions. There have been many more through human history. The vast majority don't exist anymore. Two of those, Islam and Christianity (plus Judaism), believe in the same god. Abrahamic religion all comes from previous religions though. You can compare the stories in the Bible to stories of other beliefs in the region and they match, though some aspect vary. Religion evolves. (Which I'd argue is evidence that it isn't correct. If it were correct it'd never change.)
I agree it's an argument for humans to believe in something spiritual, but not that it's accurate. We don't need to explain lightning with something in the sky fighting or anything anymore. We don't need to explain mountains with gods having risen from them or anything anymore. Spirituality in humans is evidence of humans wanting an explanation for things, regardless of their knowledge of how it actually came to be, and nothing more.
That's good. For me it was only a negative influence. It didn't make me feel better and only told me what to do. I don't agree with many morals the Bible teaches (and neither do most Christians), and I'd rather have morals that treat people well regardless of what they or I believe. I don't need religion to constrain my behavior, and it would prevent me from doing things I want to do and cause me to do things I don't want to do.
If it's a positive for you then fine, though I'd argue there's probably some other religions that have better effects. When I was poking at religious beliefs when I was a teenager I really liked Buddhism. It's a much more relaxing religion and makes much fewer claims and demands. That's how I became an atheist though is I learned about other religions and noticed they all have equally valid claims, so I just don't believe any.