Posted: Feb 15, 2012 2:10 pm
Nicko wrote:
Oh, and just remember, this may be the first time you've conversed with a pack of godless heathens; this is not the first time we've conversed with a believer. Pretty much every "proof" of God ever invented has been discussed already and found to be invalid, unsound or both. Don't trot out the Kalam Cosmological Argument or the Ontological Argument and expect people to be impressed.
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Good advice Nicko
However I'm not sure that most British atheists would know the kalam cosmological or the ontological, or indeed the teleological argument for God and Paley's Watchmaker analogy, if it bit them on the arse. This is by no means a criticism of the atheists -- it's just that where I live at least Atheism is a pretty much automatic default, and any kind of religious faith is exceptional. I would imagine very few of my atheist mates have ever had occasion to, or desire to, deeply question the Aquinan proofs, or met any one who would have argued them against them, or indeed ever heard of them. They are highly educated clever and sociable people -- they just don't deal with theistic proofs much!
Informed atheists gather on sites like this: but the average unbeliever in the UK probably does not know said arguments, or their rebuttals, though they can wiki them quickly enough if they have a desire to, unlike my youth when only the fact I studied Philosophy of Religion meant I would have even understood what you are on about here!
I'm always up for a critical discussion or even a formal debate on some aspect of my religious beliefs btw, if you ever have the time.
j x