Survey of reasons to believe (Introduction)

by David Turell , Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 20:17 (3635 days ago) @ dhw

Survey: Scientific theory and/or no faith-
> dhw: There are at least two items missing from the list: 
> 1) there is no objective evidence of a god being present. We have a number of unsolved mysteries, and we have people with a subjective “feeling” of a presence. The many different religions could indicate a “convergent” core of truth, or a “convergent” desire to solve the insoluble, or to conquer death, or to have faith that we are not alone and that something is greater than ourselves, cares for us, will console us for our suffering etc. Non-presence = 10 points.
> 
> 2) The sheer illogicality of the argument that human and animal intelligence cannot have evolved without design, whereas divine intelligence just somehow happens to be there. If one can believe in an inexplicable divine intelligence, one can believe in an inexplicable animal (including human) intelligence, and in inexplicable panpsychist evolution. 10 points because ultimately ALL the hypotheses require faith.-Good additional factors. Your point two leaves all logic behind, because any suggestion of yours or mine requires a faith in the approach used. 10 points agreed!
> 
> dhw: These points therefore indicate the importance of each item for my open-mindedness - not a score for or against God. However, quite astonishingly this new table brings me a score of 50. Would you believe/disbelieve it?-50/50 puts you on the pickets, so it is a well constructed survey.