Thursday 26 March 2009

Theist and Atheist converse

T: You say you don't believe in God? Ah my friend, but God believes in you. A: Think carefully about what you have just said. To be meaningful (to be more than just noise) the alternative must have some semantic purchase. So, consider what I put to you: my friend, though you believe in God, he doesn't believe in you. T: That means nothing to me. That concept is literally meaningless to me. A: Which is to say, you'd prefer not to consider its implications. I can understand that. But that doesn't stop it being true. T: It's nonsense. A: Precisely. It's the antithetical nonsense to your nonsense-thesis. T: You don't understand my point.

4 comments:

Rich Puchalsky said...

T: But in the tradition of theists being willing to call on fantasy authors for support, I should point out that Lord Dunsany wrote a pretty good short story about a man who offended the gods, after which they in sinister fashion agreed to forget him, and he not only vanished, all of history was remade so that he no longer had ever existed.

Adam Roberts Project said...

I used to believe in the existence of Lord Dunsany. When I was a child. I know better now.

Mahendra Singh said...

The fact that it is dark at night proves that I am not paying attention!

nnyhav said...

You gotta believe in yourself ... no wait that was Monday.