Theism, and all that…
When we ask the ‘why believe’ question we pretty soon come to the ‘but can I believe that God exists?’ question. To answer it, we have to explore whether theism is reasonable. Theism claims that there is a God who is the creator and ruler of the universe. It does not go much further than that. This God could be the one worshiped in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism (for theism does not insist that there can only be one God) and potentially a host of other faiths as well. A great deal of content is not attached to the belief, but it stands in stark contrast to...
Read MoreWhy believe? A sort of apologetics 101…
Why believe? Well, you already do. The question is really, what do you believe, and why? The first big question is the God one. Does God exist, and if so does it matter? Regardless of whether your answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the first part of the question, some faith is involved. Perhaps it is better to ask which takes the greater faith, to believe that God exists or does not exist. In the absence of definitive proof for either side, some faith is involved. At the cognitive level, it is about assessing the evidence – where does the weight of evidence point? Those...
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