Comments on: Skeptical Dial http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/09/13/skeptical-dial/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=skeptical-dial thoughts from someone dealing with doubt Sun, 05 Feb 2012 17:06:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 By: Mark Lefers http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/09/13/skeptical-dial/comment-page-1/#comment-388 Mark Lefers Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:41:37 +0000 http://christiandoubt.com/?p=347#comment-388 But why? :) But why? :)

]]> By: atimetorend http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/09/13/skeptical-dial/comment-page-1/#comment-387 atimetorend Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:36:04 +0000 http://christiandoubt.com/?p=347#comment-387 Yes, exactly, I enjoy the cosmological argument for the same reason. Christians and skeptics are on common ground there, "God did it" explaining no more than science. I've switched my primary response to my kids this year from "God made it that way" to "What do you think?" I guess at the end of the questions it replaces, "God made it that way" with "It just is that way." Funny. Yes, exactly, I enjoy the cosmological argument for the same reason. Christians and skeptics are on common ground there, “God did it” explaining no more than science.

I’ve switched my primary response to my kids this year from “God made it that way” to “What do you think?” I guess at the end of the questions it replaces, “God made it that way” with “It just is that way.” Funny.

]]> By: Mark Lefers http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/09/13/skeptical-dial/comment-page-1/#comment-385 Mark Lefers Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:27:41 +0000 http://christiandoubt.com/?p=347#comment-385 Yeah I have gotten in discussions like this too. They typically end with question on “How do you know something?” For instance I could always ask a Fundamentalist and a skeptic, “how do you know?” It’s like when my kids repeatedly ask “Why?” I either keep answering the “Why?” or just resort to saying “God made it that way”. As a scientist I prefer to keep searching for answers to the “Why?”, but I feel the cosmological argument goes to the limit of science (at least how we understand it). It is unlikely that science will be able to explain anything before the Big Bang. It’s the ultimate “God of the gaps”. However at the end of the day, both sides are left with lack of evidence. Yeah I have gotten in discussions like this too. They typically end with question on “How do you know something?” For instance I could always ask a Fundamentalist and a skeptic, “how do you know?” It’s like when my kids repeatedly ask “Why?” I either keep answering the “Why?” or just resort to saying “God made it that way”. As a scientist I prefer to keep searching for answers to the “Why?”, but I feel the cosmological argument goes to the limit of science (at least how we understand it). It is unlikely that science will be able to explain anything before the Big Bang. It’s the ultimate “God of the gaps”. However at the end of the day, both sides are left with lack of evidence.

]]> By: atimetorend http://www.christiandoubt.com/2009/09/13/skeptical-dial/comment-page-1/#comment-384 atimetorend Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:55:48 +0000 http://christiandoubt.com/?p=347#comment-384 It is very hard to do that, to maintain a neutral bias when evaluating claims. I become very frustrated reading Christian apologists' claims that "everyone has their own presuppositions, you have yours skeptic, and we have ours." Because I don't think that is true, Christians using that phrase usually seem to be taking the position that they have a presupposition they will maintain no matter what evidence flies in the face of it. So I wonder if I am, as they say, doing the same thing, having presuppositions. I see myself in what you describe about evaluating the cosmological argument. I <i>think</i> I am doing a reasonable job at looking at things from both sides, but I'm never certain. Maybe that's a good thing though. It is very hard to do that, to maintain a neutral bias when evaluating claims. I become very frustrated reading Christian apologists’ claims that “everyone has their own presuppositions, you have yours skeptic, and we have ours.” Because I don’t think that is true, Christians using that phrase usually seem to be taking the position that they have a presupposition they will maintain no matter what evidence flies in the face of it.

So I wonder if I am, as they say, doing the same thing, having presuppositions. I see myself in what you describe about evaluating the cosmological argument. I think I am doing a reasonable job at looking at things from both sides, but I’m never certain. Maybe that’s a good thing though.

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