AJJ

The reason is that on atheism there is nothing beyond the universe to account for its existence, so it has to account for itself, and for no reason. D...

If a person doesn’t like murder, then they need merely either not murder, and if they do, own up to it. Anything else is minding someone else’s busine...

Oh right, sorry, didn’t realise.

Then the way you’re using it is question-begging, and the way it is commonly understood is also question-begging, in the context of this argument.

No, it’s yours. Because your definition is question-begging and mine is not.

But God is God precisely because he is not a part of anything. If he was, he would he subject to a higher encompassing reality, and so vulnerable to t...

Your definition of the universe precludes that there can be anything beyond it, the issue under discussion. Your implict argument runs: “The universe ...

You are, implicitly. Do you understand this?

Only if you’re using your question-begging definition of the universe.

The arguments for theism demonstrate the existence of an entity beyond the universe; that is what you’re up against when you argue in opposition to th...

Using it that way in the context of an argument about the existence of God makes it question-begging; it assumes that there is nothing beyond the univ...

It’s invoked as an explanation in the absence of one, arrived at through various logical steps, and not simply created to suit an already settled outl...

Yes, unless I’m missing something the atheist is forced to believe that. Beyond time, not subject to time, does not begin, does not end, does not chan...

Because applying eternality to the universe is arbitrary and completely lacking in explanation. God, by virtue of being beyond time, is necessarily et...

Because God has the quality of eternality by virtue of being beyond time, not just because. The atheist, by contrast, must rest his belief about the u...

Your definition requires that your conclusion - that there is nothing beyond the universe - is true. That makes your definition question-begging; no n...

The universe either accounts for its own existence, or something beyond it does. The atheist doesn’t accord with the second option, since a creator be...

And your concept of the universe is question-begging: By defining it as “everything” you assume there is nothing beyond it, and therefore no God, whic...

Those are your premises and conclusions, combined.

That’s pure question-begging, amounting to nothing more than, “You’re wrong, because I’m right.”

Well I believe theism is different in that regard, but that’s beside the point of my question, which is that if you acknowledge the magical element of...

Are you aware that on atheism you’re forced to believe the universe just is, and there’s no explanation why? That some part of it accounts for its own...

I actually don’t know enough about God’s timelessness/immutability to argue about this. But my initial point stands; he’s not anything at all like an ...

I can make sense of something having no beginning and no end, or being able to experience all of time as a whole, rather than from moment to moment; b...

It’s impossible to imagine an infinity of something, but that doesn’t make the concept of infinity incoherent.

No. Impossible to imagine with our Euclidean minds, but not incoherent.

The arguments for theism demonstrate the existence of a transcendent, and so timeless and immaterial, God; not simply a creature residing somewhere in...

Yeah, well you don’t hear much optimism about the current state of the West.

No problem. But that’s it then: A reason for believing, plus faith, or “an act of reasoned belief”, and there’s your Christian.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument gives a sound enough rational reason for believing in God. Its premises, though rebutted, have not been refuted and so...

Sound reasoning in support of my definition you mean?

Right, well what you’re calling “an act of reasoned belief” is what I mean by the word “faith”. So whatever your own definition of faith is will be be...

Yeah, and of course wholly analogous to Christian belief, where you venture living in a way you wouldn’t otherwise, on the reasoned, but not necessari...

The reasoned belief is that the parachute is packed correctly. Venturing something on that belief - the jump - is an act of faith. Why is venturing so...

In my skydiving example you would be choosing to have faith that your parachute was packed correctly. Would that necessarily be unreasonable?

Faith is venturing something on a belief you don’t definitively know to be true. If you skydive, you don’t definitively know your parachute has been p...

Well the Churches are not Christianity, as if they’ve somehow superseded Christ, so their political alignments are beside the point. Peter Hitchens’ d...

That beatitude is an admonishment to live a gentle life; its practical answer is just that. Forceful overthrow of perceived oppressors would be its op...

Fair, I’ll take a look for sure. But actually it might be all the “we don’t know” that dampens my interest in these things - metaphysical arguments, i...

Cheers, I should probably take a look. Admittedly I find metaphysical stuff more fun.

Then where is it? And if it doesn’t exist before we see it, how do we come to see it? I know very little about quantum mechanics, but this entanglemen...

An electron, say, doesn’t occupy a particular spatial-temporal location?

If you take it that there are individual spatial-temporal locations, each distinct from every other, then it seems there necessarily has to be somethi...

The above is what I’m responding to. It’s the notion of Christians “keeping their beliefs to themselves”, as if they shouldn’t have a say, that I’m ta...

I’m not certain what you mean. I’m questioning your view that Christians should not give a public voice to their beliefs; I called your view bigoted; ...

Preferring not to eat an orange does not entail that I am intolerant of oranges.

There is no such sense in all preferences. Preferring apples in no way entails that I am intolerant of oranges.

Are you aware that’s a bigoted view to take?

There’s an important distinction between wanting your preferred views to have more influence, and desiring that others keep their views to themselves.

And for Christian beliefs to be restricted in their influence, where others you do favour are not? This notion that Christians should keep their belie...