Sometimes, but they’re not aware that’s what they’re doing. So in practice that probability is irrelevant, but I’m pretty sure that in practice Richard Dawkins is never going to assign a significant probability to “God exists”. He still assigned a not-zero probability when asked. Same with such theists.
Other times, they’re genuinely quite rational people who have literally never heard of most of the evidence and arguments against their position. I once saw a theist renounce their faith after an hour of real debate, because that was just the first time they’d had that conversation with an atheist who knew what they were talking about.
(I’m sorry to be so contrary, but the dismissive attitude I see on LW towards the insanely huge fraction of humanity that belongs to one religion or another is annoying. They’re not all dumb cultists. Some of them are Robert Aumann.)
EDIT: For clarity, before any replies were posted.
I’m sorry to be so contrary, but the dismissive attitude I see on LW towards the insanely huge fraction of humanity that belongs to one religion or another is annoying.
I agree, believing in zero gods does not warrant the feeling of superiority.
Yes, but in the matters of faith they start with the bottom line, and make up the relevant probabilities along the way to match it.
Sometimes, but they’re not aware that’s what they’re doing. So in practice that probability is irrelevant, but I’m pretty sure that in practice Richard Dawkins is never going to assign a significant probability to “God exists”. He still assigned a not-zero probability when asked. Same with such theists.
Other times, they’re genuinely quite rational people who have literally never heard of most of the evidence and arguments against their position. I once saw a theist renounce their faith after an hour of real debate, because that was just the first time they’d had that conversation with an atheist who knew what they were talking about.
(I’m sorry to be so contrary, but the dismissive attitude I see on LW towards the insanely huge fraction of humanity that belongs to one religion or another is annoying. They’re not all dumb cultists. Some of them are Robert Aumann.)
EDIT: For clarity, before any replies were posted.
I agree, believing in zero gods does not warrant the feeling of superiority.