“Evolutionists say that if God makes sense to us, it is not because he is really there, it’s only because that belief helped us survive and so we are hardwired for it. However, if we can’t trust our belief-forming faculties to tell us the truth about God, why should we trust them to tell us the truth about anything, including evolutionary science?
What if you just said “my belief forming faculties tell me that I do not have near enough evidence to believe in the god you describe. So what if I just agree with you that I should trust my belief forming faculties?”
Another important tack to take: “OK I don’t know in detail where love and the feeling that some things are wrong and some things are right come from. I do know from human history that humans have been wrong about things that felt very right to them: about the earth being flat, the earth being at the center of the universe, the sun going around the earth, the stars being pinprick sources of light in a “celestial sphere” that surrounded us, to mention a very small number. So I DO know that believing in something because it “feels right” is at best a crap shoot, and more likely a recipe for being wrong.
So in any case, though, if I can’t explain love (and whatever else from human psychology) but I can even less explain God and what he is or where he comes from, then I haven’t really helped myself by saying “God made love.” At best I’ve just kicked the can down the road, but more likely, I’ve replaced a very hard question with a much harder one.”
Appealing to a mystery hardly resolves a difficult problem. It is cleaner to just declare the original problem (human emotions) a mystery, and not create an even more mysterious thing and call that progress.
I also feel at some level you should be telling him “I won’t be bullied into saying I believe something that I don’t. Tricking me with argument will just make me angry and feel more tricked, and keep me from wanting to talk to you further.” I swear to god (yes it is an ironic cliche to use here) that I do not come down that hard on anything my kids tell me they believe that I think is a mistake. At best I tell them what I believe and why I think it makes more sense, but if I don’t respect their reasoning and how to use it, then I do not believe I am teaching them to respect their own reasoning. I don’t want to raise followers.
Another important tack to take: “OK I don’t know in detail where love and the feeling that some things are wrong and some things are right come from. I do know from human history that humans have been wrong about things that felt very right to them: about the earth being flat, the earth being at the center of the universe, the sun going around the earth, the stars being pinprick sources of light in a “celestial sphere” that surrounded us, to mention a very small number. So I DO know that believing in something because it “feels right” is at best a crap shoot, and more likely a recipe for being wrong.
It might sound like you’re equivocating right /wrong‘factually correct/incorrect’ and right/wrong ‘morally good/bad’. You aren’t, but you’d better use false and true rather than right and wrong in the first sentence to avoid confusion.
What if you just said “my belief forming faculties tell me that I do not have near enough evidence to believe in the god you describe. So what if I just agree with you that I should trust my belief forming faculties?”
Another important tack to take: “OK I don’t know in detail where love and the feeling that some things are wrong and some things are right come from. I do know from human history that humans have been wrong about things that felt very right to them: about the earth being flat, the earth being at the center of the universe, the sun going around the earth, the stars being pinprick sources of light in a “celestial sphere” that surrounded us, to mention a very small number. So I DO know that believing in something because it “feels right” is at best a crap shoot, and more likely a recipe for being wrong.
So in any case, though, if I can’t explain love (and whatever else from human psychology) but I can even less explain God and what he is or where he comes from, then I haven’t really helped myself by saying “God made love.” At best I’ve just kicked the can down the road, but more likely, I’ve replaced a very hard question with a much harder one.”
Appealing to a mystery hardly resolves a difficult problem. It is cleaner to just declare the original problem (human emotions) a mystery, and not create an even more mysterious thing and call that progress.
I also feel at some level you should be telling him “I won’t be bullied into saying I believe something that I don’t. Tricking me with argument will just make me angry and feel more tricked, and keep me from wanting to talk to you further.” I swear to god (yes it is an ironic cliche to use here) that I do not come down that hard on anything my kids tell me they believe that I think is a mistake. At best I tell them what I believe and why I think it makes more sense, but if I don’t respect their reasoning and how to use it, then I do not believe I am teaching them to respect their own reasoning. I don’t want to raise followers.
It might sound like you’re equivocating right /wrong‘factually correct/incorrect’ and right/wrong ‘morally good/bad’. You aren’t, but you’d better use false and true rather than right and wrong in the first sentence to avoid confusion.