Why Are Theists So Closed Minded?

The criteria is that of all the evidence, proofs, and arguments intended to prove a god, I have not met one that holds up. So far, they all fail.

By what standards of evidence I use, the same as a court of law. For example, valid evidence. Personal experience also fails, else we would believe in all of the alien abduction stories.

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Does the universe have a beginning? I can conclude that if the universe is expanding, at some point it began to exist.

NO

The only valid conclusion you can state is that the universe is expanding.

You are speculating on it’s origin, if there was one.

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I agree.

But didn’t you agree with me on that? Or wait, you believe that the universe began to expand at some point?

I agree that if we witness something expanding, then it began to expand at some point. But when and how is speculation.

The following .gif illustrates my point.

We know the balloon is being expanded. But we do not know with certainty if she began 10 seconds before with a completely deflated balloon, if she had it already at the initial (when the camera began filming) stage of inflation for five minutes, and began blowing into it when the camera was turned on, or if a friend handed a partially expanded balloon to her before she began blowing into it.

We can assume, but we can not state with 100% certainty.

And for such a profound issue of “where did we come from?”, we cannot make casual assumptions, we must be certain.

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That’s a smart example.

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I think the question suggests that[all] theists are closed minded,unlike we atheists, who are open minded.

As a general principle I think that claim is unfalsifiable. I’ve met several theists over the yeas I would consider open minded.Those exceptions invalidate the generalisation.

By inference, atheists are open minded.

Can’t say that’s something I’ve ever noticed, either here or in real life. Atheism is simply some thing about a person, it doesn’t define most of us. As far as I can tell, atheists have the same fears, prejudices ,and every manner of moral or ethical flaws as the rest of humanity.

We atheists ain’t special in any way as group, we’re just ordinary folks. It pleases our vanity to think believers are also ordinary folks, but more so.

I’ve made this observation before,partly: It seems to me that the atheists one meets here are atypical of the general community. I think the same may be said of the theists we tend to get here, although in their case it’s not a compliment. :face_with_monocle:

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Yes I guess you are correct, some Christians are a little more opened minded. I do have Christian friends just that we differ when it comes to believing in a god. And just about everyone I know knows I am an atheist.

Another subject.
Everyone also knows I am extremely an activist when it comes to the Marijuana (Cannabis) laws. It needs to stop, no more arresting someone for possessing a plant. It didn’t work when the people were actually against it, and it doesn’t work now with a majority now pushing for it. People who don’t even smoke wants it legal.

Nough said there. (Enough)

I laid out a few generalizations explaining why some theists have difficulty learning something that may contradict their beliefs.

But stubbornness and being close-minded is not the exclusive province of theists. I know many theists, very devout ones too, who are open and accept the findings of science. And I know some atheists who have their own horse blinders on.

I know many theists who are intelligent and good people. But what atheists are asking them to do is consider something that, if accepted, completely destroys their personal viewpoint, something they have invested a great amount of time, effort, and money, and leaves them adrift in a hostile ocean of doubt and confusion.

GO BACK TO the thread where YOU HAVE asserted this endlessly!!!

True for some I guess.

Some are a little more open, but many push religion down your throat. I do have Christian friends whom know I am atheist.

Some of them are very good people. But yes they probably do have some confusion.

I have yet to encounter a rational argument for an extant deity. You yourself seemed to be using a first cause argument, a derivation of the Kalam cosmological argument, which usually contains at least 3 known common logical fallacies, argumentum ad ignorantiam, a begging the question fallacy, and a special pleading fallacy. Your posts used all three, and is therefore by definition irrational.

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Does the fact that multiple religions exist conclude that none of them could be talking about the same thing (but just in different ways)? Think about that. God is a universal subject. And even so, if they were describing things entirely different, how can that render one God nonexistent? Maybe some are infact, wrong.

If someone was serious, they would assume they are all wrong, by default.

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That’s just an opinion. A very strongly biased one as well. Let’s face the truth that nobody actually knows whether it’s untrue or true.

which just shows you that “faith” is a totally unreliable indicator of truth.

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Let us examine how religions began.

People attempted to understand everything around them. That was both curiosity and the drive to understand. But unfortunately, their understanding of the laws of physics (for example), led them to plug in deities or some supernatural explanation. The powerful night entity Moon was responsible for madness, lunacy. Mars was the god of war. Thor was the god of thunder and lightning.

Be it Europe or Africa or anywhere else, people ascribed supernatural entities to explain natural phenomena. And for those who made such pronouncements, the shamans, the priests, the holy men, realized it gave them power.

So with this explanation, it is understandable why “religion” and “gods” sprang up in all corners of the world.

When Copernicus placed the sun as the center of the universe, the science became astronomy, the supernatural became astrology. One was based on data and facts, the other became the land of woo woo. “Modern” astrology still practices the geocentric system that places the Earth as the center of the universe.

@TheUniverseBruh

You must take that up with other religions, but I find the idea that all religions are essentially describing the same deity absurd, since they differ wildly, in all but one way, their religions always reflect precisely the ignorance prejudice and superstition of the humans that create those religions, conforming precisely to cultures and geography.

The fact humans are innately superstitious, and need to create deities as a place holder for the unexplained, doesn’t validate those deities or the superstitions created around them at all.

As an atheist I don’t need to disprove anything, it’s for theist to evidence their claim.

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Do you generally believe things when you have no way of knowing whether they are true or false?

Wow, you must believe some freaky stuff…

Like most theists, their evidence is poor and shoddy. I don’t even think bruh knows the meaning of the word biased.

His form of thinking as revealed in the other thread and this one, when consistently applied would lead a person to “have faith or believe” QAnon, accusations of pedophilia (seems to be a surge), conspiracies of all manner, injecting disinfectant, alien abductions, all miraculous claims regardless of religion, etcetera. A ripe pigeon for the plucking by any “confidence game”.

There does not seem to be some form of “filter” for determining the validity of evidence presented or an ability to question claims.