Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

To: Lakeshark
I answered your question three times. You refuse to accept it because it's "linguistic." Given that language is how we communicate, I don't really know any other way to explain.

But you know what? I'll give it another try. Let me use an analogy to explain to you what "unbelief" or "non-belief" is.

Imagine I am selling my used car on Craigslist. I advertise it for $3000 cash only, no bargaining. A man comes, checks out the car, agrees to buy it, and hands me a yellow envelope, saying “Here is $3000.”

Do I count the money? If I believe him, I just take the envelope, give him the keys, and he drives away. If I do not believe without counting it for myself, I start counting. So I start counting.

Immediately, he gets angry. “You think I’m trying to rip you off! You think I’m a thief!”

No, I don’t. If I believed he was a thief, I’d have been afraid to meet with him in the first place, for fear he might intend to beat me up, steal the car, etc.

”Well what, then?” He asks. “You think I’m too stupid to count to $3000?”

No, not at all. Even a smart person can make an honest mistake.

“Look,” he says, “I counted it myself, and I put it in the envelope myself. You think I let someone else do it and they aren’t trustworthy? You think I’m lying about this?”

No, again, if I believed he was a liar, I wouldn’t meet with him. I’d be afraid to.

“You think some of the money just fell out of the envelope, then, and is lying on the floor of my car?” He asks sarcastically.

Well, that could happen, I suppose, but I didn’t start counting because I believed that some of the money has fallen out.

Here is my point: I’m counting the money because I don’t accept on faith that there is $3000 in there. It doesn’t mean

1.) I believe he is a thief.
2.) I believe he is a moron.
3.) I believe he is a liar.
4.) I believe a strange accident has made some of the money vanish

Any of those things are possible, but I’m not committed to any of them. Indeed, I hope they are all wrong. I’m counting the money because I don’t believe there’s $3000 till I’ve counted it myself.

Counting the money is unbelief. It doesn’t mean I believe certain things about this man. Do you understand now?

450 posted on 01/06/2012 12:13:17 PM PST by A_perfect_lady (Anyone opposed to Newt should remember: we're not electing a messiah, we're electing a politician.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 448 | View Replies ]


To: A_perfect_lady
You never answered the question, you simply tried to alter it as if I asked you the difference between theism and atheism, or belief and unbelief. What you've done is a linguistic head fake and nothing more. It's an answer, but a very pitiful one, and everyone is watching you as you do everything in your power to not answer directly.

Once again, try to answer the question head on, your story is fun, but it explains nothing other than your inability to either fess up to originally having said something you can't back up, or not being very smart and still believing what you said (there's that dwatted word again).

451 posted on 01/06/2012 12:25:13 PM PST by Lakeshark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 450 | View Replies ]

To: A_perfect_lady
Here, I'll give you an opportunity to answer.

Either:

Yes, I believe you are right, I believe there is no God and that's my belief system. Or, no I don't believe my belief system of not believing in God is just another belief system and here's why: _________________________________________________

Be back in about an hour after you fill in the blank space.

452 posted on 01/06/2012 12:33:03 PM PST by Lakeshark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 450 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson