Thanks, I see. I forgot about him saying that in the debate but I’ve heard atheists use it before in similar ways (but I wasn’t sure you were). Sometimes the inference is that the belief (the belief in the belief and not the belief itself, aye aye aye ) is not necessarily justified–I remember Dawkins using it this way.
[quote=“still_learning, post:139, topic:36642”]
I am not saying to actually believe in it. Rather Shermer again admitted that there are benefits to believing in something.
My argument/logic is to say, do you guys not like benefits? If one had better health and a positive attitude that came from belief in a belief, then why not just believe in something, to obtain these benefits?
Example, I know that we are not to stress, God is in control. We can’t add an hour of our life by worrying about tomorrow, tomorrow isn’t even guaranteed. So why waste time of today and now, worrying about what might not even come. And most things we worry about, never even happen as we worried about. This is a Biblical command/advice given, that benefits us. Though it is more strongly effective if I believe that God is in control. It is also logically beneficial for any man not to stress about life.
I guess one would also have to truly believe to get those benefits, not just fake the belief. [/quote]
That’s the thing. To my way of thinking, you can’t choose to believe something. You will either be convinced to a degree that you will believe it or you won’t. I’m sure for some such benefits could be a motivation or evidence to believe. If you happen to notice the time when Shermer said that, I’m interested. I’d like to see what he was saying (but not ready to watch the whole debate again )
I’m not so sure about that. You can certainly choose to make an effort to be nice to people, and do nice things for them, etc.