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What would it take?

@KAWDUP, thanks for the detail. I will admit as an atheist, it tends to be more interesting to me why people believe believe rather than not believe.

Reading your core beliefs, I was struck by a few thoughts. Please don't think I am trying to deconvert you, just some things to chew on.

1) Does belief in a thing prove its existence? This could apply to a god in general, but equally so to free will. I don't think there's any way to prove it exists more than prove it doesn't. Indeed, just because our brains behave in ways we can't perfectly predict doesn't presume it is unpredictable. A step further, we may be biologically inclined to believing in free will. There may be an evolutionary advantage to this belief that we don't fully understand.

Personally, I think we live in a world where we can't tell the difference, but must act as if it exists. Even if it doesn't, we would be equally inclined to preservation of the species - which could easily be cause for the formation of morals and laws.

2) Do you find an issue with the way brain damage affects our beliefs and behaviors? This is, admittedly, one of the issues that plagued me and caused me to give up on my previous faith. If a soul is truly separate from the body, why does physical damage so easily alter who we are. Drink too much alcohol, and you can permanently damage your ability to inhibit your actions. Is an eternal soul thus judged based on the actions of a damaged vessel? What about people born without the ability to empathize due to their mother's substance abuse, who become sociopaths or serial killers? Should they be doomed to eternal punishment when their brains never worked right, and due to no fault of their own? I haven't been able to reconcile these things with a soul myself. I'd actually be happy to hear another opinion.

4) You mentioned that there is no proof either way, and that you just need to have faith. What, in your opinion, is faith? Does it come with its own justification (thus no need for evidence), or is it a completely separate category?

3/5) Does not liking the alternative, and liking belief, actually make it true? I WANT to believe that the justice system works. In many cases, though, it doesn't - demonstrably. Now, this is perfectly fine justification for behaving in a certain way (i.e. following traffic laws even when no cops are around because you believe in the efficacy of the practice). But I wonder if it should justify belief. As a computer science enthusiast, I would consider programming. I'm not the best programmer in the world, so when I need a clean, efficient module for a program I am developing, I'll probably search around online to see if someone else has already built something similar that is better than what I can design. I really (really really in some cases) want their to be a clean, efficient way to write the code, but I wouldn't go out believing such a thing exists right off the bat. There's certainly the chance that I'm already writing the code in the best way possible, and a firm belief that there is definitely something better is more likely to make me alter and diminish what I have.

Sorry it took so long to reply.
1) I wasn't stating that I believed in free will, I was stating that we have free will. If you can define it well enough, I can show how we have it. There are the John Stuart Mill followers of what freedom and free will is, which dovetails nicely with common beliefs, but I think of it more like Frithjof Bergmann (On Being Free), but to understand that took me an entire semester. :*) It is no small task to actually define it, but to actually agree on a definition is extremely difficult.

2) My basic premise is that even though they are separate entities, the body and soul are still connected in a way that makes you what you are - of course they can still affect each other. However, I am not going to sit in judgment on someone who freely gives up their ability to inhibit their own actions. I can't tell you whether they will be damned for all eternity. That is not my place, judgment belongs to a higher power. Then the myriad of questions come up about sin, eternal damnation, heaven, and the relation to your soul, but it doesn't change two things. 1) I think therefore I am implies quite a bit about the existence of you outside of any bodily form. Do your thoughts have mass, volume, etc. - I do not think so - it is outside of the physical, which is where people start calling it your soul, and 2) Nowhere does it say that we are endowed with the ability to determine whether God, or any higher power would forgive someone in those mentioned circumstances. We think it has to do with intent, and the actual knowledge that you are turning way from that higher power, but I wouldn't presume to know how God would judge that, in the same way that I can't see your soul, or what is inside it.

4) Faith is a belief that something represents the truth, but you can't physically prove it. I realize this is a basic Webster definition, but the key part is "belief". You can't get away from this. Jesus lived, existed as man, and then died. These would seem to be known facts, although we can argue all day about these "facts". The belief part is that He rose from the dead. In addition, many Christians believe they know why He died and rose from the dead, based on the belief of what is written of His word in the New Testament.

3/5) Your comparison falls a little short - it is certainly much more than just wanting to believe. Certainly part of that belief in existence comes from the argument by design, the intricate nature of the universe had to have a Designer, but it may be way too much for this discussion right now. I can think about a good way to describe it and post at a later time.

Anyway those are my answers such as they are.
 
Regular prayers are different. I don't ask for stuff like that.

There are all kinds of prayers out there you can pray. You don't have to be in dire straights. There are prayers of petition, but also adoration, thanks, atonement and also for others. I'm not talking about "God, please help Michigan to win a national championship," but "give me an understanding heart," "increase my faith," ... and so on.
 
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