There's an old saying "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer". Knowing what they're thinking can be a very handy bit of info. Now, I don't REALLY consider religious people my enemy per se, except when the start trying to tell me what to do and how to live, etc.. When I saw this, I was drawn to read it out of serious curiosity of what they actually think about this subject. That is, how to change the minds of non-believers. By the time I got to the end I realized a couple of things. 1- They actually do think they have it figured out, and they want to help us figure it out too so we can all be happy in the end. And 2- They know they can't win in an intellectual debate, so they don't even try. Well, most of them don't anyway. Some haven't really figured that one out yet. So, they try to play on emotion to get one wanting to believe hoping that emotion will overcome common sense. At least, that's mostly what I took away from this. [desiringgod.org]
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.David Robertson is incapable of rational thought. His article is riddled with unjustified assumptions and logical fallacies.
anglophone
Level 9
Jan 12, 2022
0
"An atheist is someone who believes there is no God." -- BS
I would argue that lacking any 'belief' in god(s) (or not finding credible evidence for existence) is NOT the same thing.
FearlessFly
Level 9
Jan 12, 2022
1
Agreed.
Agreed. David Robertson uses the word "belief" without appearing to understand that it is a very ambiguous word. His lack of understanding of English is as manifest as his lack of ability to think.
That's what rational people think of conservatives, too.
ChestRockfield
Level 8
Jan 12, 2022
1
And there's the ironic dichotomy I started to point out (but didn't, trying to keep politics out of the discussion) about how those of us that lean right feel like democrats are the ones trying to tell everyone what to do and how to live. 
@Captain_Feelgood You don't want to keep politics out of most discussions, yet in one where your party is eerily similar to the group you're making fun of, suddenly it's a priority to ignore it. Makes sense.
The actual statement is taken from Machiavelli's tale, The Prince, about politics and retention of power, written 500 years ago.
Petter
Level 9
Jan 12, 2022
3
Not an Italian, closer, it was Puzo.
If you want to change peoples minds then you ask questions about things. You don't argue just ask questions to make them think.
Jolanta
Level 9
Jan 12, 2022
4
It can be a mistake to assume that such people are even willing to think in the first place.
@anglophone No, not everybody is closed off.
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