A Christian Rock song came on the radio while I was listening today, and it basically just repeated "nothing you can do can make me leave this life" and "nothing you can say will sway my belief."
Now, I respect a lot of religious individuals, and if they feel that their beliefs are true, I have no objection. I don't know everything (or maybe anything, for that matter). Any one of these religions could be true, and if someone could rigorously demonstrate this to me, I would practice that religion!
So, I call myself an atheist, but I'm probably more of an atheist agnostic, because I find it less likely that there is a god than not. But given new data, I would gladly change my stance.
This sentiment that "nothing you can do/say can shake me" seems destructive to me. Not all religious people believe this, by any means. But if you could find Jesus' remains and verify within a small a small margin of error that they were authentic, or maybe demonstrate that the Hare Krishna are absolutely right, some religious individuals would staunchly ignore these facts and declare even more loudly that they believe. This does not seem like a very good way to find the truth.
I imagine there are some of the religiously inclined who would accuse me of being stubborn and failing to investigate the evidence thoroughly. I'm unwilling to try faith, unwilling to believe anything, or something along those lines.
I maintain a belief that maybe one of the many religions in the world is true, but I doubt it because I have never been able to find any convincing evidence for any of them. I am willing to believe, but I can't practically be expected to try out every religion. If god guides me to a correct religion, I'll join up!
Seems to me the most unwilling to believe anything are the most staunchly religious. There are millions of things I would be willing to believe if presented with convincing data that these people would reject without consideration.
So. I respect the religious. They may even be right. But I am a little peeved when I'm dismissed as closed-minded and unwilling to believe things. My flirtations with nihilism have proved to be absolutely pointless and fruitless, so I'm going to take a more existential, pragmatic approach to truth and rely on my experiences.
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It is amazing how close our experiences and trains of thought are and what I like to call my conversion to the dark side (atheist.) I too could/would/can be convinced of a religion's truth or God's existence but sadly the evidence and proofs aren't forthcoming and the evidence contrary to organized religion just keeps piling up. I fervently wish it were true sometimes especially at funerals where I hope the person in the coffin was right about their beliefs instead of my pragmatic, skeptical views.
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