Evidence that demands a verdict

[Ninurta]

What’s this soldier to do? Deep down in his heart he doesn’t believe the order is legitimate. Yet his friends are telling him he must believe in the order, and obey it, or possibly face the firing squad. It appears to be a no-win situation.

It IS a no-win situation. The flawed assumption is that the Columbian soldier in question was ever intended to win.

 So how can Atheists possibly obey “marching orders” when the orders are so confused that even Christians can’t agree on what say?

They can't. No marching orders were ever issued to Atheists by anyone's god. They may march wherever they wish.

Likewise with us Atheists. We could pretend there is a god, we could even pretend along with you. But deep down inside, we can only really believe what we believe, and we believe based upon the evidence we see, and we see no evidence for your gods-

Exactly. Atheists can only believe what they believe, same as Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, etc. This is why I have never, in the history of my existence, tried to convert an Atheist. There are no percentages in it, for anyone.

So, if you Christians want us Atheists to “believe” all you need to do is present believable evidence.

No. I don't care what Atheists believe - or, more precisely, they may believe whatever they like with no hard feelings from me. I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't care, even if I were a Christian. Because I don't care, it follows that it's not my job to present any evidence at all.

You want us to believe? Come up with solid evidence. But you’ll settle for us pretending? Sorry, we’re not children anymore.

Again, no. Not my job. Atheists, like everyone else, must find their own path of belief, and their own evidence to support that belief, if any is available. I have a peculiar sort of belief that does not allow me to insist that anyone believe against their nature. that would just be plain old wrong. In my peculiar worldview, hand feeding "religious evidence" to atheists - or anyone else for that matter - would be akin to spoon feeding children, which they are not, as the writer has observed.

Ask Grace about it - when she was a Muslim, I never, ever discussed religion with her. It was not my job to either shake or stir her beliefs. They were for her alone to explore and discover.

What goes for Muslims, in my view, applies equally to Atheists. They can hunt their own evidence down and cook it in their own camp.


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