4 ms·

This presumes people hold on to a belief because it is valuable to them. I'm not so sure of that.

• phkahler 4y ago
  >> This presumes people hold on to a belief because it is valuable to them. I'm not so sure of that. Some people hold a belief simply because they were raised with it. If it does nothing for them, they are IMHO more likely to be convinced by a mild face-slap argument and some evidence of a contrary belief. The people who have a belief tied to their identity, or the the people who say "this changed my life" are not going to convert with Dawkins approach because he's trying to take something from them, or even attack their identity (quite rudely).
• jzb 4y ago
  It's true in some cases, not in others. I have family members who are religious and it (as far as I can tell) does provide value for them, in a positive way. My MIL, for example, is religious and it seems really positive for her. She approaches her belief in a very loving, positive way and sees her job in the world to be loving and kind and to do service for others, etc. While I don't share her beliefs her values are pretty awesome. It seems to me that she derives value from them and I certainly find her to be inspiring and positive. She spends pretty much zero of her time talking about sin or Hell, but espouses joy and love and gives thanks for her family and so forth. I don't need any particular set of beliefs for that to be inspiring for me and to want to emulate it. Others may cling to belief out of fear, inertia, tribalism, or who knows what else. If it works for people and doesn't lead to harm for others (or themselves) then I'm all for it. I sometimes envy people who do have religious beliefs because maybe life makes more sense to them.