Most of them serve on the boards of directors for major religious philosophical institutions, like the American Academy of Religion. There exist think tanks like these in which believers examine issues of science, philosophy, logic, and technology in light of their faith. They are also contributors to publications like CrossCurrents in addition to more mainstream peer reviewed journals.
Dov Gabbay, too.
There does seem to be an uncanny preponderance of believers — or at least much softer nonbelievers — in computer science and in cosmological physics. I’ve mentioned Charles Harshorne who clearly qualifies as a brilliant man, having obtained his Harvard BA, MA, and PhD degress in four years. His process theology philosophy led him to look at computer science, which he then used to construct the first valid modal ontological argument of the modern era. It is constructed such that a computer, given the premises, will draw the conclusion that God (qua Supreme Being) exists.
Have any of these people ever stated how they came to this belief, when as a smart person they should see there is much evidence to the contrary? Have any of them as smart people developed a plausible theory?
I dunno. This sounds an awful like saying, “We know he must be cool because he hangs out with the cool kids, and the cool kids wouldn’t let him hang out with them if he wasn’t cool.”
By this I’m trying to insult anyone, I am legitimately trying to understand how an intelligent person rationalizes a belief in God, other than just blind faith, or becasue they were raised to.
Evidence of what? I think it’s important to understand that, in general, these people do not believe in God as the god of fire or the filler of gaps. Their take on God is much more metaphysical than that.
No problem. Most genuine faith in God, I would suspect, is like faith in anything else — born of a person’s particular unique life experience. You could not, for example, be me without believing in God. You would be someone else.
No problem, I was just curious as to if one of the people mentioned in this thread have by chance ever come up with a rationale that an atheist could read and say “oh that seems plausible, maybe he’s right, maybe there is a God based on that explanation”.
C.S. Lewis wrote a memoir called Surprised By Joy which describes his early life, his change from childhood Christianity to atheism, and his reluctant return to belief as a young adult.
William F. Buckley, Jr. wrote Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of faith .
Another C.S. Lewis plug. His Mere Christianity is a very popular attempt at a reasoned argument for belief.
I’m not sure that atheism itself is monolythic enough for that. There are as many perspectives on God as there are believers. It has been my experience that the “trigger”, for lack of a better term, is different for different people. For me, it was all the things I encountered along the way, brought to a head by a single event. But I doubt that any of it would be very meaningful to you because your life experiences have likely been very different from mine.
The American Academy of Religion is a trade association for academics studying religion and membership is open to anyone doing scholarly work in the field of religious studies. There are no creedal requirements for joining, and knowing that someone is a member or officer doesn’t tell you anything about their personal religious beliefs.
Wee Bairn writes:
> No problem, I was just curious as to if one of the people mentioned in this
> thread have by chance ever come up with a rationale that an atheist could read
> and say “oh that seems plausible, maybe he’s right, maybe there is a God
> based on that explanation”.
What you’re asking now is to turn this thread into a Great Debates thread. If that’s what you want to do, please ask the moderators to move the thread there. We’ve answered the question in the OP in so far as it can be answered. Yes, there are super-smart people who believe in God. Yes, there are super-smart people who don’t believe in God. To some extent, the answer to both those questions depends on what “super-smart” means, but in some reasonable sense of the term there are such people on both sides of the debate. And it is a debate. There are no killer answers on either side. There’s no way that you’re going to get a definitive answer to the question in this thread, so this thread belongs in Great Debates, not General Questions.
I’m not looking to debate anything. I still think my revised question is a general question- “has a noted brilliant mind ever presented his personal theory on why he believes in God that has a basis in something other than blind faith or becasue he was raised that way, and if so, what is that theory”. I’m not looking for members personal opinions on the subject. But if anyone wishes to move it, no problem.
I’m coming in at the tail end of this discussion, but your mention of Harshorne made me want to mention English physicist, cosmologist, and philosopher Paul Davies. I consider him a deist, because he has written sympathetically to the idea that the universe is at least in part “set up” as it is with a purpose (esp in his 1992 book The Mind of God).
Yes, I find it interesting that many fewer scientists than laypersons believe in God. And the further you go up the ladder of scientific prestige, the fewer believers you find–though 40% of scientists believe in God, apparently only 7% of the members of the prestigious National Academy of Sciences believe.
… I think the answer to that general question is “No, no noted brilliant mind (in recent times) has ever claimed to have proven factually that God exists.”
:shrug:
The aforementioned Paul Davies is one who is working toward that goal, though he readily admits that not enough evidence is currently available. From here, it looks like you would enjoy his writings.
I agree that there are no creedal requirements for joining, nor did I say there were any. But the board includes many of the names I mentioned, and a cursory examination of their work will show that they write, lecture, and expound extensively on their faith. I think you might be digging in your heels just a bit over a rather vaporous point. No one can be said by anyone else to hold this or that exact belief, since there are as many perspectives on belief as there are believers. But to continue arguing in the direction that these are a bunch of atheists musing over religion is going to become increasingly difficult to defend.
Short answer: Yes. Some of the people mentioned here have explained why they believe in God. If you really want to know what those explanations are, you’ll have to do your own research: read some of the books or follow some of the links that have been mentioned already.
Although asking about “his personal theory on why he believes in God” presupposes that the existence of God is a theoretical question, to be approached like a scientific or philosophical theory. This is not necessarily the only reason for believing in God. For instance, as Liberal mentioned, personal experience often comes into it.
Gotcha, and I intend on looking into a couple of the ones mentioned, but I was trying to weed out the ones who turned to religion after surviving cancer or something as opposed to a scientific based reason.