[The Dude]

I'm not sure that this post wouldn't be more appropriate in the SMP forum, but since David Sklansky's arguments had at least some influence on this decision, I'll put it here.

This past Wednesday night I became convinced that the Universe exists without a supernatural designer. In fact, I am of the opinion that it is a virtual certainty that "God" doesn't exist. The nature of the arguments that lead me to this conclusion are not such that you can accept them and be less certain. Either the arguments are valid and God's existence is all but ruled out, or you reject the arguments and are left to other considerations.

So, in a matter of 15 minutes I went from being roughly, I don't know, 70% sure that the Biblical God is real to being virtually certain he is not. This was not an easy thing for me to admit to myself. Indeed, it's not an easy thing for a Christian to admit to himself that he's even open to these kinds of arguments, let alone buys into them.

Anyway, most of the people I cherish and love in this world (including my wife) are Christian. I don't know how this is going to play out in my life, but I do know that hiding this within myself wasn't a workable option.

Well, I don't know if any of you care or not, but I at least want to say to David that not all of his messages to Christians fall on deaf ears. While it was Richard Dawkin's "Ultimate 747" argument that delivered the final blow, I was only open to the idea because of countless conversations (message board or whatever) I've had over the past three years, not the least convincing of which were in threads started by David.

Cheers,
Dude