Quick comment about the long term discussions post

Jennings said:
"I would encourage you to seek a way to also empathize with Christians as to why they would believe in God. A quick look at society shows that there are many intellectual and extremely smart people who believe in God. These people have reached this world view not through blind faith but have spent years in doubt and discussion and then concluded to follow Christ."

I can empathize with them, remember my deconversion was a long slow process. I know exactly what is going on in their heads, it's simply ignoring cognitive dissonance. This isn't a logical pathway, its simply compartmentalization of belief, and we do it all the time. Let me give you an example. I can tell you "I am holding a green box." I can also tell you "I am holding a red box." Neither of these mental images are difficult for you to hold on to, but you must do so separately; one is an image with me with a red box in my hands, the second one of me with a green one. But you can't picture me only 1 box that is both solid red and solid green, so you ignore that one. This is the process that many scientists use to reconcile the understanding that we CAN'T know the things that religion says it does know and still let them function as good scientists. And I daresay that when functioning as good scientists they do it with a purely atheistic world view, or they wouldn't be good scientists.