Do you Agree or Disagree with this statement?

Question

You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep seated need to believe.

Carl Sagan

*God beleivers of course....

Answer 1

I would have to agree, adorable piggy.

Answer 2

Both. I believe that there is a truth, and so not every religion or philosophy can of course be correct. Hebrews 11:1 defines faith as "the assured expectation of things hoped for." The Bible gives a sound basis for such an assurance in its scientific accuracy centuries ahead of its time, unmatched moral guidelines, and fulfilment of prophecies even in our time. While the Bible does say, "Happy is the man conscience of his spiritual need," (Matthew 5:3) it doesn't by any means say that faith should be blind. Rather, in Acts 17:11 it mentions the faithful Boroeans who would "carefully examine" God's Word the Bible so as to see "whether these things were so." It identifies Satan as the one who has "blinded the minds of the unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 4:4) and urges faithful persons with the right heart condition to seek such a truth.

Oh I could simply write for hours on all the sound reasons for believing what the Bible has to say, but here's a good article to read instead, if you're really interested:
http://www.watchtower.org/library/w/1996/10/1/article_02.htm
It's quite thought-provoking.

Answer 3

Obviously that is a false statement when you isolate it from any conditioning contexts. You can convince a believer of many things that don't contradict their faith. Also the second part of the statement is false because it discounts all of the supporting evidence that shows the reasonableness of believing the gospel accounts. If you did a search on "Simon Greenleaf" you could find out how this man who was one of the founders of the Harvard school of law sought to disprove the gospel accounts by using the rules of evidence that are admissible in a court room. By the time he was done he had converted to Christianity. There are other examples of that happening too. Lee Strobel was an atheist legal scholar whose wife became a Christian. He made it his personal mission to go out and gather the evidence necessary to prove to his wife that her faith had no basis in fact. Lee went on to become a Pastor and now is an ardent apologist for the Christian faith.

Answer 4

Until you get to that place of evidence, I wouldn't suggest you to speak on things that is beyond your experience. My belief is based on evidence and maybe you need to go to acts 2:38 or just go to God and pray for an understanding of his word that you may know the things of God. How do you know the things of God if you have not the spirit of God? You are tampering with something that is to deep for your thoughts! I totally disagree with you 100%.

Answer 5

I am a believer in the God of the Bible, and the Son of God, Jesus Christ-He has made himself known to me since a child-(No I was not brought up in a church atmosphere) He reached out to my inquiring mind through life experience, supernatural occurences, human beings and finally; through the scriptures which confirmed all of the experiences and conclusions I was experiencing. I studied atheism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and even the dark arts as a youth. I am now a grandparent. The evidence for the Christian faith is overwhelming-(suggested reading "The Case For Christ "Lee Strobel (former legal editor of the Chicago Tribune).

Answer 6

I answer this question only to point out that you are a believer as well, since you believe in your particular beliefs without evidence yourself. You have a need to believe in something yourself, yet I doubt that your beliefs could be changed by a different system of belief. As Saint Aquinas philosophically pointed out, how can you effectively argument about something if that something does not exist.

Answer 7

I'm not sure. I have convinced believers of things. Or at least a few of my friends are a lot more agnostic than theistic, and they say that's because of conversations I have with them.

You can't change the mind of a dogmatist, but you can give someone the information they may be looking for to question the dogma they inherited from their parents.

Answer 8

Agree Deeply

Answer 9

My believe is based on evidence. God has answered my prayers, reveals many great things to me, and have seen him do amazing things through other people. It's my evidence though, and I understand if that isn't too convincing to you.

Answer 10

I totally agree. Most people believe because they want to, not because what they believe really makes sense. Also, I've noticed that a lot of good ole Christian folk have "belonging" issues. They just love to belong to their big old congregation of "brothers" and "sisters". There is always a lot of hugging and back slapping going on when they get together.

Answer 11

Disagree