On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 16:42:44 -0600, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 20:23:19 +0200, Paul Schlyter
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 08:47:01 -0600, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 16:30:06 +0200, Paul Schlyter
wrote:

On Sun, 23 Sep 2018 08:07:01 -0600, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
Do really everyone have to be an "evenist" or an "oddist"?
If
not,
why do everyone have to be a theist or an atheist? Why
exclude
the
alternative of refraining from choosing a belief here?

Because we don't choose beliefs.

OK, so our beliefs are somehow predetetmined then. But why
would
that
exclude the third alternative "not decided" or "none of the
other
alternatives" or "no opinion"?

It doesn't. But it's extremely unlikely that an even marginally
informed, marginally reflective person would arrive at such a
position. Those are positions from ignorance, given the wealth of
evidence and information that is available.

You seem to believe that the decision of whether to be an atheist
or
not is an intellectual decision. Mostly it isn't, it is much more
an
emotiomal decision.

I'm not assuming it's an intellectual decision at all. It is an
intellectual decision to learn critical thinking and apply it, which
naturally leads one to become an atheist. But I make no supposition
as
to the nature or quality of the evidence involved in reaching some
state of belief. It may be academic, it may be emotional, it may be
programmed childhood dogma. The point is, in our culture we are all
exposed to some combination of these, and that makes it extremely
unlikely that anybody can honestly have no opinion at all on the
question of the existence of gods.

Why is it unlikely to have no opinion about something you've realized
is unknowable?

Compared to that bowl with sand and the question about whether the
number of grains of sand in that bowl is an even number or an odd
number. That too is, in practice, unknowable, and it would be quite
natural to have no opinion about that.

For those who have realized that the question about the existence or
nonexistence of deities also is unknowable it would be just as
natural to have no opinion about that question. After all, your
opinion about it would say something about you but not anything about
our universe.