maybe I'm the idiot

This posting on one of those horrible atheist discussion boards was linked at "Dangerous Idea".
Much could be said, but I'll let you check it out if you want and ponder whether some of their their (those replying to the post) points would apply to themselves if only self-criticism were allowed.

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Veteran Member

Join Date: September 2002
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 527

Intelligent Theists

One of the reasons I lurk
around (and occasionally contribute to) websites devoted to religious
discussion, when really I should have better things to do, is that I am
endlessly fascinated by the phenomenon of the intelligent theist.It is all too
easy to dismiss religious folk as ruled by emotion and wishful thinking, unable
to drop the beliefs of their parents, easily swayed by charismatic teachers or
just plain silly. No doubt many of them fall into these categories.But then
there are those that appear to be genuinely intelligent, well educated
professionals who have thought deeply about the issues and continue to profess a
basic Christian (its almost always Christian) worldview. People like William
Lane Craig come to mind, but there are many other scientists, philosophers and
other academics who could be cited. They may be a minority, but there are enough
of them to make for an interesting question.They're not just holding on to the
religion of their parents - many of them claim to be converts from atheism;They
don't just believe in some abstract philosopher's god - many of them go the
whole hog: virgin birth, resurrection, epistle of Paul, etc;They don't just base
their views on blind faith or emotion - many of them make serious attempts to
present rational arguments for their religion;So what is going on?Why are they
unable to see how poor their arguments are?Do they really believe or are they,
as Dan Dennett suggests, deceiving everyone for some other purpose?Do they have
access to something that I have missed?Or are their arguments sound after all?
Maybe I'm the idiot?