Over on Boundless there’s a really great dialog between a student and a prof on the reasonableness of theism. The student is wondering if he believes just because he was raised to believe.
Here’s an excerpt:
[student] “I was talking with my friend Don. You know him.”
[professor] “Sure. It’s through him that I know you.”
“Well, the other day he asked whether I believe in God, and I didn’t know what to tell him.”
“You don’t know whether God is real?”
“It’s not that. I don’t know whether I believe in Him.”
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“No. See, I do believe in God. But I don’t see why my belief should be true. So maybe I don’t believe in Him, if you see what I mean.”
“Maybe you’re trying to say that your belief doesn’t reflect real knowledge, so even though you believe in God, you also think maybe you shouldn’t. Am I getting warm?
“Yeah, that’s it. See, one of my other professors said that the only reason I believe in God is that I’ve been brought up that way. If I’d been brought up by pagans, probably I’d believe in lots of gods. If I’d been brought up by atheists, probably I wouldn’t believe in any god. So I have this belief — but so what?”…
The rest of the dialog gives a very satistfying answer to that question!