OK I know there are a lot of threads dancing around the idea of atheism and I thought that we could get a few things strait.
First off I want to post a quote I read near the start of another discussion which surprisingly went unanswered.
Fot those who don’t know antithetical means directly opposed or contrasted; mutally incompatible, I had to look it up myself.
While I do not speak for all atheists (and nobody can) I have to say that this statement is backwards and false. While it is true that there must be some atheists who deny the possibility of a god existing on purely dogmatic grounds but I think that this is exactly the opposite of why most atheists do not subscribe to any of the various forms of theism.
The reason why most atheists are atheist is because we are unable to come to the conclusion that there is some sort of deity controlling matters or have no basis to continue in a belief that appears to be false. They do not have a philosophy of denying god, but of relying on reason and based on observed phenomena and testable hypotheses have realized that the chances of there being a god is infantisimaly small.
People like to know what is going on and find unanswered questions uncomfortable. The fact is that atheism (and science) leaves a lot of questions unanswered, for every question answered there are further complexities and more questions reviled. The easy way out is to attribute these unknowns to a god and there is satisfaction and comfort. Hence religion and superstition.
Theists do not want to give up their comfort in the belief that there is a god and atheists rarely turn their back on reason and logic so really the arguing between theists and atheists generally goes nowhere.
The fact that there are few who change their views does not mean that we should not try to make each-other see the truth in our statements. I argue atheism with some of my religious friends and am constantly frustrated with their lack of logic while they are frustrated with my lack of faith, I think both parties come out the wiser for knowing more thoroughly where the others beliefs come from.
phlegm I hope I didn’t pull your question too much out of context, of course there is the handy little link arrow for people to go to your post and see what you were responding to.
dude, I was trying to get people to discuss atheism in a serious manner and to stop dancing around issues so people could get a better idea of what it actually means.
somehow I don’t think you are helping.
I was hoping that this was not going to become another discussion about christianity but such are the ways of internet forums.
I even waited until Jesus and Satan were banned, ah well.
Sorry. While I admit I was just having a bit of a jest, it’s interesting thing to consider. If there is such a God (relative to us), is he himself an Atheist for not believing in a higher power? For that matter, is ‘Godliness’ all relative to the particular worshipper? Hmmm.
that is a good point, I don’t often think from gods point of view but if there were such gods why would they themselves not be under yet more powerful gods? In other words, what created them?
It does sound unlikely that there is a god that created god doesn’t it? That belief would also be completely impossible to be shown to be true (or false).
Well, all religion is completely impossible to prove true or false, so that can be ignored.
And I’m mostly referring to the Christian ‘God’, and other similarly monotheistic religions, in my question. According to the biblical doctrine, no one created God, he was just always chilling here. I’ve always wondered if he even ‘believes’ anything, or is just overseeing.
I’m atheist. I don’t disagree with Christianity, or think that it doesn’t exist, I just don’t believe it. I went to a Church if England controlled school and even then I didn’t believe it, I just dont want to follow it.
well done
I’d prefer to follow my own rules and beliefs. Maybe it’s just how Christianity was put across to me as a child. It sounded as is there were strict rules to follow… I didn’t see the point, Simple.
1WG, agnosticism is essentially the view that I have, that God’s existence can neither be proved or disproved. There are a few different schools of agnosticism, but I generally favor the idea that we just don’t have proof of anything related to religion, and probably never will.
yeah, Pretty much the same, but I couldn’t care less if there was proof or not. I know it’s there, I cant stop that so I’ll just live with it.
There’s no point fighting it if you don’t believe it exists, so why bother?
