Reply to Why do atheists post on the Religion forum?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Why do atheists post on the Religion forum?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]From what I have read, it seems like many atheists posting here have unresolved childhood trauma and differences of opinion with family.

Instead of working it out in therapy or putting boundaries in place with family, they come here and blame strangers for their family problems and trauma. [/quote]

You are incorrect. I have no issue with the moderate level of faith that I was brought up in (a progressive Muslim family). But logically, I cannot believe in any of it. It's as illogical to believe in any god, as it's illogical to believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny.

Or to believe in the myth of Moses, but not believe in the myth of Poseidon.

They're all fabricated stories by humans to try and explain things, but they're all made up - you cannot factually, logically, rationally assert that one is more truthful or accurate than another.
[/quote]

You can rationally assert it if you believe it is true on the basis of the available evidence that you have thoughtfully considered.   A rational assertion is not the same as scientific proof.   I can rationally assert that my wife isn’t a spy under deep cover.  But I don’t really know for sure, of course.

You also don’t have to be 100 percent convinced to make a rational assertion.   We make all kinds of decisions in life without 100 percent belief.    Very few people who have walked down the aisle can say that they were 100 percent certain that the marriage would work on the day they got married.   I am an attorney and we make all kinds of decisions in the legal world based on less than 100 proof.  People go to prison every day based on clearing the reasonable doubt bar.   But it can’t be any other way because if we demanded 100 percent proof for every crime, there would be very very very few convictions.

What believers CANNOT do is scientifically prove that there is a God.   That’s impossible.   I am a believer and I absolutely admit this.  At some point, you must have faith to fill in the gap.

[b]But atheists CANNOT scientifically prove that there isn’t a God either. [/b]  If you are intellectually honest as an atheist, you have to admit that there is at least some small chance that you might be wrong and you have made this cosmic bet based on something that you cannot prove.  As a result, you are living your life on faith too.   It’s a different “type” of faith, but it’s faith all the same.

Neither side has a monopoly on rationality.    [/quote]

Of course not.  But nobody can prove that anything doesn’t exist.  That is impossible.  I cannot prove that there are no little green men.  I can only offer up an alternate explanation of a UFO that does not involve a little green man and conclude that little green men do not have to exist to explain things.   That’s it.  You cannot disprove God any more than you can disprove any other non testable hypothesis.  You can test the products of what someone might claim to be the work of God.  So far, everything can be explained by reasons other than God so folks are free to push back on the God hypothesis.  Why does this matter other than as an intellectual exercise?  When the public square imposes rules on all of us (abortion) based on someone’s understanding of Gad.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics