RE: A question about atheistic “beliefs” (opinions, guesses, etc.)
June 25, 2021 at 11:14 am
(This post was last modified: June 25, 2021 at 11:20 am by Frank Apisa.)
(June 24, 2021 at 10:13 pm)Klorophyll Wrote:(June 23, 2021 at 2:10 pm)Frank Apisa Wrote: I’ve known and been friends with many individuals who use “atheist” as a descriptor …and to a person, each of them has one of the following two beliefs, opinions, or guesses:
1) There are no gods.
2) It is more likely that there are no gods than that there is at least one god.
I’m wondering if this is a universal truth (or close to a universal truth) about people who use the descriptor…so what better place to ask it than an Internet Atheist Forum…and what better people to ask than people who use the descriptor?
Do any of you know people who use the descriptor “atheist” to describe themselves, but who do not subscribe to at least one of the two items mentioned above?
Is it your opinion that asserting one or both is universal to people who apply the descriptor to themselves?
For me, the only reason there is agnosticism in the Modern World is how corrupt and non-sensical the Christian faith is. If there was no Trinity and Resurrection, I bet you will see the number of self-prclaimed atheists/agnostics drop by half.
Thanks for sharing that. I think there will ALWAYS be people who acknowledge that they do not know if any gods exist or not...and who acknowledge that there is not enough unambiguous evidence for them to make a meaningful guess.
I also think there will always be people who will blindly guess in one direction or the other.
(June 23, 2021 at 2:20 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote:(June 23, 2021 at 2:10 pm)Frank Apisa Wrote: I’ve known and been friends with many individuals who use “atheist” as a descriptor …and to a person, each of them has one of the following two beliefs, opinions, or guesses:
1) There are no gods.
2) It is more likely that there are no gods than that there is at least one god.
I’m wondering if this is a universal truth (or close to a universal truth) about people who use the descriptor…so what better place to ask it than an Internet Atheist Forum…and what better people to ask than people who use the descriptor?
Do any of you know people who use the descriptor “atheist” to describe themselves, but who do not subscribe to at least one of the two items mentioned above?
Is it your opinion that asserting one or both is universal to people who apply the descriptor to themselves?
Atheism is simply not being convinced that the claim “a god exists,” is true. It’s really not that more complicated than that. Some atheists assert that gods don’t exist, but it’s not a requirement for atheism.
There are NO requirements for saying, "I am an atheist." All you have to do is to identify as an atheist...and you are an atheist.
I am not an atheist. I have offered my take on the question...and if you were to give that "take" to almost anyone walking the street, they would say it is an agnostic position...not an atheistic one.
But, as someone once wrote, "An atheist is just an agnostic without the guts to acknowledge he/she is." (Or was it the other way around?)