Belief and Knowledge

[Jenny A]

Theists continually attempt to patch together various beliefs into an 'atheist world view'.

That's because atheism logically entails a very specific worldview: a world without the influence of god(s). By default that means that atheists must believe that every known phenomena has a non-divine cause. I'm open to hear of a middle ground that someone actually believes and promotes. If I'm wrong then, I would like to here something any AF member atheist believes does not have a natural cause.

The proposition that there has never been a god or supernatural force, does lead to the conclusion that all things must have natural causes.

But there are two problems with such a sweeping proposition: 1) lacking a belief that there is a god is not affirmative belief that there isn't one; and 2) it is possible to believe that there isn't a god now, but there was one in the past.

So the middle ground could be either: 1) I don't know if either all things are natural or somethings are caused by a god or other supernatural force; or 2) there once was a god, gods, or some other supernatural force, which created some things but no longer exists.

That said, I personally believe that it is far more likely than not that everything has a natural cause. I base this belief on the plethora of obvious natural causes I see around me and the ever expanding number of things which were once thought to be supernatural and have since been discovered to be natural.

I also affirmatively believe that in the unlikely event that there is a god, it does not intervene in the doings of human beings or interact with them. I base that belief on the lack of evidence of any such intervention.

But my views are not the views of all atheists. I'm sure there are many atheists who simply don't think very deeply about either the possibility of god or whether there are supernatural causes. Atheists who join a atheist forum are more likely to be of the thinking variety.