My mom believes in spirits. Some of the reasons people believe in stuff like that are really sad. Like in my mom's case I'm highly certain it's because she lost her dad when she was about 16 and she just wants to believe he's still alive in spirit form.

(September 22, 2016 at 6:08 am)Alasdair Ham Wrote: My mom believes in spirits. Some of the reasons people believe in stuff like that are really sad. Like in my mom's case I'm highly certain it's because she lost her dad when she was about 16 and she just wants to believe he's still alive in spirit form.

I am pointing out that not all atheists are formal skeptics that seek evidence before believing. Some atheists just have a fuck-off attitude towards religion.

Yes I know

And I agree

(September 22, 2016 at 5:05 am)chimp3 Wrote: I submit that not all atheists are skeptics who demand evidence before believing.

As a teenager I befriended a guy in my neighborhood. His father was an atheist and he was simply an irritable old fart that disliked all preachers in a serious way. He did not like what Christians had done to his people and would tell door to door evangelists to fuck off. He never read Darwin. He could catch fish in a mud puddle and during season always got his deer. He chewed tobacco and drank cheap beer by the case. We had a lot of fun in the outdoors. When this man died he never asked for prayer. A cantankerous old heathen to the end. (One time I knocked on his door and he pretended not to see me. He grabbed a broom and started yelling "Snake! Snake! and whooped me with the broom to the end of the driveway. Crazy-assed SOB)

I am sure that other atheists exist that do not fit the current skeptical evidence seeking rationalist model.  Do you know of any?

I think it's a good start for a (short) story.
What was his son like?
His old woman?
---
Spin the yarn!

(September 22, 2016 at 6:24 am)mcolafson Wrote:

(September 22, 2016 at 5:05 am)chimp3 Wrote: I submit that not all atheists are skeptics who demand evidence before believing.

As a teenager I befriended a guy in my neighborhood. His father was an atheist and he was simply an irritable old fart that disliked all preachers in a serious way. He did not like what Christians had done to his people and would tell door to door evangelists to fuck off. He never read Darwin. He could catch fish in a mud puddle and during season always got his deer. He chewed tobacco and drank cheap beer by the case. We had a lot of fun in the outdoors. When this man died he never asked for prayer. A cantankerous old heathen to the end. (One time I knocked on his door and he pretended not to see me. He grabbed a broom and started yelling "Snake! Snake! and whooped me with the broom to the end of the driveway. Crazy-assed SOB)

I am sure that other atheists exist that do not fit the current skeptical evidence seeking rationalist model.  Do you know of any?

I think it's a good start for a (short) story.
What was his son like?
His old woman?
---
Spin the yarn!

Ok! Just a snippet. Son is a chip off the old block but with a college degree. Mom used to let the Jehovah's Witnesses in just to have someone to talk to (not when Dad was around).

Going by your description, it sounds as though this man was simply "unrefined". Drank excessively, had a short fuse. 
And was likely un- or undereducated.

Perhaps he just didn't fit the model of the "intellectual atheist". That wouldn't necessarily mean that he wasn't prone to skepticism, though. 
Did he have any other particularly nutty beliefs?

A lot of tinfoil lying around, perhaps?

I have a friend that is an atheist because religion is absurd and there's no evidence, but he also believes in crazy shit like the universe is alive, spirit/ghost-like thingys exist and gluten causes autism, the latter of which he actually cited Jenny McCarthy when I asked him for evidence. I think he's mostly an atheist because he was raised in a fundamentalist Wesleyian sect that was absolutely batshit, and he came to realize it was crap through pure experience. He's definitely very selective about his critical thinking.

(September 22, 2016 at 5:51 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: People on the whole are not generally skeptical.  We believe many things without evidence.  You believe that I had pho for dinner because I told you that I did.  We tend to be extremely skeptical about some things, and not at all about other things.  There is a breed of atheist who is super skeptical about the supernatural in general, but other things not so much.  I myself have come to a lot of conclusions about religion, not from any concern about the evidence, but just because the religious things don't make sense.  If someone is playing games with the facts by not bringing evidence that they should be bringing, I may become extremely skeptical, but it's simply not in my nature to demand evidence about everything.

And let's not forget that we tend to be far less skeptical about things that support our pre-conceived biases. It's easy to be critical about things that don't fit our worldview but not so much about things that back up what we've already accepted as true.

(September 22, 2016 at 5:05 am)chimp3 Wrote: I submit that not all atheists are skeptics who demand evidence before believing.  

So what?

(September 22, 2016 at 6:16 am)chimp3 Wrote: I am pointing out that not all atheists are formal skeptics that seek evidence before believing. Some atheists just have a fuck-off attitude towards religion.

In my case it was just, doesn't make sense in lights of what's general accepted to be earth's and the universe's history.