(October 2, 2015 at 1:30 pm)lkingpinl Wrote: Bambi,
I appreciate you asking the question, I think it's a good one. What I find is that unlike religious ideologies where there are core beliefs and subsequent beliefs which delineates the sect of the core belief, Atheism spouses one belief and one only: There is no God or Gods. Out of that there are no subsequent beliefs.
Excuse me if I don't join the universal praise others are giving this post by lkingpinl.
Atheism is not necessarily the belief there is no god or gods. It is more accurately the disbelief in the existence of a god or gods.
These statements may sound the same, or may even sound like I am splitting hairs, but when it comes to these kinds of discussions, it is best to use formal and accurate definitions.
The difference between the 2 statements above, is where the negation is placed.
As in (where "!" is the negation):
The belief there are !gods.
As compared to:
The !belief that there are gods.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
