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Atheism as the null hypothesis.
#14
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis.
(March 29, 2016 at 10:11 am)SteveII Wrote: Atheism is not the default position. It is the agnostic's position that should be the default position.

1. There is no God.

This is either true or false. Atheist believe this to be true. Agnostics don't know. Theist believe it to be false. Verificationists think the statement meaningless. Even if evidence and argumentation fail at proving there is a God, that does not mean there is no God. To say there is no God is a claim to knowledge and must be justified.

If you are defining atheism as an absence of belief in God (as I believe many of you like to do), that would only be a psychologically state. In that case, "absence of a belief in God" cannot be the default position because that would include a wide range of views: traditional atheists, agnostics, and verificationists and therefore incoherent.

Agnosticism is, of course, a statement about knowledge; atheism is a statement about belief, or, rather, the lack, positive or negative, of a particular belief.  A true agnostic would regard the existence of god, any god, to be a 50/50 proposition.  Dawkins' scale comes to mind, which certainly, IMHO, deserves a promotional place on a Starbuck's cup.
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Messages In This Thread
Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 28, 2016 at 9:47 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Red_Wind - March 29, 2016 at 3:22 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 29, 2016 at 7:44 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Red_Wind - March 29, 2016 at 8:42 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 29, 2016 at 7:30 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 29, 2016 at 8:07 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Whateverist - March 29, 2016 at 8:49 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 29, 2016 at 7:27 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 29, 2016 at 8:54 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by SteveII - March 29, 2016 at 10:11 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Time Traveler - March 29, 2016 at 10:36 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by SteveII - March 29, 2016 at 12:02 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 29, 2016 at 7:33 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Simon Moon - March 29, 2016 at 7:58 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 29, 2016 at 9:12 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Whateverist - March 29, 2016 at 11:15 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Little lunch - March 29, 2016 at 9:46 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 30, 2016 at 7:18 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by brewer - March 29, 2016 at 10:05 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 30, 2016 at 2:18 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 30, 2016 at 8:12 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 30, 2016 at 10:56 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Jehanne - March 30, 2016 at 9:40 pm
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by ignoramus - March 31, 2016 at 12:00 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 31, 2016 at 4:26 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by Paraselene - March 31, 2016 at 12:01 am
RE: Atheism as the null hypothesis. - by robvalue - March 31, 2016 at 3:36 am

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