Why are atheist...atheist?

[Alastor]

See? Tantrum.

I lack belief. I 'lack' belief which means I am without belief. Do...you...know...what...that...means? I...don't...believe...it.

LoL, I just capitalized the words but that is not a tatrum. You said a lack of belief. However re-read my post see which statement I addressed as being ambiguous. Hint: it wasn't the one your attempting to use now.

Thinking you know more or less of a concept doesn't make it any more special or greater in explanatory power. God is no different from any other made up character. Unless you have evidence to suggest otherwise. If not, then your engaging in special pleasing.

This is inherently false. I do not think I don't know, I know I don't know and that gives it far greater explanatory power within these circumstances. The claim was made that one believes unicorns do not exist, based on observation. However, observation requires one to understand the nature of that which is being observed. If the nature of the object cannot be observed then then a belief cannot be made based on the observation. A unicorn's natures is easily understood and can be searched for. God's nature cannot. This fact makes the characters very dissimilar and gives one the explanatory power to say that God can neither be confirmed nor denied based on observations. Furthermore any made up character which has the property that it created the universe is necessarily a misunderstood character because you would then be talking about God. So he differs from every other made up character because, any other character would then lack that property. This gives him much explanatory power

Example.

If I say I want to find a fire-breathing dragon named Rex. All I have to do is look for this dragon.

If I say i want to find a fire-breathing dragon named Rex who created the universe. I would still have to look for him.

However this fictional char is very different from God, because I assumed he was a fire-breathing dragon. If this dragon made the universe then how can I know he was dragon. I can't really know anything about his nature actually because I do not understand enough about creating universes to make any claims its nature. Therefore, I cannot really assume anything about this Creator that would allow me to look for it.

See the clear explanatory power of not knowing from knowing and how the two imagined characters are significantly different.

Well if you got no evidence, then rejection seems to be the logical conclusion. Also based on Occam's Razer, seeing as belief in god is far more complex and assumes many assumptions and without evidence, it is there for very improbable.

Without evidence, a rejection of any assertions is the logical conclusion which is what I've implied in the first post and what this whole threads been about by the way. From what I remember, and, I could be wrong, Occam Razer states that one should not use esoteric concepts as means to explain something. However, the concept is God is esoteric in itself. If applying Occam's Razer, I would not even discuss the matter at all. As for complex assumptions, the only assumption made is that from nothingness, or nothingness with a bias (which not really nothingness then), came something. This cannot be denied surely one of these possibilities is correct.

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Coming late to this, I refer to your first post, Alastor.
Given that we don't ( yet ) know how everything came into being, you take the lazy route and claim " god did it ".
You must then answer the inevitable follow-on question as to who created the creator.
I prefer to accept that what there is has always been.....an explanation that suits me until science or religion comes up with the definitive answer. Bet you can guess which I think will get there first!
There is nothing arrogant about stating a non-belief in gods. It is a simple, precise opinion.
There is no burden of proof on the atheist as there is on those who state that a particular god exists. Sorry.

I would also like to ask you if you worship whatever you think your god is?

I get what your saying but my choice to believe in God in not quite that simple. Refer to my response to "Faith no More". I don't worship any God either. I wouldn't know how or who to worship. Such things would require me to make assumptions about his nature.

Also, it had already been established that what I said in the first post only applies to strong atheist which is not most of the people here if any at all. What your seeing with all the arguing and childish statements is simply the result of old-fashioned selective illiteracy.