RE: A problem with the word "atheist"
January 26, 2018 at 6:23 pm
(This post was last modified: January 26, 2018 at 6:31 pm by Whateverist.)
(January 26, 2018 at 10:04 am)Little Rik Wrote: Real people, real accident, real hospitals, real doctors, real death, real experiences with God, real coming back from death, real witnesses,
.. real gullible.
(January 26, 2018 at 10:20 am)Huggy74 Wrote:(January 26, 2018 at 8:56 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: It's more like you can't prove that Santa doesn't exist and since belief in Santa smacks of the same sort of superstitious nonsense you can claim god too as no longer credible.
There is a cumulative case to be made for Santa's non-existence. You reason that if Santa did exist then it would be rational for you to expect a lot of evidence to turn up that in fact never has turned up. If Santa exists then it generates a whole lot of reasonable expectations all of which are unfulfilled, like that he would leave sooty footprints as he made his way from the chimney to your bedside; that someone would have actually seen him careering across the sky behind his reindeer fast enough to visit, and spend a little time with, every child in the world in the space of a single evening; you would expect someone to be able to give you a plausible account of how he could break the laws of physics in this way. And so on.
These kinds of evidential considerations, atheists regard, are much more powerful than any to do with simple lack of evidence.
Here my position on the belief in Santa... I don't care, not a day goes by where I wonder if Santa exists, there isn't one discussion forum I belong to identifying with my non-belief in Santa. So were really not talking about anything remotely similar are we?
If someone chose to believe Santa existed than good for them, and even IF Santa DID exist what bering does that have on where I end up after I die? So if Santa existed he still be a non issue. My only concern personally is my eternal soul and 'I don't know' may be enough for you, but not me.
If the internet was rife with Santa believer forums which you got tossed off of every time you try to express your disbelief, you really couldn't imagine visiting an Asantaism forum just to express your bewilderment? Even though I don't care if gods, fairies, unicorns and rest exist, the fact that many adults do would be interesting to me and something I'd like to discuss. Now hush and get back under my microscope.