(April 17, 2012 at 12:42 pm)ChadWooters Wrote:(April 17, 2012 at 10:25 am)Mister Agenda Wrote: the logical extension of theism is chaos since God can change the rules at any time and the universe only has the appearance of order because God has chosen not to change things up for awhile.That would apply to some forms of theism, but not all. Nihilism applies to all forms of atheism.
Lets see:
Existential nihilism: Nope, I think our lives have intrinsic value, and are more valuable because they're finite and you won't see the like of any of us again after we're gone. We don't have to matter to the universe, we matter to us. Claiming that we only matter because we matter to God is itself nihilism, it's a statement that necessarily implies we have no intrinsic worth.
Moral nihilism: Nope, I'm willing to go out on a limb and take it as axiomatic that what's good for human beings is good and work the rest out from there. It may not be an ultimate grounding, but it's a least as good a grounding as claiming that good is what God says is good.
Epistemological nihilism: Nope, I'm a rational skeptic not an extreme skeptic.
Metaphysical nihilism: Nope, I accept the reality of reality as axiomatic. Doesn't do much good to think otherwise as far as I can see. And can reality really be real if it's contingent on the will of a supreme being?
Political nihislism: Nuh-uh, I think there's such a thing as too much anarchy.
And there's only one form of atheism: not believing in a God, god, or gods. There's only one form of theism, too. A religion being theistic doesn't make it a different form of theism. Theism is believing in at least one God or god. A different form of theism would no longer BE theism.
