RE: Is atheism ever a faith?
October 31, 2008 at 11:18 am
(This post was last modified: November 29, 2008 at 11:51 am by Edwardo Piet.)
(October 31, 2008 at 11:15 am)leo-rcc Wrote: I am not happy with either choice of the poll really.I'm not using faith in the dictionary sense, I'm using Dawkins definition.
"Possibly because atheism could be based not only on evidence but also on preference or intuition, this would be faith in atheism." is a bogus reason for atheism.
"Never, atheism always contradicts faith. There is no faith without belief in the supernatural." I contend as does every dictionary I know of that there is faith without belief in the supernatural.
Also when talking about the supernatural I am included paranormal, which means paranormal that almost certainly will never be proved to be true. Dawkins coined the word perrinormal (although he clearly said that he didn't know for sure if it hadn't been coined before him, therefore he may not have coined it) which means something before thought to be paranormal that is later scientifically confirmed to be true. I guess I forgot to include superstition, but perhaps they are pretty much the same thing. Superstition just isn't considered supernatural and is actually more conventionally believed to be nonsense than the supernatural. But the supernatural is just a form of superstition. And since superstitions go against natural law if you also wouldn't consider superstitions to be a form of supernatural belief, what would you call it?
Perhaps superstition is the broader definition, perhaps I shoulda thought to say superstition. Should I restart the poll because of confusion? Perhaps? Or is that a stupid idea?
EDIT: But the thing is actually. The first option is a bogus reason for atheism YES. But if you disbelieve God is still atheism. And I think it could be bogus due to rejecting God just because you felt like it or you "had a feeling" that there is no God. When actually you can't KNOW there isn't one. You must understand that the fact there is no evidence for God (or a god)'s existence and the fact the whole idea is so complex makes his existence very very improbable indeed. You can't just "KNOW" because you don't THINK there isn't one. Or think that if such a God existed the world wouldn't be such a mess for example. Because thats bullshit anyway because there's no reason God couldn't be evil, or neutral rather. IF he existed. And he almost certainly doesn't.
To really believe you 100% KNOW he doesn't is indeed bogus. And I think perhaps a bit of faith and superstition. Because basically ignorantly thinking you can be 100% certain and you 100% know things that you just logically can't know or be certain of, is basically what faith is.
Its belief in the absence of evidence.
The point is that there is indeed no evidence of God and he's highly improbable. The point isn't that there is evidence of his NON-existence. There isn't. We can't disprove God but there is no evidence of his existence or anything supernatural's existence anyway. The burden of proof is on the believer of course. If you act as if God is disproved thats ignorance. Belief in evidence that he DOESN'T exist. rather than understanding there is no evidence that he DOES exist. If you believe that you "KNOW" that he does NOT exist. That's belief in the absence of evidence and therefore faith because there isn't any evidence that he does NOT exist.
There just isn't any that he DOES exist. And the burden of proof is on the believer. So its ignorant and 'faith' thinking if you act as if you know something when you cannot. Because there is no evidence of God's NON-existence either. Its about the burden of proof.