Assuming God?

[Whateverist]

I have been debating with a Christian for a while now, he is Catholic I think. Anyway, just now he told me something along the lines of: You assume God to deny him, therefore you believe in him.
My initial reaction was that this was the stupidest thing I had ever heard. But i'm not exactly sure what he meant by this.
Can someone please explain what assuming God means.

In order to say there is no God you must first examine the concept of God and then deny the fact that God does not exist. What your buddy is saying in the examination of God you are acknoweledging God on some level otherwise you would not have taken the time to dismiss Him. I dont know if i completely agree with that. As i examine things all the time just to see if trust/belief in something is warranted.

I contend that if you spend any amount of time outside of the time it takes to descern whether there is or isnt a God, you are guilty of denying God. Because if you do not believe in something it will be dismissed and you will quickly move on. (How much of your life have you spent argueing about Odin, Ra, or Posiden?) It is this "returning to the well" and argueing whether there is water at the bottom of it (even though others pull water from it's depths and drink from it reguraly) that places you in a position to be continually denying God.

Your acknoweledgement comes in the form of the endless arguements and attempts to talk yourself out of belief. For if non belief were absolute there is no arguement. I know true non-believers/atheists. i have them in my family. They do not argue any points of Christianity as they truly believe there is not God and it is pointless to argue anything. (just like if someone were to want to make a case for thor.) You might play along till your curosity has been satasified, but no one would argue beyond that much less spend a life time (ahem,cough minnie) unless he were trying to convince himself/justify his desision to deny belief in God.

What passes as 'atheism' on this board is truly misotheism. The Hate of God. But the reason "atheist" do not accept this title is because they will have to acknoweledge that they do believe in God. (You have to believe in something to hate it.) Few if any have the marbles to own up to their hate. (probably because deep down they do not have complete faith in their "atheism.")

So surprising that you can have spent the amount of time here that you have and still believe that. I agree there are plenty of atheists who are mostly mad at god for disappointing them in some way. It wouldn't surprise me to see them revert to theism. But then many more have simply moved on.

So why hang out here? There are plenty of reasons. For some the greater community that surrounds them physically is religious. So this place gives them community. For some, they have enormous rage that they were deceived by the people who brought them up and this gives them a place to vent. For others it is simply a place to discuss things where god talk won't take over the discussion. And some of us are on a mission to save you from self abnegation. We just want more peers in the world and would really like you to turn your brains back on and start participating.