(September 26, 2013 at 4:46 pm)Ryantology Wrote:Quote:Ryantology: Ooh, good point! Rational response #3! It doesn't prove atheism is itself rational, you're right. But I think it shows that for the vast majority of atheists, their atheism is irrational.
The way that we interact with Christians doesn't really say anything about the rationality of our lack of belief which, for the majority of us, is based upon entirely sound reasoning: we don't accept the claim as true because there's no evidence compelling enough to make it acceptable.
Just because an atheist acts irrational doesn't mean that their atheism is irrational.
I was gonna do pages three and four, but this is significant enough to deserve a response:
"No."
Atheists are desperate to rationalize their atheism, and "We find insufficient evidence" makes for the perfect cover.
But how do we know if this is the reason? How do we test to see if this hypothesis is true, rather than other, non-rational hypotheses?
I propose the answer is to look at what atheists criticize about religion. If it is really about rationality, we will see rational criticisms. We won't see things like this. Or this.
If you're honest, you will find the vast majority of posts, even in this very thread, to be of that nature.
This tells me atheism is more about hatred and rage, bitterness and victimhood than merely "I don't see enough evidence."
How many discussions do atheists have among themselves about the evidence, and what counts as evidence in an intellectually rigorous manner?
The answer to that question is enough to make my point for me.
