(November 15, 2013 at 12:57 pm)Wunsbee Wrote: Nobody likes identifying as a 7 but Id think more are than they say (not just on here, just in general). The whole "you don't know" thing. But absolute knowledge isn't possible yet we have no problem saying that we know Santa Clause isn't real. That pink unicorns aren't real, etc
Indeed. I admit I cannot prove that god does not exist, but I live my life as if there is no god at all. While I am willing to entertain any claims and explanations regarding the various gods that people recognize and worship, I really do not expect that anyone will suddenly knock us all off of our feet with proof of a god.
My impression from forums like this is that the question of what atheist means or what atheists believe is an attempt to force that admission in order to turn the discussion around. If you can get atheists to agree that they know god doesn't exist, then theists can stop the frustrating and wearisome task of trying to prove that god is real, and instead demand that atheists prove the opposite.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
