(February 12, 2014 at 7:21 am)Bob101 Wrote: Hi,
As Atheist's like to claim the logical high ground for some reason, I was just wondering if any of you can actually give me one logical/rational explanation for Atheism, in particular Materialistic Atheism, which is the only kind as far as I am aware.
Btw I am not Religious or Atheist.
Cheers,
Bob
Well, I admit I am disappointed when an atheist makes a claim about what an entire demographic likes, but being an atheist isn't what makes me logical, and being logical isn't what makes a lot of people atheists.
The explanation for atheism is that some people don't believe in any God or gods, those people are called atheists, and atheism is the word for the state of mind in which one does not hold it to be true that some God or gods exist. Atheism isn't a claim that no God or gods exist, it's an opinion on the topic.
In later posts, you indicate awareness of the existence of atheists who are not materialists, such as 'bare-bone' Buddhists, so I assume you're exaggerating a bit when you say you're not aware of any kind of atheism but 'materialistic atheism'. It's a bit redundant to say 'materialistic atheist' isn't it, doesn't 'materialist' serve as well?
Essentially what you're saying is that most atheists, at least the 'new' ones, are metaphysical naturalists. I don't agree. In my experience, atheists are more typically rationalists who hold methodological naturalism to be the default in the absence of any way to determine the existence of anything that isn't natural.
I would certainly like to hear the reasoning of someone who believes they can deduce materialism. Can you give a source for someone like that?
