5 bombshells some atheists are not aware of

[Simon Moon]

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None of these are bombshells.

But you are incorrect on Dawkins, unless you want to play semantics games.



This should be more surprising to creationists.

It is true, he does not mention human evolution in 'The Origin...". He does in "The Descent of Man", however.



This is incorrect. He states that he is a '6' on his "Spectrum of Theistic Beliefs" scale.

6. "De facto atheist. Very low probability, but short of zero. "I don't know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."


This is the position of the majority of atheists.

I do not claim to know with certainty that a god does not exist. But I do not believe one does. This makes me (and Dawkins) an agnostic-atheist.


So...

Darwin also got a lot of other things wrong about evolution. We've come along way in the last 160 + years since Darwin. But everything that has been discovered since Darwin has completely confirmed his central thesis, random mutation and natural selection drives changes.

Hell, he didn't even know about DNA.


Very true. Other than his monumental works in math, his other beliefs were batshit crazy.

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"... There was surprise when Prof Dawkins acknowledged that he was less than 100 per cent certain of his conviction that there is no creator.

The philosopher Sir Anthony Kenny, who chaired the discussion, interjected: “Why don’t you call yourself an agnostic?” Prof Dawkins answered that he did."


[Source: Dawkins - 'I can't be sure that god doen not exist']

I think there are certain Christian groups that would want to categorise him as an atheist to justify their own simplistic view of the issues, and Dawkins certainly has anti-theist views (The God Delusion' case in point) but in his own words he is agnostic with anti-theist views. I'm not calling him agnostic, I'm just reporting that he calls himself agnostic.

But he does called himself an atheist.

As I previously posted, he considers himself at level 6+ on his own scale.

Here's the entire scale:



1. Strong theist. 100 per cent probability of God. In the words of C.G. Jung: "I do not believe, I know."
2. De facto theist. Very high probability but short of 100 per cent. "I don't know for certain, but I strongly believe in God and live my life on the assumption that he is there."
3. Leaning towards theism. Higher than 50 per cent but not very high. "I am very uncertain, but I am inclined to believe in God."
4. Completely impartial. Exactly 50 per cent. "God's existence and non-existence are exactly equiprobable."
5. Leaning towards atheism. Lower than 50 per cent but not very low. "I do not know whether God exists but I'm inclined to be skeptical."
6. De facto atheist. Very low probability, but short of zero. "I don't know for certain but I think God is very improbable, and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there."
7. Strong atheist. "I know there is no God, with the same conviction as Jung knows there is one."

Calling himself an agnostic does not alter the fact, nor does it conflict with the fact, that he is also an atheist, according to his own scale.


Dawkins comments, in his 2008 book, as to his own position on the scale, that he is in the 6 to 7 range: [1]

“I count myself in category 6, but leaning towards 7. I am agnostic only to the extent that I am agnostic about fairies at the bottom of the garden.”


As others have pointed out, atheism and agnosticism are not mutually exclusive positions.