Strong Atheism

[BlackMason]

No... I'm just not comfortable with that. I'm not even comfortable stating "invisible pink unicorns do not exist".

I'm actually legitimately curious. Why not??

Er, because that would be an argument from ignorance. They said that black swans don't exist...then they went to Australia and saw their asses.

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I understand that position, and I currently identify with it. It’s logically sound and difficult to counter. But lately I've been thinking we should go farther. Why not make the positive claim “gods do not exist” and take on a burden of proof? We’re tough and smart; we can handle it! The position in the first paragraph, while strong, is starting to look more and more like a cop out to me. We’re atheists, god damnit! We’re supposed to have balls! So, I say we abandon the 6/7 “weak atheist” approach and put forth arguments for the non-existence of deities.

It's not a cop out. It's a very reasonable approach. You'll then have a burden of proof that you can't begin to discharge just like theists. What would be your evidence? What do you expect to find? Arguments don't prove anything, evidence does. Arguments help explain evidence. Arguments alone are just the icing. The evidence is the cake. You need to marry the two.

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Why not make the positive claim “gods do not exist”

I already do. I am quite the militant anti-theist.

Would you be willing to share your evidence with us?

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I do not make the claim that gods don't exist because I don't think absolute certainty is possible.

By this logic, though, shouldn't all claims of any kind be avoided?

No that's not necessary. That's where inductive reasoning comes in.