(July 4, 2014 at 4:21 pm)MindForgedManacle Wrote: I think atheism is "theism is false". It is a necessary condition of atheism to be "not theism", but it's not sufficient in my view. Just like it's a necessary condition of negative numbers to be "not positive", but it's not sufficient since the number 0 is "not positive", and yet it's still not a negative number.
Yes, it is a necessary condition of atheism to be "not theism". But it doesn't follow from "not theism" to "theism is false".
I've pointed this out to you previously, that you are trying to respond to 2 prongs of a dilemma simultaneously.
There are 2 truth claims with regards to the existence of a god;
1. a god(s) exists
2. a god(s) do not exist
Only one of these can be true.
But disbelieving the 1st truth claim does not mean that one accepts the 2nd truth claim by default. The both have to be evaluated separately.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
