(September 8, 2014 at 1:47 pm)naimless Wrote:Ugh..no. Atheism isn't a "total rejection of spiritual experience" (though 'spiritual' is such a vague word it may as well be meaningless), it's literally just not having a belief in God, that's it. There are no claims. One could technically argue what you've posited, but that person would be horribly wrong.(September 8, 2014 at 1:27 pm)Stimbo Wrote: It's known as ECREE. The more extraordinary the claim, the more extraordinary must be the evidence supporting it. We wouldn't accept the same standard of evidence for the name of the third slave to the left of the pharoah, for instance, as we would for claims that that slave rose from the dead and roamed Egypt prophesying the events of the New Testament.
One could also then argue though, regarding the belief of god, that it is more extraordinary for one of the human species to be an atheist. Indeed complete and total rejection of spiritual experience is an anomaly in the grand scheme of human experience. An extraordinary claim.

In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson