RE: Why Something Rather Than Nothing?
October 24, 2014 at 1:53 pm
(This post was last modified: October 24, 2014 at 1:54 pm by datc.)
(October 24, 2014 at 11:13 am)Mister Agenda Wrote:Suppose a certain Smith approaches you and tells you that by "God" he means "dog." Would you still disbelieve in the existence of Smith's god?(October 23, 2014 at 9:10 pm)datc Wrote: How can you call yourselves atheists, if you don't even know what it is whose existence you are denying?First thing that comes up when I Google 'definition of atheist':
a·the·ist/ˈāTHēəst/
noun
a person who disbelieves or lacks belief in the existence of God or gods.
Nothing in there about denying. How are we supposed to believe in something if we not only don't know it exists, but don't know what it's supposed to be? YOU propose your particular God out of the potential infinity of imaginable Gods, and then we evaluate your claim.
And if not, then you are no longer an atheist, because you now believe in the existence of at least one god.
(October 23, 2014 at 9:59 pm)bennyboy Wrote: If you observed as much as you talked, you would note that I do not identify as an atheist, but rather as a pure agnostic.That's a start, but in order to say "I don't know if God exists," you still need to understand the meaning of the term "God." If you think the Christian conception of God has no reference, yet still remain an agnostic, then you need at least one different conception of God of whose existence you are unsure.
Quote:Before you can say "God does not exist," you must at least know what the word "God" means.Did I ever say this? Are you talking to me, or to the voices in your head?
I said that your conception of God as maximally good, and of the universe as a deliberate creation by a good god, are nonsense, because only a fool would consider our universe maximally good. I'm pretty sure I never said "God does not exist."