(September 29, 2015 at 7:43 pm)MysticKnight Wrote:(September 28, 2015 at 5:56 pm)Mister Agenda Wrote: There is a whole other word for what you're describing: anti-theist, someone who thinks people shouldn't be theists and is vocal about it. It's like if I said Musilms take the stance that Sharia law should be imposed on all the nations. All the Muslims who don't agree with that are going to resent being included in that generalization.It may common. I don't know. You are right I shouldn't generalize.
Tiberius's view is a common one among atheists, I subscribe to it myself. Maybe you should assume less about what other people's opinions are.
We appreciate not being generalized, but as an agnostic atheist, I think that it's clear that the question is impossible to know.
We can think it, we can feel it, we can personally conclude based on the bulk of the circumstantial evidence (in combination with feelings/thoughts) are enough to convince us that gods do or don't exist. But we cannot know.
As an agnostic, this is my philosophy, that anyone who says they know is lying to me, and probably to themselves.
As an atheist, my opinion is the conclusion, based on the bulk of the circumstantial evidence (such as the fact that everyone says they believe in gods, but no one agrees on the characteristics, nature, or even name of these gods), that all gods are made up. Not real. Product of human imagination. But I'm honest enough to admit I don't know.
I say all this because it makes me a little mad when a theist says that we are not humble (or respectable) unless we "admit" that perhaps people have absolute knowledge of the existence of deities. Of course, as above, each person would expect me to conclude that their god is the "right one" that they know exists. And MK would say it is Allah, and GC would say it is Jehovah, and so on ad infinitum, until I am bending over backward to "admit" that they all might really know the truth about all these different gods.
No way. No. Way.
A Christian told me: if you were saved you cant lose your salvation. you're sealed with the Holy Ghost
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.
I replied: Can I refuse? Because I find the entire concept of vicarious blood sacrifice atonement to be morally abhorrent, the concept of holding flawed creatures permanently accountable for social misbehaviors and thought crimes to be morally abhorrent, and the concept of calling something "free" when it comes with the strings of subjugation and obedience perhaps the most morally abhorrent of all... and that's without even going into the history of justifying genocide, slavery, rape, misogyny, religious intolerance, and suppression of free speech which has been attributed by your own scriptures to your deity. I want a refund. I would burn happily rather than serve the monster you profess to love.