RE: Atheist struggling to answer a question i often propose to myself
August 24, 2017 at 5:56 pm
(This post was last modified: August 24, 2017 at 5:56 pm by mordant.)
(August 24, 2017 at 5:40 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:Nothing about atheism requires this "negative stance" if by that you mean taking up a knowledge position that there are no gods. It only requires seeing no valid reason to afford belief to any deities.(August 24, 2017 at 5:20 pm)Khemikal Wrote: Atheism is about a persons status of belief in gods. Nothing more, nothing less.
Again, that is only the trivial definition of atheism you and others have chosen to embrace, i.e. one that applies applies to infants and the unaware. The alternate and meaningful definition of atheism is a intellectual negative stance with respect to the proposition that "God(s) exist."
I do not consider you so young or so indifferent as to not have taken a stance.
I believe that you are describing gnostic or "hard" atheism which I daresay most atheists who have really considered their philosophical position do not subscribe to.
Why? Because invisible beings and realms are inherently unfalsifiable hypotheses ... therefore, no knowledge position for OR against can be justified.
That's a rather technical distinction of course. What theists want, and what we withhold, is belief given without a requirement of evidence / substantiation / logical argument.