RE: Why don't some people understand lack of belief?
April 3, 2018 at 3:49 pm
(This post was last modified: April 3, 2018 at 3:51 pm by Edwardo Piet.)
(April 3, 2018 at 3:41 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote:(April 3, 2018 at 3:21 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: Cabbages are neither conscience, nor intelligent. That’s the worst analogy ever, lol.
Perhaps but it also works against the inane notion that everyone is "born atheist".
Well, they are, in a sense.
However I think we actually agree on the point you are trying to make. Somewhat. I think you take it a step further than me though, because you seem to think that someone who isn't a completely strong atheist, who is absolutely certain that ALL conceptions of God don't exist, then they're a pussy atheist or some shit. Is that a fair characterization of your view or have I oversimplified it?
I can happily assert "God doesn't exist" without resorting to this "I don't believe there is no God I just lack belief" nonsense.... but I can do the same with Santa Claus. And in neither case do I have to be absolutely certain.
Okay maybe I can about some conceptions of Santa Claus, as some involve him being able to do impossible things like visit every family home in the world at once... but I am the same way about some conceptions of God. SOME are impossible, but some aren't. But in both cases I am highly confident, I may not be absolutely certain but I can be extremely certain. And there's a difference between "God doesn't exist" and "I know God doesn't exist."
I don't think being unwilling to assert "I know God doesn't exist" would make me a pussy atheist, and I think it would be intellectually dishonest for me to do so. As I simply don't and can't know that about logically possible conceptions of God. But to say that I don't believe that there is no God, and that I merely lack belief, would be silly. Of course I believe there is no God, I just don't believe with absolute certainty. If I didn't believe there was no God at all, I couldn't even make conclusions about the improbability of God. People are born atheists, but only in an extremely weak sense of atheism, in which, indeed, cabbages and babies and rocks are also atheistic (by virtue of not being theistic). We're born without believing in God, but we aren't born believing that God is highly improbable.
