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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 8:53 am
I don't really think about it one way or the other, whether my atheism is active or passive. Nor am I concerned with how people want to define it. I make it pretty simple: I can't prove god does not exist, and until someone can get god to show up, I will continue to believe that he does not. There are a great many things that we believe don't exist, many of which we cannot prove. There have likely been many more things which people didn't believe in until they were proven. Prove god and we can add her to the list. Until then, she stays on the shelf next to unicorns and mermaids.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 8:57 am
I think atheism is a passive stance; critical thought, i.e. learning how to make judgments using the principles of science, and evaluate claims on the basis of sound evidence and valid reasoning --- that is the active part.
He who loves God cannot endeavour that God should love him in return - Baruch Spinoza
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 9:01 am
(May 21, 2015 at 8:57 am)Nestor Wrote: I think atheism is a passive stance; critical thought, i.e. learning how to make judgments using the principles of science, and evaluate claims on the basis of sound evidence and valid reasoning --- that is the active part.
I agree with this.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 11:49 am
(This post was last modified: May 21, 2015 at 11:50 am by Longhorn.)
Wouldn't that mean we're also actively taking a stance about unicorns, witches and pink dragons in my basement?
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 12:02 pm
It would be about time. You should never let pink dragons in the basement go unchecked.
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 21, 2015 at 12:12 pm
Surely the answer is it can be both.
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RE: Being an atheist is not passive, it requires an active stance
May 23, 2015 at 8:53 pm
Just friggen great. now we go and crusade against religions based on our "real truth". Next thing you know we will be celebrating our conversion date (born again). I am in.
anti-logical Fallacies of Ambiguity
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