Don't tell a Religious person "There is no God"

[Heat]

In my opinion, and in the best interests of helping other religious peoples understand our belief, I think people should refrain from saying "There is no God"

First off, this is how all religious people view our beliefs as. They think we "know there is no god somehow" and therefore, see it as a radical position.

Also, saying "there is no god" is inherently wrong, due to the fact that you can never know, most will agree that it is very unlikely, but a common argument is "How do you know", I think it's dangerous to say you "know" anything.


Most importantly, though, it offsets any argument you use it in, or any scenario interacting with a religious person that it is said. If you are talking to a moderate believer, even though they probably think they know god exists, they will still most likely claim "I am not positive". If you say this, you give the impression you are positive, you as well give theists an argument to use. 



I guess.. What i'm trying to say even though this was poorly explained is that..
A large amount of theists see atheism as people who say "There is no god" hell, my Bible teacher listed that as basically the only trait of atheism. I don't think this represents a large scale of atheists beliefs. I'm not saying it's "50-50" or anything like that, but even people like Richard Dawkins-almost as far atheist as you can go-said he would say it is still a 99-1 percentage chance of god existing in some form. If you want theists to stop misrepresenting atheist beliefs, and have people come to a better and more peaceful understanding of them, we need to start saying "I Don't Know" as a go to response for the question of "Does god exist". Because no matter how far you lean to one side or another, you can never know for sure, you can say it's 1/1000000000000 chance, but you still don't know and need to profess this so that theists don't think your position is so radical.

[ignoramus]

It's what Rob said.
We'll humbly say: We don't know for sure, then a theist will say: But I do know for sure! ,therefore it is more likely that I am right because I am more confident in my answer!

It's amazing how they can have 100% knowledge in something just because they read it in a book even though there is not the slightest bit of evidence in their favour.
Religion is by far the most powerful weapon ever devised. I'll give them that much.

[Angrboda]

I see no strategic advantage in asserting agnosticism. It'll just be viewed as a ploy and ignored anyway.

[Heat]

I see no strategic advantage in asserting agnosticism.  It'll just be viewed as a ploy and ignored anyway.

It's not agnosticism, a lot of atheists will happily admit they "don't know" because no one can. Atheism is a lack of belief in god, not a belief there is no god, it's never safe to assert you know something 100% sure.

[GrandizerII]

I see no strategic advantage in asserting agnosticism.  It'll just be viewed as a ploy and ignored anyway.

It's not agnosticism, a lot of atheists will happily admit they "don't know" because no one can. Atheism is a lack of belief in god, not a belief there is no god, it's never safe to assert you know something 100% sure.

One can be both agnostic and atheist.

As far as I know, I have never encountered a gnostic atheist here (although I have in other forums). Strong atheists, yes (I believe there is no God). Not gnostic, though.

[robvalue]

I agree that it is generally better to say "I'm not (yet) convinced there is a god" or, if you're more confident, "I believe there is no such thing as a god". Stating as fact, "There is no God" is needlessly overplaying your hand and can indeed be used against you. And you're right; it feeds into the strawman.

These statements of belief are also far less confrontational.

I would love for the confusion about the term to be reduced, as then the stigma will probably reduce also.

[houseofcantor]

Are you telling peeps what to do? Because fuck that. 

I'm a gnostic atheist, it's such an absurd concept that fits in my case. 'Cause I'm a prophet, meaning I speak for god, and god's like, tell them peeps I don't exist. 

But to look at this rationally, every god that comes down the pike has a story; when these stories are shown to be ridiculous, the entities they describe can safely be dismissed as fantasy. I don't know what the drive is of certain atheists who say "I cannot disprove some nebulous deist kinda god, so therefore I'm an agnostic atheist;" man, that ain't your fucking job. In general, atheism is a reaction to the positive claim of theism, it was never meant to be a positive claim on its own.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

In my opinion, and in the best interests of helping other religious peoples understand our belief, I think people should refrain from saying "There is no God"

First off, this is how all religious people view our beliefs as. They think we "know there is no god somehow" and therefore, see it as a radical position.

Also, saying "there is no god" is inherently wrong, due to the fact that you can never know, most will agree that it is very unlikely, but a common argument is "How do you know", I think it's dangerous to say you "know" anything.


Most importantly, though, it offsets any argument you use it in, or any scenario interacting with a religious person that it is said. If you are talking to a moderate believer, even though they probably think they know god exists, they will still most likely claim "I am not positive". If you say this, you give the impression you are positive, you as well give theists an argument to use. 



I guess.. What i'm trying to say even though this was poorly explained is that..
A large amount of theists see atheism as people who say "There is no god" hell, my Bible teacher listed that as basically the only trait of atheism. I don't think this represents a large scale of atheists beliefs. I'm not saying it's "50-50" or anything like that, but even people like Richard Dawkins-almost as far atheist as you can go-said he would say it is still a 99-1 percentage chance of god existing in some form. If you want theists to stop misrepresenting atheist beliefs, and have people come to a better and more peaceful understanding of them, we need to start saying "I Don't Know" as a go to response for the question of "Does god exist". Because no matter how far you lean to one side or another, you can never know for sure, you can say it's 1/1000000000000 chance, but you still don't know and need to profess this so that theists don't think your position is so radical.

So do you really think that Hindu gods exist?

[robvalue]

I'm gnostic using the casual definition of "know". As much as I know anything, I know religion is bullshit. And I know people are not capable of knowing anything about "God", it's all in their head.

Overall, I prefer the response, "I don't even know what you are referring to."

I've never heard any meaningful way of distinguishing between a god and an arbitrarily powerful non-God. It's a useless label. I am the God of my computer simulations, because I have pretty much complete control over them. So what? I'm just some fuckwit once you zoom out of the simulation.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

I see no strategic advantage in asserting agnosticism.  It'll just be viewed as a ploy and ignored anyway.

It's not agnosticism, a lot of atheists will happily admit they "don't know" because no one can. Atheism is a lack of belief in god, not a belief there is no god, it's never safe to assert you know something 100% sure.

There are no celestial gods of any kind in this solar system.