Is Lack of Belief the Best You Can Do?

[Cyberman]

A lack of belief is the best that I can do, because it's not a position I am advancing; it's one of status quo. Until a compelling external force ia applied, it stays as it is, running in the background and defending itself against all comers.

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[Gawdzilla]

As a believer I still like to follow the musings of the "opposition". Occasionally I find positions with which I agree. Even before reading this article, I adopted a signature mocking the idea that atheism is simply a lack of belief. I have posted this link as an invitation to discuss the points raised by the author who just so happens to be an atheist:

https://philosophersgroan.wordpress.com/...we-can-do/

I have no interest in any god or gods, never had. If that makes me a bad atheist I really don't care.

[Simon Moon]

In a epistemological discussions and debates, lack of belief is all that atheists need to defend. Even if they actually hold a stronger position.

Because lack of belief is the default position for epistemological claims.

To use Matt Dillahunty's hypothetical; there is a jar with an unknown number of gumballs. It is true, that there is either an even number, or an odd number.

If someone claims that there is an even number, the correct position on their claim, is not to actively disbelieve them. The correct position is to lack belief that they are correct, whether they claim there was an even number or an odd number.

Lacking belief that they are correct, does not mean that you are taking the counter positive position, either.

[ignoramus]

I am an ignorant atheist.
I haven't read any books or studied or anything.

To know God must be an acquired taste to which I am not privy.

[FebruaryOfReason]

No. Lack of belief isn't the best we can do.

This is the best we can do;

http://atheistforums.org/post-1218370.html

And it is several orders of magnitude greater than your book of made up bullshit

[Fidel_Castronaut]

As a believer I still like to follow the musings of the "opposition". Occasionally I find positions with which I agree. Even before reading this article, I adopted a signature mocking the idea that atheism is simply a lack of belief. I have posted this link as an invitation to discuss the points raised by the author who just so happens to be an atheist:

https://philosophersgroan.wordpress.com/...we-can-do/

One can lack belief as well as actively disbelieve in the claims made/asserted/evidenced.

I lack belief in deities of all creeds, colours and beliefs. I actively disbelieve in every god hypothesis given to me to date owing to lack of evidence that meets my minimum threshold.

[brewer]

I believe it's a twisted fantasy story. Does that work?

[KevinM1]

As a believer I still like to follow the musings of the "opposition". Occasionally I find positions with which I agree. Even before reading this article, I adopted a signature mocking the idea that atheism is simply a lack of belief. I have posted this link as an invitation to discuss the points raised by the author who just so happens to be an atheist:

https://philosophersgroan.wordpress.com/...we-can-do/

One can lack belief as well as actively disbelieve in the claims made/asserted/evidenced given.

I lack belief in deities of all creeds, colours and beliefs. I actively disbelieve in every god hypothesis given to me to date owing to lack of evidence that meets my minimum threshold.

This.

I actively disbelieve every deity presented to me because they're a mass of self-contradicting assertions with no verifiable backing evidence.  

Regarding some undefined (rather than ill-defined) deity, I see no reason to think one exists.  That said, I retain the right to change my mind in light of new evidence.

[drfuzzy]

The best I can do?  It feels like the only thing I can do.  It wasn't actually a choice, it was more of a revelation. I simply realized, one evening, listening to a bible reading, that I no longer believed any of it . . . after 46 years of calling myself a christian.  The longer I go, the more I learn, the more I marvel that I ever did believe. I mean, you really, really have to turn off critical thinking to swallow most of it.

[KUSA]

Being an Atheist to me is just simply that I am not a Theist.

I am not this.