Is Atheism Intellectual Cowardice?

[Faith No More]

What about Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein?

Einstein was not religious. Read my signature for his words on his belief. Einstein used the word 'God' to describe the unknown aspects of the cosmos that the human intellect cannot grasp. These sayings have been highjacked by theists to falsely give the impression that the one of the greatest minds of all time was religious.

And Newton was into alchemy, so in those respects, he was a moron.

[The Grand Nudger]

Agnosticism was a strong argument for it's time because much was left unexplained by anything other than religion. At this point we know the creations stories are stories, that the various histories of various religions are stories, and that events that were attributed to god or gods are in actuality perfectly natural.

We could perhaps be agnostic about gods not yet described, but the ones that have been described thusfar are all equally bullshit. You're not agnostic about Tiamat or Zues or John Army I'm guessing? Today, an agnostics god is only one which has been removed from any area of human experience so as to fit an argument. But hey, that's just my opinion.

BTW, I do absolutely feel that belief in magic pretty much dooms a person to dunce-hood. It is what it is. Are you gonna be the guy that argues for the tooth fairy and then demands intellectual respect? I hope not.

[diffidus]

What about Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein?

Einstein was not religious. Read my signature for his words on his belief. Einstein used the word 'God' to describe the unknown aspects of the cosmos that the human intellect cannot grasp. These sayings have been highjacked by theists to falsely give the impression that the one of the greatest minds of all time was religious.

And Newton was into alchemy, so in those respects, he was a moron.

Diffidus:

While it is true that Einstein did not believe in a personal God, he certainly believed in a kind of pantheistic God that was synonymous with nature itself. For example, on his death bed the nurse opened the curtains to his room and remarked at the view, "Isn't God's garden beautiful."

Einstein muttered, "God's garden?, does this women not understand, He is the garden!".

Einstein always believed that his studies into Physics were "to look into the mind of God."

There are endless quotes like this which show that, although not orthodox, Einstein certainly had religious leanings.

As for Newton, he may have been wrong about Alchemy, but to refer to him as a moron is, frankly, silly.

PS: Thanks for the Einstein quote though - he seems to make the agnostic case far better than I ever could.

[downbeatplumb]

I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings

Albert Einstein quotes (German born American Physicist who developed the special and general theories of relativity. Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921. 1879-1955

Spinoza asserted that for a concept of god to make any sense at all, it must simply be nature. That is, god cannot be something outside nature that controls it, but must necessarily be part of it. According to Spinoza, God IS nature. While Spinoza was excommunicated from his Jewish community in Amsterdam and condemned by Christians as well for being an atheist

Einstiens 'god' was nature itself not a seperate entity.

[Godnose]

Intellectually, there is not much difference between an Atheist and a Theist. As a species we have only existed for a miniscule amount of time compared to the age of the universe(~14 Billion years according to Scientists). Of this time we have only been studying Science in a rigorous sense for ~ 300 years. It is no exageration to say that, although we have learned a lot in that time, we have much to learn in the future. In fact, it is not just that we do not know everything, but we do not even know how much we don't know.

From this it follows that a claim that God does not exist can only be made on the grounds of probability, based upon current scientific knowledge. But probability is only based upon uncertainty and therefore, any claim that God does not exist must be, in the end, a belief (even if based upon the latest empirical and scientific evidence). From this perspective an Atheist and a Theist both share something in common - belief.

Atheism cannot, therefore, be ascerted based upon certain knowledge. Therefore, it follows that the truly honest position of any member of humanity is Agnostic. It is intellectual cowardice, on the part of Atheists, not to accept the rational conclusions that reason leads to - namely, that no definitive statement can be about the existence/or not of God, due to lack of knowledge.

By the same token there can be no definitive statement about the existence/or not of (see list below*), due to lack of knowledge.

*Asgaard
*Balchantipanari
*Celiam D'wong
*Diana, godess of (what was it now? I think she was the one with loads of breasts)
*Enchiladas on Jupiter
*Goddle Podkins
*Hogworts
*Incy Wincy Spider
*Jam Pam Minote
*Karankatia
*Lysistra
*Man on the Moon (he must be hiding)
*Narnia
*Oceana
*Pericleus
*Quosimodo
*Rupert Bear
*Stan the Man
*The Mott
*Urdan Venicular
*Ved
*Wozzles
*Xystra
*Yeti
*Zaarog Vristavoch

*Please note the above is not an exhaustive list

[Math]

I actually agree with Richard Dawkins on this one. Agnostics are the ones with the intellectual cowardice. I believe agnosticism holds back on scientific progress as much as religion does. Agnostics act as if there is some knowledge that can never be gained and therefore will not even attempt to, and will deny all evidence of it, and will enter into situations already set with the assumption that the answer can't be known. That's hardly a rational or logical approach.
There is already enough to make the existence of a higher being an irrelevant matter, notably the lack of a need of one for the universe to function, but that's not the end of it. We could go on for days about the logical and rational reasoning that disproves their existence.
I think that everything can be learned, given time. And just because we don't know how to know something just yet, doesn't give us the right to arrogantly claim that no one can ever know it. From my experience, atheists tend to be far more open to new ideas and new information than theists or agnostics ever are. From what I've observed, atheists fit their theories around the observed facts and don't make assumptions about what can or can't be known and therefore leave themselves open to more possible explanations for a given set of facts. Agnostics tend to deny many things no matter how strong the evidence that tries to explain something that is currently unexplained. And theists of course tend to twist the facts around the theories instead.

To me, agnosticism is little more than a blind denial of reality, and a last desperate grasp of desire that there'd be some sort of after life and/or higher being to give meaning to the world and and to explain things we don't yet understand. Basically exactly what Richard Dawkins said, they're fence sitters. They say they're being the more rational ones, but then go and make claims that it's impossible to know almost anything. If that were the case we could argue for the existence of any number of mystical creatures. I've always wanted a unicorn.

[KichigaiNeko]

I've always loved Unicorns math!!

Have to agree with you

[reverendjeremiah]

I agree with this topic. Of course atheism is intellectual cowardism. I took up atheism because I am so frightenend of the reality that Christ Jesus is my god and ultimate judge.

I wish I could stop being such a coward and embrace Jesus as my Lord and savior.

[notfussed]

I just got banned from ever posting on a Christian website again haha and it said there was no reason why
Not my fault, they wanted to talk to an agnostic and just sat there slagging agnostics because none showed up, reason one: you had to answer a Jesus question to even register, I had to google the answer haha
reason two: if you post anything you get banned!

So typical haha.
Anyway no, I don't think we're cowards. Intellectually or otherwise.

[Skepsis]

I wish I could stop being such a coward and embrace Jesus as my Lord and savior.

This makes me think: I read Russell's "Why I am not a Christian" and other assorted essays yet again lately, and if anyone is the coward intellectually or otherwise it is the Christian. Running from hell, dodging threats of eternal torture or eternal anything for that matter... this isn't the type of behavior you would expect from someone who really thought they had a grasp on truth.

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I may not be on tomorrow, so to make sure this isn't taken the wrong way... I know you were kidding. Just a safety net type thing.