[terriblecanyons]

Originally Posted by Pookie

And less of the SuchFriends hating people. He's one of the good guys.

no, I know. I just bring up that particular instance a lot cause I think it's funny and appropriate for this thread/conversation.

[knox]

Originally Posted by Pookie

How does a lack of belief in something (atheism) require faith?

simply because you cannot gather evidence about the existence or non-existence of a higher spiritual intelligence. in other words, we don't know shit. we need faith in our beliefs to claim we know something.

[terriblecanyons]

Originally Posted by knox

simply because you cannot gather evidence about the existence or non-existence of a higher spiritual intelligence. in other words, we don't know shit. we need faith in our beliefs to claim we know something.

 

[knox]

yeah i mean i hope that doesn't happen to me. but it has before.

lack of tolerance really gets jesus mad.

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by knox

simply because you cannot gather evidence about the existence or non-existence of a higher spiritual intelligence. in other words, we don't know shit. we need faith in our beliefs to claim we know something.

You're still wrong. You don't need faith to NOT believe in something. Indeed you cannot prove a negative, but lack of proof doesn't mean faith. I don't believe in a god because there is not one shred of evidence that a god exists. But I wouldn't say that there is definitely not a god because you can't prove a negative. Faith doesn't come into it.

[terriblecanyons]

Originally Posted by Pookie

You're still wrong. You don't need faith to NOT believe in something. Indeed you cannot prove a negative, but lack of proof doesn't mean faith. I don't believe in a god because there is not one shred of evidence that a god exists. But I wouldn't say that there is definitely not a god because you can't prove a negative. Faith doesn't come into it.

you must spread some butter on someone else's toast before putting it on pookie's again.

[knox]

Originally Posted by Pookie

You're still wrong. You don't need faith to NOT believe in something. Indeed you cannot prove a negative, but lack of proof doesn't mean faith. I don't believe in a god because there is not one shred of evidence that a god exists. But I wouldn't say that there is definitely not a god because you can't prove a negative. Faith doesn't come into it.

faith in your belief, that´s what I meant.

if you believe you are right despite proof, that is an act of faith rather than an empiric belief based on evidence.

not believing in God in the religion-sense does not necessarily mean you're an atheist by the way.

regardless, none of us have the slighest clue why we're here or what happens when we die. so any explanation we can come up with is mere speculation that requires a certain amount of faith in the speculation itself.

while you say there is no evidence that god exists, a lot of people think there is. we see the evidence or the lack of evidence we want to see. we're still human and highly vulnerable to our own suggestion.

when one starts defending their atheism with such stamina, they resemble a radical religious to me.

truth is, we don't know anything, each one of us can believe whatever we want.

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by knox

faith in your belief.

(Presuming you're talking about atheism): once again atheism is a LACK of belief.

Originally Posted by knox

not believing in God in the religion-sense does not necessarily mean you're an atheist.

Yes it does.

[the ikara cult]

"Atheism" is a purely oppositional position, it just means what it says. Its not a worldview on everything, it says you dont believe in any of the Gods that people have conceived. If you think thats fundamentalist, you dont know how to use words.

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by the ikara cult

"Atheism" is a purely oppositional position, it just means what it says. Its not a worldview on everything, it says you dont believe in any of the Gods that people have conceived. If you think thats fundamentalist, you dont know how to use words.

I think you're right. Knox (as much as I am slowly falling in love with her) is getting her words all cock-squiff.

[knox]

No, I used to think so. I don't really believe in God, or the bible or any religion or that someone resembling a human being created the earth or any of that, and I used to think that made me an atheist but it doesn't.

There is too much in the universe I can't explain for me to consider myself worthy of knowning anything about it. But that's me.

You might think atheism is a lack of belief. but I think it's still a belief attempting to bring us an explanation for our deepest questions. None of us can prove or disprove any belief efficiently.

Like I said, if you start defending atheism with such certainty, to me, it begins to look as close-minded as an extreme religious person.

[the ikara cult]

Originally Posted by Pookie

I think you're right. Knox (as much as I am slowly falling in love with her) is getting her words all cock-squiff.

Knox needs to get knocked. And i think you may be the man for the job Pookie

[wellcharge]

if you define atheism as a lack of belief there's no faith involved, but for example satan said there's obviously no god, which is a belief,

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by knox

You might think atheism is a lack of belief.

That's what it IS. Look in a dictionary and it will say Atheism: a lack of belief.

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by wellcharge

if you define atheism as a lack of belief there's no faith involved, but for example satan said there's obviously no god, which is a belief,

Not IF you define, THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!

[knox]

Originally Posted by the ikara cult

"Atheism" is a purely oppositional position, it just means what it says. Its not a worldview on everything, it says you dont believe in any of the Gods that people have conceived. If you think thats fundamentalist, you dont know how to use words.

You are right. I really am talking about MY definition of the word.
Like I said, lately I started believing that rejecting all explanations provided by religions does not necessarily mean that one does not have spirituality.

I guess what I am trying to say is that personally I find these discussions very strange. I can live with not knowning. I feel it'd be overestimating myself to say there is or there isn't.

And whatever I tend to believe at a certain time, I will avoid voicing it as if I know the truth.

[wellcharge]

Originally Posted by Pookie

That's what it IS. Look in a dictionary and it will say Atheism: a lack of belief.

a⋅the⋅ism
[ey-thee-iz-uh

 

m]–noun 1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God. 2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.

[pbradley]

I think a lot of this problem is that a lot of people, some atheists included, take atheism to mean the same thing denying metaphysics.

This may be projective of me, but I believe that the agnostic position is a refusal to describe metaphysical reality. Thus, theism and atheism is a 'who know' game.

[the ikara cult]

Originally Posted by knox

No, I used to think so. I don't really believe in God, or the bible or any religion or that someone resembling a human being created the earth or any of that, and I used to think that made me an atheist but it doesn't.

There is too much in the universe I can't explain for me to consider myself worthy of knowning anything about it. But that's me.

You might think atheism is a lack of belief. but I think it's still a belief attempting to bring us an explanation for our deepest questions. None of us can prove or disprove any belief efficiently.

Like I said, if you start defending atheism with such certainty, to me, it begins to look as close-minded as an extreme religious person.

Jesus, how dare I have a concise point. Atheism assumes nothing about the big questions of the Universe, it just says that assuming there is a creator behind it all is irrational and premature because theres no evidence to suggest exactly that. Its a lack of belief in one thing and one thing only; Gods as proposed by man.
You may dislike this or disagree with this, but the one thing its not the equivolant of is belief in Gods

[Pookie]

Originally Posted by knox

You are right. I really am talking about MY definition of the word.

You can't have your own definition. It doesn't work like that. Anybody would be saying anything and you would be the only person who knew what you were talking about.