Hotdog
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Do you believe in love?
To Those That Attack Me For My Beliefs
- Thread starter jazzrule
- Start date
Do you believe in love?
Sure, definitions may vary, it is a very ambiguous term.
Hotdog
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Prove that its real.
Define what I'm proving is real. I said definitions may very and it's an ambiguous term for a reason.
Anyone making a positive claim has the burden of proof.
You're perfectly free to believe something without proof or substantiation. That has nothing to do with my point.
The point is that to be an Atheist I do not need to have proof that God doesn't exist. I don't need to make an assertion of any kind. I don't need to have any special knowledge or insight at all. I only need to demand credibility to the claim before giving it meaningful consideration. Lacking that, I'm an atheist.
Me being an Atheist isn't me telling Theists that they are wrong.
And by the way, this is an incredibly well explored concept. This is not my argument. This is a very universal concept.
LogGrad98
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Why and how the universe even exists are very interesting questions with no answer. What came before the big bang? Where did essentially infinite matter come from in the first place? The origins of the universe are perplexing in the extreme to say the least. I don't find it that far-fetched that some being exists outside of all that who might exert some influence in some way. I also do not discount the possibility that God as we know it is simply an extremely advanced alien and we interpreted it wrong, or maybe interpreted it fully as the alien intended. Something else we cannot really explain is consciousness itself. What exactly ends with death? Hell what is life in the first place? Lots of unanswered and unanswerable questions really. I'm with @Stoked on this one. Believe (or don't) and let believe.
Is there a difference between not believing in the existence of black swans and full-on denying they exist?
LogGrad98
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I have no idea what that has to do with asking about the spectrum been militant belief and militant non-belief. I was under the impression that agnosticism was the middle ground or the "I don't know" point along that spectrum. But as with any system of belief it is indeed a spectrum so each person will define their belief differently. I just thought that people who identify as "atheist" tended toward claiming "there is no God" more than "I don't know". So I was trying to clarify.
You get that I'm not telling anyone not to believe, right?
I'm not making any claim. I'm not making any assertion.
I want to reiterate that I may be in a somewhat rare position in that I have never, not for a single second of my life, been religious. I am the child of people who probably would not have described themselves as Atheists, but who certainly had no faith and never introduced the notion of faith to their children.
So I never had a moment when I had to decide that all that I was taught was false. I never had to reject God. I never had to reconcile my belief with my doubts. I never believed in God, not for a second. I never had faith, not for a second.
So for me the claim that comes to me completely from the outside of myself, that a thing called God exists is a bizarre notion. One that begins with zero credibility. One that is not fundamental to my understanding of why we exist, what the meaning of life is, what happens before existence or after it. It is a completely separate notion for me. A completely separate "claim" that I consider on its own merits.
The claim of the existence of God lacks credibility, so I continue to not have a belief in God. I call that Atheism. Others want to tell me that because I can't be sure, that I'm really an agnostic. Which to me means that I have to take a middle position of not being sure either way. I think that definition is one that people are trying to force onto me for their own comfort. I have no belief in God because I have no reason to have belief in God. I call that Atheism.
I'm not telling you what evidence or special knowledge you have on the subject!
If you have some evidence or special knowledge of God's existence... that has nothing to do with me. I don't. If the only way you can share your special knowledge with me is through your testimony, I remain unconvinced and completely unmoved.
No, I feel no burden to prove anything to anyone in regards to my religious beliefs. My point is just because you feel that burden is there doesn’t mean it is.
Good for you being an atheist.