Atheists don't go around blindly. There is no evidence of a God existing -- the world revolves as if there isn't one. I don't see how being atheist is cool or controversial or why someone would become atheist based off that, isn't that kind of.. stupid? I wouldn't become a Christian just because "everybody else is doing it." I don't believe in God. That's it.
You're implying every atheist necessarily blindly believes in atheism.
Tooth Fairy deniers can't prove that there is no Tooth Fairy. Can you prove that the Tooth Fairy doesn't exist? Would you be persuaded with that argument to think that the Tooth Fairy can exist?
You're dumbing down the issue at hand incredibly using this argument. The tooth fairy has nowhere near the same gravity as would a God if it were to exist. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, the Boogeyman are all children's tales.
But keeping an open mind would mean you also are open to the idea that such a higher force doesn't exist. And I think it's quite the opposite in most homes; the close-minded household that one typically thinks of in the United States is one which dictates to its children that there is a God and there is no questioning that. It doesn't really strike me as something that happens in the reverse anywhere near as often (There is no God and you won't question that, Billy!)
Yes, and I've been an atheist. I've once believed that there is no God, based on all the arguments you atheists love to use. But I gradually changed my mind, just like I'm sure you did because you weren't an atheist from birth, and became Agnostic. That's what I would consider myself to be now. And, well (a) I'm not American, and (b) how do you know? With atheism rising so much these days, maybe we don't have families who are like that but we may very well see some that are. Atheism is a belief, just as religion is. If you're truly an atheist who revokes anyone else's beliefs (just like you are doing me), you would probably tell your son to not believe in a God. Atheists can be closed-minded too, you have to realize that. Just because you go against the norm doesn't mean you're immediately a Liberal.
Actually I think it's strange to think, based on that information, that one would think that there IS a God. What about our size in comparison to the universe should imply anything about the existence of God?
Use your imagination, buddy. Science can only tell you what we have access to now. We haven't been able to fly past the moon. This may be a bad argument because I'm implying ants and other bugs have a consciousness, but if they did, do you really think they could imagine who we are to them? Or even smaller than that, bacteria? We would be Gods to them. We would be the higher beings that are changing their habitats. When I was a kid, I would always plug ant-holes for fun. If they were conscious enough to contemplate that something
did that, then don't you think they would come up with the same type of rationalization? There must be some sort of higher power.
Your argument is perplexing, given that you believe in a God and make this point. This is the sort of remark that most atheists would make to those who believe in God who feel that there's some afterlife they're going to--and one that strictly humans are going to, as most Christians don't believe animals have souls.
Rather, it is the argument of an atheist to say that it is the religious person who is self-centered and self-important to feel that they are entitled to an afterlife, or that there is a higher intelligence that created the universe (and man) in His own image.
You seem to think I'm of a religion. I'm not, I just believe what I do. I'm an agnostic.
Why would it be more surprising that there wasn't a higher power in the universe? Wouldn't it be the opposite, that the fact that we exist on this planet implies that life can exist elsewhere, but our lack of an ability to demonstrate that "He" exists makes His existence less plausible?
Simply because of the vastness of the Universe. I'm accepting beings and existences that can live without our natural restrictions. We live off of Carbon, Hydrogen and Oxygen mostly, some Nitrogen. Who says that our periodic elements are all that exist in the world? That's what exists on Earth sure, but prove to me that there is not more in the Universe. You don't know the composites of a greater being, neither do I. How can you deny a deity? I can't.
Okay, although why exactly you arbitrarily decide to believe in God is a mystery.
Where did God come from? Was he always here, or did He arise out of nothing? As Carl Sagan said, why not save a step and say the Universe was always here, or came from nothing?
What exactly is reassuring about the existence of a higher power, anyway?
I find it juvenile you ask me those questions knowing full well I can't answer them.
Dunno, what's more reassuring about believing in no God?
But if there is some higher power as you believe, would you not think He had some power or control over your life? Why would He not have the power to do so?
If He can't intervene in human affairs or establish in any way that He exists, then why presume that He exists at all? And of what need that He exists is there, again?
Oh, sir, you have all the right questions don't you. As I said, it's a tough one. But you gotta take the good with the bad. If there is a higher power, you can't deny that your life is really for nothing. That you have no control over it. I may believe in some sort of higher power, doesn't mean I'm content with the possibility 100%. Not everything is black and white.
I think this explains the reason for the similarities in arguments to those of secularists. It sounds like the mentality of an anti-conformist who doesn't want to be "just one of those atheists." It sounds to me like you more have a problem with populism than you do with not believing in a God. And if that's the case, then you should know that there are way more people believing in a God in the world than there are atheists. So if you have problems with looking like a conformist, you're in with the "wrong" crowd.
haha, I can see how that sounded that way. It was honestly just a remark I was making, something that I was noticing. I don't not believe in atheism just because I don't want to follow a trend. Of that, I assure you.
Saying that Atheists can't prove there is no God is quite possibly the dumbest excuse to use. Religion can't prove there is one. No one can prove anything regarding the existence of God, so that argument has no basis.
Not really. It's still true, no matter how "dumb" of an excuse it may be. And don't you think that, if you're a true believer in a religion, that the belief in the religion proves the God within itself? It may not be true for everyone, but, as you can plainly see from this thread, religion is a very personal thing. It does not matter of what belief you're from, if the next guy truly believes in something, that's all the proof he needs.
