Why do athiests ask for physical proof?

Question

The spiritual, by nature, is not physical. It is therefore illogical to ask for physical proof of the spiritual.

Why then do athiests ask for physical proof?

Also, how is it logical for them to deny even the possibility of the spiritual because of a lack of physical proof?

gwbruce - please explain how this logic is twisted instead of making unsupported claims

RB - and Jesus criticized them for that

btw I'm not a Christian

Answer 1

I am a little bit atheist, but I don't deny the possibility of physical proof. A great argument about this is from Carl Sagan.

I tell you that I have an invisible dragon in my garage that's EXACTLY the same temperature as everything around it; is so quick, flexible and nubile that it dodges anything through at it without knocking anything over; never makes even the slightest sound; and so on... in other words, it can't be detected by any test that you could do.

What would you ask me? How do I know that there is a dragon in my garage? I just know. To an atheist, that's what a believer in the spiritual is asking them to do.

An atheist is therefore somebody who refuses to take somebody else's word for it, and needs to have some sort of proof to believe it. One argument that I like is that a spiritualist is an atheist with proof. Perhaps as a spiritualist you have been given proof, in your heart or your mind by whatever 'spirit' you happen to believe in - I haven't (yet) received it.

Answer 2

Ask, and ye shall learn.

1)It is not unreasonable to ask for evidence - to have an impact these 'spiritual' things must interact with the world (otherwise they would have no effect whatsoever, which is remarkably similar to not existing at all).

2) Most atheists do not deny even the possibilty of the existence of God - those that do generally do so because they think that such a thing as God cannot exist.

Most atheists, myself included, do not reject the possibility that there may be a God, but say there is no evidence for this God.

Absence of evidence does not equal evidence of absence, and in the same way the implicit atheists are completely without faith.

Answer 3

Why do believers say that a spiritual being can affect physical things in this world? They are spiritual. If they can affect material things in this world then they are partially material and therefore can be questioned for physical proof. Once believers stop saying that God can make the wind blow or rain happen, or any of numerous other physical events, then we will stop asking for proof.

Answer 4

Like cryptozoologists such as myself, athiests are on the hunt for physical proof that the Big Kahuna exists. The Big Kahuna to the garden variety atheist is kind of like the elusive Bigfoot. No cryptozoologist would put faith into Bigfoot unless someone somewhere caught even just a glimpse. I respect that. Atheists wouldn't put stock into the Big Kahuna unless someone took a fuzzy photograph or made a low quality recording of the Big Kahuna telling someone what to do. Does this help?

Answer 5

Atheists are materialistic (i.e. the material world is all that exists).

Therefore, since nothing outside of the material world exists, you need to have evidence, in this world, for something to exist at all.

Using this frame of reference and your own statement, anything spiritual does not exist except in the mind of those who claim it exists. Believing in only what you see evidence for is not illogical, it's as logical as you can get. Believing in something for which there is no evidence for is much more illogical.

The reason atheists keep asking for proof is because some people keep saying "it's real, it's real!", so naturally the atheist says.., "I see no evidence for it; prove to me it's real."

Your question stems from your inability, or unwillingness, to see the situation from an atheist point of view. Hopefully this little explanation helps.

Answer 6

science is about phyical proof, being able to test and most importantly understand something. If there was something as huge as a all powerful God then it stands to reason that somewhere somehow there would be phyical evidence of it.

We can measure and study evern things we can't see, and lot of it beyond what we are capiable of understanding. we can see the effects of forces that we can't see but can measure. Why can't we do the same for God

THAT is why athiests are these questions and THAT is what causes new question to come and thus further our understanding of the universe and ourselves

Through questions come theories and through testable theories we shape our understand of the universe even more

Answer 7

I am not an atheist, so I can not answer for them. I guess they have all come to their ideas or their so called wisdom thru personal experience. I am just guessing,I know not their collective thoughts. Just as I have come to Faith thru a personal spiritual experience and a personal relationship with Jesus. Faith can not be argued,

All that I know is that I know, I can not deny that which I know to be true. I cannot give you physical proof of that which has transpired in the Spirit. I can give you physical proof that I walk because of His divine Healing. And I have x-rays and opinions from the medical field who thru science can not explain why I walk. But I walk with Faith and by Grace, and with knowledge of the Spiritual and Divine thru personal experience. This much I know to be true,not wish, nor delusions of the mind, but absolute Truth.

Answer 8

Its understandable that someone , atheist or not would want proof. Its human nature to want proof. And the only thing I would say top people who want proof is "try God for a month" and you'll get all the proof you need. What do you have to lose by trying?

Answer 9

When Galileo looked through a spy glass for the first time, he saw the surface of the moon. He was very, very excited to report this to the Pope then. Essentially, Galileo said to the Pope,
" Look! The moon is made of land. Please, look for yourself." The pope essentially replied, "I do not need to look, because, it does not matter what you, dear Galileo, see to be real. All that matters is what I, the Pope, SAYS is real". They had that conversation in a public newspaper. That tradition is one of the reasons why rational people ask for proof whenever magical-thinking or religious people say that they have the only proof they need, right there in their books written by men just like Galileo's Pope.

Answer 10

I think that people that need to have proof are rather closed minded.
FAITH 1. belief or trust: belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof
Are they faithless?
Actually, I though the movie Dogma explained religion pretty well. I just wish I could remember it better.