Can you be an intellectually honest atheist?

Question

Can a person really truly be an atheist? Considering you cannot really prove a negative, can you prove that God doesn't exhist. If humans are limited in intellect and knowledge and are not omniscient, can they prove God does not exhist, and if they cannot, how can they prove God does not exhist? I don't believe you can be a practical atheist.

Answer 1

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.

However, it is the logical (or I should say illogical) fallacy "argument from ignorance" that because there is no evidence that God exists, that is evidence that God does not exist.

It is also logical fallacy of "negative proof," that God must exist because there is no proof that God does not exist. Why do you think God exists. Why do you think God doesn't exist?

"The burden of proof should be on the proposed idea, not the challenger of the idea." The challenger must only raise an issue of doubt, whereas the proposer must carry the burden of persuasion.

What can be more "honest," "practical," "intelligent," than LOGIC?

Another point, it is beliefs we are talking about, which are devloped best from the weight of the evidence in a world that seldom presents absolute proof. Provocative question! Thanks for keeping me up all night with this non-sense!

Answer 2

Many people limit their beliefs to things that can be proven. It's a very popular concept. Try to get away without it in a court of law. The only so-called proof that God exists is because someone said so, nothing else. The religions have had thousands of years to prove the existence of or prove that there is a man living in a cloud and they always come up empty handed. When you learn that priests had been molesting children for a hundred years and God never came down and intervened, When you see a Tsunami kill 300,000 people many who prayed 5 times a day and God refused to show up. When you go through 9/11 where the hijackers said, "We're doing this for God", and God never showed up to say, "Oh no you're not". In the bible He came down all the time. What seems to be the problem why God can't can't show up now when it 's so important? Atheists say. "Non Existence" and the religions say. "We don't want to talk about it". When you learn that over 100 million people have been killed for God and it never stops because it's covered up instead of protesting. Get an idea of what I'm talking about? Mankind continues to make new discoveries and many indicate that God did not create man but ancient man who created God. Non stop religion bloodshed causes a lot of atheism. If there really is a man living in a cloud why wouldn't he come down like He used to do in the Bible and say. "That's enough".?

Answer 3

I am not agnostic because agnostic seems to imply that you give God a 50/50 chance. I'd say it's more like 90/10 in favor of no God. Atheists do not believe in any of the Gods that world religions have. They admit that there is a possibility for something to be out there, but that the chances are slim. Einstein and Hawking both shared this view. They didn't believe in a "personal God", that is, the God of any of the world religions. A God who doesn't interfere with the Universe and who simply set everything into motion is possible. A God who intervenes in the lives of his followers and who inspired men to write a book isn't.

There's another reason why I call myself an Atheist instead of agnostic. I don't believe in Santa Claus, but there is no way to prove that Santa Claus doesn't exist. There is simply no evidence for Santa Claus. I don't say that I'm agnostic concerning Santa. This goes for unicorns, goblins, ghosts, and nearly everything that can't be disproved, but for which there is no evidence.

Answer 4

The only time I am completely honest is when I say, "I don't know."

The rest of the time I am just making up stuff to sound smart and failing miserably at it.

But I really love it when people prove me wrong or question me. Because then I get to find alternative solutions and improve myself.

That is why I seek out people with different points of view. And that is why I consider them respectable.

Black Parade Billie, I don't care so much for the invisible space monkeys just so long as some one decides to find reason for the weather patterns and not call them "abnormal' and try to correct them, so that they can feel happy that they corrected the "natural' to be "normal".

I try to find the causes for the natural phenomena, not correct them by making them "normal".

If we proclaimed everything that we don't understand as "abnormal", we'll never know why that happened in the first place.

If you don't understand why people dream, imagine, believe in God, the best way to find out why that happens is to first realize that it is "natural" and needs to be studied. And that means you shouldn't "outlaw" it as "abnormal". Yes, about 90% people do that stuff and no other species besides the homo sapiens does all this so elaborately. I think it is this that makes us different from the monkeys and this shows we are better evolved than them.

If you don't like all this discussion, go watch some television. But I warn you the television was "imagined" by some one too and so are the "creative" (relatively) programs in it. Some one imagined "fashion" too. All scientific hypotheses (before they are proved) actively use "imagination".

And basically if we call "imagination" as "abnormal", we are just proving that we were better off as apes (or homo erectus; corrected for the anal-retentive).

Maybe I am wrong, or worse, crazy.

Answer 5

You can not disprove or prove god unfortunately. Only the dead can - and dead men tell no tales.

It's just a point of view - some believe the world began with the snap of the finger, others believe over billions of years of evolution, and there are few who have the belief of both.

Maybe god created this random universe to watch it evolve into what it is today? There is always the questioning of what was before everything - well, what was before God? Trippy eh?

You don't have to be religious to be a good person of which is defined with common courtesy and respect towards your fellow man.

Answer 6

i don't have faith so. regardless of the undeniable fact that, God is obviously an emblem that denotes looking love interior of, thereby performing with love as a context; that's the only absolute. in case you do not have faith interior the thought of countless love which may well be got here upon on the middle of all individual's being, then I ask you what's your tenet? How do you cope with others in a honest way? no be counted if that's an intellectually generated concept then I shield that that's a localized, culturally oriented concept; that would or is probably no longer in basic terms right. The Christians many times have a slender view that ultimately isn't represented interior the bible which speaks of love. the backside concept, in case you will, is to love thy brother. this would in basic terms be available by using connecting with the thought of unconditional (unattached) love. It exists interior of all individuals.

Answer 7

I can prove that the Christian and Muslim gods or anything like them don't exist. I don't have a general proof for the nonexistence of all possible gods because a god could choose not to interact or to interact but conceal his/her/its actions. Even a god who created the universe and hasn't done much since is difficult to disprove. However, the simplest explanation is that there is no god. Gods that can't be disproven and don't do much seem rather contrived. Therefore, I am an atheist or at least an agnostic leaning towards atheism.

Answer 8

I agree that proving a negative is a fools game...

Atheism... the word would not be needed if there were no Theists, those who beleive in God, they chose the word to describe those who do not, being honest one can only say that the complete lack of any and all emprical data to suggest the existence of anything even remotely Godlike, will just have to suffice..

Answer 9

If we can't truly be atheist, then it follows you can't truly be a believer, as no one can prove the god's existence or nonexistence.
Here's a novel concept for all you Christians: Live and let live.

Answer 10

Atheism means to believe that god does not exist; it does not require proof (in fact, neither the existence nor non-existence of god can be proven), but is simply based on the evidence (there isn't any), and on the fact that belief in god is useless. And that CAN be proved. (For details, write via avatar.)