Why don’t athei$ts just come clean and admit it?

Question

That they believe in the magical properties of ‘matter?’ According to them, and in defiance of natural law, MATTER of its own accord created:- the universe, living things, order, design, intelligence, information, consciousness, emotions, love, motion, justice, beauty, art, kindness etc. etc. For an event to occur in defiance of natural law, is either a miracle or magic. Atheists rule out the supernatural which would not be subject to natural law, so they rule out miracles performed supernaturally. Therefore they must believe that matter has intrinsic magical properties and the inherent ability to produce all the qualities evident in the material universe of its own volition.

Raoul Duke . . . . . .
Science is an epistemology based on observable empirical data and observations and the physical/natural laws underlying them. Scientists exclude supernatural, mystical, and all extra-worldly explanations – because that it what science is.
So why do they call concepts such as a 'singularity' (a one-off event where the Laws of Science did not apply) scientific? And why do they call the spontaneous generation of life, which defies several Laws of Science, scientific? The definition of science apparently changes to suit the situation. I would say that neither of these hypotheses are scientific, but as science has been hi-jacked by those who wish to present explanations which suit their own philosophical view, it is now they who decide what is scientific and what isn't. So forget the criteria you have just given, science has become simply whatever the evolutionary establishment says it is.

Answer 1

You are right. Show me any atheist who believes all the science against religion, and I will show you an individual who cannot satisfactorily explain what matter and time are, ergo, a Superstitionistic Believer in What Feels Good, of the first order.

Answer 2

Why is it so difficult for you guys to stick with the definition?

First, all atheists do not rule out the supernatural. Atheism is about disbelief in a god, that is the total of it. Atheism has nothing to do with politics or opinions an any social issue? It is not a belief system nor an epistemology. Got it?

Second, you clearly are not familiar with the philosophy of science or the scientific method. Again, this a simple matter of definition.

Science is an epistemology based on observable empirical data and observations and the physical/natural laws underlying them. Scientists exclude supernatural, mystical, and all extra-worldly explanations – because that it what science is.

Science is, and forever will be, such because that is what science is. Creationism and its shadow hiding clones are not science because they do not follow the rules of science. They are something else – they are not science. And, it is dishonest for them to claim they are, or, as you suggest here, that they redefine science so that is it no longer science.

Before you criticize others, you might at least check a dictionary so that you have some clue about what it is you are trying to rag on.

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It would have been more remarkable if life HAD NOT occurred on earth. All the ingredients (coincidentally, the most common elements in the known universe) and the necessary water-rich environment were in place.

The difference between a ‘non-living’ and a ‘living’ molecule is almost invisible. Normal bio-chemical reactions (based on well-known natural processes) transition molecules both forward and backward. There is no ‘big jump’ required. It requires only common everyday bio-chemical reactions that occur as part of the normal (natural) interaction of elements..

There are no scientific laws violated. And, the rules of science do not change. People (mostly creationists and fundamentalist Christians) try to corrupt it all the time for their own purposes. If you find anything that violates the method, then it is not scientific.

Science stops before (just after) the ‘singularity’ I believe you mean. Science does not claim otherwise. The physics of the known universe only apply back to the immediate post-Big Bang.

It is not scientists who are definition-challenged, it is agenda motivated believers who make this stuff up and then falsely blame it on scientists so they can pretend that they have something intelligent to say on the topic.

Finally, it is science that identifies and defines evolution - it is not the other way around. Evolution drives biology and every life science because without it they do not exist. However, evolution is a scientific theory - in fact, it is the most powerful general explanatory theory in all of science. It is the biological equivalent of the unified theory for which physicists search.

Answer 3

Well, that's an interesting viewpoint, but you're forgetting one thing. Athiests generally don't believe in anything, magic or otherwise. You're also forgetting that although an almost impossible longshot it is scientifically possible for the right particles of matter to come together in just the right way to create certain objects (ie the building blocks of the universe and life), and that once these particles start bonding a chain reaction is created resulting in... well according to science, the Universe and all its occupants.
I must admit I'm a little baffled why people post questions for athiests in a religious/spirituality section...

Answer 4

All I know about matter and natural choice and the Big Bang, is that if that is all true, and everything was just randomly created, my arm would be my leg, and my ear my mouth, my eye my stomach and so on. And to those that believe in religion and a high being, it is hard to understand how the higher being created itself. But that's the thing. Both theories take faith. One in science, one in religion. As far as I know, we haven't re-created the conditions that created the universe in a laboratory yet, but I may be wrong. But that's just my opinion.

Answer 5

You are describing the Zealots viewpoint, the Athiest accepts that mankind doesn't have all the answers when faced with the supernatural. Thats why they can laugh.

Answer 6

We admit that we do not know everything. If you looked, you could understand cosmology and human evolution and answer most of your own questions. However, I do not know where the original matter and energy that became the universe came from. You pretend to know, but in truth neither of us were there. I will tell you how it is possible for the singularity to have created itself if you tell me how it is possible for God to have created himself. Do you know everything? Because, if you believe you do, odds are you are just dumber than a bag of hammers.

Answer 7

they don't believe that anything does happen against natural law, and in that case they don't have to believe that matter has "intristic magical properties"

...btw no i'm not an atheist if anyone happens to wonder i was born into the roman catholic faith, and i basically believe in the christian view of god so yea, i'm just trying to explain that, they don't have to believe in miracles or anything that happens against natural law or else, well... they probably would be agnostic or something else

Answer 8

Who then created bad things? Such as peadophiles, murderers, war, conflict, bad parents, drug dealers, cancer, mercedes drivers, lawyers, tornado's, tsunami's, flooding, earthquakes, debt collector's and the tax man (to name a few)

I suppose it was man...

This supernatural that you speak of, what in this life, or any other life has happened that no one has had a logical or scientifical explanation for?

I suppose God is one... no one can explain who God is, how he was created... therefore he just is...

Because no one can prove that he DOES exist, thats where religion lies. They refuse to understand that there are so many ways to prove God does NOT exist, but they are ignorant to this, just as religious people believe athiests to be ignorant to religion and the possibility that God could exist.

My opinion: God exists in the minds of the individuals... thats ok with me. He doesnt exist in mine. And im happy with that, and my happiness is more important to me than so-called God's.

Answer 9

Information and energy seem to be opposite sides of the coin called "matter". Everything else follows from there, without a personality needed to direct any of it.

Answer 10

I imagine you're foaming at the mouth a little as you spew this nonsense. Are you, a little? That would be neat.

And I can also imagine you think of and describe these things as 'magic'. Because to the primitive, everything he doesn't understand it either magic or the gods.