ATHEISTS: In addition to God, do you disbelieve in everything else you can't explain?

Answer 1

I don't understand a great deal. I don't understand quantum theory. I don't understand how jet engines work. I don't understand space/time as well as I'd like.

I believe in those things because the evidence that I do understand points to them being true. I am open to having my mind changed about them. Ditto: god.

Answer 2

There are already a goodly amount of valid answers to your question. I would like to add an answer with which you can find some common ground.
All you have to do is imagine a list that contains, alphabetically, all the things people have, at one time or another, "believed." You can start with "Astrology" or "Astarte" and end it with "Zeus" or "Zoroaster." The upper half of that list would contain, among other things, your god, somewhere below Gandolf. What they have in common is that, as you say, they have no explanation.

I'm sure there are a bunch of these things that you yourself "disbelieve." I'm equally sure you'd find it absurd for anyone to argue with you about the merits of taking any of these seriously. At the same time, you insist that there is some reason why we should take your god more seriously than other gods or supernatural propositions on the list. But aside from how important this entity is to you and others, you do not offer any criteria for this demand - at least no criteria that couldn't just as well be applied to Zeus, or Joob-joob by their respective followers.

My point? YOU are a great disbeliever. All you have to do is show a little generosity and you'll see that the difference between us is that I exempt no one on the list - while you only exempt one and "disbelieve" the rest. But neither of us will accept the premise that we have to worry about Astarte, or Hermes, or the Tooth Fairy.

Answer 3

That is a silly, baseless question, the only purpose of which is to mock athiests, promote your own beliefs, and make you yourself feel better about believing in a God for whom there is no empirical, scientific proof (or even evidence) ... proof based on observable, repeatable, physical phenomenon rather than emotion, blind faith, and religious teaching. You don't really want an answer, you want an argument, right? Will you believe or accept an answer that disagrees with your belief in God?

Faith in God is a good thing, when not taken to extremes (medieval Crusades, Muslim terrorism, fundamentalist militancy, etc.). It can make one do great, magnanimous things for humanity, even those who wouldn't do so without the threat of punishment or promise of reward, just because it's the right thing to do. Talking about your faith is good too, even to athiests and other non-believers, provided they choose to discuss it. Forcing your faith upon others, as the religious right movement is trying to do in the United States Government is not a good thing.

Having said all that, of course we all believe in things we can't explain - electronics, plant growth, solar energy, to name a few. As some have pointed out here, though, when you can't understand something, like most people of the middle ages didn't understand the solar system, it is better to say "I don't understand how..." rather than to just say "God makes it that way."

The first answer leads to learning and knowledge, the second only to ignorance. That is why today all educated people know that the Earth revolves around the sun and that bacteria, not God or Satan, caused the plague. That is why today any reputable scientist believes in evolution rather than miraculous, instantanious creation or a 6,000 year old Earth.

If no one had challenged the Church, or doubted God's total control of the universe, we would still be in the dark ages. It is a shame and even dangerous that so many fundamentalist Christians still feel the need to squelch science in favor of their own dogmas, and to force those dogmas upon us all.

Answer 4

Of course not. Something you can't explain right now, doesn't mean that you won't in the end.

E.g. How the earth orbits the sun - gravity

The Big Bang is the current best theory as to where we all came from, and new ideas and developments are happening all the time.

When we feel like we've got the right answer, we'll test it and test it until we are sure we've got it correct. If it's wrong, or some evidence suggests otherwise later on, we'll re-evaluate.

Either way, we do not just blindly accept that "God did it." There are far more credible and probable explanations to everything (e.g. evolution)

Get the chip off your shoulder, and just wait and see who's right. You'll realise the error of your ways in the end...idiot.

Answer 5

I disbelieve in things that have no proof. There are plenty of things that I may not be able to explain, or even understand but I still believe in them. I can't explain nuclear physics, but I know that it's real.

Answer 6

Bigfoot, Lock Ness Monster, Santa Clause, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and Crop Circles are all fake too yes.

Answer 7

There are many things I don't understand or I don't understand well. I don't under quantum physics, but I "believe" in it, I don't advanced mathematice, but I "believe" in it, since it's not a question of belief or disbelief, it's a question of evidence. There is evidence that quantum physice and advanced maths are valid, but there is absolute no evidence for the existence of god or an intelligent designer. My knowledge of the validity of quantum theory and advanced maths and other things I don't know or understand is not based on sheer, unfounded faith, but on evidence.

Answer 8

I believe in things that can be proven, and I don't believe in things that require faith. I am also content to admit when I don't know something, and change my views when new evidence is presented that challenge them.

So, for example, I don't believe in psychics, the loch ness monster, sasquatch, etc. If someone was proven psychic through scientific, repeatable testing, hauled up the body of the loch ness monster, or captured a sasquatch, then I would believe in those things.

Answer 9

No. I believe in ghosts for example. But I've had enough experiences with them to know they exist and science even has some evidence of their existance even though its currently considered pseudo-science.

Atheists simply consider them things that science has yet to explain fully. But there is evidence.

Unlike there being no evidence whatsoever for your god but a bunch of fairy stories in a 2000 year old book written by sheepherders when we still believed the earth was flat.

Answer 10

Surprisingly, no. I'm very open to the possibility of ghosts, Nessie, Bigfoot, aliens and the like. I just have a problem accepting the Christian God and Allah. I'd even be open to the idea that deities exist, but I can't accept creation at all. And I refuse to worship any sort of deity, if ever I should come to accept the existence of one.