How can atheists know what they don't know?

Question

hmm....this is a good one!

Answer 1

Wow, that is a good Question!
Really don't know how to Answer that'n.
Give ya an "A" for confusion!
Ditto..........

Answer 2

Most atheists don't claim there is no god, only that they hold no belief in one.

There is an actual difference in those two positions.

Now a lot of intelligent people will look at the evidence for somethings existence before deciding that they accept it exists.

Answer 3

Thats not a good one. Thats feeble at best.

You forget that the vast majority of us were once ignorant and thought we knew all the answers - just like yourself. Most of us were raised under one religion or another.

Geez, I really hate bursting you guys' bubbles....

Answer 4

Because they have No FAITH if you have no Faith you have nothing. Athiests Have nothing to believe in. Belief and Faith are not the same thing I can believe in something but not have Faith in it. But you can have Faith and believe in something. Make sense? It does to me.

# religion: a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"
# complete confidence in a person or plan etc; "he cherished the faith of a good woman"; "the doctor-patient relationship is based on trust"
# religion: an institution to express belief in a divine power; "he was raised in the Baptist religion"; "a member of his own faith contradicted him"
# loyalty or allegiance to a cause or a person; "keep the faith"; "they broke faith with their investors"

Answer 5

How does anyone know what they don't know? I know, for example, that I know very little about pro wrestling, or Swahili, or martial arts, or Zoroastrianism, or Englebert Humperdinck. It is clearly possible to have knowledge about the lack of knowledge.

Answer 6

Because they don't know what they know. ;-)

But this is not just atheists. It's many people, in my opinion, from all walks of life! Most people think they know what they don't know, but the truth is usually that they don't tend to understand what they truly do know; which is nothing.

If you can grasp what I have written, you are begining to understand Truth.

Hence why the the scripture says...
"if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know"

Answer 7

That is a most interesting question. The big secret Atheists never want to discuss is that to say "There is no god" is as much a statement of faith as to say "There is a god". Neither statement can be proven so by definition both are statements of faith.

Answer 8

We freely admit what we *don't* know. And quite often, somewhere in the world there is a scientist (often hundreds of them) working on finding answers to what we don't know.

What's the difference between atheists and religionists? When we don't know something, we say, "we don't know." When religionists don't know something, they say, "God did it."
THAT is the difference. :)

Peace.

Answer 9

Glad you're so pleased with yourself.

Greg, how do you KNOW that your house won't turn to jello tomorrow? How can you be sure that fairies don't live in your oven? I mean, you can be pretty sure about these things - but you can't KNOW! Gosh, that's so brilliant, isn't it?

Answer 10

No one can. Not knowing is only evidence of not knowing. At least we don't make up the answer.

Answer 11

No one knows what they don't know... but at least atheists don't make it up as they go along.