Part II: Is athesism just naive?

Question

It seems to me to believe in no higher power is a bit arrogant considering no one has a viable explanation for the orginis of the universe. Even an agnostic understands they can neither prove or disprove God, therefore they acknowledge the possibility while being open to other possibilities. So, wouldn't this make an atheist as close minded as they claim Christians are?

Eleventy and Alan: I appreciate your answers, thanks.

Nijg: Great point.

J.P.: You don't understand logic at all. Since you claim you can "disprove" God (we all know you can't prove a negative) be my guest. I can't wait to see what psuedointellectual nonsense you come up with. In the end, you won't have any proof either way.

disgruntled penguin: maybe not, but you have to admit you can't provide contrary evidence, or contrary explanations that are more valid. A logical person admits the possibility.

Anti-Christ: while I will submit to you, proof of that kind may never present itself (you have to seek to find, and you will find if you do), I can't argue with your answer.

simon T: We know the tooth fairy was a derision most parents let their children believe. Since it can be proven that your parents placed money under your pillow. That's the difference.

madonelle: I love it when people cry "contradiction" and can't come up with any. Don't make a claim you can't back up, my email is available, I'd be happy to "discuss" any "contradiction" with you. Or, you could just admit you know very little about Christianity and leave it at that.

Jen: Do you believe in the dark? How about cold? Did you know cold is the absencse of heat, and darkness is the absence of light? Why is my belief any less valid, because I profess it to be true? You can't contradict that, so who is being arrogant?

arkansaszipper: Nice sentiment, but it just demonstrates you would rather snipe at me than offer any rebuttle or heaven forbid, discussion. It's an old debate trick... tear down your advesary in the hopes that you can make someone appear ignorant, when after all is said and done, you can't come up with a solid argument. That works for you in junior high, I'm sure... but some people are a little smarter here. Go away and let the adults talk now, isn't it your nap time?

deejay: (see above) is that really the best you have? You wasted time responding with that?

Answer 1

There are closed minded atheists and there are open minded atheists. I like to think of myself as a reasonable minded skeptic. I would be happy to accept th existence of a god or the validity of a religion if only someone would offer my a reasonable explanation.

Answer 2

So, the answer to your question is no.

Now, are atheists arrogant?

Maybe. Some are, some are not.

However, lets take what you wrote and change it slightly

"Even an agnostic understands they can neither prove or disprove the tooth fairy, therefore they acknowledge the possibility while being open to other possibilities. So, wouldn't this make an atheist as close minded as they claim people who believe in the tooth fairy are?"

Would you still argue for this?

As for no viable explanation . . . What is it that makes God more viable then M-theory?

Answer 3

I'm a firm believer in making a stand for something. There's nothing wrong with being agnostic, as long as you can stand going back and forth between this idea and that idea. I would imagine it's something like peer pressure. So I just choose to not believe in god, an entity that has never been proven. It seems the most logical to me.

Answer 4

My position is that while no one can prove a negative, it is generally possible to prove when something is present. So, if God is there, it should be possible to prove that there is a God, and I'm open to looking at any evidence that might suggest there is a God.

In the absence of any evidence, it doesn't make sense to me to say that there could be a God, any more than it makes sense to me to say that other supernatural phenomena might be true in the absence of any evidence.

Answer 5

How should I put this? World-wide, there are millions of people who do not believe a single deity (male or not) could have created anything on it's own. Atheists have been given absolutely no reason to believe any one religion has accurately described any deity so far. On the other hand, the Christian version of God contradicts itself and is not reasonable.

Answer 6

No. I reached my conclusion through logical thought and observation.

It is possible to prove the nonexistence of a thing, if the assumption of its existence necessarily leads to a logical contradiction.

The deities described by theistic ideologies are among the class of things that can be proven to not exist via this method.

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One of the defining traits of all religions for their deities is that, through one or the accumulation, there is a source of Omnipotence and Benevolence.

If the deity is willing to stop evil (and thus benevolent), but not able, then it is not omnipotent. A contradiction.

If a deity is unwilling to stop evil (and thus malevolent), but able, then it is not benevolent. A contradiction.

If a deity is neither willing to stop evil, nor able, then it is neither omnipotent nor benevolent. A contradiction.

If a deity is willing to stop evil (benevolence), and able to stop evil (omnipotence)... ... where comes evil?


Of course, the literal impossibility of free will in the universe in which we find ourselves also flatly disproves theism as well. True, deism remains a possibility, but occam's razor is principle enough to discard it... deism assumes an unnecessary a priori agent.

As far as the proof of the impossibility of free will, the quality of your questions intellectual value will need to significantly increase before I spend the time providing it. Or better yet, browse my answers, I've answered that multiple times within the past week.

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Here, I looked it up for you.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Arcbh6TXgfqdjD7gMTXTUJnty6IX?qid=20070620074908AAXRLWs&show=7#profile-info-R29Vwrwfaa

Answer 7

There are many things in the universe that haven't been explained and I'm open to the possibility of there being A god but when you read the fairy tales books of man made religions we realize that none of them is correct.

Answer 8

Some of them yes. Some of them no. People tend to be arrogant in their beliefs either way. MOST atheist could care less what other people believe. Trust me, it bothers the Christians far more then it does the atheist.

Answer 9

No.

You don't have to know how something happened just to know that one proposed way is not the answer.

Do you know how the pancake was invented? Probably not. But if I told you it was invented by flying trapeze artists from the Moon in an attempt to increase their market share in intergalactic circus food concession sales, would you be naive to judge my explanation as rediculous?

EDIT:

No, I don't have to admit I can't provide contrary evidence.

If God exists, prayer would be effective, Jesus would return, etc etc. These things are not true, do not happen, etc etc.

So much for that.

Answer 10

This guy has not one original thought in his whole body. He seems to have picked up a few big kid words in his day, and he's trying to pass himself of as a learned individual. What a douche bag.

Ha ha ha ha ha, you can't match wits with me! Haven't you figured that out by now!