Do Atheists and people who believe in a Supreme Being have more in common than they think?

Question

Both claim to have knowledge of something that is impossible to know for sure. Maybe there is a God and maybe there's not. How do you know for sure?

Both groups are equally idiotic.

Answer 1

So not believing in unicorns, dragons, goblins, tooth fairies and the easter bunny is as idiotic as believing in them?

Huh.

Answer 2

I agree with your point. There is no scientific evidence proving there is a God. There is no scientific evidence proving there is not a God. There is much that science does not understand. Both of us, when you get down to it, are stepping out in faith. The only ones that are assured that they're belief is 100% accurate are the agnostics. They are wise enough to say that they just don't know. Having said that, that does not mean that theists have not had a personal experience with God or that which they believe to be God, it is just not an experience that can be scientifically proven. That is why it is called faith.

Answer 3

Not likely. It is impossible to know for sure that gravity exists and to know for sure how it operates, but we still try and have a reasonably good idea. On the other hand, it is impossible to know for sure that Santa doesn't exist, but many people accept that assumption - and don't even question whether it's correct.

Then there is your assumption that knowing is impossible, I'd say that is quite an assertion without any rational or supporting reasons.

Answer 4

We're all idiots in a sense. Key word is "belief", which means to have the conviction of something that cannot be proven, or has yet to be proven.

It's like flipping a quarter. You're calling the guy who called heads an idiot because he couldn't have possibly know which side it would have landed on.

Answer 5

You don't know what the defintion of atheist is

Atheism is simply not believing in gods.

Atheists don't need to claim anything. Not believing is simply the default position.

You either believe or you don't hence you are either a theist or an atheist. So according to you everyone is idiotic. So you just called yourself idiotic.

Answer 6

And yet, both groups have something in common with all humans; the need to have a set of assumptions about how the world works in order to make day-to-day decisions.

Answer 7

No, both groups are NOT "equally idiotic."

Take any of the standard analogies. Is there a teapot orbiting Pluto? We can't know for sure, one way or the other, in our current state of knowledge. That doesn't mean that it's just as likely there as not.

Is there a Flying Spaghetti Monster? There's just as much evidence - viz. none at all - for the FSM as for any of the traditional "Gods."

Theism is belief in a concept for which we have no proof, while atheism is disbelief in that concept. Pretend that it's any concept other than that of "God," and you immediately see how absurd it is to insist they're on a par.

Answer 8

actually i don't claim to have "knowledge" about the existance of gods. I claim that i fyou don't have any evidence that any god exists then it's reasonable to assume that none do

it's impossible to know for sure if there are invisible blue fairies living at the bottom of my garden

do you think it's idiotic to be sure there aren't?

Answer 9

Atheists do not claim anything, quite the opposite in fact, I suggest you do some research or at least look up the definition of an Atheist.

Answer 10

I agree. The one thing that I find very funny is that most the atheists on here claim the problem they have with Christianity is that they try to convert everyone....but then every other topic on here is an atheist trying to prove or convince Christians that God does not exist. Does anyone see the irony?

My take on the most the atheist here is that they are here for justifying their beliefs. There is no other reason you would come to a religion discussion unless you want so much for people to tell you that you may be right. Personally, I think if I was atheist, all these questions would be a complete waste of time for me. There are other sections on things I completely don't care about, like the Pets section...I don't own a pet...particularly I don't like cats...but why would I waste my time answering cat questions with negative comments???? Yeah, I don't know either.

Answer 11

Which are you?

Atheists tend to think that if something cannot be observed then it probably isn't true (don't post lame you can't see air comments please). As a default hypothesis this does contain reasonable validity.

Nobody knows anything for sure - we just have to go with reasonable working hypotheses. We have to be this pragmatic or it would be pointless to get out of bed in the morning.