If Atheism is the opposite extreme of religion and if extremes are unreasonable/ irrational, is Atheism to be.

Question

considered rational or reasonable?

This was gleaned from my previous question about Atheism....

Answer 1

the opposite of an extreme is another extreme... if I try to interpret your question...

However, there is nothing rational and reasonable about thinking that life can originate from a random mix of gases on earth - or that the "material" which exploded in the Big Bang was just "there" somehow......

I am sorry, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist!

edit: from your profile I see you were going to leave. what happened to that wise decision?

Answer 2

Extremes are not at all unreasonable and irrational because they are extremes.

What is unreasonable and irrational is believing in things for which there is no good evidence or which is not the null hypothesis (when there is no good evidence against it).

Therefore atheism is quite reasonable and rational despite being an extreme position (and one really should question whether the null hypothesis is really so extreme, no one really considers non-belief in Unicorns to be extreme and even the most 'extreme' of the 'new' atheists tend to be pretty damn moderate).

Answer 3

~~~ Arg ,,,, Firstly you've made a Faulty Assumption that because these two terms are opposites that they are thus "extremes" and then you make The Leap that "extremes are unreasonable/irrational". You have not taken into consideration that within these respective Umbrella Terms that there exists Ideologies of Many Colors which run the Spectrum under these two banners of theism/atheism. Most Respectfully,,,Your sense of Deductive Reasoning needs some Critical Re-evaluation. As a well educated atheist I contend that both should be considered as "rational and reasonable", however upon Honest Scrutiny one quickly finds that one is far Moreso than the other when one confronts the Article of Faith. ~ Namaste`

Answer 4

I suppose people will always be people. There are radical intolerant Theist who I'm sure must make moderate Theists wince. When it comes to atheism .If we're talking about the strict definition of atheism that is simply the lack of belief in Gods then you could possibly get away with saying nobody has killed in the name atheism, but lets be honest here, the world doesn't work that way. There has been wars and schisms over atheistic religions and there has been brutal atheistic anti theist regimes. The good news is that most people (at least in the west) are tolerant of others views.

Answer 5

While Godless hit the nail on the head with their answer when it comes to atheism (not)being the opposite extreme of religion. I have to respectfully disagree with them and the others that state atheism is very rational and reasonable.

While that may be the case most of the time, unfortunately if people were to use the atheist's posting on yahoo as an example it would definitely not be the case.

While both religious people and atheist's are probably rational and reasonable to almost the same degree we see the extremes on here. We have the hellfire and brimstone "everyone that doesn't believe as I do is condemned" Christians, and we have the "if you have any faith whatsoever you are nothing but a brainwashed idiot that is beneath contempt" evangelical atheist's.

The trick (as in real life) is to take what people say with a grain of salt.

Answer 6

Why would atheism be the opposite extreme of an unproven claim? If you do not believe in Santa are you the opposite extreme of Santa? Are those that accept that the earth is a sphere the opposite extreme of flat earth believers?

To not believe a non-proven claim is not irrational or unreasonable.

Answer 7

I don`t agree that atheism is an extreme. By definition extremists ideologies are beliefs that are held by few and they go against the status quo. Key word is belief. Atheism is the "lack" of belief. A lack of belief can never be an extremists belief. Catch my drift

I wouldn`t call religious beliefs unreasonable because they`re extreme. Mainstream Christian modernism is anything but extreme. The majority of people in the US are Christian how can Christianity be an extremists position?

Extreme = Belief of few, Radical, Ideologies

Islamic fascists are extremists because their "beliefs" are in the minority and they`re ideologies challenge the status quo. Just to re-cap even though atheism is a minority group and even "IF" our lack of belief challenged the status quo (Maybe this could be the case in ancient Christian theocracies) atheism is not an extremist belief. Its not anything really. Its just a lack of belief.

Answer 8

atheism isn't the opposite extreme of religion

it's the opposite of theism

no extremes involved

Answer 9

many atheist are only asking for some kind of proof other than the bible.That doesn't seem like any extreme opposite.I'm guessing that if there was undeniable proof of a gods existence then many atheist would believe.They are not saying that there is without a doubt no god their just saying i won't belive in mythical stories about a sky daddy any more than i will believe that santa claus climbs down my chimney every night and eats my cookies.

Answer 10

Why don't you stop beating around the bush and attack the issue head on........oh wait, you can't.


You have all that mess backwards, theism is the opposite extreme of atheism, therefore theism is irrational and unreasonable.
Next time pick an argument that your opponent can't reverse and use against you.