The Atheist/Agnostic/Freethought/Humanist/Skeptic/Nonbeliever Thread

[yakherder]

Even if he were able to prove that it's true, it wouldn't make a difference. Christians will continue to believe and call it a fake, put there by the devil, or just simply ignore it. Although, I suppose some Atheists would enjoy the satisfaction of saying 'I told you so'.

Still, it would be interesting to hear his 'proof'.

That it would. Then again, we've already got plenty of proof that is being ignored by those who find it inconvenient to acknowledge that which is in contrast to what they already believe. This tendency is not isolated to religion either As veg*ns, environmentalists, etc., I'm sure many of us can attest to this.

 

[Blobbenstein]

as with science, you can't really prove anything in history, only discover more and more evidence.

 

[yakherder]

as with science, you can't really prove anything in history, only discover more and more evidence.

True, I should have used the word evidence, or even data, rather than proof. Especially considering how much of a nerd for semantics I am.

Even universally accepted theories like that of gravity can never truly be proven. You can only presume from available data, i.e. trillions of apples being dropped and going straight down every single time, that the theory has not yet been disproved.

 

[SummerRain]

Even universally accepted theories like that of gravity can never truly be proven. You can only presume from available data, i.e. trillions of apples being dropped and going straight down every single time, that the theory has not yet been disproved.

True, but that kind of thing is for the philosophers to worry about In the meantime, science makes precise predictions that work and build technology around them and despite the fact that nothing is proven it all works rather well...

 

[Blobbenstein]

If we were in some sort of matrix then anything could happen. The moon could turn into a giant pineapple for example, and people called Neo could fly around in dark glasses, so ultimately we can't even get a probability on whether any scientific theories will always apply.

 

[yakherder]

Proven or not, I will continue to live my life under the assumption that apples go down when I drop them, dinosaur bones are older than 6,000 years, and homo floresiensis were in fact actually hobbits. If one day I go to eat an apple and the damn thing hits my ceiling, it'll be time to revise my beliefs.

 

[FortyTwo]

I will continue to believe that anything above the quantum level has a probability of happening of precisely 1.

 

[FortyTwo]

Spoilered because it's such a long post:

Spoiler

 

[ledboots]

42. I grew up Catholic and would have loved to have had that ^^ in a theology class.

 

[Amy SF]

facebook.com/progressivesecularhumanist

 

[ledboots]

facebook.com/progressivesecularhumanist

I think mocking religious people makes atheists seem rude. In addition, only some forms of Buddhism believe in gods/reincarnation, so it's not even accurate mockage.

 

[Envy]

facebook.com/progressivesecularhumanist

It's like I'm on r/atheism.

 

[FortyTwo]

It's like I'm on r/atheism.

Eh, I don't know... I feel like one could propose a law for the culling of all religious people and still not approach the level of gross ignorance exhibited by Reddit threads like this on a daily basis.

 

[Amy SF]

Hundreds flocking to ‘atheist megachurch’ gatherings across U.S.

 

[Dedalus]

I think mocking religious people makes atheists seem rude. In addition, only some forms of Buddhism believe in gods/reincarnation, so it's not even accurate mockage.

Agreed - I dislike meanspiritedness is all its forms. I read somewhere that Atheists were trying to 'spare the suffering' of those who belived in God. Please. Get over yourselves and spare us the condecension. I fail to see how it needs to be a humanitarian mission to dismantle someone else's beliefs.

I don't like religious fanatics cramming their doctrine on me - and the same goes for Atheists.

 

[Amy SF]

Atheists don't have a doctrine.

 

[Dedalus]

Atheists don't have a doctrine.

By my dictionary they do.

a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church, political party, or other group.

 

[Amy SF]

By definition, atheists have no beliefs.

 

[Blobbenstein]

if there was a murder and some guy down the road was arrested for it but you didn't believe he did it, then wouldn't that be a belief? The belief that the guy didn't do it being analogous to an atheist belief that there wasn't a god?

 

[Blobbenstein]

or: atheists don't actually know whether there is a god or not, so to think that there isn't a god is a belief.