I am deeply confused by them.

Dictionary definition:

"A person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings."

Ok so denying seems a little tough to do - given a human being doesn't know ****. Honestly, as a human being, you don't know... much of anything. Right? So to deny something seems kinda difficult.

Then there's disbelieves. Isn't this closer to being an Agnostic?

Dictionary definition:

1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
–adjective
3. of or pertaining to agnostics or agnosticism.
4. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.


Most atheists I know... are really agnostics. They just hate religion and call themselves atheists to rub it in religion's face that GOD DOESN'T EXIST YOU MORANS! :P


So anyone who's actually Atheist - can you please participate in here and explain to me and others, what that actually means?

Namely:

Do you dislike religion?

Do you claim CERTAINTY of any knowledge? And if not... why not call yourself agnostic, aka I don't really know but it seems unlikely that there's a God/Gods but I am free to change my mind whenever.

Seems a superior position, no?

I think you'd get more responses to this in the SMP forum.

But FWIW I think most athiests are probably agnostic in the same sense they are agnostic about the tooth fairy.

i am an atheist. denying the existence of something is not strange at all. I also deny the existence of the Easter Bunny.

The burden of proof is not on us, it is on you believers. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.

You should really take this thread to SMP...you'll find lots of discussion there on this subject.

in many people's minds its equally as silly to claim to be sure that god exists since as you said

perhaps their experiences and what theyve seen has led them to believe that there is no god.

did you do a search? this has been discussed on the internet before

Isn't this where the Flying Spaghetti Monster and that unicorn deity thing came from?

many atheists are agnostics. *head asplode

Well see this is what confuses me.

It's kinda weird to deny Easter Bunny. He surely exists as some sorta entity. Does he exist in the physical domain? No not at all.

But denying Easter Bunny or God is a lot like denying Love isn't it? BURDEN OF PROOF ON YOU MISTER, SHOW ME THIS LOVE YOU TALK OF.

I mean, if someone says they're in love, do you ask for proof? Not really. If you've never been in love, you just go "cool man" because you just don't know.

So I find it strange that people don't deny love but actively deny something like a God entity. What if love is just God's way of expressing himself?

How can you prove that one way or another? So agnosticism is the RATIONAL stance. How can atheist prove one way or another?

This statement may be correct for you personally, but it is not a universal fact. Existence and consciousness are amazing phenomena that are not adequately explained by physical science. To conclude that there is nothing beyond the observable physical world that we can access by experiment is a leap that is as extraordinary and unsupported as any belief in a deity.

An agnostic can claim no burden of proof as he/she holds no unsupported belief. An atheist (meaning those who deny the existance of God) cannot make that claim IMHO.

Many atheists are agnostics. They don't have any hard proof of good -> hence don't know if god exists -> hence see no reason to believe in god > hence do not believe in god.

Actually agnostic atheists is probably an atheist view that can come off as very 'intellectually aggressive' because they will often be very opposed to 'specified gods' (like Jehova or Allah) - because if god is unprovable, then knowing how he/she/it is isn't possible.

To everybody and their mother:

Agnosticism is not a belief position.

No offense dude but you are all over the freaking place.

A - THEIST

NOT - THEIST


What is a theist? Someone who professes belief in an undefined, unknowable, subjective schizophrenic fantasy.

So what's an atheist? Someone who does not profess such belief.



I hope this clears things up. If it doesn't, start reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theological_noncognitivism

That's fine I did not intend for my posts to make sense to you specifically and you're entitled to your opinion. Why you feel the need to inform me is another matter, perhaps you think you are better than me?

Are you single? There's a woman named Splendour I think you'd like to meet....

I basically agree. I didn't say anything to the contrary, did I?

Your inability to discuss this without resorting to childish insults causes me to question your intelligence or your desire to debate in good faith.

This is where I start running..

[ ] God

qft

Until the origin is explained, anyone who calls themself an atheist is way overzealous, imo.

Your logic was flawed, so I fixed your post; breathe in, pause, breathe out, and then think about it for a second.

Man standing in desert. Guy walks up.
"Do you believe a bus in coming."
"No".
"Do you believe the xtrian god exists."
"No."

"Atheist" is how we go through the last question in shorthand.
If he answered "yes" he would be a theist.
Since he answered "no" he is an atheist.
What is difficult with the use of "a-" as "not ...." ?
It has nothing to do with zealotry it has to do with english.

Atheist, agnostic, skeptic/pyrrhonist.

So, I don't believe in God. I don't believe it's possible for humans to know whether there is a God (or gods). I don't believe it's possible for a human to be certain of anything.

The evidence indicates a low likelihood of a personal God.

Religion does a lot of harm, and its impact is almost always harmful. It should be opposed.

And that's about it, though I probably have over 3,000 posts elaborating on "it" and crushing the puny arguments of my foes.

I see that.
It's kinda weird to deny Easter Bunny. He surely exists as some sorta entity.
[/quote]
No.
Cool, but you still have to support the previous claim.
Yes, it is exactly like this.
Only because I'm polite and I don't care. It doesnt affect me and is none of my business.
What if peanuts are God's way of killing evil children? What if bananas are a dogs way of wooing the ocean?
There is no conflict between atheism and agnosticism. I am both. Agnosticism is far too broad of a term for these discussions, since agnosticism has absolutely nothing to do with God or religion. Its a statement about knowledge. I am agnostic about countless things, one of them being God.

I think your right in that “Atheist” is rather a silly word. Well its definition seems to depend on a similarly silly word “God” or some synonym thereof.

Personally I don’t call myself an Atheist. Its not that I disbelieve in a supreme being; I just do not have a definition for a supreme being, so that the concept of Atheist equally has no meaning.

Still I am willing to engage with someone else’s definition of Supreme Being or Atheist. However those definitions are as varied as the people who have them. I guess most people who use the word Atheist would consider me to be one.

Awesome, just awesome. I want this on a t-shirt.