Look out! He's got a knife!

What was meant in he atheism post

I feel like Pearce's post got too bogged down with the definition of labels, so I'm having a crack. I'm smarter than he is, you see.

OK, my dictionary defines an atheist as "someone who believes there is no god." So that's what an atheist is, for the purposes of this discussion. I am only talking about that particular kind of atheist - one who believes that there is no god. If you somehow, mysteriously, define yourself as an atheist but do not believe that there is no god, this doesn't apply to you.

In my experience, most people who I have talked to about religion who define themselves as atheists believe that there is no god. That is why I am defining the term this way.

So my point was this (and it's an obvious one I'm afraid):

Someone who believes that there is no god is taking it on faith, because there is no more evidence that there is no god, then there is evidence that there is god.

So an atheist (by my definition) is, I think, as dogmatic as a fundamentalist.

So my question is specifically posed to people who believe that there is no god:

Why do you believe this?

I still think my original post was crystal clear.

Incidentally, here's my response to Andrew's comment.

"The title of this post [The Practice of Not Collecting Stamps] is an aside to the regular line about atheism being another belief system. This is something my brother quoted to me over the phone (i.e. if you recognise the actual quote or spot inaccuracies in my version of it, don't bother to point it out): "Atheism is a belief system in the same way that not collecting stamps is a hobby" - if you didn't collect stamps, would you join a club for people who don't collect stamps? I suppose you could say there are belief systems that entail atheism, but atheism isn't the system itself."

I can think of several problems with this hypothesis, which I have encountered elsewhere.

First of all, I reckon it's not a valid comparison, comparing "collecting stamps/not collecting stamps" to "believing something exists/believing something does not exist". Which is why I made the crack about "not believing in stamp collections." It was a joke.

Second of all, most people don't collect stamps, and stamp collections are irrelevant to their lives. They are not pointedly not collecting stamps; they did not decide "I am going to be a collector of no stamps"; they are merely not collecting stamps.

People who believe in some kind of god are in the majority. According to every statistic I have seen, there are more religious people than areligious people. It seems to me that religion is not an non-issue to most atheists, as stamp collections are a non-issue to most non-stamp collectors. (Could I put any more negatiuves in that sentence?) A non-stamp collector who is opposed to stamp collections doesn't seem very likely, but I have met a lot of atheists who say things like "The world would be a better place without religion."

Given the state of religion, the attitudes, wars, arguments, repressions, violence bombings in the name of all religions (and sometimes even in the name of atheism), it seems to me that being totally "meh" about religion is unlikely.

This has become totally incoherent, so I'm just going to hit "post" and wait for someone to punch me in the back of the head.

Posted by joey at September 20, 2007 6:57 PM