Sorry, sorry, I keep meaning to say some atheists, which certainly doesn’t speak of the group as a whole. I simply mean the arrogant, in-your-face, loud ones, of course.
I agree that a true atheist would merely claim that evidence for god is lacking. My response, which seems unchecked, is that I must have a reason for perceiving reality the way I do, there must be a reason for this ingrained feeling of spirituality. And if, in the end, it is all a hoax, a glitch, a dream? Well…it never hurt me to believe. I just can’t shrug off such a deep feeling as that and chalk it up to fear.
This is wishful thinking. While I can imagine many possibilities, the universe seems to be consistant in one aspect - it doesn’t give a damn about what you or I can imagine or interpret a given phenomenon to mean. I assume that you and I experience gravity in very similar ways. Are you at liberty to interpret it as the attractive quality of god? I suppose you have the freedom to make that assumption if you wish. But is it of equal merrit to a scientific explanation?
You seem to be doing that alot here. If you have some sort of problem with “some” atheists here, why not start a thread about them instead of continually misapplying your broad brush here? Of course, you might have to come up with some actual examples of it happening on this board.
Could you point out one of those please? I hear this all the time. Apparently there are loud, arrogant atheists accosting people in the streets and I never, ever see them.
I see the Christians who knock on my door. I see hundreds of churches with marquees extolling the truths to be found within. I see the religious everywhere I turn, applying mystical knowledge that only they have to everything in their path, as if it was plain old common sense that everyone shares. I would love to see this atheist boogey man everyone talks about.
My closest friend is a die hard in your face athiest. I get a little irritated with him when he tells me a critical thinker could come to no other conclusion. He repeats himself over and over as to where is my evidence. My evidence is the universe, it may not be conclusive or acceptable to him but I feel it is real evidence and acceptable to many. Many intelligent critical thinkers feel the same way.
A more pertinent point would be to recognize that science is limited in scope, being an entirely objective activity it cannot even start to address questions of subjective experience. Sure it can say that light at 450nm will cause you to experience blue but it can never tell you what blue actually is, not in a way that can be conveyed to someone that has never experienced blue. The best it can do is say that blue is the result of electrical activity and it’s that activity that causes you feel blue because you are that activity. This requires a leap of faith!!
Science isn’t wrong because it only addresses questions that it can answer - it’s limited in scope. Religion goes further and attempts to address the questions you cannot answer, questions that you don’t have the capacity to answer, again it requires faith
My atheism is driven by logic and apathy. I never cared enough to go to church as a kid, and my parents didn’t force me. I’ve never seen evidence of god, so I don’t believe in one. Pretty simple.
