An experiment in Atheism
- Thread starter S.A.M.
- Start date
But clearly you are wrong, and you even supported it earlier. Before your child believed in santa he lacked a belief in santa. Having said that, it stands that there is such thing as a 'lack of belief'. Now all you need to do is figure out that this same way of thinking can survive after one has heard of santa. It's not as black and white as you'd clearly like it to be.
Do leprechauns exist? I lack both a positive and a negative concerning that question. They might, they might not.. I currently 'lack a belief' either way. From there I can assert that they do, (if the evidence is pertinent), or assert that they don't, (which would classify me as a 'strong aleprechaunist' as opposed to a 'weak aleprechaunist').
Simply put; you're wrong.
He did not lack the belief, he lacked the concept. Stone age men lack the concept of television, a modern person with electronics does not. Lacking a concept does not equal lacking the belief in the concept.
Well then if he didn't lack a belief he obviously had a belief. Do explain what belief he had with concerns to something he had not heard of? You'll find the only sustainable statement is that he lacked a belief, (in this instance lacking the concept means he ultimately lacks a belief either way in that concept).
There is no concept. Its a pointless question.
Do you lack a belief in pink elephants is a question that is baseless, because it contains the concept.
Do you lack a belief in _________ is more like it, since there is no concept, but again it is pointless.
A lack of belief presupposes a lack of concept, its a self-negatory definition. e.g. do you lack a belief in pink elephants or do you believe there are no pink elephants?
I'm not really sure how it ended up like this.
Atheists don't believe in God because there is no evidence for it. If evidence were to ever arrive, they would believe.
S.A.M. said:
My honest answer is such an argument doesn't exist. The concept of atheism wouldn't exist without theism. It's like me trying to argue for why vanilla is the best ice cream flavor, when there are no other flavors to argue against.
Exactly. So atheists reject the concept of God. i.e they do not believe in the concept put forward by theists anywhere
Yup, until there is evidence for those concepts.
if god exsisted why do we ahve so many people dieing in so many bad ways, and why does he insist on taking away loved ones>?
Can you come up with a reason why they should believe? Before you do that, make sure you clarify exactly whose concept to believe.
Carcano
Valued Senior Member
Its not a question of better or worse.
Its a question of true or false.
Therein is the problem. You mentioned concepts - and we seemingly have to agree that one lacks any kind of belief when he has no knowledge of the concept.
Here's the thing.. What 'concept' of a god do I have? I have an idea of certain people's gods, (blue 6 armed ones etc), and can actively deny them for certain reasons. But 'god' as a concept seems to relate to almost anything: from money to sky beings to nature itself. At the end of the day it seemingly ends up as "something beyond human understanding". As that is apparently the case it only stands to state that I "lack a belief". I don't even understand the concept, (and neither can anybody else apparently) and so have no choice but to lack a belief in it.
Hence, I said they reject the concept of God as put forth by theists anywhere.